Opinion A middle road

Obama curtails secret surveillance, but fails to make major changes to intelligence gathering apparatus.

Over the past few months, each instance of electronic espionage revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden has proved more damaging to America’s reputation at home and abroad than the last. After the US National Security Agency’s vast surveillance network became public and touched off diplomatic kerfuffles from Brazil to Germany, while domestic criticism both from internet users and technology companies continued to mount, it was evident that President Barack Obama would have to substantively engage with the breadth and depth of the intelligence gathering in question. In a speech on Friday, Obama spoke eloquently of the need to balance civil liberties and privacy with the imperative of national security. But he also acknowledged that the intelligence community had gone too far in leveraging the opportunities afforded by technology, and that it required greater oversight.
Yet, the proposals that followed this admission failed to properly address the concerns he himself identified to be important. Obama wisely extended some of the privacy protections granted to US citizens to foreign nationals outside the country and, within certain unspecified limits, ended the practice of spying on “friendly” and allied foreign leaders. He didn’t, however, pare down the collection and analysis of foreigners’ personal information. Perhaps his most significant announcement was that bulk collection of phone metadata by the government would no longer be permitted. The database will now only be queried after a specific request receives approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — a court that has continually approved of the legality and constitutionality of the phone records programme. The scope of the data gathering will continue unrestrained, even though the White House panel concluded that the dragnet was “not essential” to foiling terrorist threats. Obama called on Congress to appoint a legal counsel to appear before the FISC, which meets in secret, to represent a different position from the government’s.
The entirety of Obama’s measures falls frustratingly short of real reform. Details on implementation were either absent or only vaguely alluded to. Worse, the specifics appear to be left to the judgement of individuals who created the problem in the first place. No one speech could have grappled satisfactorily with all the issues the Snowden leaks have unearthed, and as a point from where to begin the conversation, Obama’s remarks ought to be welcomed. But it should be clear, to Congress and the intelligence community, that the speech was just that — a beginning.