President Obama defended the U.S. policy's long-standing Internet and phone monitoring programs as valuable tools in an effort to fight terrorism, deflecting criticism that government intrusion to people's phone calls has been too intrusive and overreaching, NBC News reported on Friday.
"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,That's not what this program is about. As was indicated, what the intelligence community is doing is looking at the numbers and durations of calls. They're not looking at names and they're not looking at content, but sifting through this so-called meta data, they may identify potential leads with respect to people that might engage in terrorism. I think on balance we have established a process and a procedure that the American people should feel comfortable about," Obama said.
The president's remarks came one day after the revelation of two secret programs that allow government intelligence agencies to gather information on American citizens' domestic phone and Internet usage.
On Thursday, the United States' top intelligence official declassified details of the top secret phone records program.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday that government powers under the Patriot Act are reviewed by a "robust legal regime."
A one-time virulent critic of President George W. Bush's surveillance policies, the current president currently is battling his own views, Obama told voters in 2008 that his presidency would be the most transparent administration in U.S. history. Even his most fervent supporters acknowledge that this administration has not been as forthcoming as they hoped when electing him; it has been consistent that sensitive information has consistently come out through leaks, rather than open transparency. As a result, media outlets, which in the past has been extremely kind tot he president, has shown increased outrage outrage, present in many recent editorials.
A lack of accountability in regards to the numerous scandals facing the administration, including the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press' phone records, has only added to the president's problems, challenging his promises of transparency.
