jazeera america. i'm morgan radford. "the stream" is up next. a >> you are in the stream. your government is pieing on you and the reporting is exposing how. now the president readies the reforms nor thensa. all we had to do is tell the community that glen was coming on the show and twitter is exploding. >> yes, exploding with a lot of a cynicism and skeptism about the reforms for the nsa. national security is a smoke

screen and offering a reason why the president is offering reforms, hell have no furry. if the american people can tap obama's personal calls i'm okay with the nsa tapping mine. but in the minority is all nonsense. >> i don't about tapping the president's phone calls, but quite concerned about the nsa tapping members of congress's phone calls. >> and our phone calls are pretty tapped. >> president obama is working on recommendations to the nsa reform and the efforts are coming after exposing the surveillance information. the files revealed how the government collects phone data

and taps into the internet providers and spies on the world leaders and this is concerning for the privacy advocates and the nsa is saying that the programs are nothing to fear, they are not monitoring the phone calls or your emails. they are helping to connect the dots of those wanting to harm americans. >> 46 possible nsa reforms outlined this week and recommendations it says will improve not impair the agency. ready to weigh in journalist glen greenwald. >> take a will be to this. >> i'm taking this very seriously. the question we have to ask is can we accomplish the same goals that this program is intended to

accomplish in ways that give the public more confidence that in fact nsa is doing what it is supposed to be doing. >> here are some of the recommendations, the president plans to keep the collection of phone data under the supervision of the nsa and calling for increased limits on the access and create a public advocate to address the privacy concerns. so glen, is this mission accomplished and giving the public about more confidence in the nsa? >> well, that is the important point, the mission that he set when he created the review panel and starting the process, not to reform the nsa in a meaningful way but to restore the public confidence and make the process seem for palpable. it is a pr gesture and a way to

calm the public and letting them believe there are more reform. the public heard enough about what the nsa is doing and they need more than a pretty speech. >> glen, it appears that the president is largely in the favor of the change, but a lot of the programs are staying in place, what would the changes be if you made the call? >> there is a question on whether or not that the government should be collecting literally billions of pieces of data every single day about the communications in which we engage, about the online activities here in the united states and around the world, that is describing a surveillance state, and ultimately real reform are we going to dismantle the machinery constructed that the dark and watching everything that the world is doing and everything that people are saying or do we

want a sensible surveillance system and the government instead of watching everyone, only watches those people for who there is evidence to believe they are engaged in wrong doings, such as terrorism, and that is a much more efficient approach to finding the people that are actually doing things wrong. >> look, a lot of focus on the president's speech and the recommendations but the president doesn't have a lot of power when it comes to changing the operation of the nsa and that comes from congress, and if the congress acts, what level of confidence do you have that they wouldn't be sish cum vented behind the scenes? >> first of all, the president has a fair amount of power, he's the commander and chief of the armed forced and this is an agency within the pentagon. congress authorizes the agency to go to a certain limit and he can make that decision whether or not they should.

the question is even if there are reforms, what confidence do we have they are abided by. the scandal in the bush years of the nsa there was a scheme in place that the bush administration disregarded and ignored it and both parties got together and discussed it. what we need are very strong safeguards and transparencies. most important to stop having this all be done behind a wall of secrets. if we the public know what they are doing and that is why it is imperative that mr. snowden came forward and shining a light on this. >> in fact, on twitter asking are you anticipating the progress. there is going to be a lot of em fi -- empty rhetoric.

very little substance. no actual recourse for violations. no substantiative reform. >> you know -- >> go ahead. >> no, go ahead. >> you know, i was going to say, there are a couple of changes that he's proposing that are decent ones, like putting an advocate in the court and no longer is the government the only side showing up when it is time to argue whether or not toish issue a warrant. the his interest when there is a controversy the approach is pretending you are changing things and not actually to change it. it is a really big mistake to look at the end of this process as the very, the most, it is just the beginning.

of course, there is not serious change proposed by president obama. no president wants to give up surveillance power. they are forced to do that. the key is for the public pressure to build, demand more changes to happen. look at this as the first step and not the last one. >> glen, newspapers are calling for clemency for edward snowden and where do you stand on that? >> it is appropriate. he's brought to light lying on the parts of the high government officials and illegal forms of surveillance, i think it is not only his right but his duty as a citizen and as an employee in this system to come forward and tell the fellow citizens what the government is doing to their mrooi si -- privacy in the dark. if you look at other officials,

keith alexander, not only have they not be prosecuted they ever not lost their jobs or the wall street executives, none paid a price. if these people in power commit the crimes and fully protected someone like edward snowden low level employee takes the actions on the good of the country should receive it. >> he's not that unpowerful. he's released the emails and surveillances of the cell phone calls and radio transmissions and tipped off the u.s. enemies on collecting the evidence, does that sound a little beyond the scope of whistle blowing? >> he didn't actually publish any of the things you just said. the people that published that was the washington postand the new york times.

