“But let me be clear we do not spy on ordinary people”
“We can and must be more transparent”
“I don’t consider Snowden a patriot; if he believes he was right, he can come here, appear before a court … and make his case”
Via CNN:
Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama is set to announce new measures Friday to increase transparency and restore public trust in government surveillance programs, an administration official told CNN’s Jessica Yellin. According to the same official, House aides have been briefed on the plan.
Since Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, leaked secret documents to the media, critics have called the NSA’s domestic surveillance — including a program that monitors the metadata of domestic phone calls — a government overreach. Many of those same critics have asked the Obama administration and Congress to reign in the programs.
On top of what Obama is expected to announce, the White House news conference is likely to be an exercise in what he wants to talk about — his economic message — and what he feels he has to talk about — terrorism and the U.S.-Russia relationship — before he leaves Washington for a family vacation.
For the last few weeks, Obama has traversed the country to push his economic message that the White House says will be its focus going into the fall. And if the White House had its way, that’s how Obama would open the news conference.