U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday made a “passionate” case for mobile devices to be built in such a way as to allow government to gain access to personal data if needed to prevent a terrorist attack or enforce tax laws.

Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, Obama said he could not comment on the legal case in which the FBI is trying to force Apple Inc. to allow access to an iPhone linked to San Bernardino, California, shooter Rizwan Farook.

But he made clear that, despite his commitment to Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, a balance was needed to allow some intrusion when needed.

“The question we now have to ask is: If technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there’s no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer, how do we solve or disrupt a terrorist plot?” he said.

“What mechanisms do we have available to even do simple things like tax enforcement because if in fact you can’t crack that at all, government can’t get in, then everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket.”

The Justice Department has sought to frame the Apple case as one not about undermining encryption. A U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation court order issued to Apple targets a non-encryption barrier on one iPhone.

The FBI says Farook and his wife were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 at a holiday party in California. The couple later died in a shootout with police.

“Setting aside the specific case between the FBI and Apple, … we’re going to have to make some decisions about how do we balance these respective risks,” Obama said.

“My conclusion so far is you cannot take an absolutist view.”

Obama was speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Austin about how government and technology companies can work together to solve problems including making it easier for people to vote.

Barack Obama smoking Marijuana

President Barack Obama is flexing his executive muscle, ordering the federal government to study how smart guns could stem violence.

In a memorandum Monday, the president told the departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security to look into smart gun technology, such as fingerprint and radio-frequency identification. The goals are to track lost or stolen guns and to prevent accidental gunfire.

The agencies have 90 days to compile recommendations.

The Obama memo comes a month after a couple influenced by radical Islamic beliefs fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, California, raising concerns about public safety. Gun sales rose sharply amid fear of extremists after the December 2 shooting, the Obama administration said in a briefing over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Obama outlined the memo and other executive actions he took during a tearful speech at the White House where he implored the nation to have a “sense of urgency” to tackle gun violence.He recalled the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that left 20 children and six teachers dead.

“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” Obama said, wiping away tears. “And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”

Besides encouraging gun safety technology, Obama’s initiatives also include expanding background checks during gun sales to beefing up enforcement of existing gun laws. This is part of an effort to close the so-called “gun show loophole” that allows gun dealers conducting business at gun shows or online without conducting background checks. Current laws exempts gun collectors and hobbyists from conducting background checks before selling a firearm.

Obama further plans to address gun violence during a nationally televised town hall meeting at George Mason University in Virginia on Thursday night. On Monday, the president consulted with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on which executive orders he could use for more gun restrictions.

“Developing and promoting technology that would help prevent these tragedies is an urgent priority,” Obama said in his memo.

Obama’s push for smart technology will likely run into resistance from gun rights groups, which have long said smart technology is a way for the federal government to track firearms.

That, they say, could ultimately lead to a ban on weapons.

Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement Tuesday that Obama has chosen once again to engage in political rhetoric instead of offering meaningful solutions. He said the NRA would not allow “law-abiding gun owners to become scapegoats for President Obama’s failed policies.”

“The American people do not need more emotional, condescending lectures that are completely devoid of facts,” Cox said. “The NRA will continue to fight to protect the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under our Constitution.”

The president cited a 2013 Department of Justice report that reviewed the most effective use of gun safety technologies, including a requirement to scan for the owner’s fingerprint before a gun could discharge.

“In its report, the (DOJ) made clear that technological advancement in this area could help reduce accidental deaths and the use of stolen guns in criminal activities,” he said.

Obama said the recommendations are within his legal authority, consistent with the Second Amendment and supported by the “overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners.”

US President Barack Obama, surrounded by US Secret Service agents, walks to greet guests after arriving on Air Force One at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York on May 22, 2014. Obama is traveling to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, before attending Democratic fundraisers in Chicago. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

When Obama spoke to BBC last week he stressed his frustration over not being able to secure more gun control and suggested that the guns outweigh terrorism as a threat to Americans’ safety.

Obama’s exact words: “If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands.”

In the lead up to this statement, Obama mentioned “mass killings” with guns but did not mention mass killings or attempted mass killings in which those holding the guns were jihadists.

He said, “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws.” However, it is not that America does not have gun control. Rather, it is that Americans increasingly see that gun control does not stop criminals from acting out their criminality, therefore support for more gun laws has waned.

For example, the push to expand background checks to cover more types of sales had a lot of momentum nearly three years ago, then Americans noticed that those behind the high profile, mass killings were passing background checks to get their guns. Since Sandy Hook alone (December 2012), attackers and alleged attackers like John Russell Houser (Lafayette), Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), and Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), acquired guns via a background check. So what benefit do Americans gain from expanding such checks?

