Obama: NSA secret data gathering 'transparent'

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FILE - This June 9, 2013 photo provided by The Guardian newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the U.S. National Security Agency, in Hong Kong. The Guardian newspaper says that the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats' phones and emails when the U.K. hosted international conferences, even going so far as to set up a bugged Internet café in an effort to get an edge in high-stakes negotiations. The Guardian cites more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ's intelligence operations. (AP Photo/The Guardian, File)

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Obama: NSA secre... FILE - This June 9, 2013 photo provided by The Guardian newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the U.S. National Security Agency, in Hong Kong. The Guardian newspaper says that the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats' phones and emails when the U.K. hosted international conferences, even going so far as to set up a bugged Internet café in an effort to get an edge in high-stakes negotiations. The Guardian cites more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ's intelligence operations. (AP Photo/The Guardian, File)
Military plans w... FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2012 file photo, female soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division train on a firing range while testing new body armor in Fort Campbell, Ky., in preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan. Women may be able to begin training as Army Rangers by mid-2015, and as Navy SEALs a year later under broad plans Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is approving that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in the country’s elite special operations forces, according to details of the plans submitted to Hagel that were obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
Court: Ariz. cit... U.S. History students from Austin, Minn. High School visit the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 17, 2013, in anticipation of key decisions being announced. With a week remaining in the current Supreme Court term, several major cases are still outstanding that could have widespread political impact on same-sex marriage, voting rights, and affirmative action. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Putin: US-Russia... President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Monday, June 17, 2013. Obama and Putin discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria during their bilateral meeting. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Immigration spli... FILE - In this May 17, 2013 file photo, Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Republican establishment hopes an overhaul of immigration laws will help the party run stronger presidential races. But that goal is about to hit big hurdles in the form of House Republicans. Many House Republicans are hostile to the bipartisan immigration bill before the Senate. Even substantial changes to it may do little to placate those who demand strict crackdowns on unlawful border crossings and no “amnesty” for people here illegally. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
IRS official con... FILE - This March 22, 2013 file photo shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington scrutinized the very first application from a tea party group seeking tax-exempt status _ and dozens of others, including some requests that languished for more than a year without action, an IRS official has told congressional investigators. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Milk money: Farm... FILE - This Feb. 11, 2009 file photo shows a shopper looking over the milk aisle at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier, Vt. Approval of a massive farm bill _ and the cost of a gallon of milk _ could hinge on a proposed new dairy program the House is expected to vote on this week. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
Immigration bill... FILE - In this March 5, 2013 file photo, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaks in Washington. Menendez, on Sunday June 13, 2013 said "there'll never be a road to the White House for the Republican Party" if immigration overhaul fails to pass. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Column: When lyi... In this photo taken March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Intelligence Committee. During the public hearing a member of Congress asked Clapper if the National Security Agency collects data on millions of Americans. “No, sir,” said Clapper. Then, NSA programs that do precisely that are disclosed. But those programs are classified, and cannot be discussed in public hearings. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Current, former ... This photo released by CBS News shows White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" in Washington Sunday June 16, 2013. On talk shows Sunday guests ranging from McDonough to former Vice President Dick Cheney and former CIA and National Security Agency head Michael Hayden said the government's reliance on data collection from both Americans and foreign nationals was constitutional and carefully overseen by executive, legislative and court authorities. (AP Photo/CBS News, Chris Usher)
NC Sen. Hagan fa... FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2012, file photo Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. In 2008. Hagan won a seat Republicans had held for nearly 40 years. But this election season the incumbent faces a very different climate: the GOP controls the state’s executive and legislative branches simultaneously for the first time since 1870. Republicans also hold nine of the state’s 13 U.S. House seats. And North Carolina, still recovering from the recession, voted for Obama in his first race, but narrowly backed Republican Mitt Romney for president last fall. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Talk of no-fly z... FILE - In this April 30, 2013, file photo President Barack Obama answers questions at a White House news conference in Washington, where he strongly suggested he'd consider military action against Syria if it could be confirmed that President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war. Seeking to avoid getting sucked deeper into Syria's civil war, the Obama administration has long pointed to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a symbol of what can go wrong when America's military wades into Middle East conflicts. But experts say the White House is looking at the wrong Iraq war, especially as it weighs whether to impose a no-fly zone over Syria. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Dual gov't? US o... FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2009, file photo President Barack Obama speaks to his senior staff to assert his expectations on ethics and conduct on the White House campus in Washington. Promising to reinvigorate the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Obama, issued an executive order his first day in office, and told all federal agencies to adopt a "presumption in favor of disclosure". A 2011 review of the administration's handling of public records requests under FOIA came to a jarring conclusion when actions were measured against words: "Most indicators of openness have not even returned to the average for the Bush years, a period known for secrecy." The report was by OMB Watch, now called the Center for Effective Government. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Obama takes econ... In this photo taken on June 10, 2013, a boy walks by a peace wall that divides the Protestant Cluan Place from the Catholic Short Strand area, in the Protestant Cluan Place area of East Belfast, Northern Ireland. When President Obama comes to Belfast, he’s expected to praise a country at peace and call for walls that separate Irish Catholics and British Protestants to come tumbling down. Barely a 10-minute walk from where the U.S. leader is speaking Monday, June 17, 2013, those walls have kept growing in size and number throughout two decades of slow-blooming peace. Residents on both sides of the battlements today insist they must stay to keep violence at bay. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)