NSA Recommends Dropping Phone-Surveillance Program

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a surveillance program that collects information about U.S. phone calls and text messages (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits, according to people familiar with the matter. The recommendation against seeking the renewal of the once-secret spying program amounts to an about-face by the agency, which had long argued in public and to congressional overseers that the program was vital to the task of finding and disrupting terrorism plots against the U.S.

The latest view is rooted in a growing belief among senior intelligence officials that the spying program provides limited value to national security and has become a logistical headache. Frustrations about legal-compliance issues forced the NSA to halt use of the program earlier this year, the people said. Its legal authority will expire in December unless Congress reauthorizes it. It is up to the White House, not the NSA, to decide whether to push for legislation to renew the phone-records program. The White House hasn't yet reached a policy decision about the surveillance program, according to the people familiar with the matter.

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