WASHINGTON — Responding to critics, President Barack Obama promised on Friday, Aug. 9, to work with Congress on “appropriate reforms” for the domestic surveillance programs that have stirred criticism at home and abroad. He also said it is time to recalibrate the United States’ relationship with Russia, which is harboring NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden. “It’s not enough for me to have confidence in these programs,” the president declared of NSA domestic intelligence-gathering programs at a White House news conference, one day before his scheduled departure on a weeklong vacation. “The American people have to have confidence in them as well.” The president announced a series of changes in a program begun under the anti-terror Patriot Act that was passed in the wake of the attacks of Sept, 11, 2001. But none of the moves would alter the basic core of the program, the collection of millions of Americans’ phone records. As for Snowden, recently granted temporary asylum by Russia, Obama said he is ...
