Sen Wyden urges Barack Obama to end bulk data collection now

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), a leading voice in attempts to rein in the National Security Agency, has urged President Barack Obama to order an immediate halt to the bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata records.

He said the President should end the practice “right away”, rather than wait for Congress to pass legislation. Sen Wyden, a longtime critic of bulk surveillance, cautiously endorsed Obama's proposal to have records remain with telephone companies rather than intelligence agencies, but said reform should not wait for a new law. “I believe the President ought to make the transition right away,” he told NBC's Meet the Press. “I believe strongly we ought to ban all dragnet surveillance on law-abiding Americans, not just phone records but also medical records, purchases and others.”