President Obama told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday morning that the “world is more stable now than it was five years ago.”
“Just as we reviewed how we deploy our extraordinary military capabilities in a way that lives up to our ideals, we’ve begun to review the way that we gather intelligence so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share,” he said.
“As a result of this work and cooperation with allies and partners, the world is more stable than it was five years ago,” he added.
Obama did note, however, that “dangers remain.”
“Even a glance at today’s headlines indicates that dangers remain,” Obama said. “In Kenya we’ve seen terrorists target innocent civilians in a crowded shopping mall, and our hearts go out to the families of those who have been affected. In Pakistan nearly 100 people were recently killed by suicide bombers outside a church. In Iraq killings and car bombs continue to be a terrible part of life.”
“Meanwhile, al-Qaida has splintered into regional networks and militias which doesn’t give them the capacity at this point to carry out attacks like 9/11, but it does pose serious threats to governments and diplomats, businesses and civilians all across the globe.”
Shortly before Obama took the stage, according to the Guardian, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff offered a strong condemnation of America’s National Security Agency surveillance.