Government releases once-classified report on surveillance
The government’s efforts to collect information about Americans’ calls and emails received mixed reviews from government officials, according to the release of a once-classified report.
The redacted, six-year-old report, released Saturday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to a New York Times lawsuit, provides a detailed analysis of the “President’s Surveillance Program,” in which the government secretly collected communications information from Americans.
That program was revealed by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor.
According to the Associated Press, the review said some senior intelligence officials found worth in the program, saying it helped fill gaps in existing surveillance. But there were other federal agents and analysts that had difficulty measuring the “precise contribution” of it, describing it as just “one source among many.”
The 2009 report was the joint work of the inspectors general for five different security agencies. It found President George W. Bush authorized the NSA to begin secretly collecting bulk phone and email records and wiretapping international phone calls without a warrant.
According to the New York Times, the review found that the secrecy surrounding the program also limited its effectiveness. Few FBI and CIA agents were made aware of its existence, and James Baker, the top intelligence lawyer for the Justice Department, did not learn about the program until he figured it out after seeing some “strange, unattributed” language in a separate surveillance warrant.
The report also found many intelligence officials struggled to identify specific terrorist attacks the program helped the nation avoid, according to the Times.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/240071-some-in-govt-doubted-usefulness-of-surveillance-program-report-shows