President Barack Obama fully supports the National Security Agency’s phone records surveillance program and believes it does not infringe on the rights of Americans, despite the debate surrounding the program.
The President gave an exclusive interview on PBS‘ ‘Charlie Rose‘ Monday night, talking about the conflict in Syria, Chinese cyber hacking and PRISM. Rose mentioned that Obama had previously called the balance between security and freedom a “false choice,” something the President stressed again during Monday’s interview.
“We don’t have a sacrifice our freedom in order to achieve security,” he said. “That is a false choice. That doesn’t mean that there are not tradeoffs involved in any given program, in any given action that we take.”
Rose and the President spent about 15 minutes discussing the NSA programs, during which time Obama said he has ‘no problem’ with the agency’s actions.
“What I hear you saying is, ‘I have no problem with what the NSA is doing,'” Rose said partway through the conversation.
“Well, let me finish, because I don’t,” the President responded.
During the interview, the President pointed to airport security or drunk driving checkpoints as systems in place for protection that don’t infringe on the freedom of Americans. He noted that there’s a delicate balance between the two.
“My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy,” the President said.
The President noted that the debate surrounding the NSA programs was “cloudy.” He then tried to clarify the programs, explaining that they simply record phone numbers and call durations, but don’t listen in on phone conversations between Americans. Only phone numbers suspected of being used by people with terrorist ties can be searched in the database, thereby compiling a report — that does not include conversation content — that is turned over the FBI, the President said.
“If you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your emails,” he said.
“And have not?” Rose pressed.
“And have not,” Obama responded. “They cannot and have not, by law and by rule, unless they … go to a court and seek probable cause, the same way it’s always been.”
Obama argued that he is not becoming more like former Vice President Dick Cheney, as some have suggested, but is continually calling for checks and balances in the surveillance system. He commended the media and American people for triple and quadruple checking the federal government’s programs.
He added that the government system could be used to compile data on the content of phone calls, but that it would be illegal. It makes sense that the American people would be suspicious of the program, Obama said, and noted that he had asked the intelligence community to divulge as much of the surveillance programs as possible — without jeopardizing national security.
When asked about the actions of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, however, the President refused to comment on if those actions risked national security and whether or not he should be prosecuted.
“I’m not going to comment on prosecution,” Obama said.
But even though the President didn’t outright condemn Snowden’s actions, he did note that revealing too much information can have detrimental effects on American interests.
“We could have carried off the bin Laden raid if it was on the front page of the papers,” Obama said. “I think everybody understands that.”
He added that the public would have to be assured that surveillance programs weren’t infringing on freedoms and had the proper checks and balances, all while continuing the debate on the subject.
