From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. On Friday, the president decided he had some splainin to do.

Like why after September 11th, U.S. intelligence began to supersize.

We were shaken by the signs we had missed leading up to the attacks, how the hijackers had made

phone calls to known extremists and traveled to suspicious places.

So we demanded that our intelligence community improve its capabilities.

And they did, he said.

Our expanding ability to penetrate digital communications

has enabled us to track and unravel terrorist plots

and repel cyber attacks on our government, our banks, and our grids.

But he also said that he, like the rest of us,

found all the data mining, including our data, quote,

disquieting. So when he became president, he ordered a review of those programs.

And nothing that I've learned since indicated that our intelligence community has sought to

violate the law or as cavalier about the civil liberties of their fellow citizens.

Nevertheless, he said he gets it.

It is not enough for leaders to say, trust us, we won't abuse the data we collect.

For history, he has too many examples when that trust has been breached.

We need safeguards, he said.

So, with regard to the NSA's bulk collection of telephone records,

he agreed with an outside panel that the NSA no longer hold that information. It should stay

with the telecommunications companies or a third party. But he said the NSA still must be able

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