President Obama today announced changes to some aspects of the NSA\u2019s surveillance programs and left others in place. Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, had this reaction:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president\u2019s speech outlined several developments which we welcome. Increased transparency for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, improved checks and balances at the FISA court through the creation of a panel of advocates, and increased privacy protections for non-U.S. citizens abroad \u2014 the first such assertion by a U.S. president \u2014 are all necessary and welcome reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the president\u2019s decision not to end bulk collection and retention of all Americans\u2019 data remains highly troubling. The president outlined a process to study the issue further and appears open to alternatives. But the president should end \u2014 not mend \u2014 the government\u2019s collection and retention of all law-abiding Americans\u2019 data. When the government collects and stores every American\u2019s phone call data, it is engaging in a textbook example of an \u2018unreasonable search\u2019 that violates the Constitution. The president\u2019s own review panel recommended that bulk data collection be ended, and the president should accept that recommendation in its entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new chart comparing the ACLU\u2019s proposals, President Obama\u2019s announcement, and the USA FREEDOM Act (a bipartisan bill currently pending in Congress) is at:
\naclu.org\/national-security\/where-does-president-stand-nsa-reform<\/p>\n
ACLU Action is demanding an end to dragnet surveillance at:
\naclu.org\/endsurveillance<\/p>\n
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conserves America’s original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Obama today announced changes to some aspects of the NSA\u2019s surveillance programs and left others in place. Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, had this reaction: \u201cThe president\u2019s speech outlined several developments which we welcome. Increased transparency for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, improved checks and balances at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}