he National Security Agency is telling Congress that an agency employee resigned after admitting to investigators that he gave former NSA analyst Edward Snowden a digital key that allowed him access to classified materials. Snowden has said he did not steal any passwords.
Legal experts say a trial for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden could expose more classified information as his lawyers try to build a case in open court that the operations he exposed were illegal.
Legal experts warn that several of the key surveillance reforms pushed by President Barack Obama face complications that could muddy the proposals' authority, slow their momentum in Congress and saddle the government with heavy costs and bureaucracy.
If President Barack Obama follows even half of the recommendations urged by his advisory panel, the National Security Agency would significantly change the way it does business.
The NSA chief says he knows of no better way his agency can help protect the U.S. from foreign threats than with spy programs that collect billions of phone and Internet records from around the world.
The sweep and scope of National Security Agency snooping abroad forced President Barack Obama once again to hear complaints from a U.S. ally angry about the surveillance net that has sparked an international debate over the limits of American spying.
Top U.S. intelligence officials are revealing more about their spying in an effort to defend the National Security Agency from charges that it has invaded the privacy of Americans on a mass scale.
President Barack Obama is acknowledging he must "do a better job" of giving Americans confidence in the programs the National Security Administration has deployed to guard against terrorism.