President Barack Obama backed “thoughtful” surveillance reform, during...

is to review everything that we're doing with the instructions to them that we have to balance the ends with the means,” Obama said, referring to his five-member review group, according to White House transcripts (http://1.usa.gov/14raOHA). “And just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do it. And there may be situations in which we're gathering information just because we can that doesn’t help us with national security, but does raise questions in terms of whether we're tipping over into being too intrusive with respect to the interactions of other governments.” He described increased “risks of abuse” due to the U.S.’s greater surveillance capabilities and wireless and Internet technology changes, and “times where the procedures -- because these are human endeavors -- have not worked the way they should.” He noted “legitimate questions” regarding how “as technology advances and capabilities grow, it may be that the laws that are currently in place are not sufficient to guard against the dangers of us being able to track so much.” But he insisted the U.S. is “not a surveillance state,” and sought to “give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we're not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls. What we try to do is to target very specifically areas of concern.” He emphasized tightened procedures and the checks and balances on the surveillance within the U.S.