"inside story" is next. and check us out 24 hours a day just by going to aljazeera.com. what will the president and the congress do? that's the inside story. hello, i'm ray swarez. it is impossible to know if the people at the top of the national security agency ever expected their techniques to be revealed to the rest of us. or if they could have expected what the world would be.

>> with millions of documents under his arm. we now know just how far one agency has reached into the pockets and purses of millions of americans in the name of keeping americans safe. you remembering more oversight, and restrictions on the country's digital surveillance tactics. over the next several weeks we will be reviewing the report and the four recommendations as we continue to past forward which might require further study, in which we will choose not to pursue. >> the report released wednesday comes from a panel of five legal and

intelligence experts. and make more transparent the national security agency and the rules under which the agency works. there were 46 including ending the collection. about syringes without senior policy review. ending the storage of bulk telephone calls so far meta data by the government, creation of a public interest advocate, to represent privacy and civil liberties interests. j the panel also stressed that because the intelligence community can do something, that doesn't mean it should. "the right to privacy is essential, the rise of

modern technologies makes it all the more important the democratic nations respect people's fundamental rights to privacy, which is a defining part of individual security and personal liberty. vermont center, the chairman praised the panel's proposals. >> the message is very clear. nsa you have gone too far. the bulk collection of americans data by the u.s. government has to end. review group came to the same conclusion that i had -- >> the controversial intelligence gathering methods employed by the nsa were revealed by former contractor edward snowden who continues to disclose nsa tactics the public was unaware of through the media. snowden is believed to

have stolen millions of documents tied to the nsa's activities. calling the practice likely unconstitutional. the ban on unreasonable search and seizure, on tuesday, the president met with top leaders from internet giants, yahoo, google, microsoft, and others they brisled over revelations that the nsa co-oped their networks to gather intelligence, and have called for changes on behalf of their clients and users. >> in the meantime, nothing is halting the nsa from surveillance of phone calls and internet traffic within the current frame work on behalf of national security.

>> four main recommendations of them which one stands out, which one should be get thing lion's share of our attention. >> the ones that should stand out are the main recommendation that bulk telephone, meta data collection, be terminated immediately. been dismissed by the president is that nsa should be separated from cyber command, and again, that the born intelligence court should

have to approve orders based on probable cause rather than having national security letters get documents on people in secret. >> sebastian, same question, whether it's advisable or not, which of those 46 recommendations should be getting our attention? >> this may surprise you, was i agree with the one concerning meta data. it is -- european union respectable whether it bumps into the fourth amendment for unreasonable seizure or search. the fact it is bad trade craft. it is the idea i scoop stuff up. we want to have as much as caple in case we meet it down the road, i think for me personally, that's the best recommendation and the most important one.

>> recommendations are cherrypicked but is super structure launchly stays in place. i think the one exception recently is the 9/11 commission. the reform of the congressional oversite has largely been adopted. by the united states, so we will see how many of these actually result in fundamental changes. i think in addition to what my colleagues said the one that intrigued me was the recommendation that the national security agency become led perhapses are open to being led by a civilian. the nsa is a military intelligence organization. not so long ago here in washington, there was not even a street sign that pointed to the national security agency, even when there was, the nsa no such agency, now

there's a recognition that the ns ark is reaching deep into civil society. in terms of profound effect, not only with the society. but also within the u.s. economy. >> from both the recommendations from the review group and the opinion of judge leon, a few days earlier, is that both recognized that all of this scooping up data really did not thwart any terrorist attack, because if you are looking for a needle in a hay stack, why do you want to make

the hay stack bigger? i don't think it's helped, and i don't think any of these two bodies that have looked a this helped, i think it violated the rights of a number of innocent people, who were there was no probable cause or even a reasonable suspicion that hay had done anything wrong. so the scooping up that has been going on over the last 12 years has been a huge problem. just to build in another level. >> potentially, if you look at the ombudsman model that could be seen as one of the ways to approach this kind of issue. the trouble is that the ombudsman is usually a very open office, it is

publicly managed and the information is unclassified for any kind of civil rights issue. in case you are talked about classified sessions in a closed court. how that advocate would function, and what they would be able to do outside of the court, i think would be justice closed as if there weren't there to begin with in the first place. so it may be a nonstart of a recommendation, in my opinion. >> so that very capacity which in his view helps this process work, is that what bugs you about this is this? it does. the idea that things have been approve bade court, because a face a court has signed off, is not the same thing as an open article only one side of the argument which is the government then you will get what we have gotten

which has effectively been whether you want to call it a rubber statute or not, approving all 1,136 decisions in 2011. to me, speaks for itself, and the fact that you do need to have an actual other side. it came from executive initiative. and that produced a controversial in 2005, and 2006. over the revelation of what the national security agency was doing and the kind of information it was now collecting.

firms up behind many of the steps on the so called war on terror. you know the presidential advisory group was ambiguous about the term balance, but i think that is what we are talking about. how do you balance security interests, privacy interest, transparentsy, in a way that can restore some of the trust and confidence that has been lost by the revelations of the last six months. >> well, there are a lot of other interests at play here, including those of congress, and what blitz have to say, and those in the business world, and that's where we will go when we come back, we will take a short break, this is inside story.

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service providers the googles the yahoos, they were at the oval office earlier this week, not very happy that the government was rifling around their files without even their knowledge. now, these recommendations involve protection. making their systems -- can we do that?

>> i think they are already starting to do that. i think google and yahoo and microsoft are justifiably -- they give the government front door access to their information. yet that buzz not enough because they created back doors without them knowing pit p so these company is in their business interests. but al in the interest of most individuals who have no choice but to use these carriers. there are obviously rep precautions. we have a very short amount of time left, let me get your thoughts on where the company stands.

i hope so because you want to trick bad guys not good guys. it is about winning over people who can help you, who aren't your enemies and they haven't been doing that. so i think it's possible, but it's going to take a lot of leg working by the white house now. >> and i think it is part resoaring arm's length to the relationship between these companies. because there is an economic impact to this, and obviously the economy is an element of national security. so if you are doing things that may -- you might think is protecting on one side, it is weakening you in the other. >> well, we will have to talk further as this story continues to unfold about whether the trust of the public can be earned back, one of the major questions that has to be answered in order to preserve the value. sebastian, jeselnik, great to have you all with me today, that brings us to the end of

this edition of "inside story." thank you for being with us, the program may be over, but the conversation continues we want to hear what you think about these issues this day or any day's show. log into our face back page, send us your thoughts on twitter, our handle is a.j. inside story a.m., or you can reach me directly at ray swarez news, see you for the next inside story, i'm ray swarez.

welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. president obama set to speak in a couple of hours. his end of the year news conference before he headed to hawaii. and a robot challenge, scientists competing to create androids that can help out when disaster strikes. ♪ it has been a long year from gay rights to health a eve