President Obama: US needs checks on NSA data gathering but can't disarm

President Barack Obama tried to strike a middle ground on questions about broad surveillance practices conducted by the US National Security Agency, saying some checks are needed on the system but "we can't unilaterally disarm."

At a White House news conference, President Obama said he would spend the next few weeks sorting through the recommendations of a presidential advisory panel on how to rein in the NSA in the wake of disclosures from former US spy contractor Edward Snowden. President Obama said it is possible that some bulk phone data collected by intelligence agencies could be kept by private companies instead of the US government as a way of restoring Americans' trust in the program. "We can't unilaterally disarm," said President Obama. But he said data collection could be "refined" to give the public more confidence that privacy is not being violated. Questions about US government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open in June when Snowden, now in Russia, leaked documents documenting widespread collection of phone and email. Snowden has been charged with divulging classified information and the United States has unsuccessfully sought his return to stand trial. President Obama conceded that the revelations have led to "an important conversation that we needed to have" about balancing security needs and privacy, but he said Snowden's actions have hurt US interests. "As important and as necessary as this debate has been, it is also important to keep in mind that this has done unnecessary damage to US intelligence capabilities and US diplomacy," he said. The President said the leaked information had given some countries which have worse records on human rights, privacy protection and freedom of dissent than the United States the leeway to disparage US policies. "That's a pretty distorted view of what's going on out there," he said.