President Barack Obama said Friday that the U.S. government will end its mass collection of American phone data, a victory for civil libertarians that marks the most significant curtailment of U.S. surveillance practices in more than a decade.

Read the transcript below:

„At the dawn of our republic, a small secret surveillance committee born out of the Sons of Liberty was established in Boston.
And the group‘s members included Paul Revere. At night, they would patrol the streets, reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America‘s early patriots.

Obama said he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder and the intelligence community to deliver a report by March 28 on how to handle and store bulk data collections. The president will also consult with the relevant committees in Congress on their views.

Seeking to calm a furor over U.S. surveillance, President Barack Obama on Friday called for ending the government’s control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and immediately ordered intelligence agencies to get a secretive court’s permission before accessing such records.

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Subject; Signals Intelligence Activities

Presidential Directives, better known as Presidential Decision Directives (or PDDs) are a form of an executive order issued by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the National Security Council. The directives articulate the executive‘s national security policy and carry the „full force and effect of law“

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Nilay Patel, Adi Robertson, and Russell Brandom will be on hand to discuss what, if anything, will really be different (all time zones).

Prime Minister had account in the tax haven of the Channel Islands, Israel‘s ‚Globes‘ reports; PM‘s office: Account inactive from 2003.

„Globes“ reveals that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an account in the Channel Islands tax haven of Jersey.

On Jan. 17, 1961, President Eisenhower used his farewell address to warn Americans that:

„We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.“

Iran has about $100 billion in foreign exchange assets around the world, of which it will be able to draw $4.2 billion under last year‘s nuclear agreement with six world powers, a senior U.S. administration official said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the money and assets were held in various countries and that a significant proportion was Iran‘s oil revenue.

„Russian advisers and intelligence experts have been running observation UAVs around the clock to help Syrian forces track rebel positions, analyze their capabilities, and carry out precision artillery and air force strikes against them,“ said the source, who declined to be identified.

„As a result of our confidence in the Russian position and its role in stopping the Syrian bloodshed, today I submitted to minister Lavrov a plan for security arrangements that have to do with the city of Aleppo,“ said Moallem. „I asked him to make necessary arrangements to guarantee its implementation and specify the zero hour for military operations to cease.“

„Wir haben unlängst erfahren, dass die nationale Koalition und andere Oppositionsgruppen immer noch keine formelle Einladung zu Genf-2 bekommen haben“, sagte der russische Außenminister Sergej Lawrow nach einem Treffen mit seinem syrischen Amtskollegen Walid al-Muallem am Freitag in Moskau. „Wie wir verstehen können, wartet der UN-Generalsekretär ab, bis die Koalition über ihre Teilnahme endgültig entscheidet“, so Lawrow weiter. „Uns beunruhigt diese Situation sehr.“

The same poll also showed that a majority of people now think that the US government‘s anti-terrorism policies have „gone too far.“ It cracked 51%, up from 45% right after the first Snowden revelation, and way up from the 25% who felt that way back in 2010.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will serve as a keynote presenter at the 2014 South by Southwest (SXSW) music, film and interactive festival in March.

Netanyahu said eariler that the „imbalance“ in the treatment of Israel and the Palestinians was hampering peace efforts. „I think it pushes peace further away, because it tells the Palestinians: ‚You can basically do whatever you want, say anything you want, incite any way you want and you wont be held accountable‘.“

(15.01.) Preparations for the international conference on Syria in Montreux, Switzerland, are reaching their final, very responsible stage. The Government of Syria has confirmed its participation without preconditions in this important forum and presented the composition of its delegation long ago. Against this backdrop, we have large and justified concerns about the fact that it is not clear whether the opposition will attend the negotiations in Switzerland. In fact, today, this condition is the main obstacle in the path of launchingthe conference, which it is envisaged will put an end to the bloodshed and suffering of civilians in the SAR, and pave the way to settlement of a long conflict in this country.

Der stellvertretende russische Außenminister Michail Bogdanow hat am Donnerstag in Moskau mit einer Delegation des Kurdischen Nationalrates Syriens die bevorstehende „Genf-2“-Konferenz erörtert, wie aus einer Mitteilung des russischen Außenministeriums hervorgeht.