WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama made clear Friday that he has no intention of stopping the daily collection of phone records from millions of Americans, but his administration promised more oversight of how such programs are carried out.
Obama spoke at an afternoon news conference to try to quell anger over a spying program that has been kept secret for years and that the administration falsely denied ever existed.
The administration planned to release more information Friday about how it gathers intelligence at home and abroad, plus the legal rationale underpinning the bulk collection of phone records without individual warrants. That program was authorized under the USA Patriot Act, which Congress hurriedly passed after 9/11.
The National Security Agency says phone records are the only things it collects in bulk under that law. But officials have left open the possibility that it could create similar databases of people’s credit card transactions, hotel records and Internet searches.
The changes Obama endorsed include: formation of an outside advisory panel to review U.S. surveillance powers; assigning a privacy officer at the National Security Agency; and the creation of an independent attorney to argue against the government before the nation’s surveillance court.
All those new positions would carry out most of their duties in secret.
Senior administration officials and described the proposals to reporters in a telephone briefing arranged by the White House before Obama’s news conference. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name.
Obama’s news conference comes at the end of a summer that forced the administration into an unexpected debate over domestic surveillance. The debate began when former government contract systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents exposing NSA programs that store years of phone records on every American.
That revelation prompted the most significant reconsideration yet of the vast surveillance powers Congress granted the president after 9/11 attacks.
Obama has found Congress surprisingly hostile to those powers since they were made public. The telephone program narrowly survived a 217-205 vote in the House that would have dismantled it. An unusual coalition of libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats pose a challenge to Obama, who aligned himself with establishment Republicans and Congress’ pro-security lawmakers.
The administration says it only looks at the phone records when investigating suspected terrorists. But testimony before Congress revealed how easy it is for Americans with no connection to terrorism to unwittingly have their calling patterns analyzed by the government.
When the NSA identifies a suspect, it can conduct three “hops.” That means analysts can look not just at the suspect’s phone records, but also the records of everyone he calls, everyone who calls those people and everyone who calls those people.
If the average person called 40 unique people, three-hop analysis would allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist.
–The Associated Press
TRANSCRIPT: President Obama’s August 9, 2013, news conference at the White House
—
Over the past few weeks I’ve been talking about what I believe should be our number one priority of the country, building a better bargain for the middle class and for Americans who want to work their way into the middle class. And at the same time I’m focused on my number one responsibility as commander in chief, and that’s keeping the American people safe. In recent days we’ve been reminded once again about the threats to our nation.
As I said at the National Defense University back in May, in meeting those threats, we have to strike the right balance between protecting our security and preserving our freedoms. And as part of this rebalancing I called for a review of our surveillance programs. Unfortunately, rather than an orderly and lawful process to debate these issues and come up with appropriate reforms, repeated leaks of classified information have initiated the debate in a very passionate but not always fully informed way.
Now, keep in mind that as a senator, I expressed a healthy skepticism about these programs. And as president, I’ve taken steps to make sure that they have strong oversight by all three branches of government and clear safeguards to prevent abuse and protect the rights of the American people. But 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.
I’m also mindful of how these issues are viewed overseas because American leadership around the world depends upon the example of American democracy and American openness, because what makes us different from other countries is not simply our ability to secure our nation; it’s the way we do it, with open debate and democratic process.
In other words, it’s not enough for me, as president, to have confidence in these programs. The American people need to have confidence in them as well. And that’s why over the last few weeks I’ve consulted members of Congress, who come at this issue from many different perspectives. I’ve asked the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to review where our counterterrorism efforts and our values come into tension. And I directed my national security team to be more transparent and to pursue reforms of our laws and practices. And so today I’d like to discuss four specific steps, not all- inclusive, but some specific steps that we’re going to be taking very shortly to move the debate forward.
First, I will work with Congress to pursue appropriate reforms to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the program that collects telephone records. As I’ve said, this program is an important tool in our effort to disrupt terrorist plots, and it does not allow the government to listen to any phone calls without a warrant. But given the scale of this program, I understand the concerns of those who would worry that it could be subject to abuse.
So after having a dialogue with members of Congress and civil libertarians, I believe that there are steps we can take to give the American people additional confidence that there are additional safeguards against abuse. For instance, we can take steps to put in place greater oversight, greater transparency and constraints on the use of this authority.
So I look forward to working with Congress to meet those objectives.
Second, I’ll work with Congress to improve the public’s confidence in the oversight conducted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISC. The FISC was created by Congress to provide judicial review of certain intelligence activities so that a federal judge must find that our actions are consistent with the Constitution.
