NSA spying on foreign countries is “valuable”

The National Security Agency’s vast data collection program targeting foreign nationals is a largely legal, valuable tool in fighting terrorism, a watchdog panel has said.

The panel, which earlier this year issued a sharp rebuke of domestic surveillance efforts, said in a preliminary report that the foreign intelligence efforts are generally in line with the US constitution, while raising some concerns about unintentional data gathering of Americans.

“The program has proven valuable in the government’s efforts to combat terrorism as well as in other areas of foreign intelligence,” said the report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a panel created on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

The report was released as a draft, subject to a vote on Wednesday of the panel.

The panel was largely supportive of the NSA’s handling of the programs authorised by Section 702 or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – the opposite of its conclusion in January of the huge telephone metadata collection effort by the intelligence agency.

“Presently, over a quarter of the NSA’s reports concerning international terrorism include information based in whole or in part on Section 702 collection, and this percentage has increased every year since the statute was enacted,” the report said.

“Monitoring terrorist networks under Section 702 has enabled the government to learn how they operate, and to understand their priorities, strategies, and tactics. In addition, the program has led the government to identify previously unknown individuals who are involved in international terrorism, and it has played a key role in discovering and disrupting specific terrorist plots aimed at the United States and other countries.”

The panel noted, however, that some aspects of the Section 702 program are “close to the line of constitutional reasonableness,” notably the incidental collection of communications of Americans and a broad interpretation of Internet data that may be searched.

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