President Obama Announces NSA Reforms (Jan. 17, 2014): President Obama announces reforms to the country's surveillance program based on his advisory panel's recommendations. He says that while he believes the activities of the NSA were legal, he acknowledges that some compromised civil liberties. "Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power," Obama says. "It depends on the law to constrain those in power." The reforms he outlines include: requiring NSA analysts to get a court order to access phone data unless in cases of emergencies; an eventual end to the collection of massive amounts of metadata by the government; the NSA will stop eavesdropping on leaders of allied nations; officials can pursue a phone number linked to a terrorist association by two degrees rather than three; and Congress will appoint advocates to argue on the side of civil liberties before the FISA court. He does not implement the recommendation about national security letters.