Obama says that Congress had been fully briefed on the programs. | REUTERS Obama defends surveillance

SAN JOSE, Calif. — President Barack Obama defended his administration’s data-gathering programs Friday, calling them necessary for national security and well within the bounds of the law, and saying he believed his administration had “struck the right balance” between privacy and security.

“I think it’s important to understand that you can’t have 100 percent security and then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society,” he said at an event which was scheduled as a chance to promote his health care law but became an opportunity for him to discuss controversial national security policies that spilled into public view this week.


Answering questions from reporters, Obama stressed that Congress had been fully briefed on phone surveillance and that members of relevant congressional committees have been briefed on PRISM, the program involving the collection of internet data from non-Americans outside the United States from companies including Apple, Google and Facebook.

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“What you’ve got is two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, have been repeatedly authorized by Congress. Bipartisan majorities have approved them,” he said. “Congress is continually briefed on how these are conducted. There are a whole range of safeguards involved.”

In addition to the executive and legislative branch, the judicial branch is also involved in “overseeing the entire program throughout.” Beyond all that, Obama said, “we’ve also set up an audit process when I came into office to make sure that we’re, after the fact, making absolutely certain that all the safeguards are being properly observed.”

Echoing statements the White House issued Thursday, Obama said he welcomed public discussion on the issue and recognized that some might have different views about how much privacy should be sacrificed in the fight against terrorism.

“I welcome this debate. And I think it’s healthy for our democracy,” the president said. “I think it’s important for everybody to understand, and I think the American people understand, that there are some trade-offs involved.”

Obama pointed to mentions of such trade-offs that he made in a speech last month about ending the war on terror. However, he did not explain how Americans could assess the balance he described without having an understanding of the program that did not emerge in detail until the leak of a top-secret court order this week.

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Asked by POLITICO if his embrace of the debate meant he welcomed the leak, Obama indicated he did not, and said the unauthorized release of classified information can help terrorists evade detection.

“I don’t welcome leaks, because there’s a reason why these programs are classified,” he said. “If every step that we’re taking to try to prevent a terrorist act is on the front page of the newspapers or on television, then presumably the people who are trying to do us harm are going to be able to get around our preventive measures.”

Obama also dismissed what he called “some of the hype” suggesting that the government is broadly tapping phone calls and reading emails.

While details of phone numbers dialed and the duration of calls are collected, “nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” Obama insisted. “That’s not what this program’s about. …They are not looking at people’s names, and they’re not looking at content.” But by analyzing metadata, investigators “may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism,” and go back to courts to get permission to listen in on calls.

Obama said that in addition to having taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and its right to privacy, he also has his own personal concerns. Once he leaves office, he will be a private citizen and “I suspect that on a list of people who might be targeted, you know, so that somebody could read their emails or listen to their phone calls, I’d probably be pretty high on that list. So it’s not as if I don’t have a personal interest in making sure my privacy is protected.”

Despite his suggestion that the programs were properly kept from the public, Obama seemed to concede that the release of more information about the programs was the only way to provide wide assurance they were justified and carefully controlled.

“In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential, you know…program run amok. But when you actually look at the details, then I think we’ve struck the right balance,” the president said.

Obama’s remarks came at unusual event — in a crowded hotel conference room — announced soon after an article in the San Francisco Chronicle criticized the White House for not holding public events in California, and for essentially treating the state as an ATM for campaign donations. He attended two fundraisers for Democratic Senate candidates in the Bay Area on Thursday night, and was to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at midday Friday in Santa Monica.

In addition to the press corps, only a couple of dozen invited guests were present for Obama’s remarks, which took place in what was essentially a media filing room in the same hotel where Obama spent the night Thursday. There was no room for the usual camera platform for side shots. The backdrop consisted of U.S. and presidential seal flags, and two small signs with logos for California’s health-care signup campaign.

Perhaps inadvertently underscoring the hastily-arranged nature of the event, Obama’s remarks were not on the lectern when he stepped up to it to speak just after 9 a.m. local time.

“I want to thank everybody who’s here, and I think there’s only one problem — and that’s that my remarks are not sitting here. By Friday afternoon, things get a little — a little challenged,” he quipped before his speech was delivered by an aide.

The statement Friday was not open to the public, but did allow the president to demonstrate a focus on something other than fundraising and the summit meetings he is to hold later Friday and on Saturday in southern California with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Despite the intended focus on Obamacare Friday morning, Obama wound up devoting more time at the event to answering queries about the surveillance programs than discussing his landmark health care law.

Bay Area reporters said they were told earlier in the week that no questions would be taken, but Obama quickly said at the start of the event that he would take one — an apparent indication of the White House’s eagerness to address the surveillance revelations someplace other than at a brief question opportunity expected late Friday at the meetings with Xi.

“I don’t want the whole day to just be a bleeding press conference,” Obama said, just ahead of taking his first question.

The United States is hoping to use that meeting to pressure China to stop hacking into U.S. computers and systems, but questions about U.S. surveillance of the internet could complicate American efforts to put a clear focus on China’s conduct in cyberspace.

Gerstein reported from San Jose and Epstein reported from Arlington, Va.