Bush versus Bush: Wiretaps and court
orders
LA Times
Bush Says Terrorism Warrants Spying in U.S.
By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writers
January 2, 2006
SAN ANTONIO — Emphasizing that "we are at war with an enemy who wants
to hurt us again," President Bush on Sunday strongly defended the domestic
eavesdropping program that began in 2002, and repeated his contention that the
disclosure of its existence had caused the country "great harm."
In a brief exchange with reporters after visiting wounded soldiers at Brooke
Army Medical Center, Bush said the surveillance, conducted by the National
Security Agency, targeted known Al Qaeda members or associates and involved
intercepts of only a few numbers in the United States.
The NSA is normally required to seek permission, on a case-by-case basis,
from a special panel of federal judges before conducting any type of
surveillance within the United States.
Bush contends that the congressional authorization to use force against Al
Qaeda, passed a week after the Sept. 11 attacks, enabled him to approve NSA
intercepts of telephone calls and e-mails without seeking court orders under
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Bush said Sunday that the program, which the New York Times revealed last
month, had been repeatedly vetted by Justice Department officials and members
of Congress.
"This program has been reviewed, constantly reviewed, by people throughout
my administration. And it still is reviewed," he said.
He also clarified remarks he had made in April 2004, in which he said that
all wiretaps required a court order and that "when we're talking about chasing
down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do
so."
Asked about those statements Sunday, Bush said: "I was talking about roving
wiretaps, I believe, involved in the Patriot Act. This is different from the
NSA program. The NSA program is a necessary program."
The president's comments came after he was asked about a newspaper report
that a top Justice Department official had questioned the legality of certain
aspects of the surveillance, resulting in its temporary suspension. He avoided
answering directly and instead raised a spirited defense of the program.
"We're at war, and as commander in chief, I've got to use the resources at
my disposal, within the law, to protect the American people," he said.
The New York Times reported Sunday that in March 2004, administration
officials made an emergency visit to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's hospital room
after his deputy, James B. Comey, who was serving as acting attorney general
during Ashcroft's absence, refused to approve continuation of the program.
Ashcroft was recovering from gallbladder surgery and had been in intensive care
under tight security, the paper said.
Comey could not be reached Sunday for comment.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member
of the Judiciary Committee, said the report of Comey's refusal to give his
approval heightened concerns about the program.
He said that when people like Comey "had real doubts about the program, it
calls into question the way the president and vice president went about
changing it."
The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), has
said his panel will hold hearings into the eavesdropping program, and Schumer
said he would ask Specter to call Comey, Ashcroft and other administration
officials as witnesses.
But citing widespread discussion of the issue, the Senate's second-ranking
Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the Senate Intelligence
Committee, whose sessions are usually closed to the public, was the more proper
venue for hearings.
"We're already talking about this entirely too much out in public …
and it's endangering our efforts to make Americans more secure," he told "Fox
News Sunday."
The Justice Department has announced that it is investigating who leaked
information about the top-secret program to reporters.
"The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United
States," Bush said Sunday.
"There's an enemy out there. They read newspapers, they listen to what you
write, they listen to what you put on the air, and they react."
Schumer told Fox that the Justice Department investigation should determine
whether the leaker was seeking to disclose damaging information or to reveal
potentially illegal activity.
"There are differences between felons and whistle-blowers, and we ought to
wait till the investigation occurs to decide what happened," he said.
Roche reported from Washington and Chen from San Antonio.
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