Obama: 'In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother'

Obama: 'In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother'

The president concludes with an eyebrow-raising argument for why he can be trusted to ensure there are appropriate safeguards limiting government surveillance programs.

The two-term president asserts that once he leaves office, he may be particularly targeted by America's rogue spymasters, if they were allowed to exist:

I will leave this office at some point. And after that i will be a private citizen. And I would expect that on the list of people who might be targeted so that somebody could read their emails – I'd probably be pretty high on that list. But I know that the people who are involved in these programs... They're professionals.

In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance.

Updated 47m ago

52m ago

Second question: if you welcome the debate, does that mean youwelcome leaks?

Obama replies:

I don't welcome leaks, because there's a reason why these programs are classified. I think there's a suggestion that somehow, any classified program is a quote-unquote secret program, that means it's somehow suspicious. The fact of the matter is, there are a whole range of programs that are classified because, when it comes for example to fighting terrorism... if every attempt to stop a terrorist act is on the front page of the newspaper or on television... then the people who are trying to do us harm are going to take preventative measures.

Obama asserts that Congress and the courts provide a sufficient safeguard against executive branch abuses:

If in fact there are abuses taking place, those members of Congress could raise those issues very aggressively. They're empowered to do so. We've also got federal judges... and they're empowered to look over our shoulder at the executive branch to make sure these powers aren't being abused.

If this information just ends up being dumped out, willy-nilly, without regard to the program, to the people involved... then it's very hard for us to be as effective in protecting the American people.

That's not to suggest that, you know, just say, 'Trust me, we're doing the right thing, we know who the bad guys are.' If people can't trust the executive branch but also Congress, federal judges... then we're going to have some problems.

56m ago

"I welcome this debate," Obama says:

I think it's healthy for this democracy. I think it's a sign of maturity. I think that it's interesting that there's some folks on the left and also some folks on the right who are worried about it... I think it's good that we're having this discussion. I think it's important for everybody to understand.

I came in with a healthy skeptcism about these programs. My team evaluated them, we scrubbed them thoroughly, we actually expanded the oversight. But my assessment... was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks.

Then Obama suggests the civil liberties - security tradeoff is worth it:

And the modest encroachment... on privacy in getting phone numbers and durations without a name attached, and looking at content that – [I decided] net, it was worth us doing. Some other folks may have a different assessment.

I think it's important to recognize you can't have 100 percent security and also 100 percent privacy, and also zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society.

The programs, Obama says, "make a difference in allowing us to prevent terrorist activity."

The president takes a second question:

Updated 44m ago

1h 1m ago

Now Obama turns to Prism, the NSA program to search Internet records.

He says the program "does not apply to US citizens and does not apply to people living in the United States."

Not only is Congress fully apprised of it, but what is also true is that the Fisa court has to authorize it.

What you have is two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, have been repeatedly authorized... Congress is continuously briefed, there are whole layers of safeguards involved.

We've also set up an audit process... after the fact, making absolutely certain that all the safeguards are being properly observed.

We'll have to discuss and debate how we're keeping this balance. Because there are some tradeoffs involved.

Next, the president says "I welcome this debate."

Updated 43m ago

1h 5m ago

Obama continues:

When it comes to telephone calls: Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That's not what this program's about. What the intelligence community is doing is identifying, looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at people's names, and they're not looking at content. But by sifting through this so-called metadata, they may find potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism.

If they want to actually listen to a phone call, they have to go back to a federal judge.

I want to be very clear. Some of what we've been hearing the last day or so – nobody's listening to the content of your phone calls.

This program is overseen... not only by Congress but by a special Fisa court.

The president says the phone records harvesting program is "consistent with the constitution and rule of law."

"If anybody in government wanted to go further than just that top-line data, they'd have to go back to a federal judge.

Next: the president's answer on Prism.

1h 11m ago

The president takes a question and says he'll answer more later when he's with Xi. He's asked to react to the reports of secret surveillance of phone records and the Internet.

He replies:

When I came into this office, I made two commitments that are more important than any other.

Number One, to keep the American people safe. And Number Two, to uphold the constitution and constitutional rights to privacy and to civil liberties.

These programs are secret in the sense that they're classified. But they're not secret in the sense that – when it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed."

With "all these programs," he says, the appropriate congressional committees have been briefed.

"They have been authorized by bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006," he says. "Your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed."

(much more to come)

Updated 1h 11m ago

1h 32m ago

President to take question on secret surveillance

President Obama is speaking in California about the Affordable Care Act.

He says the law has been a particular success in California, where an online health insurance marketplace allowing comparison shopping will be launched in October.

The appearance began with a literal stumble, when the president arrived at the podium and announced that the copy of his remarks he expected to find there was missing.

"I want to thank everyone that is here, and it is only that my remarks are not sitting here," he said. "By the end of the day Friday... People?!"

As the president waited for a staffer to bring his remarks, a reporter asked if he would take a question.

"I'm going to answer a question at the end of the remarks," he said.

Then a staffer rushed in from the wings with the remarks, tripping as he or she arrived next to the president.

Updated 1h 30m ago

1h 39m ago

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of responses inside and
outside Washington to the revelation of far-reaching, previously
undisclosed secret US government surveillance programs.

On Wednesday the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reported on a top secret court order requiring a division of Verizon to turn over data mapping millions of phone communications, domestic and foreign. The data is stored as part of a giant database maintained by the National Security Agency (NSA).

On Thursday the Guardian reported that the NSA has obtained access to the servers of nine giant Internet companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Skype and AOL. The access has allowed the NSA to monitor user behavior – email, chat, uploads, downloads – on sites associated with those companies. The program is known as Prism.

The US government has acknowledged the existence of both the phone records harvesting and Prism programs. Director of national intelligence James Clapper on Thursday called the disclosure of the programs "reprehensible" and said it risks "long-lasting and irreversible harm" to the US national security. Other government figures directed equivalent ire at the government for encroachments they said violated constitutional rights. "Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" former vice president Al Gore wrote on Twitter. "This is an all-out assault on the constitution," Senator Rand Paul wrote in the Guardian.

President Obama has yet to comment on his apparent expansion of spying programs whose stunning scope renders bewildering his recent call for "balance between our need for security and preserving those freedoms that make us who we are."

The president, who today begins a two-day retreat in California with Chinese president Xi Jinping, immediately faces complications from the disclosure of the programs, however. Obama planned to press Xi on China's use of cyber-attacks and hacking against US targets. Now the conversation seems likely to be bilateral.