Obama rejects comparison with predecessor on anti-terror policies
A woman walks past a banner displayed in support of the US whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong on Tuesday. The 29-year-old former employee with the National Security Agency dismissed allegations he was a traitor or a Chinese agent, and insisted he had exposed a dangerous US global surveillance network that threatens the privacy of millions. Photo: AFP
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US President Barack Obama defended PRISM, the controversial surveillance program, and rejected comparison to his predecessor after the whistle-blower Edward Snowden criticized Obama for his empty promises and same anti-terror policies as the George W. Bush administration.
In an interview on the "Charlie Rose" show on PBS television aired late Monday US time, Obama argued that unlike the Bush administration, the National Security Agency (NSA) data-gathering programs were carried out with "systems of checks and balances."
"You've got a federal court with independent federal judges overseeing the entire program, and you've got Congress overseeing the program," he said.
Snowden said earlier Tuesday in a live online discussion on the Guardian newspaper's website that "Obama's campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes."
"Unfortunately, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo," he said.
The whistle-blower warned that more details on the NSA's secret program will come as truth cannot be stopped.
In Washington, the NSA plans to disclose some information on its program which it said had successfully thwarted terror attacks in an effort to ease the public's concern.
The absence of norms of regulations in terms of the use of high-technology in information collection made it possible for the US to conduct its secret program, said Zhang Zhizhou, a research fellow with the School of International Relations and Diplomacy of Beijing Foreign Studies University.
"The incident will put more people in the US on higher alert over the security of their information, but this will not lead to any real change, as people will gradually forget until another whistle-blower shows up," Zhang said Tuesday.
"The international community should step up their joint efforts to create worldwide recognized norms of regulations on cyber security," Zhang said.
AFP contributed to this story