US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)
Ct1Mahani | SitiWanMahani - Presiden Amerika Syarikat Barack Obama dijangka pada hari Jumaat mengumumkan perubahan kepada beberapa program pengawasan yang dikendalikan oleh Agensi Kesela-matan Negara Amerika Syarikat, tetapi orang dalam mengatakan dia akan dipertang-gungjawabkan kerana Kongres dengan menangani aktiviti lebih perbalahan NSA itu.
Sekumpulan 5 pakar dipilih oleh ‘Commander-in-Chief’ itu dalam laporan yang dike-luarkan bulan lepas bahawa mereka mengesyorkan White House menimbang melak-sanakan tidak kurang daripada 46 perubahan yang akan mengubah cara NSA dan radas perisikan Amerika di-besar menjalankan pengawasan.
Pada hari Jumaat presiden akhirnya akan berat di atas penemuan panel itu, tetapi laporan awal menunjukkan dia akan mengendahkan tetapi sebahagian kecil dari orang-orang cadangan beberapa dozen dan meminta ahli-ahli Dewan dan Senat untuk memikirkan cadangan yang tinggal, meninggalkan pembaharuan sebahagian besarnya di tangan Kongres yang dibahagi.
Pres. Obama mungkin akan mengumumkan had baru program NSA yang membolehkan kerajaan mengumpul secara pukal rekod metadata telefon (telephone metadata records) berkaitan dengan berjuta-juta rakyat Amerika setiap hari, Washington Post melaporkan (reported) pada hari Rabu, tetapi akan bergantung kepada Kongres untuk, sebagai kertas meletakkannya, “menentukan masa depan program ini.”
Mike Morell, seorang timbalan bekas Agensi Perisikan Pusat Amerika Syarikat dan ahli kumpulan kajian presiden, memberi keterangan di hadapan Dewan Negara pada Selasa bahawa program koleksi metadata “tidak memainkan peranan penting dalam meng-halang mana-mana serangan pengganas ke tahap ini,” tetapi menyokongnya tetap.
“Ia sememangnya benar,” Morell berkata, “bahawa [program] mempunyai tidak dengan sendirinya terganggu [atau] dihalang serangan pengganas di Amerika Syarikat, tetapi itu tidak bermakna ia tidak penting masa depan.”
“Ramai di antara kita tidak pernah mengalami kebakaran di rumah kita tetapi ramai di antara kita mempunyai insurans pemilik rumah,” katanya.
Apabila Morell dan rakan sekerja beliau menerbitkan penemuan mereka bulan lepas, kumpulan itu menulis, “Pada pandangan kami, penyimpanan semasa oleh kerajaan meta-data pukal mewujudkan risiko yang berpotensi untuk kepercayaan awam, privasi peribadi dan kebebasan sivil.” Untuk mengatasinya isu-isu ini, panel berkata, kerajaan perlu mem-pertimbangkan beberapa alternatif lain, seperti membiarkan syarikat-syarikat telekomu-nikasi memegang data dan menanamkan peguam bela awam untuk menyiasat permintaan persekutuan untuk maklumat peribadi.
‘The Post’ kini melaporkan bahawa presiden akan mencadangkan beberapa batasan untuk program itu, tetapi meletakkan nasib kebanyakkan operasi di tangan Kongres.
“2 orang biasa dengan perbincangan kata Presiden itu mungkin menekankan bahawa koleksi besar NSA itu data telefon - yang termasuk nombor yang sudah didail tetapi tidak memanggil kandungan - bukanlah sesuatu yang kerajaan perlu bergantung kepada kecuali dalam keadaan terhad yang berkaitan dengan misi agensi,” Post Melaporkan.
Menurut New York Times, bagaimanapun, orang dalam lain mengatakan presiden hanya berpuas hati dengan mengendorskan had tertentu pada operasi NSA. ‘The Times’ telah menulis pada hari Selasa bahawa presiden akan bela untuk peningkatan penelitian dalam program metadata pukal, tetapi tidak akan meminta syarikat-syarikat swasta untuk memegang rekod.
Akhirnya, laporan Post mencadangkan, White House akan memanggil Kongres untuk mem-bahaskan apa-apa perubahan kepada peruntukan bahawa pada masa ini meletakkan metadata yang dengan mudah ke tangan pengumpul perisikan kerajaan. Menurut kertas, Dewan Perwakilan Amerika Syarikat mungkin akan mempunyai undi yang mencukupi pada tahun depan apabila program ini adalah untuk pembaharuan untuk menutupnya, mereka harus memilih untuk.
Usaha di House diperjuangkan tahun lepas oleh Rep Justin Amash (R- Michigan) datang hanya sedozen undi malu pelucutan NSA (stripping the NSA) kuasa mata-mata itu. NSA documents diperolehi oleh Edward Snowden dan dikongsi dengan pemberita dia memilih untuk bekerja dengan, bagaimanapun, telah secara berterusan yang dikeluarkan dalam tempoh 7 bulan lepas, dan hasilnya telah ‘shined’ perhatian pada operasi mata-mata sebelum ini rahsia yang telah sejak menyebabkan kemarahan di seluruh dunia dan peningkatan sentimen anti- NSA di seluruh papan.
