Bush Angry over Eavesdropping
Leak
Yahoo News/AP
Bush: Eavesdropping Helps Save U.S. Lives
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
December 17, 2005
WASHINGTON - Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in
Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his
administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United
States as "critical to saving American lives."
Bush said congressional leaders had been briefed on the operation more than
a dozen times. That included Democrats as well as Republicans in the House and
Senate, a GOP lawmaker said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she had been told on
several occasions that Bush had authorized unspecified activities by the
National Security Agency, the nation's largest spy agency. She said she had
expressed strong concerns at the time, and that Bush's statement Saturday
"raises serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the
activities were lawful."
Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made clear
he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the monitoring activities
and said public disclosure of the program by the news media had endangered
Americans.
Bush's willingness to publicly acknowledge a highly classified spying
program was a stunning development for a president known to dislike disclosure
of even the most mundane inner workings of his White House. Just a day earlier
he had refused to talk about it.
Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has
eavesdropped on the international phone calls and e-mails of people inside the
United States without court-approved warrants. Bush said steps like these would
help fight terrorists like those who involved in the Sept. 11 plot.
"The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like
these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time," Bush said. "And
the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and
prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad."
News of the program came at a particularly damaging and delicate time.
Already, the administration was under fire for allegedly operating secret
prisons in Eastern Europe and shipping suspected terrorists to other countries
for harsh interrogations.
The NSA program's existence surfaced as Bush was fighting to save the
expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the domestic anti-terrorism law
enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Democrats and a few Republicans
who say the law gives so much latitude to law enforcement officials that it
threatens Americans' constitutional liberties succeeded Friday in stalling its
renewal.
So Bush scrapped the version of his weekly radio address that he had already
taped — on the recent elections in Iraq — and delivered a live
speech from the Roosevelt Room in which he lashed out at the senators blocking
the Patriot Act as irresponsible and confirmed the NSA program.
Bush said his authority to approve what he called a "vital tool in our war
against the terrorists" came from his constitutional powers as commander in
chief. He said that he has personally signed off on reauthorizations more than
30 times.
"The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws
and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties," Bush said. "And
that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I'm the president of the
United States."
James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA, said the program could be
problematic because it bypasses a special court set up by the 1978 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act to authorize eavesdropping on suspected
terrorists.
"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president,
which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said in an interview.
"Today, what Bush said is he went around the law, which is a violation of the
law — which is illegal."
Retired Adm. Bobby Inman, who led the NSA from 1977 to 1981, said Bush's
authorization of the eavesdropping would have been justified in the immediate
aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks "because at that point you couldn't get a
court warrant unless you could show probable cause."
"Once the Patriot Act was in place, I am puzzled what was the need to
continue outside the court," Inman added. But he said, "If the fact is valid
that Congress was notified, there will be no consequences."
Susan Low Bloch, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University
Law Center, said Bush was "taking a hugely expansive interpretation of the
Constitution and the president's powers under the Constitution.
That view was echoed by congressional Democrats.
"I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush. This is not
the system of government we have and that we fought for," Sen. Russell
Feingold, D-Wis., told The Associated Press.
Added Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt.: "The Bush
administration seems to believe it is above the law."
Bush defended the program as narrowly designed and used "consistent with
U.S. law and the Constitution." He said it is employed only to intercept the
international communications of people inside the U.S. who have been determined
to have "a clear link" to al-Qaida or related terrorist organizations.
Government officials have refused to provide details, including defining the
standards used to establish such a link or saying how many people are being
monitored.
The program is reviewed every 45 days, using fresh threat assessments, legal
reviews, and information from previous activities under the program, the
president said. Intelligence officials involved in the monitoring receive
extensive training in civil liberties, he said.
Bush said leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told House Republicans that those informed were
the top Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and of each
chamber's intelligence committees. "They've been through the whole thing,"
Hoekstra said.
The president had harsh words for those who revealed the program to the
media, saying they acted improperly and illegally. The surveillance was first
disclosed in Friday's New York Times.
"As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have,"
Bush said. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national
security and puts our citizens at risk."
Bush has more to worry about on Capitol Hill than his difficulties with the
Patriot Act. Lawmakers have begun challenging Bush on his Iraq policy,
reflecting polling that shows half of the country is not behind him on the
war.
On Sunday, the president was continuing his effort to reverse that by giving
his fifth major speech in less than three weeks on Iraq.
One bright spot for the White House was a new poll showing that a strong
majority of Americans oppose, as does Bush and most lawmakers, an immediate
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The AP-Ipsos poll found 57 percent of
those surveyed said the U.S. military should stay until Iraq is stabilized.
Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo and writers Andrew Bridges
and Will Lester contributed to this report.
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