White House Needs to Be More Transparent About NSA Spying, Says...Robert Gibbs

Ex-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Sunday called on his old boss to be more transparent about what precisely the government does and does not monitor.

“It is incumbent upon this administration and this White House to have a more robust conversation about these programs," Gibbs said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I don’t know that this is a huge debate that’s taking place outside of the beltway, but it's obviously one this morning that’s raising inside the beltway and a greater discussion as much as you can about transparency and about what these programs are and what they aren’t."

"I will say, you listen to a lot of the coverage and you would think we had literally millions and millions of FBI agents listening to every single call that every single American is making. That’s simply not true. And I think having that discussion actively with the American people is an important thing to do," Gibbs said.

Gibbs is no stranger to keeping secret government programs quiet; in February, he revealed that he was specifically ordered never to acknowledge the existence of the U.S. unmanned drone program.

--

[related]