However, to build greater confidence, I think we should consider some additional changes to the FISC. One of the concerns that people raise is that a judge reviewing a request from the government to conduct programmatic surveillance only hears one side of the story, may tilt it too far in favor of security, may not pay enough attention to liberty.
And while I’ve got confidence in the court and I think they’ve done a fine job, I think we can provide greater assurances that the court is looking at these issues from both perspectives — security and privacy. So specifically, we can take steps to make sure civil liberties concerns have an independent voice, in appropriate cases, by ensuring that the government’s position is challenged by an adversary.
Number three, we can and must be more transparent. So I’ve directed the intelligence community to make public as much information about these programs as possible. We’ve already declassified unprecedented information about the NSA, but we can go further. So at my direction, the Department of Justice will make public the legal rationale for the government’s collection activities under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
The NSA is taking steps to put in place a full-time civil liberties and privacy officer and release information that details its mission, authorities and oversight. And finally, the intelligence community is creating a website that will serve as a hub for further transparency. And this will give Americans and the world the ability to learn more about what our intelligence community does and what it doesn’t do, how it carries out its mission and why it does so.
Fourth, we’re forming a high level group of outside experts to review our entire intelligence and communications technologies. We need new thinking for a new era. We now have to unravel terrorist plots by finding a needle in a haystack of global telecommunications, and meanwhile technology has given governments, including our own, unprecedented capability to monitor communications.
So I’m tasking this independent group to step back and review our capabilities, particularly our surveillance technologies, and they’ll consider how we can maintain the trust of the people, how we can make sure that there absolutely is no abuse in terms of how these surveillance technologies are used, ask how surveillance impacts our foreign policy, particularly in an age when more and more information is becoming public. And they will provide an interim report in 60 days and a final report by the end of this year, so that we can move forward with a better understanding of how these programs impact our security, our privacy and our foreign policy.
So all these steps are designed to ensure that the American people can trust that our efforts are in line with our interests and our values.
And to others around the world, I want to make clear once again that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people. Our intelligence is focused above all on finding the information that’s necessary to protect our people and, in many cases, protect our allies.
It’s true we have significant capabilities. What’s also true is we show a restraint that many governments around the world don’t even think to do, refuse to show. That includes, by the way, some of America’s most vocal critics. We shouldn’t forget the difference between the ability of our government to collect information online, under strict guidelines and for narrow purposes, and the willingness of some other governments to throw their own citizens in prison for what they say online.
And let me close with one additional thought. The men and women of our intelligence community work every single day to keep us safe because they love this country and believe in our values. They’re patriots. And I believe that those who have lawfully raised their voices on behalf of privacy and civil liberties are also patriots who love our country and want it to live up to our highest ideals.
So this is how 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.
So with that, I’m going to take some questions. And let’s see who we’ve got here. We’re going to start with Julie Pace of AP.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask about some of the foreign policy fallout from the disclosure of the NSA programs that you discussed. Your spokesman said yesterday that there’s no question that the U.S. relationship with Russia has gotten worse since Vladimir Putin took office. How much of that decline do you attribute directly to Mr. Putin, given that you seem to have had a good working relationship with his predecessor?
Also, will there be any additional punitive measures taken against Russia for granting asylum to Edward Snowden, or is cancelling the September summit really all you can do given the host of issues the U.S. needs Russian cooperation for?
Thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: (Good ?). I think there’s always been some tension in the U.S.-Russian relationship after the fall of the Soviet Union. There’s been cooperation in some areas; there’s been competition in others.
It is true that in my first four years, in working with President Medvedev, we made a lot of progress.
We got START done — or — or the START II (sic) done. We were able to cooperate together on Iran sanctions. They provided us help in terms of supplying our troops in Afghanistan. We were able to get Russia into the WTO, which is not just good for Russia, it’s good for our companies and businesses because they’re more likely then to follow international norms and rules. So there’s been a lot of good work that has been done and that is going to continue to be done.
What’s also true is, is that when President Putin, who was prime minister when Medvedev was president, came back into power, I think we saw more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contest between the United States and Russia. And I’ve encouraged Mr. Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues — with mixed success.
And, you know, I think the latest episode is just one more in a number of emerging differences that we’ve seen over the last several months around Syria, around human rights issues where, you know, it is probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia’s going, what our core interests are, and calibrate the relationship so that we’re doing things that are good for the United States and, hopefully, good for Russia as well but recognizing that there are just going to be some differences, and we’re not going to be able to completely disguise them. And that’s OK. Keep in mind that although I’m not attending the summit, I’ll still be going to St. Petersburg because Russia’s hosting the G-20.
