Officials: Obama likely to OK phone record changes

WASHINGTON (AP):

PRESIDENT BARACK Obama is expected to endorse changes to the way the government collects millions of Americans' phone records for possible future surveillance, but he'll leave many of the specific adjustments for Congress to sort out, according to three United States officials familiar with the White House intelligence review.

That move would thrust much of the decision making on Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act towards a branch of government that is deeply divided over the future of the surveillance apparatus and in no hurry to settle their differences and quickly enact broad changes. Among the key decisions Obama is expected to leave to Congress is whether the National Security Agency should continue to hold the trove of phone records or move the data to the phone companies or another third party.

In a highly anticipated speech Friday, Obama is also expected to announce broader oversight of the process that helps determine which foreign leaders the US government monitors. And he's likely to back increased privacy protections for foreign citizens, a step aimed at soothing international anger over US surveillance programmes.

The speech marks the culmination of a months long review sparked by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of classified documents about the secret surveillance programmes last year.