NSA program fizzles out, yet world keeps turning

Do you remember the National Security Agency (NSA’s) phone-records program? It was perhaps the most contentious of Edward Snowden’s revelations, and became the subject of a vicious multiyear imbroglio in Congress. Now the operation has been halted entirely — with barely a whimper.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorised the government to collect a broad range of business records relevant to terrorism
investigations. The NSA took this to mean that it should collect the phone records of effectively every American and store them in a searchable database.
In every respect, this program was an outlier. Unlike other operations that Snowden illegally revealed, it intentionally swooped up records from US citizens. It collected data in bulk, rather than targeting individuals. It had a highly dubious legal rationale. And, most pertinently, it didn’t really work: Two comprehensive reviews of the program — both based on classified information — concluded that it had not played an essential role in any terrorism probe.
So when Congress sought to reform the government’s surveillance powers, starting in 2014, the phone-records program was a natural priority. A bipartisan bill that would’ve ended its most objectionable aspects — while still ensuring that the NSA could access needed records — quickly gained support. Known as the USA Freedom Act, it had the backing of the White House, much of Congress, privacy advocates, civil-liberties groups, Silicon Valley and, not least, the
intelligence community itself.
For all the dire warnings, the NSA has been able to do its job without the program. In part, that may be because terrorists have shifted from traditional phones to encrypted messaging services. But that trend was fully predictable — indeed, underway — when Rubio was warning about a looming invasion.
A lesson suggests itself. Even in the best of times, reforming intelligence agencies is an immense challenge. It requires good faith, clear thinking, sober risk assessment and a judicious evaluation of competing values. Theatrical alarmism only clouds judgment, unnerves the public, and makes a hard job harder.
The NSA should have every lawful tool it needs to protect the country. And its vital work deserves a lot of leeway. But that’s all the more reason for Congress to resist hysteria — and be open to reasonable change when it’s called for.

—Bloomberg