奧巴馬爲國安監控項目辯護
U.S. President Barack Obama is defending the government's top-secret surveillance programs, while acknowledging widespread concerns the efforts are violating the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.
In a television interview broadcast late Monday on PBS, Mr. Obama insisted the National Security Agency is operating its phone and Internet monitoring efforts within the law.
He said, "What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls, and the NSA cannot target your emails. And have not. They cannot and have not, by law and by rule, and unless they - and usually it would not be they, it would be the FBI - go to a court and obtain a warrant."
The president has been under fire since last week's revelations of the NSA programs by the British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post. He says he has ordered intelligence officials to release as much information as possible "without further compromising the program."
Mr. Obama also said he has created a privacy and civil liberties oversight board to review the NSA efforts.
Earlier Monday, a report published in The Guardian said documents obtained from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the man who exposed the NSA programs, show that Britain spied on diplomats attending the 2009 Group of 20 summit in London.美國總統奧巴馬爲政府最機密的監視項目進行辯護，他同時承認，人們普遍擔心這些做法正在侵犯美國普通公民的隱私權。
奧巴馬星期一晚間接受PBS電視採訪時堅持說，國家安全局（NSA）的電話和互聯網監視行動是在法律允許範圍之內的。
奧巴馬說：“我可以毫不猶豫地說，如果你是美國人，國安局不能竊聽你的電話，不能把目標對準你的電郵。他們沒有這樣做。他們不能、也沒有這樣做，這是法律和規定，---除非他們去法庭申請許可，而通常也不是他們，而是聯調局去這樣做。”
自從上星期英國《衛報》和美國《華盛頓郵報》披露了國安局祕密監控項目之後，奧巴馬總統一直陷於被動。他說，他已經下令情報官員在“不進一步損害這一項目”的前提下，儘可能公佈有關信息。
奧巴馬還說，他已設立了一個隱私和民權監督委員會來審議國家安全局的做法。
星期一早些時候，《衛報》刊登的一則報道說，從前美國情報合同工、國安監聽項目泄密人愛德華•斯諾登那裏獲取的文件顯示，英國曾對出席2009年倫敦20國集團峯會的外交人員進行了竊聽。
