NSA Considered Ending Phone Surveillance Program?

    (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
    (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

    Some of the government surveillance leaked by Edward Snowden was almost scrapped by the NSA.

    FOX News Radio’s Rachel Sutherland reports from Washington.

    Months before the Snowden leak, the National Security Agency was reportedly considering ending its secret program to collect and store phone records.

    The AP reports some within the NSA believed the costs of the program outweighed any counter-terrorism benefits and there were also concerns Americans would be outraged if they found out about it.

    A proposal to kill the program was circulating among top NSA leaders, but it never reached the desk of the NSA director. After the leak, NSA leaders defended the program, without disclosing the debate within the agency.

    In Washington, Rachel Sutherland, FOX News Radio.