File photo of Barack Obama
President Barack Obama is directing his national intelligence director to form a panel of outside experts to review government intelligence and communications technologies.
It's one of the reforms Obama promised last week to help instill public confidence in US surveillance programs exposed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
In a memorandum Obama signed on Monday and released by the White House, he asks intelligence director James Clapper to empanel outside experts to review US surveillance technologies, particularly how the government can maintain the public trust and how such surveillance affects foreign policy at a time when more and more information is becoming public.
Obama requested an interim report within 60 days, and a final report and recommendations by mid-December.
The memo was released as Obama vacationed on Martha's Vineyard.