Underreported Story du Jour

We'll see as the days go by how hidden this item becomes:

Several members of a government board appointed to guard privacy and civil liberties during the war on terror say they’re impressed with the protections built into the Bush administration’s electronic eavesdropping program. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board received a long-awaited briefing on the secret program last week by senior members of the National Security Agency.

Two of the five board members told The Associated Press on Monday they were impressed by the safeguards the government has built into the NSA’s monitoring of phone calls and computer transmissions and wished the administration could tell the public more about them to ease distrust.

“If the American public, especially civil libertarians like myself, could be more informed about how careful the government is to protect our privacy while still protecting us from attacks, we’d be more reassured,” said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton White House lawyer. Alan Raul, a former Reagan White House lawyer and the board’s vice chairman, said the group “found there was a great appreciation inside government, both at the political and career levels, for protections on privacy and civil liberties.”

“In fact, I think the public may have an underappreciation for the degree of seriousness the government is giving these protections.” said Raul, author of a book on privacy and civil liberties in the digital age.