foreign nationals, the disclosures also revealed the large-scale surveillance of communications by United States citizens. These leaks were largely the work of Edward Snowden, a Booz Allen Hamilton employee with access to a wide range of top secret documents. Publications of the documents by The Washington Post and The Guardian began in June 2013. Report On January 23, 2014, the board released its report, recommending the US end bulk data collection. Instead federal agencies would be able to obtain phone and other records under court orders in cases containing an individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. But there would be no storehouse, private or public, of telephone data beyond what the phone companies keep in the course of their normal business activities. The report concluded that the program "lacks a viable legal foundation". It concluded "we see little evidence that the unique capabilities provided by the NSA's bulk collection of telephone records actually have yielded material counterterrorism results that could not have been achieved without the NSA's Section 215 program." The report concluded: "Cessation of the program would eliminate the privacy and civil liberties concerns associated with bulk collection without unduly hampering the government's efforts, while ensuring that any governmental requests for telephone calling records are tailored to the needs of specific investigations." The report called for a "Special Advocate" to be involved in some cases before the FISA court judge. The Board also contained the recommendation to release future and past FISC decisions "that involve novel interpretations of FISA or other significant questions of law, technology or compliance." The report also recommended against an alternate proposal, which President Barack Obama had ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to formulate within 60 days, which would force third parties including telephone companies to conduct data retention. The panel's majority spokesman said this was due to cost and legal exposure for the companies involved, and that it was not an "easy out". Reactions Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior member of the intelligence committee and long-time critic of the programs, released a statement in reaction to the report. Said Wyden: "The privacy board's findings closely mirror many of the criticisms made by surveillance reform advocates. The bulk collection program was built on a murky legal foundation that raises many constitutional questions and has been proven to be an ineffective tool for collecting unique intelligence information. Moreover, as the board wrote in its report, a program where