At a joint news conference Wednesday in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Barack Obama once again defended the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance programs that have brought his administration under fire at home.
Obama said that he’s “confident that at this point we have struck the appropriate balance” between privacy and security considerations. He also said that “at least 50 threats have been averted” based on information obtained from the surveillance.
“Not just in the United States but in some cases here in Germany,” Obama said of the foiled threats.