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President Obama to announce plans for increased transparency on government surveillance

President Obama to announce plans for increased transparency on government surveillance

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President Obama and national security advisor Tom Donilon
President Obama and national security advisor Tom Donilon

President Obama will hold a press conference later today to announce new measures for increasing the transparency around the government's many surveillance efforts, The Wall Street Journal reports. The press conference is set for 3 PM EST, according to the article, and the official White House calendar lists a presser at that time in the East Room. It's unclear precisely what these new transparency measures will be, or how, if at all, they will address the numerous controversial surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency that have been revealed over the past three months by the internal documents obtained and leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden. President Obama did just hold a private meeting on surveillance yesterday with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google's internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, according to Politico.

The press conference will also be the first on surveillance from the President since his address in June, right after the first leaks of the NSA's PRISM and phone spying programs. At that time, President Obama vigorously defended the NSA's efforts as constitutional and approved by Congress. Since then, he's continued offering public support for the efforts, including earlier this week on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Update: Read President Obama's new transparency measures here