hello! WORLD: Obama dijangka membendung mengintip pemimpin asing, mengehadkan akses kepada rekod NSA telefon . . .

US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

Diana.h - White House adalah di tengah-tengah keadaan tergesa-gesa ‘hosting’ mesyuarat dengan pegawai-pegawai perisikan, libertarian sivil dan pakar-pakar teknologi sebagai pentad-biran bersedia untuk mengumumkan perubahan kepada beberapa program pengawasan didedahkan oleh Edward Snowden.

Mengikut berita, Presiden Amerika Syarikat Barack Obama tidak lama lagi boleh meminta Agensi Keselamatan Negara untuk berhenti menyimpan berjuta-juta telefon rekod (tele-phone records) rakyat Amerika dan juga skala belakang usaha mengintip yang mensa-sarkan pemimpin asing (foreign leaders).

Presiden Obama menghabiskan Rabu bercakap muka-ke-muka dengan pemain utama perisikan masyarakat Amerika Syarikat, termasuk Pengarah Perisikan Nasional James anak loceng dan Pengarah Agensi Keselamatan Negara Keith Alexander, dan pada hari Khamis beliau dijangka untuk menjadi tuan rumah mesyuarat tertutup antara White pembantu rumah dan ahli-ahli utama Kongres. Sebagai RT melaporkan sebelum ini (previously), kedua-dua kerusi Senat dan jawatankuasa perisikan House dijangka menghadiri perlum-baan itu, dan jemputan telah diperluaskan kepada penggubal undang-undang lain yang telah menyatakan kepentingan dalam pembaharuan NSA tetapi beberapa yang lain.

Presiden dilaporkan dekat dengan mengumumkan apa perubahan dia akan meminta dibuat dengan operasi NSA yang telah berkhidmat sebagai duri tepi pentadbirannya sejak Snowden, kontraktor perisikan bekas, mula bocor dokumen rahsia (leaking classified documents) kepada media Jun lalu memperincikan program mereka.

“Mesyuarat ini adalah satu peluang bagi presiden untuk mendengar daripada pihak berkepentingan utama seperti yang kita di akhir kajian kami,” kata jurucakap Majlis Keselamatan Negara Caitlin Hayden memberitahu akhbar Guardian minggu ini.

Satu kumpulan tinjauan bebas dipilih sendiri oleh presiden pada Ogos mengeluarkan satu laporan bulan lepas yang mengandungi 46 cadangan (recommendations) untuk pem-baharuan NSA, dan pada hari Khamis Associated Press melaporkan bahawa Encik Obama dijangka mengesahkan dua daripada cadangan - terutamanya pasangan yang melibatkan koleksi pukal metadata telefon dan mengintip pemimpin asing.

AP melaporkan bahawa presiden dijangka membuat keputusannya seawal minggu depan, dan kedai-kedai lain sebelum ini telah melaporkan bahawa dia akan mendedahkan mereka cadangan sebelum Negeri Alamat Kesatuan pada 28 Januari.

Sementara itu, pegawai-pegawai White House dijangka bertemu Khamis dengan tokoh-tokoh dari kumpulan kritikal operasi NSA, termasuk Kesatuan Kebebasan Sivil Amerika, Yayasan Frontier Elektronik, Institut Teknologi Terbuka dan Institut Cato. Pres. Obama dijangka tidak akan menghadiri acara itu.

Pres. Obama dijangka tidak akan menunggu kumpulan kajian lain untuk menyerahkan analisis bebas mereka sendiri program-program NSA, sama ada. Ahli-ahli Privasi 'congressionally' - sekatan dan Kebebasan Awam Lembaga Pengawasan bertemu dengan presiden pada hari Rabu dan berkata dalam satu kenyataan selepas itu bahawa presiden fokus di sepanjang perbualan pada program metadata dan mahkamah rahsia yang menyetujuinya. Tetapi manakala kumpulan yang ada di tengah-tengah mengarang lapo-ran mereka sendiri mengenai program NSA, dilepaskan telah ditangguhkan sehingga sekurang-kurangnya akhir bulan Januari, menurut AP, dan presiden dijangka mengu-mumkan keputusannya sebelum itu.

“Dia masih dalam proses perbincangan lebih laporan kumpulan kajian semula itu dan mendengar daripada orang lain mengenai isu-isu yang dibangkitkan dalam laporan kum-pulan kajian semula itu,” kata Setiausaha Akhbar Rumah Putih Jay Carney kepada pemberita semasa taklimat pada Rabu minggu ini.

Obama expected to curb spying on foreign leaders, limit NSA access to phone records . . .

The White House is in the midst of hosting a flurry of meetings with intelligence officials, civil libertarians and technology experts as the administration prepares to announce changes to some of the surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden.

According to preliminary reports, United States President Barack Obama could soon ask the National Security Agency to stop storing the telephone records of millions of Americans and also scale back the spying endeavors that target foreign leaders.

President Obama spent Wednesday talking face-to-face with the United States’ intelligence community’s top players, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander, and on Thursday he is expected to host a closed-door meeting between White House aides and key members of Congress. As RT reported previously, the chairs of both the Senate and House intelligence committees are expected to attend that outing, and invitations were extended to other lawmakers who have expressed interest in reforming the NSA but few others.

The president is reportedly close to announcing what changes he’ll ask be made to the NSA’s operations that have served as a thorn of the side of his administration since Snowden, a former intelligence contractor, began leaking classified documents to the media last June detailing those programs.

“These meetings are an opportunity for the president to hear from key stakeholders as we near the end of our review,” National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden told the Guardian newspaper this week.

An independent review group handpicked by the president in August released a report last month containing 46 recommendations for reforming the NSA, and on Thursday the Associated Press reported that Mr. Obama is expected to endorse two of those suggestions — particularly the pair involving the bulk collection of telephone metadata and spying on foreign leaders.

The AP reported that the president is expected to make his decision as early as next week, and other outlets have previously reported that he’ll reveal those proposals before the State of the Union Address on January 28.

In the interim, White House officials are expected to meet Thursday with figures from groups critical of the NSA’s operations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Technology Institute and the Cato Institute. Pres. Obama is not expected to attend that event.

Pres. Obama isn’t expected to wait for another review group to hand in their own independent analysis of those NSA programs, either. Members of the congressionally-sanctioned Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with the president on Wednesday and said in a statement afterward that the president focused throughout the conversation on the metadata program and the secret court which approves it. But whereas that group is in the midst of authoring their own report on the NSA programs, its release has been delayed until at least late January, according to the AP, and the president is expected to announce his decision before then.

"He is still in the process of deliberating over the review group's report and hearing from others on the issues that were raised in the review group's report," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday this week.