U.S. President Barack Obama will defend his administration's secret phone and internet surveillance programs when he meets other leaders at the G 8 summit, the White House said Friday.
"He'll be able to discuss with the other leaders the importance of these programs, in terms of our counterterrorism efforts in particular, the constraints and safeguards that we place on these programs so that they have oversight against potential abuses," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor to President Obama.
"And all of these countries at the G8 are important counterterrorism partners," said Rhodes at a press briefing. "And together, we've worked with them on an intelligence and security relationship to foil terrorist attacks in the United States and in Europe."
Following the former CIA employee Edward Snowden's leaks of the U.S. National Security Agency's programs of monitoring millions of phone calls and internet data, the meeting of the eight industrialized nations next week is a good opportunity for President Obama to explain to his fellow world leaders the surveillance programs in terms of the U.S. national security interests and in combating global terrorism.
The leaks exposed by the media this month have sparked an outcry in the U.S. as well as outside America over concerns about intrusions into the privacy of individuals.
"We certainly understand that -- like the United States -- countries in Europe have significant interests in privacy and civil liberties, so we will want to hear their questions and have an exchange about these programs and other counterterrorism programs that we pursue in the United States and in partnership," said the deputy national security adviser to the U.S. president.
"I think the point that we will make is, in addition to the types of safeguards against abuse that we have, this is not a program that is intended to target individuals for what they're doing online, other than to seek to uncover terrorist plots and nexus to terrorism," said Rhodes.
The G 8 summit is scheduled to take place on June 17-18 in Northern Ireland.
