White House panel recommends new limits on NSA surveillance

WASHINGTON -- A presidential task force has urged the White House to adopt significant new curbs on the National Security Agency, including that the spy agency stop bulk collection of domestic telephone records and that the U.S. consider “no spying agreements” with close allies overseas.

“What we’re saying is, ‘Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should,’” task force member Richard Clarke, a former counter terrorism advisor to President George W. Bush, told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.

Another task force member, Michael Morell, who recently retired as acting head of the CIA, said that none of the recommendations would diminish the intelligence community’s ability to collect the information it needs for counter-terrorism or other national security needs.

President Obama appointed the blue-ribbon panel last August and their report marks the latest blow to the NSA, which has faced intense criticism since former contractor Edward Snowden began leaking a torrent of classified documents about long-secret NSA surveillance operations around the globe.

“It’s a substantive, lengthy report, and it merits serious review and assessment,” spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Among the most controversial recommendations comes in direct response to Snowden’s disclosure in that the NSA had secretly monitored communications of 35 foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a close American ally. Officials have said the program was on “autopilot” and not the subject of high-level discussions at the White House.

The White House already has disregarded one of the panel’s recommendations. The panel said the NSA and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, which conducts offensive digital operations, should be given separate directors, instead of a single military commander with authority for both.