WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama defended sweeping secret
surveillance into U.S. phone records and foreigners' Internet use,
declaring them a necessary defence against terrorism, and assuring
Americans, "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls."
Taking questions Friday from reporters at a health care event in San Jose, California, Obama said: "It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 per cent security and also, then, have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience."
It was revealed late Wednesday that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of U.S. phone customers. The leaked document first reported by the Guardian newspaper gave the NSA authority to collect from all of Verizon's land and mobile customers, but intelligence experts said the program swept up the records of other phone companies too.
Another secret program revealed Thursday scours the Internet usage of
foreign nationals overseas who use any of nine U.S.-based internet
providers such as Microsoft and Google.
In his first comments since the programs were publicly revealed this week, Obama said safeguards are in place.
"They help us prevent terrorist attacks," Obama said. He said he has concluded that prevention is worth the "modest encroachments on privacy."
Obama's defence of the two programs came as members of Congress were vowing to change a program they voted to authorize. Civil liberties advocates were crying foul, questioning how Obama, a former constitutional scholar who sought privacy protections as a U.S. senator, could embrace policies with strong echoes of President George W. Bush, whose approach to national security he had vowed to leave behind.
The disclosures have triggered a fierce debate that cuts across party lines and could overshadow a two-day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. They come at a particularly inopportune time for Obama, whose administration already faces questions over the federal tax agency's improper targeting of conservative groups and the seizure of journalists' phone records in an investigation into who leaked information to the media.
Obama said he came into office with a "healthy skepticism" of the program and increased some of the "safeguards" on the programs. He said Congress and federal judges have oversight on the program, and a judge would have to approve monitoring of the content of a call and it's not a "program run amok."
"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls," he said. "That's not what this program's about."
He said government officials are "looking at phone numbers and durations of calls."
"They are not looking at people's names and they are not looking at content. But by sifting through this so-called metadata they might identify potential leads of people who might engage in terrorism," Obama said.
The president's remarks followed an unusual late-night statement Thursday from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who denounced the leaks of highly classified documents that revealed the programs and warned that America's security will suffer. He called the disclosure of a program that targets foreigners' Internet use "reprehensible," and said the leak of another program that lets the government collect Americans' phone records would change U.S. enemies' behaviour and make it harder to understand their intentions.
Clapper, in his late-night statement, offered new information about both surveillance programs, saying he wanted to correct the "misleading impression" created by out-of-context news articles even as he acknowledged that publicly discussing the programs comes with inherent security risks.
"I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use," Clapper said.
And so barely 24 hours after the phone records program's existence was first revealed publicly by the Guardian newspaper of Britain, Clapper took the rare step of declassifying and publicly releasing details about the authority used to authorize it, including that it's reviewed by a special court every three months and that the data collected can only be culled when there's reasonable suspicion -- backed by facts -- that the information is connected to a foreign terrorist group.
At issue were two National Security Agency programs that came to light late Wednesday and Thursday after highly classified documents were leaked to the media.
A top-secret court order, first disclosed by the Guardian, requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. Experts said it's likely the program extends to other phone companies as well.
Another secret program came to light when The Washington Post and The Guardian reported that the NSA and FBI can scour America's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other documents to help analysts track a person's movements and contacts. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple were all included. Most denied giving the government direct access.
Clapper alleged that articles about the Internet program "contain numerous inaccuracies." He did not specify what those inaccuracies might be.
Taking questions Friday from reporters at a health care event in San Jose, California, Obama said: "It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 per cent security and also, then, have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience."
It was revealed late Wednesday that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of U.S. phone customers. The leaked document first reported by the Guardian newspaper gave the NSA authority to collect from all of Verizon's land and mobile customers, but intelligence experts said the program swept up the records of other phone companies too.
President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in San Jose, Calif. , Friday, June 7, 2013. (AP / Evan Vucci)
Ground level view of Utah's NSA Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah, Friday, June 7, 2013. (AP / Rick Bowmer)
In his first comments since the programs were publicly revealed this week, Obama said safeguards are in place.
"They help us prevent terrorist attacks," Obama said. He said he has concluded that prevention is worth the "modest encroachments on privacy."
Obama's defence of the two programs came as members of Congress were vowing to change a program they voted to authorize. Civil liberties advocates were crying foul, questioning how Obama, a former constitutional scholar who sought privacy protections as a U.S. senator, could embrace policies with strong echoes of President George W. Bush, whose approach to national security he had vowed to leave behind.
The disclosures have triggered a fierce debate that cuts across party lines and could overshadow a two-day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. They come at a particularly inopportune time for Obama, whose administration already faces questions over the federal tax agency's improper targeting of conservative groups and the seizure of journalists' phone records in an investigation into who leaked information to the media.
Obama said he came into office with a "healthy skepticism" of the program and increased some of the "safeguards" on the programs. He said Congress and federal judges have oversight on the program, and a judge would have to approve monitoring of the content of a call and it's not a "program run amok."
"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls," he said. "That's not what this program's about."
He said government officials are "looking at phone numbers and durations of calls."
"They are not looking at people's names and they are not looking at content. But by sifting through this so-called metadata they might identify potential leads of people who might engage in terrorism," Obama said.
The president's remarks followed an unusual late-night statement Thursday from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who denounced the leaks of highly classified documents that revealed the programs and warned that America's security will suffer. He called the disclosure of a program that targets foreigners' Internet use "reprehensible," and said the leak of another program that lets the government collect Americans' phone records would change U.S. enemies' behaviour and make it harder to understand their intentions.
Clapper, in his late-night statement, offered new information about both surveillance programs, saying he wanted to correct the "misleading impression" created by out-of-context news articles even as he acknowledged that publicly discussing the programs comes with inherent security risks.
"I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use," Clapper said.
And so barely 24 hours after the phone records program's existence was first revealed publicly by the Guardian newspaper of Britain, Clapper took the rare step of declassifying and publicly releasing details about the authority used to authorize it, including that it's reviewed by a special court every three months and that the data collected can only be culled when there's reasonable suspicion -- backed by facts -- that the information is connected to a foreign terrorist group.
At issue were two National Security Agency programs that came to light late Wednesday and Thursday after highly classified documents were leaked to the media.
A top-secret court order, first disclosed by the Guardian, requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. Experts said it's likely the program extends to other phone companies as well.
Another secret program came to light when The Washington Post and The Guardian reported that the NSA and FBI can scour America's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other documents to help analysts track a person's movements and contacts. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple were all included. Most denied giving the government direct access.
Clapper alleged that articles about the Internet program "contain numerous inaccuracies." He did not specify what those inaccuracies might be.
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