That’s important business in terms of our economy and our jobs and all the issues that are of concern to Americans.
I know that one question that’s been raised is, how do we approach the Olympics? I want to just make very clear right now, I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics. We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed. Nobody’s more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia, but as I said just this week, I’ve spoken out against that not just with respect to Russia, but a number of other countries where we continue to do work with them, but we have a strong disagreement on this issue.
And one of the things I’m really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we’re seeing there. And if Russia doesn’t have gay or lesbian athletes, then that would probably make their team weaker.
Q: (Off mic.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Keep in mind that, you know, our decision to not participate in the summit was not simply around Mr. Snowden, it had to do with the fact that, frankly, on a whole range of issues where we think we can make some progress, Russia has not moved. And so we don’t consider that strictly punitive.
We’re going to assess where the relationship can advance U.S. interests and increase peace and stability and prosperity around the world. Where it can, we’re going to keep on working with them, where we have differences, we’re going to say so clearly. And my hope is that, over time, Mr. Putin and Russia recognize that rather than a zero-sum competition, in fact, if the two countries are working together, we can probably advance the betterment of both peoples.
Chuck Todd.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Given that you just announced a whole bunch of reforms based on essentially the leaks that Edward Snowden made on all of these surveillance programs, does that change — is your mindset changed about him? Is he now more a whistle-blower than he is a hacker, as you called him at one point, or somebody that shouldn’t be filed charges? And should he be provided more protection? Is he a patriot? You just used those words. And then just to follow up on the personal — I want to follow up on a personal — can you and Putin —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK, I want to make sure everybody is asking one question would be helpful.
Q: No, I understand. I just — it was a part of a question that you didn’t answer. Can you get — can you get stuff done with Russia, big stuff done, without having a good personal relationship with Putin?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I don’t have a bad personal relationship with Putin. When we have conversations, they’re candid. They’re blunt. Oftentimes they’re constructive. I know the press likes to focus on body language, and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we’re in conversations together, oftentimes it’s very productive.
So the issue here really has to do with where — where do they want to take Russia? It’s substantive, on a policy front. And no, right now this is just a matter of where Mr. Putin and the Russian people want to go. I think if they are looking forward into the 21st century and how they can advance their economy and make sure that some of our joint concerns around counterterrorism are managed effectively, then I think we can work together.
If issues are framed as if the U.S. is for it, then Russia should be against it, or we’re going to be finding ways where we can poke each other at every opportunity, then probably we don’t get as much stuff done.
See, now I’ve forgotten your first question, which presumably was the more — more important one.
I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot. As I said in my opening remarks, I called for a thorough review of our surveillance operations before Mr. Snowden made these leaks. My preference — and I think the American people’s preference — would have been for a lawful, orderly examination of these laws; a thoughtful, fact-based debate that would then lead us to a better place, because I never made claims that all the surveillance technologies that have developed since the time some of these laws had been put in place somehow didn’t require, potentially, some additional reforms. That’s exactly what I called for.
So the fact is, is that Mr. Snowden’s been charged with three felonies. If in fact he believes that what he did was right, then, like every American citizen, he can come here, appear before the court with a lawyer and make his case.
If the concern was that somehow this was the only way to get this information out to the public, I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whistle-blower protection to the intelligence community for the first time.
So there were other avenues available for somebody’s whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions. But having said that, once the leaks have happened, what we’ve seen is information come out in drips and in drabs, sometimes coming out sideways. Once the information is out, the administration comes in, tries to correct the record. But by that time, it’s too late or we’ve moved on.
And a general impression has, I think, taken hold, not only among the American public but also around the world, that somehow we’re out there willy-nilly just sucking in information on everybody and doing what we please with it. Now, that’s not the case. Our laws specifically prohibit us from surveilling U.S. persons without a warrant. And there are whole range of safeguards that have been put in place to make sure that that basic principle is abided by.
I think people have questions about this program.
And so — so as a consequence, I think it is important for us to go ahead and answer these questions — what I’m going to be pushing the IC to do is rather than have a trunk come out here and a leg come out there and a tail come out there, let’s just put the whole elephant out there so people know exactly what they’re looking at, let’s examine what is working, what’s not, are there additional protections that can be put in place and let’s move forward.
