konknaijaboy | On 12, Aug 2013

Source: Cyberschuulnews

President Obama found his words carefully as he addressed security matters yesterday with the media and ended up pledging to check abuses in transparency of surveillance programs.  Apparently he does not see why government should have interest in spying on ordinary Americans.

The good thing about how the President and his security top men have approached the PRISM issue had been that they did not come out to deny anything but rather make arguments for how to work around it. Observers think that is honest enough to open up a basis for constructive engagement on the subject. 

 

Things ‘can and must be more transparent’ said Mr. Obama. “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,” 

 

Although the President confirmed he has confidence in the Program, he agreed that it was not enough for him to have confidence, ‘the American people also must have confidence in it’. 

 

It was suggested to Mr. Obama that ex-NSA contractor staff Edward Snowden could after all be seen as a patriot for his revelations considering the President’s stand but he snapped ‘No I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot’

Edward Snowden got asylum in Russia last week and America is reacting badly to it. 

 

The Patriot Act, within which what is now known as PRISM is embedded was crafted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was initiated as a terrorism-fighting tool to prevent a similar attack from ever happening again. It has worked quietly until leaks came by Edward Snowden’s revelations and the media took a meat of it. It was first denied by Technology firms that surveillance on all users of their system was in place only for them to recall such denials by saying all surveillance cooperation with the National Security Adviser was judicially authorized.