now, the panel handpicked by the white house says they should give up its massive data base. m sciutto joining me now. >> reporter: the headline is accountability. that is what one panel member said to me, accountability to the public, the white house, and the american public. you can see that reflected in the 46 recommendations the panel made. they want congress to pass legislation to move all the meta data, all the phone records, from the nsa's possession back to the phone company so it is in private hands, not in government hands, so for instance, the white house, they want to have presidential approval whenever the nsa is listening to the phone conversations of foreign leaders, like the german chancellor, angela merkel. you remember all of the outrage that caused in germany when that ka discovered. and in terms of the public, a whole range of things, one of them being a civilian leader, not a military leader. they think that would send a good message. things like that to appeal to everyone saying there is better accountability and transparency here. you know what, anderson

the president's handpicked panel of experts should stop picking up phone records of american people. he press conference, president obama seemed to agree. we'll take on that debate. first, the backstory from chief investigative correspondent brian ross. >> reporter: george, the report by the president's handpicked panel was another devastating blow for the nsa and its most controversial program. collecting the phone records of every american who owns a phone. the nsa says its collection of billions of phone records from american citizens has helped to stop terror attacks, a claim often repeated by the president himself. >> as i have said, this program is an important tool in our efforts to disrupt terrorist plots. >> reporter: when they delivered the report this week, including former counterterrorism official now abc news consultant, richard clarke, the 300-page document was a strong repudiation of what the nsa and the president have said, calling for the program to be shut down. >> we think the so-called metadata program has not been essential -- has not contributed significantly to