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WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has claimed that more than 50 potential terrorist plots have been busted worldwide since 9/11, including in India, thanks to US electronic surveillance.
"We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information, not just in the United States, but in some cases, right here in Germany," President Obama told reporters at a joint press conference in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel, backing the Congressional testimony of Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, and other officials in Washington.
"This is not a situation in which we are rifling through ordinary emails of German citizens or American citizens or French citizens or anybody else. This is not a situation where we go into the Internet and start searching any way we want. This is a circumscribed, narrowed system directed at us being able to protect our people," Obama maintained, adding, "Lives have been saved, and the encroachment on privacy has been strictly limited by a court-approved process."
The US claim has been received with skepticism by European leaders and privacy advocates, including in the US., because details have been scarce or sketchy about the plots busted. US officials have maintained that providing details about the plots and how they were busted would give away important clues about American methods.
In fact, the 20 countries in which US officials claimed to have broken terror plots were not individually named. But PTI reported "informed sources" as saying that India was among those 20 countries and the "time frame of at least one such India-related plot indicate it was around the successful Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010."
Obama stepped up to the microphones to defend the program even before he left for Europe, telling the Charlie Rose show in a 45-minute interview that the Prism program could only target non-Americans and that, "if you are a US. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls, and the NSA cannot target your e-mails."
Aside from the fact that Obama wasn't the least bit defensive about the US targeting rest of the world, there were plenty of other unanswered questions even after the interview and the Congressional testimony, as the administration took shelter behind the classified information and "terrorist will learn from any information given out" excuses.
Expectedly, all this caused a muted, if not cool response to Obama in Berlin where he was received rapturously in 2008 when he first when there as a candidate, an adulation that increased in Europe when he was elected President shortly thereafter.
But for much of the week starting with the Charlie Rose show over the weekend, the US President who came to office as a civil liberties heros has been locked in a propaganda battle with a 29-year old whistleblower who is saying from a hideout in HongKong that the Obama administration has crossed red lines and its claims of busting terror plots are exaggerated.
In Berlin, Obama revealed hat he came to office "with a healthy skepticism about how our various programs were structured," and maintained that he has been "able to do is examine and scrub how our intelligence services are operating."
"I'm very confident right now the right balance has been struck," he insisted. But even his fan clubs in the US and Europe, not to speak of India, are skeptical. New Delhi has already been raising the issue with US officials and the matter is expected to come up again when Secretary of State John Kerry visits India next week.
US spying foiled attack in India during CWG? - The Times of India
"We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information, not just in the United States, but in some cases, right here in Germany," President Obama told reporters at a joint press conference in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel, backing the Congressional testimony of Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, and other officials in Washington.
"This is not a situation in which we are rifling through ordinary emails of German citizens or American citizens or French citizens or anybody else. This is not a situation where we go into the Internet and start searching any way we want. This is a circumscribed, narrowed system directed at us being able to protect our people," Obama maintained, adding, "Lives have been saved, and the encroachment on privacy has been strictly limited by a court-approved process."
The US claim has been received with skepticism by European leaders and privacy advocates, including in the US., because details have been scarce or sketchy about the plots busted. US officials have maintained that providing details about the plots and how they were busted would give away important clues about American methods.
In fact, the 20 countries in which US officials claimed to have broken terror plots were not individually named. But PTI reported "informed sources" as saying that India was among those 20 countries and the "time frame of at least one such India-related plot indicate it was around the successful Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010."
Obama stepped up to the microphones to defend the program even before he left for Europe, telling the Charlie Rose show in a 45-minute interview that the Prism program could only target non-Americans and that, "if you are a US. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls, and the NSA cannot target your e-mails."
Aside from the fact that Obama wasn't the least bit defensive about the US targeting rest of the world, there were plenty of other unanswered questions even after the interview and the Congressional testimony, as the administration took shelter behind the classified information and "terrorist will learn from any information given out" excuses.
Expectedly, all this caused a muted, if not cool response to Obama in Berlin where he was received rapturously in 2008 when he first when there as a candidate, an adulation that increased in Europe when he was elected President shortly thereafter.
But for much of the week starting with the Charlie Rose show over the weekend, the US President who came to office as a civil liberties heros has been locked in a propaganda battle with a 29-year old whistleblower who is saying from a hideout in HongKong that the Obama administration has crossed red lines and its claims of busting terror plots are exaggerated.
In Berlin, Obama revealed hat he came to office "with a healthy skepticism about how our various programs were structured," and maintained that he has been "able to do is examine and scrub how our intelligence services are operating."
"I'm very confident right now the right balance has been struck," he insisted. But even his fan clubs in the US and Europe, not to speak of India, are skeptical. New Delhi has already been raising the issue with US officials and the matter is expected to come up again when Secretary of State John Kerry visits India next week.
US spying foiled attack in India during CWG? - The Times of India
