Starting out by evoking the intelligence work done by Paul Revere and it being instrumental to the formation of our nation, President Obama gave a speech this morning announcing changes to the controversial NSA surveillance programs revealed by leaker Edward Snowden.
 The most controversial element of the program, government collection of telephone metadata, will not be ended outright, but tweaked in a yet-to-be-determined way.
“I believe we need a new approach,” Obama said. “I am therefore ordering a transition
that will end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently
exists, and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we
need without the government holding this bulk meta-data.”
Another change is that there will be limits placed on how many times NSA agents are able to query the database. Obama said the government would not give the program up completely because he says it is a valuable tool.
Of Snowden, he only said that he believes his revelations created more heat than light.
Obama has also ordered an end to surveillance on foreign allies and limits on how many times NSA agents may look into the records of metadata.
Read the full text of his speech here.
