Barack Obama gets to keep his Blackberry

Barack Obama gets to keep his Blackberry

US President Barack Obama has won a smallish personal battle.

He confirmed that he gets to keep his Blackberry smartphone.

He said in a statement: “I have won the fight but I don’t think it is up and running yet.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs spoke about how Obama got the permission to use a Blackberry: “The president has a Blackberry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends. It’s a pretty small group of people. The security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate, but to do so effectively and to do so in a way that is protected.”

Market sources say that Obama’s Blackberry would be equipped with a super-encryption package which is developed by the National Security Agency.

White House confirmed that the messages sent or received on the device would be subject to the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act of 1978. This act requires all the communications to be stored for future scrutiny.

Obama had this to say on the need to keep his Blackberry: “It’s just one tool among a number of tools that I’m trying to use, to break out of the bubble, to make sure that people can still reach me. If I’m doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an email and say, ‘What are you doing?’. I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and send me a message about what’s happening in America”.

RIM is the maker of this smartphone and the company has mentioned in the past that Obama’s love of Blackberry gives them a lot of free publicity that is probably worth in millions.