>> he had control of the information and handed that over to the journalists. >> and what he did when he handed that over, he said i'm providing you with a lot of information. much of this material that needs to be published, much is material you ought to read to understand how to system works and not to be publish and and i'm trusting you to vet this material and make choices as newspapers, just like going to new york times with the pentagon papers, i'm trusting you to make the decisions on what should be published and what should be. if you are upset ub the publishing, direct the criticism to them for publishing it, not for snowden for bringing the term to them. glen, about community when it comes to the prosecution or given clemency, they are erroring on the side of clemency. the people in the united states

needed to know about the monitoring. jonathan saying a resounding yes. it is atrocious how we are blind and uncaring, but on the flip side snowden did it for the money and started when he was young. >> all right, so you like online gaming? >> yes. >> new meaning to the spy games and glen we'll keep answering your questions when we come back.

attention and they care and the story continues to be one of the significant news stories in the world and sparking intense debate. as far as the stories about economic spying and the like, a huge bulk of the spying doesn't

even argue have anything to do with the terrorist and spying. the answer is concluding that the more a government like the united states knows about what populations around the world are doing and planning and strategicizing and thinking, the more power the people who have the information have and especiallily more powerful they become when nobody else knows who they are doing. it is more about the power than anything else. >> glenn, do we need the nsa? >> you know, i think we need a degree of targeted spying, whether is done by the nsa or another agency, we don't need what they have become, an agency creating a system of suspiciously spying. >> what does the future for

glenn? we'll be right back. consider this: the news of the

hi, i'm henry, i'm in the stream. >> welcome back, we have been talking about the nsa and glenn,

you have an impressive resume, it is a new year and what is next? >> well, i mean, there's definitely a lot of documents that have been given to us and we are working with and not yet reported on and working on the stories and being accurate and there is definitely a very good number of stories that are very significant that will continue to be reported and shaping on how we think about the programs in profound ways. >> so two things, a lot of documents, quantify that is and what is trigger and when are you going to release the next round of information? >> i never counted the documents, you know, i have said before they number in the tens of thousands. i don't know the exact number. but a very large number of them. they are taking a lot of time to read through and report and piece together. the trigger is that when we find documents that are interesting

and important stories, we are work on them as quickly as we can and when the story is ready, we'll report on them. >> the community is waiting, if in more revelations to come out, tons of questions in from the community, first, to sage, joining us in the google hangout and a blocker from syracuse, do you have a question? >> i am interesting in how to policies have changed the issues so rapidly. it used to be we couldn't talk about the progress on civil liberties, did you expect such a massive reaction from these revelations? >> you know, it is interesting, i think you can look at a much more example in the news, the controversy over the chris christie bridge lane closings.

that story was around for several months and nobody paid attention to it. it was impossible to know what was happening. the documents that made clear were concealed, not publicly available and once that information became available everyone is realizing what happened and paying attention. the same is true with the nsa stories, people have known they are are a massive and out of control agency. back in 2010 it was reported they collect 1.7 billion emailing and telephone calls and no impact. and without the documents you can understand the severity. the ability to show the people, not to trust what we are saying, but showing you the documents made people very upset, very concerned and very engaged and created a real political scandal and has changed how this

political dynamic functions in this area and leading to the lead for the president to predenned to the reforms. the need for the people to come forard and not let the govl officials perform these things in the dark. >> the government will never be completely transparent, what about restoring the confidence in these agencies if the nsa were to release a lot more of the information on businesses and individuals before you do? >> i don't think it is going to restore the confidence. it is going to destroy the confidence. that is why we are not doing it. there are documents released from the british counter part and talking about how it is urgent to keep the programs secret because the public is not going to appreciate what is being done. the nsa is hoping to keep the

lid on most of this. they don't know what documents we have. if they are confident that the public approves they would go to the public on their own. but they don't do that because the public would be shocked and alarmed on the true scope of what they are doing. >> what is the time line for your next report? when is it going to be? >> i'm working on several. certainly within the next couple of weeks, at least a couple. >> all right. that is all we have time for. thank you glenn. until next time see you at al jazeera.com.