Nevertheless, Obama is determined to keep pushing more laws. As he told BBC, “[This] is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months [of my administration].”

Cops pin down detained protesters in Manhattan and beat them.

by Stephen Lendman

Killer cops throughout America operate unaccountably – agents of wealth, power and privilege exclusively, rampaging against ordinary people ruthlessly, mostly victimized Blacks and Latinos.

Fatalities at their hands are on track to exceed 1,000 this year – more than double phony FBI reported numbers.

Official “justifiable homicides” are cold-blood murder in the vast majority of cases. Victims tell no tales, only witnesses when available.

Evidence is overwhelming. US streets are battlegrounds, Black and Latino youths prime targets, suffering disproportionately, victimized by racist injustice. State-sponsored criminality rages at home and abroad. Corpses piling up attest to America’s ruthlessness.

Not according to Obama. On Tuesday, he addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in Chicago – representing 16,000 members in 94 countries, saying:

“…I want to start by saying on behalf of the American people – thank you. This country is safer because of your efforts.”

“…I want to be as clear as I can be. I reject any narrative that seeks to divide police and communities that they serve. I reject a storyline that says when it comes to public safety there’s an ‘us’ and a ‘them…’ “

“Because your work and your service really has helped make America safer than it’s been in decades, and that’s something for which every American should be proud.”

Hard facts disprove his litany of Big Lies. US police are oppressors, not public servants. They protect the rights of powerful monied interests at the expense of society’s most vulnerable.

They’re militarized from Pentagon-supplied weapons and equipment – more brutal than ever, waging daily war on persecuted communities.

Gitmo in Chicago is Exhibit A. A few miles west of where I live is ground zero for some of the most disturbing police practices – occurring in an off-the-books, unidentified, nondescript warehouse.

Lawlessly arrested and detained, mostly Black victims are isolated, denied access to lawyers for a day or more, and tortured during secret interrogations. Innocence in no defense.

The facility is a few miles from where Obama spoke, mindless of the horrors inside, committed by Chicago’s “finest.” Killer cops nationwide “make America safer,” he said.

“Each fallen police officer is one too many,” he blustered, ignoring their thousands of victims – non-people denied justice, casualties of US barbarism, killer cops operating solely as agents of power and privilege.

Obama promised them more federal aid and support, saying “in my federal budget proposal, I’ve asked Congress to increase funding for the COPS program (a Justice Department community policing initiative) so we can hire even more police officers and make sure you have the training and equipment you need.”

He failed to explain it’s to terrorize vulnerable communities more than ever, mostly Black and Latino ones. Instead he concluded, saying “good police work (reflects) America at its best…May God protect our cops.”

Who serves their victims? Why is nothing done about justice denied them? Who’ll hold police state ruthlessness accountable?

Governments oppressing their citizens are tyrannical. America mocks the principles it claims to support.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III“.

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs

President Barack Obama vowed Monday to push for police officer safety after a Texas sheriff’s deputy was gunned down from behind and shot multiple times at close range.

Darren Goforth, 47, was killed late Friday in the Houston area, and local officials have blamed ramped-up rhetoric against police officers in the United States in protests against perceived police brutality.

The veteran law enforcement officer “was contemptibly shot and killed over the weekend,” Obama said in a statement after he spoke by telephone with the deputy sheriff’s widow Kathleen Goforth.

The president said he offered his condolences to the widow. Goforth, a white, 10-year veteran of the force, also left behind two children.

“I also promised that I would continue to highlight the uncommon bravery that police officers show in our communities every single day,” Obama added.

“They put their lives on the line for our safety.”

Shannon Miles, a 30-year-old black man with a long criminal history, has been charged with capital murder.

“Targeting police officers is completely unacceptable — an affront to civilized society,” Obama said.

“We’ve got to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the door at the end of his shift.

“That comfort has been taken from Mrs. Goforth. So we must offer her our comfort — and continue to stand up for the safety of police officers wherever they serve.”

The shooting came amid a wave of protests against a string of killings of unarmed black men by police officers, most of them white.

Starting with the gunning down of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Missouri one year ago, demonstrations around the United States have condemned law enforcement’s use of deadly force and called for reform of the nation’s police departments.

The protests that kicked off in Ferguson renewed a debate on race and policing in America and led to reform efforts leading all the way to the White House.

But the focus on condemning cops also caused police forces to say they were being unfairly targeted, increasing their risk in an already dangerous field.