Obama throws the NSA under the bus

At President Obama’s end-of-the-year news conference Friday, he was given the opportunity to second-guess two bureaucracies that report to him: the intelligence community and the Department of Justice. He threw only the first one under the bus by implying strongly that he was open to ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records.

He did this in two ways. First, he said that the metadata program — in which the NSA hoovers up information about the source, destination and duration of phone calls — might not be the only way of “skinning the cat.” He suggested that, given public concerns about potential abuse of metadata, maybe it would be a good idea to follow a task force recommendation and have telephone companies store the information, with access by investigators on a more limited basis.

But equally important was the way Obama evaded a question about whether the metadata program had actually prevented terrorist plots. Skeptics about that proposition include both the task force and the federal judge who this week ruled that the program was probably unconstitutional. Obama could have responded: “I disagree. I know that the metadata program was essential in the prevention of plots.” But he offered no such defense.

YEAR IN REVIEW: Politicians’ lamest apologies in 2013

You might read some endorsement of the program’s effectiveness into Obama’s comment that the government might be able to “accomplish the same goals” in a different way. But that’s different from saying that the goals actually have been accomplished.

Obama went easier on the Department of Justice. Asked about the possibility of amnesty for Edward Snowden, Obama noted that “I’ve got to be careful” because Snowden was under indictment and that the disposition of the charges against him was the province of the attorney general and a judge and a jury.

But that was more than a little misleading. As Obama seemed to acknowledge in response to a follow-up question, the White House likely would be consulted by Justice about major decisions in the case. And, of course, the president has the power to pardon Snowden — even before a trial.

Yet it seems pretty clear there won’t be a pardon in Snowden’s Christmas stocking. And why not? Because the self-styled whistle-blower, in Obama’s words, had caused “unnecessary damage to U.S. intelligence capabilities and U.S. diplomacy.” On that point, Obama doesn’t seem open to fresh thinking.

ALSO:

The NSA vs. the Constitution

Mt. Soledad cross: Take it down

Highs, lows and an ‘other’ at the Supreme Court in 2013

Follow Michael McGough on Twitter @MichaelMcGough3