US President Barack Obama is to meet on Thursday with members of Congress as he weighs reforms to US surveillance operations.
He met on Wednesday with privacy advocates and members of the intelligence community as part of an effort since last summer to gather feedback from a variety of stakeholders, the White House said.
Revelations about the breadth of spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) prompted Obama to order a review of intelligence practices. He has been studying recommendations on proposed reforms from his review panel and plans to announce changes this month.
His meetings on Wednesday were with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent group set up by the government to oversee intelligence operations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and intelligence officials.
The privacy board said after the meeting that it welcomed the chance to weigh in on possible reforms and said it would issue its own report on the NSA mass surveillance of telephone records later this month or next month.
It plans to address whether the programme is legal and “whether it strikes the right balance between national security and privacy and civil liberties, and will make recommendations for legislative and program reform.” Obama found the meeting with the oversight board a “useful opportunity to hear the group’s views directly as we begin to finalise our internal review,” said Caitlin Hayden, spokesperson for the National Security Council.
Obama was still deliberating about possible reforms, spokesman Jay Carney said.
“He is at that stage still, where he’s listening and discussing with a variety of stakeholders these issues, and appreciates very much the opinions and counsel he’s getting on these matters,” Carney said.
Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden since June about the mass collection of telephone and internet data provoked worldwide outrage that the programme reached abroad, and even had tapped into the mobile phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders.
Obama called Merkel on Wednesday, but the White House would not say whether they had discussed the surveillance.
Obama’s review group issued 46 recommendations, including for the US to take “significant steps” to protect the privacy of foreign citizens and re-evaluate its surveillance of foreign leaders.