Secretary of State John Kerry admitted Thursday that the National Security Agency had gone too far with its surveilllance in some instances.
“I assure you innocent people are not being abused in this process, but there’s an effort to try to gather information. And yes, in some cases, it has reached too far inappropriately,” Kerry said at the Open Government Partnership Annual Summit, according to remarks released by the State Department. “And the President, our President, is determined to try to clarify and make clear for people and is now doing a thorough review in order that nobody will have the sense of abuse.”
Kerry added that some media reports about NSA spying have been blown out of proportion.
“There’s an enormous amount of exaggeration in this reporting from some reporters out there. What we’re trying to do is in a random way find ways of trying to learn if, in fact, there is a threat that we need to respond to,” Kerry said. “And in some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the President, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future.”
President Obama recently curbed surveillance on international organizations including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
