When President Obama was first asked about controversial National Security agencies programs two months ago, he struck a defiant tone, rejecting the notion that what Edward Snowden had revealed constituted any kind of controversy. “Congress is continually briefed on how these (programs) are conducted. There are a whole range of safeguards involved. And federal judges are overseeing the entire program throughout. And we’re also setting up — we’ve also set up an audit process when I came into office to make sure that we’re, after the fact, making absolutely certain that all the safeguards are being properly observed,” he said then.
Now, his tone has changed. Obama still defends these programs as being both necessary for national security and not violating the civil liberties of Americans. But his announcements at a press conference Friday illustrate he was eager to quiet strong criticism from even liberals and long-time supporters about the collection of phone records of Americans by the NSA.
The president said he would appoint a panel of outside experts to review U.S. intelligence gathering, appoint a “full-time civil liberties and privacy officer” at the NSA, review provisions in the Patriot Act that authorize the collection of phone records and create a system in which the government’s position is challenged by an adversary in cases that go to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Obama did not apologize for the NSA programs. But he also acknowledged the need for greater public debate and oversight of them, as his critics have repeatedly called for. “We’re going to resolve our differences in the United States, through vigorous public debate, guided by our Constitution, with reverence for our history as a nation of laws and with respect for the facts,” he said.