404 — Feinstein seems to jump on board the President's NSA train

Now, it appears that even Feinstein will support the President's new plan NOT to perform warrantless mass surveillance of Americans, according to this story from The New York Times. Perhaps her experience with the CIA has softened the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Sunday backed a plan to impose constraints on the National Security Agency’s data collection.

Feinstein Gives Tentative Nod to Data Curbs

By BRIAN KNOWLTON

WASHINGTON — A proposal backed by President Obama to constrain the National Security Agency’s systematic collection of Americans’ telephone data drew a cautious welcome on Sunday from a key congressional intelligence leader, but she offered a few significant caveats.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, welcomed several aspects of the plan, which was developed by the Justice Department and intelligence officials and endorsed on Tuesday by the president during his recent European trip, but which still requires congressional approval.

Under the proposal, bulk records of Americans’ phone calls would remain in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data any longer than they normally would. And a judge’s permission would be required for the agency to obtain specific records.

Ms. Feinstein, in her most detailed reaction to the proposal, endorsed Mr. Obama’s proposal not to force the telecommunications companies to hold on to call data longer than they normally would — a minimum of 18 months under current federal regulations. The N.S.A. currently keeps the data for five years.

The California Democrat, appearing on the CNN program â€œState of the Union,” said that it was not clear that all the telecoms, skittish over revelations of their involvement, were willing to hold the data unless legally required to do so. “When we talked to them,” she said, “they were not.”

Ms. Feinstein said that for the initial request for data to be conducted by telecom personnel instead of agency analysts raises another concern: “Is privacy as controlled as it is with 22 vetted people at the National Security Agency who are supervised and watched with everything they do?”

Ms. Feinstein also sided with the White House proposal over an alternative suggested last week by the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee on a key question: whether a judge should be required to sign off each time before the N.S.A. views calling records, except in emergencies. Mr. Obama has said there should be prior judicial review, while the House committee would allow the agency to subpoena the records directly.

Michael Morell, a former deputy director of the C.I.A. who was on the panel that made the recommendations supported by Mr. Obama, said that he thought the president’s plan and the approach of the House committee were “very, very close to each other.” If the House plan is adopted, “I’m comfortable with that,” he said on CBS’s â€œFace the Nation.”

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, a former director of the N.S.A., said that he, too, was comfortable with such a compromise, adding, “There’s powerful convergence between what the president is suggesting and what the House Intelligence Committee’s actually embodied in legislation. “So I think we’ve arrived at a solution that actually makes us more safe, that gives people higher comfort, that the government would not potentially abuse it,” said General Hayden, who also appeared on “Face the Nation.”

Ms. Feinstein also supported the proposed requirement for court approval of each request for phone data, saying, “I happen to believe it could be done on an emergency basis.” She backed limits that allow the tracing of calls back through only two “hops” — or calling links — from a suspect in an effort to identify the suspect’s associates.

Similar concerns were raised on Sunday by a leading congressional critic of N.S.A. surveillance, Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. He said the proposed reforms were only a start. “We’re certainly going to be watch-dogging the way the phone companies handle this,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”