New | Obama set to respond to Snowden about NSA reforms in highly anticipated speech

After months of gushing intelligence leaks and warnings the US national security state has gone rogue, President Barack Obama will finally give his response to Edward Snowden on Friday.

In a long-awaited speech, Obama will propose curbs on ravenous worldwide National Security Agency (NSA) phone and internet data dragnets, exposed by the fugitive intelligence contractor.

The event will mark Obama’s latest attempt to remould the national security apparatus born in the fearful months after the September 11 attacks and cemented by a decade of terror wars.

Obama is also expected to back extra privacy protections for foreigners swept up by the programmes and limits on spying on friendly world leaders.

His challenge will be to prove that data mining programmes, made possible by swift advances in technology, can enhance national security while restoring public confidence that individual freedoms are safe.

“I think what we are likely to see is less reform than civil libertarians would like, and more of a reform than the security services would like,” said Neil Richards, a professor of law at Washington University, St Louis.