Obama Task Force Reportedly to Urge Overhaul of NSA Spy Tactics

[Jackson]

Obama Task Force Reportedly to Urge Overhaul of NSA Spy Tactics

A presidential review panel tasked with examining National Security Agency operations has reportedly drafted a series of proposals that would overhaul the agency's surveillance tactics.

The panel's draft recommendations would limit how the spy agency collects and retains the electronic information of Americans and change the agency's leadership from military to civilian, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing officials familiar with the proposals.

A presidential review panel tasked with examining National Security Agency operations has reportedly drafted a series of proposals that would overhaul the agency's surveillance tactics.

The panel's draft recommendations would limit how the spy agency collects and retains the electronic information of Americans and change the agency's leadership from military to civilian, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing officials familiar with the proposals.


The panel is exempt from the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires such committees to conduct open meetings and notify the public about their activities.

Four of the five review panel members previously worked for Democratic administrations: Peter Swire, former Office of Management and Budget privacy director under President Bill Clinton; Michael Morell, Obama's former deputy CIA director; Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism coordinator under Clinton and later for President George W. Bush; and Cass Sunstein, Obama's former regulatory czar. A fifth panel member, Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago, was an informal adviser to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Thought this article was interesting, where Obama’s task force, only 2 of the five members have any intelligence experience, the rest appears to be Democratic party members with various non intelligence titles, such as budget director, regulatory czar, informal czar, hardly appropriate resumes for such a task force.

The important fact is that the NSA’s leadership is to be changed from military to civilian, giving the impression that the focus of the spying could change from international to domestic. Is this what the US wants or really needs?

Add to that, the panel was exempt from the US Federal Advisory Committee Act which requires this type of committee to conduct open meetings and notify the public about their activities, one would question if the just another lack of transparency or more of a systemic problem? I would even think back on the spying of the Fox reporter and how this would make that type of thing much easier.