The National Security Agency appears to have changed its mind about the much-discussed electronic surveillance program that Edward Snowden revealed six years ago, which included the mass collection of metadata related to Americans' phone calls and text messages.
The NSA once touted the program, which was secretly launched during the George W. Bush administration, as vital to U.S. national security interests. At the time, the nation was still reeling from the September 11 terrorist attacks,and agency officials later said that tools like the program were helping the nation’s intelligence professionals deal with the new realities of terrorism.
But now, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, some officials have changed their minds about this controversial program.
“The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon the US surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages,” the newspaper report said.
The report goes on to note that the messy density of legal and compliance issues is why the agency decided to stop relying on the program earlier this year. Its legal authority only extends through December unless Congress decides to continue it, which the agency no longer recommends.
The NSA spent years pretending that this program was vital to national security—despite enormous privacy concerns—in countless public speeches and testimony before Congress. Now, everyone admits that its views were at least exaggerated, if not outright lies.
Naturally, privacy advocates have greeted this news with reservations. This is partly due to how strongly the agency once defended the program, describing it as an integral part of the country's defense against terrorism and terrorist networks.
But according to the report, Trump, not the spy agency itself, will decide whether to ask Congress to renew the surveillance program. And at least at this point, it doesn't appear to have decided yet whether to do so.
