The National Security Agency, one of the main federal agencies gathering information to protect homeland security, taps into the servers of Internet companies and also conducts surveillance of cell phone calls to spot contacts with foreigners being monitored. News of those secret programs ignites heated debate over the balance between democratic liberties and anti-terror safeguards.

The Washington Post revealed last week that a program called PRISM (see video below) collects information such as emails, documents, audio, video and photos from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Separately, a British newspaper disclosed the gathering of cell phone data – numbers called and times, but not conversations or names.

President Obama, who stressed Friday that "nobody is listening to your calls," defends the programs. "It’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience," he says. "I welcome this debate. I think it’s healthy for our democracy." An author of military books who works at the private Council on Foreign Relations in Washington also speaks in support of NSA efforts. "Granted there is something inherently creepy about Uncle Sam scooping up so much information about us," Max Boot acknowledges in a guest column Sunday. "But to stop or scale back the NSA's special intelligence efforts would amount to unilateral disarmament in a war against terrorism that is far from over."

Official says: "A classified intelligence collection program is used to prevent terrorist attacks, [with] numerous safeguards that protect privacy and civil liberties." – James Clapper, director of national intelligence

Editorial says: "To casually permit this surveillance -- with the American public having no idea that the executive branch is now exercising this power -- . . . repudiates constitutional principles governing search, seizure and privacy."

Columnist says: "The creation of an invasive American surveillance state is probably inevitable. Politicians are people who can do math. The number of people who want to be safe, they are certain, is far greater than the number worried about abstract issues of privacy." – Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal