Story highlights
NEW: "Report appropriately calls into question" program's legalitity, Sen. Leahy says
Bulk telephone record collection hasn't thwarted terrorism, board rules
The board's findings won't immediately change policy
But they are a stinging rebuke to President Obama's defense of the program
The National Security Agency program that collects data on nearly every U.S. phone call isn’t legal, a privacy review board said Thursday in a newly released report.
Moreover, the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board said it’s been largely useless in thwarting terrorism.
“We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation,” the board wrote in the report released Thursday.
