WASHINGTON — A panel of intelligence experts appointed by President Obama is recommending tough new restrictions on the National Security Agency, including how it spies on foreign leaders.
The panel, appointed in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks about US surveillance, urged sweeping reforms of the NSA and other agencies.
Among the 46 major proposals, the sweeping, 308-page report calls on the government to:
n Halt the storing of “metadata,” such as numbers dialed and the durations of US phone calls.
n Store the data with phone companies or a third party. It could be obtained only by an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, based on reasonable suspicion of a terrorist threat.
n Enact legislation authorizing telephone, Internet and other communications providers to disclose information about orders they receive directing them to provide information to the government.
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Adopt new rules to safeguard the privacy of non-American citizens, including those outside the United States.
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Create a new process with high-level approval for sensitive foreign surveillance programs to avoid “unjustified, unnecessary or excessive surveillance,” such as spying on foreign leaders.
Obama is under no obligation to accept any of the proposals when he unveils his new policy next month, in what is expected to be a nationally televised address.
In 2010, Obama created a task force, known as the Simpson-Bowles Commission, to tackle the nation’s budget deficit — then failed to enact any of its recommendations.
One of the suggestions — having separate leaders of the NSA and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command — is dead on arrival. The White House announced last week it had rejected the idea of a civilian-led NSA.
The panel members said their proposals do not compromise national security.
“We are not in any way recommending the disarming of the intelligence community,” said Michael Morell, a task-force member and former deputy director of the CIA. “We’re not saying the struggle against terrorism is over.”