President Obama called Friday for significant changes to the way the National Security Agency collects and uses telephone records of U.S. citizens, moving to transition away from government control of the information and immediately require authorities to obtain a court order to access it.

After more than six months of controversy over U.S. surveillance policies, Obama said that - barring a specific threat - he has ordered an end to eavesdropping on dozens of foreign leaders and governments who are friends or allies, a move the White Hope hopes will restore trust in the intelligence community and in the government's ability to balance national security and privacy interests.

Obama also said he is taking steps to protect the privacy of foreigners by extending to them some of the protections currently given to Americans.

In a speech at the Justice Department, the president said the NSA's data-collection program remains a critical tool for U.S. intelligence agencies to root out and prevent terrorist activities. He made clear that he has not seen any indication of abuse in the NSA phone program, but said he recognizes the potential for abuse and is asking for reforms aimed at those concerns.

Calling for a "new approach" to the collection of phone records, Obama said he was "ordering a transition that will end the . . . bulk metadata program as it currently exists and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding this bulk metadata."

But, he warned, "This will not be simple." Obama indicated that a decision still needs to be made on which entity will hold the data.

Obama has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and intelligence officials to deliver a plan to transition away from government control of the information before March 28, when the program is due to be reauthorized by a secret court, an administration official said. Obama also will consult Congress for additional input, asking lawmakers to deliberate on the appropriate boundaries for the phone records collection.

Obama said the transition from the existing program would proceed in two steps. "Effective immediately, we will only pursue phone calls that are two steps removed from a number associated with a terrorist organization instead of three," he said. "And I have directed the attorney general to work with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court so that during this transition period, the database can be queried only after a judicial finding, or in a true emergency."

Obama also called on Congress to establish a panel of public advocates who can represent privacy interests before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Obama has instructed Holder to reform the use of national security letters - a form of administrative subpoena used to obtain business and other records - so that the traditional gag order that accompanies them does not remain in place indefinitely. But he did not, as has been recommended by a White House review panel, require judicial approval for issuance of the letters.

The president also addressed another major NSA surveillance program, which involves collection of e-mail and phone calls of foreign targets located overseas, including when they are in contact with U.S. citizens or residents.

He acknowledged that the information has been valuable, Holder and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper to develop new protections, including the duration of time the government can hold foreigners' data and restrictions on its use - essentially extending to foreigners some of the protections currently given to Americans.

The president said he also wants to see whether there are greater protections that can be placed on the information collected from foreign targets about U.S. citizens, with respect to the way analysts gain access to and use that data.

Obama said the new directive he issued Friday "will clearly prescribe what we do, and do not do." He said the United States would use signals intelligence only "for legitimate national security purposes, and not for the purpose of indiscriminately reviewing the e-mails or phone calls of ordinary people." The United States, he added, will not "collect intelligence to suppress criticism or dissent" or to give U.S. companies a competitive advantage.


Comment: Since we know that Obama lies all the time and about everything, we'll take a stab at what he really means here: "Indiscriminately reviewing the e-mails or phone calls of ordinary people, collect intelligence to suppress criticism or dissent, (and) give U.S. companies a competitive advantage." Got it!


Unless there is a compelling national security purpose, Obama said, "we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies."

As he made the case for reforms, Obama also cautioned that "we cannot unilaterally disarm our intelligence agencies." And he caustically criticized foreign intelligence services that "feign surprise" over disclosures of U.S. surveillance while "constantly probing our government and private sector networks and accelerating programs to listen to our conversations, intercept our e-mails or compromise our systems."

He noted that some countries that "have loudly criticized the NSA privately acknowledge that America has special responsibilities as the world's only superpower . . . and that they themselves have relied on the information we obtain to protect their own people."

Expressing frustration at those who "assume the worst motives by our government," Obama said at another point in his speech: "No one expects China to have an open debate about their surveillance programs, or Russia to take privacy concerns of citizens in other places into account."

But he said the United States is held to a higher standard "precisely because we have been at the forefront in defending personal privacy and human dignity."

Obama's directive applies to NSA bulk collection and spells out that it should be used only for countering terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and cyberthreats, for combating transnational crime and to protect the U.S. military and allied forces.

"Together, let us chart a way forward that secures the life of our nation, while preserving the liberties that make our nation worth fighting for," Obama concluded.

The president's speech comes after months of revelations about the breadth and secrecy of the NSA's surveillance activities, based on hundreds of thousands of documents stolen by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. U.S. officials have said Snowden stole up to 1.7 million documents, many of which he has turned over to reporters. New revelations based on the document are expected to continue this year.

The White House has sought to tamp down concerns from foreign leaders, privacy and civil liberties activists and the tech industry about the NSA's activities. The NSA's collection of data on virtually all Americans' phone records is part of a program that has generated perhaps more controversy than any other since it was disclosed in June.

Intelligence officials have said the program is a critical tool in their efforts to prevent attacks on the United States. Some analysts have argued that, although a review panel appointed by the White House recommended that the NSA shift control of phone data to phone companies or a private third party, it found no violation of the law by the agency.

"We're not talking about trying to fix a massive breach of Americans' privacy," said Gary Schmitt, a resident scholar and national security expert at the American Enterprise Institute."When you begin with that, then you can make judgments about how important the current collection system is for national security. But you shouldn't do it under this shadow of a Big Brother that doesn't exist."


Comment: Really? 'Big Brother' doesn't exist? Good to know Mr Schmitt. But wait... what are we to call this global surveillance system that pervades every aspects of our lives and violates our rights to privacy, whose sole purpose is to make us docile and afraid to ever fight for our human freedoms and against our oppressors?


To civil liberties groups and privacy advocates, disclosures about the NSA have revealed a government that has leveraged new technologies to reach further into Americans' privacy than ever before. Many are hoping that whatever changes Obama announces will be more than cosmetic.

"We're looking to the president to make very bold statements about reclaiming privacy," said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Richardson said that, although a number of ideas for reform have been floated by the White House review group and others, Obama's decision on the NSA's bulk collection is the issue he will be measured on - "not just by the ACLU, but by history."

The NSA's harvesting of phone data began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was placed under court supervision in 2006. The program collects metadata, or phone numbers dialed and call lengths and times, but not call content. Analysts are supposed to access the data only for the purpose of seeking leads in counterterrorism investigations.

The program's disclosure in June marked the start of a string of revelations about U.S. surveillance policies, most of them based on leaks from Snowden.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in November found that nearly 70 percent of respondents said the NSA's surveillance of telephone call records and Internet traffic intrudes on some Americans' privacy rights.