NSA deleting more than 685 million call records
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is deleting more than 685 million call records the government obtained since 2015 from telecommunication companies in connection with investigations, raising questions about the viability of the program.
The NSA’s bulk collection of call records was initially curtailed by Congress after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance. The law, enacted in June 2015, said that going forward, the data would be retained by telecommunications companies, not the NSA, but that the intelligence agency could query the massive database.
Now the NSA is deleting all the information it collected from the queries.
The agency released a statement late Thursday saying it started deleting the records in May after NSA analysts noted “technical irregularities in some data received from telecommunication service providers.” It also said the irregularities resulted in the NSA obtaining some call details it was not authorized to receive.
That points to a failure of the program, according to David Kris, a former top national security official at the Justice Department.
Spain creates Mediterranean Sea reserve for whale migration
MADRID — Spain is creating a marine wildlife reserve for the migrations of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea and will prohibit searching for fossil fuels in the area.
The Spanish government announced Friday that the protected reserve will cover 46,385 square kilometers (17,909 square miles) between the Balearic Islands and the mainland. It says the area “is of great ecological value and represents a migration path of vital importance for cetaceans in the Western Mediterranean.”
Teresa Ribera, Spain’s minister for ecological transition, says “this is the end of new prospecting or any type of extraction of fossil fuels” in the protected area.
The species Spain hopes to protect are Fin whales, sperm whales, grey sperm whales, pilot whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales, bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, common dolphins and loggerhead turtles.
New rallying call for 2020 Democrats: ‘Abolish ICE’
ATLANTA — Several prominent Democrats who are mulling a bid for the White House in 2020 sought to bolster their progressive credentials this week by calling for major changes to immigration enforcement, with some pressing for the outright abolition of the federal government’s chief immigration enforcement agency.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has “become a deportation force.”
“You should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works,” she told CNN late Thursday.
Her comments follow similar sentiments expressed by Sen. Kamala Harris of California over the past week. In interviews with multiple outlets, she has said the government “maybe” or “probably” should “start from scratch” on an immigration enforcement agency.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic nomination in 2016 and is mulling another run, has stopped short of his colleagues’ calls to dismantle ICE. But he has also been quick to note his vote opposing the 2002 law that paved the way for ICE to replace the old Immigration and Naturalization Service following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Health official who urged abstinence says views have changed
NEW YORK — The head of the nation’s top public health agency once opposed condoms and needle exchange programs as ways to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
This week, in one of his first media interviews since taking office, Dr. Robert Redfield Jr. said his views have changed.
“I think the data is just clear that these strategies work. When you see evidence that these strategies work, you need to embrace them,” said Redfield, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Redfield, 66, rose to prominence as a top researcher into the emerging AIDS epidemic. He has earned praise for his extensive experience treating HIV patients as well as drug addicts.
But he also made headlines more than two decades ago when he was scrutinized for overstating the effectiveness of an experimental AIDS vaccine. And he was criticized for being out of step with the public health community on some issues.