Obama meets with intelligence review group, releases report

The White House announced late Wednesday that it was releasing the presidentially-requested report to President Barack Obama on intelligence as Obama met with his Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. The report, ordered in the wake of the Edward Snowden leak last June of National Security Agency practices, offers recommendations on how the United States should better balance intelligence gathering with privacy and civil liberties rights. "The President again stated his expectation that, in light of new technologies, the United States uses its intelligence collection capabilities in a way that optimally protects our national security while supporting our foreign policy, respecting privacy and civil liberties, maintaining the public trust, and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosure," said a White House statement. The White House meeting with review group members Richard Clarke, Michael Morell, Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire offered Obama "an opportunity to hear directly from the groups members and discuss the thinking behind the 46 recommendations in their report," the White House said. The President noted that the groups report, presented to the President on Friday, represented "a consensus view, particularly significant given the broad scope of the members expertise in counterterrorism, intelligence, oversight, privacy and civil liberties." "Over the next several weeks, as we bring to a close the Administrations overall review of signals intelligence, the President will work with his national security team to study the Review Groups report, and to determine which recommendations we should implement," the White House said. "The President will also continue consulting with Congress as reform proposals are considered in each chamber." it said.