And there’s no doubt that Mr. Snowden’s leaks triggered a much more rapid and passionate response than would have been the case if I had simply appointed this review board to go through — and I’d sat down with Congress and we had worked this thing through — it would have been less exciting and it would not have generated as much press — I actually think we would have gotten to the same place, and we would have done so without putting at risk our national security and some very vital ways that we are able to get intelligence that we need to secure the country.
Major Garrett.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President.
I’d like to ask you about this debate that’s playing itself out in editorial pages and the blogosphere, even in the Senate Democratic caucus, about the choice you eventually will make of the next Federal Reserve chairman.
There is a perception among Democrats that Larry Summers has the inside track, and perhaps, you’ve made some assurances to him about that. Janet Yellen is the vice-chair of the Federal Reserve; there are many women in the Senate who are Democrats who believe that breaking the glass ceiling, that would be historic and important.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
Q: Are you annoyed by this sort of roiling debate? Do you find it in any way unseemly? And do you believe this will be one of the most important, if not the most important, economic decisions you will make in the remainder of your presidency?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: It is definitely one of the most important economic decisions that I’ll make in the remainder of my presidency. The Federal Reserve chairman is not just one of the most important economic policymakers in America; it’s — he or she is one of the most important policymakers in the world. And that person presumably will stay on after I’m president. So this, along with Supreme Court appointments, is probably as important a decision as I make as president.
I have a range of outstanding candidates. You’ve mentioned two of them, Mr. Summers and Mr. Yellen — Ms. Yellen. And they’re both terrific people. I think the — the perception that Mr. Summers might have an inside track simply had to do with a bunch of attacks that I was hearing on Mr. Summers pre-emptively, which is sort of a standard Washington exercise that I don’t like because when somebody’s worked hard for me and worked hard on behalf of the American people and I know the quality of those people and I see them getting slapped around in the press for no reason before they’ve even been nominated for anything, then I want to make sure that somebody’s standing up for them. I felt the same way when people were attacking Susan Rice before she was nominated for anything. So, you know, I tend to defend folks who I think have done a good job and don’t deserve attacks.
But I consider them both outstanding candidates. My main criteria — I’ve stated this before, but I want to repeat it — my main criteria for the Fed Reserve chairman is somebody who understands they’ve got a dual mandate. A critical part of the job is making sure that we keep inflation in check, that our monetary policy is sound, that the dollar is sound.
Those are all critical components of the job. And we’ve seen what happens when the Fed’s not paying attention. You know, we saw prior to Paul Volcker coming into place inflation shooting up in ways that really damaged the real economy.
But the other mandate is full employment. And right now, you know, if you look at the biggest challenges we have, the challenge is not inflation. The challenge is, we’ve still got too many people out of work, too many long-term unemployed, too much slack in — in the economy. And we’re not growing as fast as we — we should.
And so I want a Fed chairman who’s able to look at those issues and have a perspective that keeps an eye on inflation, makes sure that we’re not seeing artificial bubbles in place but also recognizing, you know what, a big part of my job right now is to make sure the economy’s growing quickly and robustly and is sustained and durable so that people who work hard in this country are able to find a job.
And I — frankly, I think both Larry Summers and Janet Yellen are highly qualified candidates. There are a couple other candidates who are highly qualified as well. I’ll make the decision in — in the fall.
Q: (Off mic) — you defending Larry Summers as vigorously as you just did — (off mic)?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I — you know, except I just told you I haven’t. So, you know, Major, I — I’d defend you if somebody was saying something that wasn’t true about you. (Laughter.) I really would. In fact, I’ve done in the White House sometimes. (Laughter.)
Carol Lee. And Carol, congratulations on Hudson (sp). Do you have pictures?
Q: I do. I’ll —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK, I’m going to have to — I’m going to have to see them.
Q: I appreciate you making this slow news week. (Laughter.) I wanted to ask you about your evolution on the surveillance issues. I mean, part of what you’re talking about today is restoring the public trust. And the public has seen you evolve from when you were in the U.S. Senate to now.
And even as recently as June, you said that these — the process was such that people should be comfortable with it. And now you’re saying — you’re making these reforms and people should be comfortable with those. So why should the public trust you on this issue and why did you change your position multiple times?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think it’s important to say, Carol, first of all, I haven’t evolved in my assessment of the actual programs. I consistently have said that when I came into office I evaluated them. Some of these programs I had been critical of when I was in the Senate.
When I looked through specifically what was being done, my determination was that the two programs in particular that had been an issue — 215 and 702 — offered valuable intelligence that helps us protect the American people, and they’re worth preserving. What we also saw was that some bolts needed to be tightened up on some of the programs. So we initiated some additional oversight reforms, compliance officers, audits and so forth.
