Oversight board has concerns about NSA surveillance, security

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the federal oversight board that President Barack Obama said will meet with him to discuss the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program on Wednesday said the group has numerous concerns about the operation and plans to publish a report after a full inquiry.

David Medine, who heads the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, said board members have a "broad range of questions" about the NSA's widespread collection of Americans' phone and Internet data. Medine, who spoke following a closed-door meeting of the group, did not detail the board's concerns.

Medine said the group was given a classified briefing June 11 about the secret data collection programs by senior officials of the NSA, FBI, Justice Department and the national intelligence director's office. Medine declined to identify the officials who attended the briefings.

"Based on what we've learned so far, further questions are warranted," he said.

The oversight board's two-hour meeting Wednesday was its first since revelations that the NSA secretly has been collecting phone data of millions of Americans and Internet records that are aimed at foreign users but it sometimes sweeps up materials from inside the U.S. The meeting was closed to the public because the board discussed classified information, Medine said.

Obama said earlier this week that he would rely on the oversight board to "set up and structure a national conversation" about the two secret programs exposed recently by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The revelations, published in Britain's Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, exposed the NSA's massive phone and Internet data collection efforts.

Medine said the oversight board will study the NSA programs and publish a report that includes recommendations. He said the White House would set a date for the board to meet with Obama. The group plans a July 9 public meeting.

"We'll take testimony from experts, advocates and academics on the legality of these programs and their operations and how they address privacy and civil liberties," Medine said.

Obama's sudden reliance on the board as a civil libertarian counterweight to the government's elaborate secret surveillance program places trust in an organization that is untested and whose authority at times still defers to Congress and government censors.

The little-known oversight board has operated fitfully during its eight years of existence, stymied by congressional infighting and, at times, censorship by government lawyers. Dormant during the first term of the Obama administration, the board only became fully functional in May and held only two previous meetings.

At Wednesday's meeting, Medine said, the board discussed its recent classified briefing by national security officials. He added that all five board members have security clearances but because the group is in its early stages, the group has to rely on other federal agencies to provide secure meeting areas where it can review and discuss classified materials.