The president did not articulate a specific reason why this information needs to be collected and stored. His own intelligence review panel found that it serves no essential counter-terrorism purpose. On the other hand, the same panel (among others) emphasized the intrusiveness of bulk data collection.
Obama made a few important acknowledgements of the potential for abuse inherent in surveillance programs, but he painted a seriously misleading picture of the NSA’s recent history when he said that he’s learned nothing that “indicated that our intelligence community has sought to violate the law or is cavalier about the civil liberties of their fellow citizens.”
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