Monday, August 12, 2013

UNITED STATES • Obama and his timid reform NSA - Courrier International

For the first time since September 11, Barack Obama spoke Friday a reform of the monitoring programs operated by the NSA, at a press conference on the subject. An announcement “appears to be the first president of the concession to the fact that the growing public concern after the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden justifies reform,” reports The Guardian , which was published the first witness of the former NSA specialist.

revelations also published by the Washington Post , for that Obama “made it clear (…) he had no intention of giving up the daily collection of wiretapping “. “So he offered ‘appropriate reforms’, he accused leaks in government have aroused suspicion about the internal spying program.” U.S. President reiterated he did not think that the current program “involves abuse,” then qualified his remarks: “It is understandable for people to worry I would too if I was not. in the government. “

Four possible reforms

Obama first announced he would work with Congress to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Court of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, which, he acknowledged, is based on principles of operation biased that “do not take into account only part of the story”, “may be too lean for safety, and do not pay enough attention to the freedoms. ” He wants the establishment of an “independent voice” within the Court to balance the government’s position.

The Chairman then requested “appropriate reform” of section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the collection of millions of phone records on U.S. soil. A panel of civil liberties lawyers and former intelligence officers will be responsible to think about it.

Obama also announced the appointment of a “Mr. Transparency” at the NSA, and the creation of a website on which the agency will inform the public of the details of his mission and l egal aspects of the freedoms. He also announced the establishment of an independent panel of experts, which will publish an evaluation of the activity of all the intelligence agencies before the end of the year report.

proposals too low

Obama’s speech was pretty freshly welcomed by civil libertarians, like the editorial New York Times published on August 9. This series of measures “are just fiddling at the margins of monitoring programs clearly abusive” to the daily, which accuses the President proposals “weak”, “that will certainly no real effect on the collection of information” . “Obama does not understand that the nation needs to hear more than soothing words about the business of espionage government” attacked the New York daily, saying that “it is the very existence of such [oversight] that is the problem, not the fact that they are moderately transparent. “

The president yet received the support of several personality, image Jameel Jaffer, Director the American Civil Liberties Union (American Civil Liberties Union), cited by the Guardian . “Intelligence agencies say there is no example of abuse of authority,” he said. “But the fact that the government collects all this information is in itself a form of abuse. (…) We have no information to assess this. Everything is secret.” Diane Feinstein, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee and defended the NSA said that the ads will be President “first priority” for the commission, to the beginning of September.

Barriers policies


But Obama has also received criticism from the Republican opposition. His ads are “dust in the eyes”, denounced Mike McCaul, Chairman of the Security Committee in the House of Deputies, whose remarks were reported by the website Politico . He accused the president of having done an about-face after the revelations of Snowden, while hitherto supported monitoring programs of the NSA. “The fundamental problem is that it does not explain these programs are completely legal, who saved lives that prevented terrorist plots,” said McCaul, accusing Obama of having lost the confidence in government action.

“Obama’s plan to renovate the NSA encounters obstacles”, as meanwhile Wall Street Journal , which is why the Republicans warn against the fact that these reforms “slow efforts to fight against terrorism, when they need to expand.” Mike McCaul and other elected Republicans announced “that the reforms proposed by Obama (…) may be difficult to pass in Congress, which will have to approve any major change that will affect the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” says business daily.

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