Barack Obama pledges greater surveillance transparency

TUJITEGEMEE · 2013-08-09T21:20:59+00:00

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. Mr Obama also urged allowing a lawyer to challenge decisions by the nation's secretive surveillance court. He has been defending the programmes since they were leaked in June. Mr 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," Mr Obama added. "The American people need to have confidence as well." Snowden 'no patriot'Mr Obama unveiled four steps aimed at reassuring Americans about the surveillance: He said he would work with Congress to reform Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which governs the programme that collects telephone records He directed justice officials to make public the legal rationale for the government's phone-data collection activities, under Section 215 He proposed allowing an attorney to challenge the government's positions on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 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 National Security Agency contractor who revealed details of the secretive surveillance programmes to media, Mr Obama said: "No, I don't think Mr Snowden was a patriot." 'Cold War stereotypes'The president went on to criticise Russia, two days after he cancelled a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow. Mr Obama said there had been more anti-American rhetoric since Mr Putin returned to Russian presidency, which "played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contest". "I've encouraged Mr Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues, with mixed success," Mr Obama told reporters, before heading for his summer holiday at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He said that during his photocalls with Mr Putin, the Russian leader "has got that kind of slouch, looking like he's the bored kid in the back of the classroom". But he said their discussions in private had been constructive. Mr Obama also said he would not consider it "appropriate" to boycott Russia's Winter Olympics next year, despite calls by gay rights activists to boycott the games because of a recently passed law in that country banning "homosexual propaganda". Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel held talks with their Russian counterparts in Washington DC. Mr Kerry conceded the US-Russia relationship had been complicated by "the occasional collision" and "challenging moments". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also acknowledged problems, but said Moscow preferred to handle their differences like "grown-ups". BBC News - Barack Obama pledges greater surveillance transparency My take: It is a nice move...though step number four for implementation of the what he, Obama, has pledged is ambiguous as the external expert are not clearly defined. Now, since he has agreed that it was not fine for him alone to have a confidence on these programmes then let Snowden free as he was driven by lack of the confidence which is the same as that other American citizens are lacking .

Thread starter TUJITEGEMEE
Start date Aug 10, 2013

TUJITEGEMEE

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Barack Obama pledges greater surveillance transparency

TUJITEGEMEE

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