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President Obama defends NSA program in 'Charlie Rose' interview

President Obama defends NSA program in 'Charlie Rose' interview

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With questions about the NSA and FBI's surveillance programs mounting, President Barack Obama took to Charlie Rose last night to try to lay critics' concerns to rest. Between questions on Syria and cybersecurity talks with China, Obama defended the government's oversight of FISA data-gathering. Unfortunately, this didn't provide much in the way of new information: Obama largely raised the same points that he and others have brought up since the first documents were leaked, pointing to the focus on foreign intelligence, the limits on what can be collected, and the terrorist plots that were allegedly thwarted by surveillance.

A clip of the video is below; Charlie Rose has posted the full video, along with a transcript. Obama isn't the only official trying to answer questions about FISA surveillance: NSA chief Keith Alexander and others also provided information about it in a congressional hearing earlier today.