BERLIN — United States President Barack Obama said government surveillance programmes that sweep telephone numbers and Internet data have saved lives, as a controversy over such monitoring followed him on an overseas trip.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a news conference with Mr Obama in Berlin, said they discussed PRISM, the US programme that monitors the Internet activity of foreigners believed to be located outside the US and plotting terrorist attacks.
“This is not a situation in which we are rifling through the ordinary e-mails of German citizens or American citizens or French citizens or anybody else,” said Mr Obama, who added that the US has “struck the appropriate balance” between security and privacy.
The National Security Agency’s operations have come under scrutiny after former contract worker Edward Snowden exposed its surveillance programmes to The Guardian and The Washington Post. US lawmakers and civil liberties groups have sought more information on the two programmes disclosed by Mr Snowden — PRISM and another that collects phone call records of millions of US citizens.
Mr Obama said the programmes have helped uncover 50 terrorist plots. “Lives have been saved,” he said. Among the foiled conspiracies was a planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange, Deputy Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Sean Joyce told a House committee on Tuesday.
Ms Merkel said it was important to discuss the surveillance programmes and stressed the need for an “equitable balance” between security and personal freedom.
Only last week, European Union officials had pressured Attorney-General Eric Holder for answers and details about the programmes during a meeting with top justice officials in Dublin, Ireland. Mr Holder told reporters he would convene a working group of US and EU officials to discuss them and their reach into European countries and their citizens. Agencies
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