WASHINGTON – President Bush said Saturday that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists because it was “critical to saving American lives” and “consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution.”
Bush said the program has been reviewed regularly by the nation’s top legal authorities and targets only those people with “a clear link to these terrorist networks.” Noting the failures to detect hijackers already in the country before the strikes on New York and Washington, Bush said the NSA’s domestic spying since then has helped thwart other attacks.
In his statement, the president assailed the news media for disclosing the eavesdropping program, and rebuked Senate Democrats for blocking renewal of the USA Patriot Act, which gave the FBI greater surveillance power after Sept. 11, 2001, and which expires Dec. 31.
“The terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks,” said Bush, calling a filibuster by Democratic senators opposed to the Patriot Act “irresponsible.”
The speech represented a turnaround for a White House that initially refused to discuss the highly classified NSA effort even after it was revealed in news accounts. Advisers said Bush decided to confirm the program’s existence – and combine that with a demand for reauthorization of the Patriot Act – to put critics on the defensive by framing it as a matter of national security, not civil liberties.
The NSA “authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists,” Bush said. “It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I’m the president of the United States.”
Congressional Democrats and some Republicans have expressed outrage at the NSA program. Some of them were further incensed by Bush’s remarks Saturday. “The president believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed,” Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said. “He is a president, not a king.” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the administration “seems to believe it is above the law.”
Associated Press
President Bush delivers his weekly radio address Saturday from the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
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