Barack Obama on mass surveillance
 President Obama speech on global surveillance, January 17, 2014 on YouTube (transcript) |
The U.S. presidency of Barack Obama had received widespread criticism due to its support of government surveillance. President Obama had released many statements on mass surveillance as a result.
As a senator, Obama condemned the Patriot Act for violating the rights of American citizens. He argued that it allowed government agents to perform extensive and in-depth searches on American citizens without a search warrant. He also argued that it was possible to secure the United States against terrorist attacks while preserving individual liberty. In 2011, Obama signed a four-year renewal of the Patriot Act, specifically provisions allowing roaming wiretaps and government searches of business records. Obama argued that the renewal was needed to protect the United States from terrorist attacks. However, the renewal was criticized by several members of Congress who argued that the provisions did not do enough to curtail excessive searches. Obama also received criticism for his reversal on privacy protection.
In June 2013, reports from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its international partners had created a global system of surveillance that was responsible for the mass collection of information on American and foreign citizens.
Obama initially defended NSA mass surveillance programs when they were first leaked. He argued that NSA surveillance was transparent and claimed that the NSA is unable and had made no attempt to monitor the phone calls and e-mails of American citizens. Following Snowden's admittance to leaking classified documents regarding national surveillance, Obama attempted to ignore the issue of NSA surveillance. It was speculated that Obama did this to avoid complicating the Department of Justice investigation into Snowden.
In August 2013, Obama argued that his administration was already in the process of reviewing the NSA surveillance programs when they were leaked by Snowden. Obama stated that it would have been best for the American people to have never learned about the programs. He also criticized Snowden for not using existing systems within the federal government for whistleblowers. The latter statement was criticized as Snowden would have been directed to one of the committees responsible for protecting the secrecy of NSA surveillance if he had used the existing whistle-blower system. However, he also promised to make public information about government surveillance and work with Congress to increase public confidence in the government.
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