WASHINGTON — President Obama said he will propose reforms to rein in the National Security Agency’s snooping program — and even said that infamous leaker Edward Snowden exposed some “legitimate concerns.”
“I’ll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA and to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence,” Obama said on MSNBC’s “Hardball” Thursday.
“Part of what we’re trying to do over the next month or so is — having done an independent review and brought a whole bunch of folks, civil libertarians and lawyers and others to examine what’s being done — I’ll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA and to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence,” Obama said in the interview, taped before a audience at American University in Washington.
He promised an “independent review” to address issues raised by Snowden, a former NSA contractor who revealed numerous top-secret spying programs that target Americans and US allies.
“The Snowden disclosures have identified some areas of legitimate concern,” the president said.
He acknowledged the privacy issue is a major concern for young Americans, who once overwhelmingly backed him but whose support has cooled drastically in recent polls.
“Young people, rightly, are sensitive to the needs to preserve their privacy and to retain Internet freedom. And, by the way, so am I,” he told the university crowd.
Obama also defended the NSA for doing its job.
“We do have people who are trying to hurt us, and they communicate through these same systems,” he said. “I want everybody to be clear: The people at the NSA, generally, are looking out for the safety of the American people. They are not interested in reading your e-mails. They’re not interested in reading your text messages.”