When I looked through specifically what was being done, my determination was that the two programs in particular that had been an issue — 215 and 702 — offered valuable intelligence that helps us protect the American people, and they’re worth preserving. What we also saw was that some bolts needed to be tightened up on some of the programs. So we initiated some additional oversight reforms, compliance officers, audits and so forth.
What you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. Now part of the reason they’re not abused is because they’re — these checks are in place, and those abuses would be against the law and would be against the orders of the FISC.
Having said that, though, if you are outside of the intelligence community, if you are the ordinary person and you start seeing a bunch of headlines saying, U.S., Big Brother, looking down on you, collecting telephone records, et cetera, well, understandably people would be concerned. I would be too if I wasn’t inside the government.
And so in light of the changed environment where a whole set of questions have been raised — some in the most sensationalized manner possible, where these leaks are released drip by drip, you know, one a week to kind of maximize attention and see if, you know, they can catch us at some imprecision on something — in light of that, it makes for us to go ahead, lay out what exactly we’re doing, have a discussion with Congress, have a discussion with industry, which is also impacted by this, have a discussion with the civil libertarians and see, can we do this better?
I think — I — I think the main thing I want to emphasize is, I don’t have an interest and the people of the NSA don’t have an interest in doing anything other than making sure that where we can prevent a terrorist attack, where we can get information ahead of time, that we’re able to carry out that critical task.
We do not have an interest in doing anything other than that. And we’ve tried to set up a system that is as fail safe as so far at least we’ve been able to think of to make sure that these programs are not abused. But people may have better ideas, and people may want to jigger slightly sort of the balance between the information that we can get versus the incremental encroachments on privacy that, if haven’t already take placed (sic), but take place in a future administration or as technology’s developed further.
And the other thing that’s happening is, is that as technology develops further, technology itself may provide us some additional safeguards. So for example, if people don’t have confidence that the law, the checks and balances of the court and Congress, are sufficient to give us confidence that government’s not snooping, well, maybe we can embed technologies in there that prevent the snooping regardless of what government wants to do. I mean, there may be some technological fixes that provide another layer of assurance.
And so those are the kinds of things that I’m — I’m looking forward to having a conversation about.
Q: Can you understand, though, why people might not — not trust what you’re saying right now about — (off mic) —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No, I can’t.
Q: — (off mic)?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the fact that I said that the programs are operating in a way that prevents abuse, that continues to be true without the reforms.
The question is how do we make the American people more comfortable? If I tell Michelle that I did the dishes — now, granted, in the White House, I don’t do the dishes that much, but back in the day — (laughter) — and — and she’s a little skeptical, well, I’d like her to trust me, but maybe I need to bring her back and show her the dishes and not just have her take my word for it.
And so, you know, the program is — I am comfortable that the program currently is not being abused. I’m comfortable that if the American people examined exactly what was taking place, how it was being used, what the safeguards were, that they would say, you know what, these folks are following the law and doing what they say they’re doing. But it is absolutely true that with the expansion of technology, this is an area that’s moving very quickly — with the revelations that have depleted public trust, that if there are some additional things that we can do to build that trust back up, then we should do them.
Jonathan Karl.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You have said that core al-Qaida has been decimated, that its leaders are on the run. Now that we’ve seen this terror threat that has resulted in embassies closed throughout the Arab world, much of Africa, do you still believe that al-Qaida has been decimated? And if I can ask, in the interest of transparency, can you tell us about these drone strikes that we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks in Yemen?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I said in the same National Defense University speech back in May that I referred to earlier is that core al-Qaida is on its heels, has been decimated. But what I also said was that al-Qaida and other extremists have metastasized into regional groups that can pose significant dangers. And I’d refer you back to that speech just back in May, where I said specifically that although they are less likely to be able to carry out spectacular homeland attacks, like 9/11, they have the capacity to go after our embassies. They have the capacity, potentially, to go after our businesses. They have the capacity to be destabilizing and disruptive in countries where the security apparatus is weak.
And that’s exactly what we are seeing right now. So it’s entirely consistent to say that this tightly organized and relatively centralized al-Qaida that attacked us on 9/11 has been broken apart and is very weak and does not have a lot of operational capacity and to say we still have these regional organizations, like AQAP, that can pose a threat, that can drive potentially a truck bomb into an embassy wall and can kill some people.
And so that requires us then to make sure that we have a strategy is strengthening those partners so that they’ve got their own capacity to deal with what are potentially manageable regional threats if these countries are a little bit stronger and have more effective CT and so forth.
