President Barack Obama has promised “appropriate reforms” to guarantee greater oversight of controversial US surveillance programmes.
At a White House news conference, he proposed “safeguards against abuse”, including amending legislation on the collection of telephone data.
Obama also urged appointing a lawyer to challenge the government at the nation’s secretive surveillance court.
He has been defending the programmes since they were leaked in June, reports the BBC.
Obama said on Friday that the US “can and must be more transparent” about its snooping on phone and internet data.
“Given the history of abuse by governments, it’s right to ask questions about surveillance, particularly as technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives,” he told reporters.
“It’s not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programmes,” Obama added. “The American people need to have confidence as well.”
The president unveiled four steps aimed at reassuring the public:
*He said he would work with Congress to reform Section 215 of the Bush-era Patriot Act, which governs the programme that collects telephone records
*He directed justice officials to declassify the legal rationale for the government’s phone-data collection, and said the National Security Agency would put in place a “civil liberties and privacy officer”
*He proposed appointing a lawyer to argue against the government at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is accused of essentially rubber-stamping official requests to scour electronic records
*He announced the formation of a group of external experts to review all US government intelligence and communications technologies
In response to a question about Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked details of the surveillance programmes to media, Obama said: “No, I don’t think Snowden was a patriot.”
The president went on to criticise Russia, which recently granted asylum to Snowden. Earlier in the week, Obama cancelled a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow.
Obama said there had been more anti-American rhetoric since Putin returned to the Russian presidency, which “played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contest”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the relationship between the US and Russia had experienced ”challenging” moments
“I’ve encouraged Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues, with mixed success,” said Obama.
At a White House news conference, he proposed “safeguards against abuse”, including amending legislation on the collection of telephone data.
Obama
He has been defending the programmes since they were leaked in June, reports the BBC.
Obama said on Friday that the US “can and must be more transparent” about its snooping on phone and internet data.
“Given the history of abuse by governments, it’s right to ask questions about surveillance, particularly as technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives,” he told reporters.
“It’s not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programmes,” Obama added. “The American people need to have confidence as well.”
The president unveiled four steps aimed at reassuring the public:
*He said he would work with Congress to reform Section 215 of the Bush-era Patriot Act, which governs the programme that collects telephone records
*He directed justice officials to declassify the legal rationale for the government’s phone-data collection, and said the National Security Agency would put in place a “civil liberties and privacy officer”
*He proposed appointing a lawyer to argue against the government at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is accused of essentially rubber-stamping official requests to scour electronic records
*He announced the formation of a group of external experts to review all US government intelligence and communications technologies
In response to a question about Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked details of the surveillance programmes to media, Obama said: “No, I don’t think Snowden was a patriot.”
The president went on to criticise Russia, which recently granted asylum to Snowden. Earlier in the week, Obama cancelled a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow.
Obama said there had been more anti-American rhetoric since Putin returned to the Russian presidency, which “played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contest”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the relationship between the US and Russia had experienced ”challenging” moments
“I’ve encouraged Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues, with mixed success,” said Obama.
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