Carpenter writes: "The really significant parts of Obama's speech were the things he did not mention. He did not call for a full stop to the bulk collection of communication records, only a transfer of ownership. Instead, he endorsed the idea that data about millions of Americans should be stored and made available to intelligence analysts."
US President Barack Obama speaks about the National Security Agency from the Justice Department in Washington January 17, 2014. (photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
What Obama Didn't Say in His Speech on NSA Spying
18 January 14
he most illuminating sentences of the speech on intelligence reform that President Obama delivered Friday morning were the first:
At the dawn of our Republic, a small, secret surveillance committee borne out of the 'The Sons of Liberty' was established in Boston. The group's members included Paul Revere, and at night they would patrol the streets, reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America's early Patriots. Throughout American history, intelligence has helped secure our country and our freedoms.
The choice to begin the speech with an homage to spying - however noble - reflects the practical decision that the president announced: to embrace much of the surveillance activity conducted in the name of national security, while accepting a series of modest reforms that civil liberties advocates greeted as but a first step to curbing the National Security Agency.
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