Washington, DC…Dear Mr. President: We are honored to present you with the Final Report of the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. Consistent with your memorandum of August 27, 2013, our recommendations are designed to protect our national security and advance our foreign policy while also respecting our longstanding commitment to privacy and civil liberties, recognizing our need to maintain the public trust (including the trust of our friends and allies abroad), and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosures.

We have emphasized the need to develop principles designed to create strong foundations for the future. Although we have explored past and current practices, and while that exploration has informed our recommendations, this Report should not be taken as a general review of, or as an attempt to provide a detailed assessment of, those practices. Nor have we generally engaged budgetary questions (although some of our recommendations would have budgetary implications).

We recognize that our forty-six recommendations, developed over a relatively short period of time, will require careful assessment by a wide range of relevant officials, with close reference to the likely consequences. Our goal has been to establish broad understandings and principles that can provide helpful orientation during the coming months, years, and decades.

We are hopeful that this Final Report might prove helpful to you, to Congress, to the American people, and to leaders and citizens of diverse nations during continuing explorations of these important questions.

Richard A. Clarke
Michael J. Morell
Geoffrey R. Stone
Cass R. Sunstein
Peter Swire

2013-12-12_rg_final_report