Panel Questions NSA's Business Model

The National Security Agency's core operational model is called into question in one little-noticed recommendation by the review panel evaluating the spy agency, and is likely to reignite a contentious debate within US intelligence circles.

The current NSA model relies largely on amassing as much data as it can obtain and trying to sort through it all later. In its place, the presidentially appointed review panel suggested a drastic and fundamental change in the 20th of 46 recommendations in its report: "Software that would allow…intelligence agencies more easily to conduct targeted information acquisition rather than bulk-data collection." The panel proposed a feasibility study. But former NSA officials say such a transition is certainly doable. "That's exactly what we did," says former NSA official Ed Loomis. "It's not only feasible -- the government threw away the software that did it."