The review group on government surveillance practices just released its report to the White House. The task force was appointed by President Obama to review government intelligence-gathering practices in the wake of the revelations by Edward Snowden of massive mining of individuals’ email and cell phone data.

The White House will review the forty or so recommendations in the report and then issue its own conclusion about whether reforms need to be made in January.

Where’s the panel’s report? Ironically, it’s private. The White House will not make the report public until after the White House completes its own review. This is disappointing. One reason the advisory panel was formed in the first place was to make intelligence gathering practices more accountable to the public. President Obama should not decide upon his administration’s response to the recommendations in the report, until the public has seen the report, and there has been broad debate and discussion.