NSA surveillance reform: A tilt toward privacy over security?

[Commentary] In the last week of July, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), introduced a version of the USA Freedom Act that is far more restrictive on intelligence agencies’ operations than any other competing bill.

In explaining the distinct shift toward more privacy and transparency provisions in the competing bills, much weight has to be given to events occurring in the background: the slow drip of Snowden revelations, combined with more near-term political blunders by the intelligence agencies.

There is merit to the concerns that the new metadata process is so cumbersome and protracted that it may impair the ability to ward off future well-planned terrorist attacks. An open-minded, continuous assessment is thus in order. On the controversial change related to a public advocacy role before the FISA Court, however, there can be no doubt that ultimately the security agencies will reap a benefit.

One does not have to subscribe to the view that the FISA Court has been a “patsy” for the security establishment, to hold that an independent, internal “other pair of eyes” will enhance the credibility of future legal reviews of data requests.