US News

NSA snooping doesn’t violate privacy rights: Obama

President Obama doesn’t think the widespread snooping by the National Security Administration violates American’s privacy rights and plans to personally argue that to the nation, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said today.

“The president welcomes a public debate on these questions because he does say, and he will say again in the days ahead, that we have to find the right balance,” McDonough said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

He stressed that the president “does not” think NSA’s gathering of vast amount of e-mail and phone data violates the privacy of Americans.

“The president is not saying, ‘Trust me.’ The president is saying, ‘I want every member of Congress, on whose authority we are running this program, to understand it, to be briefed about it, and to be comfortable with it,” said McDonough.

McDonough stopped short of calling leaker Edward Snowden a “traitor,” as others outside the administration have done.

He also admitted that the White House doesn’t know the current location of Snowden, who last week was holed up in a Hong Kong hotel.

“I can tell you I don’t know where he is right now,” said McDonough.