Edward Snowden's revelations about America's massive electronic surveillance program caused such an uproar that Barack Obama had to respond. Unwilling and reluctant though he was, he really had no choice. So, at his press conference on August 9, his speech was full of weasel words. But his message to the American people is unambiguous: you have to accept the surveillance for your own good. So get over it.

The Atlantic condemned his tone at the press conference as "inappropriately dismissive", and his substance as "misleading at best and mendacious at its worst". "The misinformation should bother the American people most. The weasel words. The impossible to believe protestations. The factually inaccurate assertions." The Atlantic's verdict is harsh indeed. Let us cite some examples.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as well its FISA Court proceedings are all secret, and only the government side is heard. Obama acknowledged that this "may tilt it too far in favor of security, may not pay enough attention to liberty." But the point is not to achieve a proper balance between security and liberty. It is to ensure that the Constitution, and especially the Fourth Amendment, is not violated, and the law is being followed. The NSA surveillance program clearly violates the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment.

Obama claims that the United States is not interested in spying on ordinary people, but only on terror suspects.

At first, the Obama administration denied that the NSA was spying on Americans. Then it reluctantly acknowledged it and finally it was forced to admit it. But it assured the American people that there is nothing to worry about, since everything is legal and there is proper oversight.

But Glen Greenwald of The Guardian demonstrated this to be completely untrue, and Pew polls show most Americans don't believe it either.

What is more serious is that the NSA does not only monitor terror suspects. The latest revelations show that the NSA shares information with the DEA in blatant violation of the stipulation that information obtained under the authority of the FISA "shall not be used in any criminal proceeding, including grand jury proceedings and warrant affidavits, without the express written approval of the Attorney General of the United States". Furthermore, according to Reuters, "The IRS is among two dozen arms of the government working with the Special Operations Division, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency."

Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com said that as early as 2004, the FBI launched an investigation into him, his website and its webmaster Eric Garris. He says the noose is tightening, as the government is trying to frame the website as a foreign agent -- an FBI memo suggests that a terrorist suspect once visited the web site. The government's efforts to criminalize journalism can also be seen in its handling of The New York Times Magazine portrait of Laura Poitras, who together with Glen Greenwald helped to get Snowden's revelations out. The government, the war party, know who its enemies (the critics of the government) are. As Raimondo points out: America is "more than half way down the slippery road to becoming de-facto police state."

Even Representative Michael McCaul, a proponent of the surveillance state, called Obama's comments "window dressing" and faulted the president for failing to "explain these programs" to the American public.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post described Obama's words as "soothing… with perhaps the application of a fig leaf here and a sheen of legalistic mumbo jumbo there, the snooping will continue."

Barack Obama has reached a low point in his presidency indeed.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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