January 7, 2014

The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and other Intelligence Community leaders met today with three members of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Group’s findings and recommendations in their report, “Liberty and Security in a Changing World,” delivered to the President on December 18, 2013. 

DNI Clapper welcomed Review Group members Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire and thanked all the members for their service.  The meeting allowed senior IC officials to hear directly from the Review Group about the goals and objectives of the report’s recommendations and to ask questions about the groups findings.

Attendees discussed several recommendations covering a wide range of topics including: the collection of bulk metadata under Section 215 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; security clearance reform; encryption; judicial approval of national security letters, and judicial approval of non-disclosure orders.

Throughout the meeting, Review Group members expressed gratitude to the IC for helping keep Americans safe.  DNI Clapper praised the Review Group for facilitating an informed public discussion about proposed reforms and thanked the members for their commitment to preserving IC capabilities while further strengthening privacy protections and oversight.  He also expressed his appreciation for the ongoing close coordination and consultation between the Administration, Congress, and the Intelligence Community as we work together on a measured approach to intelligence reforms.   

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Public Affairs