Pendedahan tambahan yang dibuat oleh Encik Snowden sejak kebocoran bermula Jun lalu telah menunjukkan bahawa NSA mengumpul risikan tidak di Amerika, tetapi juga kepada sekutu pengintip asing dan kerja-kerja ke arah menjejaskan (compromising) komersil yang terdapat perisian keselamatan untuk lebih mudah menguping mengenai komunikasi elektronik.
Kedua-dua Times dan Post melaporkan minggu ini bahawa presiden akan juga mungkin menyokong perubahan kepada program NSA yang kini sasaran orang asing untuk penga-wasan, tetapi ada yang mengatakan apa-apa perubahan teruk boleh menghalang operasi perisikan.
“Seluruh misi agensi perisikan kita adalah untuk mengumpul risikan asing tanpa mengam-bil kira kebebasan awam sasaran terhadapnya kami mengumpul,” satu bekas pegawai perisikan kanan memberitahu Post minggu ini. “Ia satu jalan berbahaya untuk turun ke risau tentang kebebasan awam dan hak-hak perlembagaan orang-orang seperti Presiden Pakistan atau komander tentera kanan di Libya.”
Pada tahun 2007 semasa berkhidmat sebagai senator Amerika Syarikat untuk Illinois, Encik Obama ditaja bil yang akan memerlukan pegawai-pegawai kerajaan untuk mem-buktikan dengan “khusus dan articulable fakta” bahawa ia memerlukan rekod yang berkaitan dengan orang-orang yang asing. Langkah yang akhirnya mati di Hill.
OBAMA doesn’t want to take Responsibility for NSA reform
United States President Barack Obama is expected on Friday to announce changes to some of the surveillance programs operated by the US National Security Agency, but insiders say he’ll task Congress with tackling the NSA’s more contentious activities.
A group of five experts hand-picked by the commander-in-chief said in a report released last month that they recommend the White House consider implementing no fewer than 46 changes that would alter the way the NSA and the American intelligence apparatus at-large conducts surveillance. On Friday the president will finally weigh in on that panel’s findings, but preliminary reports suggest he’ll heed but a fraction of those few dozen suggestions and ask members of the House and Senate to mull over the remaining recommendations, leaving reform largely in the hands of a divided Congress.
Pres. Obama will likely announce new limits on the NSA program that lets the government collect in bulk the telephone metadata records pertaining to millions of Americans daily, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, but will rely on Congress to, as the paper puts it, “determine the program’s future.”
Mike Morell, a former deputy of the US Central Intelligence Agency and a member of the president’s review group, testified before the Senate on Tuesday that the metadata collection program “has not played a significant role in preventing any terrorist attacks to this point,” but endorsed it nonetheless.
“It is absolutely true,” Morell said, “that [the program] has not by itself disrupted [or] prevented terrorist attacks in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important going forward.”
“Many of us have never suffered a fire in our homes but many of us have homeowners insurance,” he added.
When Morell and his colleague published their findings last month, the group wrote, "In our view, the current storage by the government of bulk metadata creates potential risk to public trust, personal privacy and civil liberty.” To remediate these issues, the panel said, the government should consider a number of possible alternatives, such as letting telecommunication companies hold the data and instilling a public advocate to investigate federal requests for private information.
The Post now reports that the president will recommend some limitations to that program, but put the fate of most operations in the hands of Congress.
“Two people familiar with the deliberations said the president is likely to emphasize that the NSA’s bulk collection of phone data - which includes numbers dialed but not call content - is not something that the government should rely on except in limited circumstances related to the agency’s mission,” the Post reported.
According to the New York Times, however, other insiders say the president is only satisfied with endorsing certain limits on that NSA operation. The Times wrote on Tuesday that the president will advocate for increased scrutiny inside the bulk metadata program, but will not ask private companies to hold those records.
Ultimately, the Post report suggests, the White House will call on Congress to debate any changes to the provision that currently puts that metadata easily into the hands of the government’s intelligence gatherers. According to the paper, the US House of Representatives will likely have enough votes next year when the program is up for renewal to shut it down, should they chose to.
An effort in the House waged last year by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) came just a dozen votes of shy of stripping the NSA of its spy powers. NSA documents obtained by Edward Snowden and shared with the reporters he’s chosen to work with, however, have been continuously released during the last seven-months, and as a result have shined a spotlight on previously top-secret spy operations that have since caused outrage around the world and increased anti-NSA sentiment across the board.
Additional disclosures made by Mr. Snowden since the leaks began last June have shown that the NSA collects intelligence just not on Americans, but also spies on foreign allies and works towards compromising commercial available security software to more easily eavesdrop on electronic communications.
Both the Times and the Post reported this week that the president will also likely endorse changes to the NSA programs that currently target foreign persons for surveillance, but some say any alterations could severely hinder intelligence gathering operations.
“The entire mission of our intelligence agencies is to collect foreign intelligence without regard to the civil liberties of the targets against whom we’re collecting,” one former senior intelligence official told the Post this week. “It’s a dangerous road to go down to start worrying about the civil liberties and constitutional rights of people like the president of Pakistan or the senior military commander in Libya.”
In 2007 while serving as a US senator for Illinois, Mr. Obama co-sponsored a bill that would have required government officials to prove with “specific and articulable facts” that it required records related to foreign persons. That measure ultimately died on the Hill.
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