President Barack Obama made remarks on Friday regarding the NSA controversy where so-called "meta-data" was obtained by government agencies that help track information surrounding phone calls and Internet usage, defending the practices.
"The programs that have been discussed over the last couple days in the press are secret in the sense that they are classified," he said. "But they're not secret in the sense that when it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program."
This week is was reveled that FISA and NSA have been actively collecting the information of Americans that subscribe to Verizon telecommunication services regarding their phone usage, and foreign individuals regarding their Internet usage.
But the president spoke to a group at a California press conference regarding Obamacare and spoke on the issues of privacy, saying that all the practices - that date back to 2006 - fall within the limits of the law and Congress has continuously approved it.
"When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That's not what the program's about.," he told reporters during a press conference. "What the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and duration of calls. They are not looking at people's names, and they're not looking at content.
"If these folks - if the intelligence community then actually wants to listen to a phone call, they've got to go back to a federal judge, just like they would in a criminal investigation," he said
And as details continue to emerge about the collection of data of foreign people overseas who use any of the U.S.-based Internet providers such as Microsoft and Google, President Obama maintained the probe does not apply to Americans abroad.
"With respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens, and it does not apply to people living in the United States," he said. "And again, in this instance, not only has Congress fully apprised of it, but what is also true is that FISA Court has to authorize it."
While the president defends the actions of the intelligence community, FISA, and Congress, he did note that representatives who are critical of the practice now, were not expressing the same disdain when Bush Jr. was in office.
"We have established a process and a procedure that the American people should feel comfortable about," he said. "But again, this - these programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate. And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up... We're happy to have that debate."
