It was President Obamaâ„¢s sixth appearance on Jay Lenoâ„¢s show ” his fourth as president.
US President Barack Obama has denied on a television show that the White House has Å“a domestic spying program.”
“We don’t have a domestic spying program,” President Obama told Tonight Show host Jay Leno on Tuesday evening, describing the National Security Agencyâ„¢s surveillance programs as “mechanisms that can track a phone number or an e-mail address that is connected to a terrorist attack … That information is useful.”
As Obama is claiming that government surveillance is a Å“critical component to counterterrorism,” Congressional lawmakers from both major parties are trying to limit the intelligence-gathering.
Two House members have recently provided British newspaper the Guardian with documents demonstrating that American lawmakers have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the NSA and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities.
The Obama administration and the NSA claim that Congress members were aware of the agencyâ„¢s disclosed spying programs.
During the NBCâ„¢s show, President Obama criticized Russian authorities for granting temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, saying, “There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and Cold War mentality.”
“What I continually say to them and to President (Vladmir) Putin, that’s the past,” he added.
President Obama also defended the US decision to issue a travel warning and urged Americans to go about their summer vacations in a Å“prudent way.”
The US State Department closed this week more than a dozen embassies and consulates in the Middle East, warning travelers over a possible terror threat.
It was Obamaâ„¢s sixth appearance on Lenoâ„¢s show – his fourth as president.
ARA/ARA
Republished from: Press TV