Why President Obama and His NSA Defenders Changed Their Minds

It was only months ago that President Barack Obama, with bipartisan backing from the heads of Congress's Intelligence committees, was insisting that the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program was key to keeping Americans safe from the next major terrorist attack. But now, the President and the NSA's top supporters in Congress are all pushing proposals to end the NSA's bulk collection of phone records. So what changed?

With a critical section of the Patriot Act set to expire next year, they realized they had no choice but to negotiate. If Congress fails to reauthorize that provision -- Section 215 -- by June 1, 2015, then the NSA's collection of US records would have to end entirely. And the growing outrage prompted by the Snowden leaks means that the NSA's supporters would almost certainly lose an up-or-down vote on the program. President Obama and the House Intelligence Committee leaders believe their proposals are now the NSA's best bet to retain some power to mine U.S. phone records for possible terror plots.