Bush vows to continue eavesdropping in U.S.
By David E. Sanger The New York Times
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2005
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has acknowledged that he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and he said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."
In an unusual step, Bush delivered a live weekly radio address Saturday from the White House in which he defended his action as "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."
Bush also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The disclosure that Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.
"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," Bush said, referring to the Patriot Act.
He said the Senate's action "endangers the lives of our citizens" and added that "the terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," a reference to the approaching deadline of Dec. 31, when critical provisions of the current law will end.
His statement came just a day before he was scheduled to make a rare Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, celebrating the Iraqi elections and describing what his press secretary on Saturday called the "path forward."
Bush's public confirmation on Saturday of the existence of one of the country's most secret intelligence programs, which had been known to only a select number of his aides, was a rare moment in his presidency. Few presidents have publicly confirmed the existence of heavily classified intelligence programs like this one.
The disclosure of the domestic spying program, which the administration temporarily suspended last year because of concerns about its legality, came in a leak. Bush said the information had been "improperly provided to news organizations."
As recently as Friday, when he was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of Public Broadcasting, Bush refused to confirm the report that day in The New York Times that in 2002 he authorized the domestic spying operation by the security agency. The agency is usually barred from intercepting domestic communications.
But as the clamor over the disclosure rose and Vice President Dick Cheney and Andrew Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, went to Capitol Hill to counter charges that the program was an illegal assumption of presidential powers, even in a time of war, Bush and his senior aides decided to abandon that approach.
"This is directly taking on the critics," said a senior administration official, speaking on background because, he said, the White House wanted the president to be the only voice on the issue. "The Democrats are now in the position of supporting our efforts to protect Americans, or defend positions that could weaken our nation's security."
Not surprisingly, Democrats saw the issue differently.
"Our government must follow the laws and respect the Constitution while it protects Americans' security and liberty," said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate's leading critic of the Patriot Act.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said he would conduct hearings on why Bush took the action.
In his statement on Saturday, Bush did not address the main question directed at him by some members of Congress on Friday: why he felt it necessary to circumvent the system established under current law. This allows the administration to seek emergency warrants, in secret, from the court that oversees intelligence operations.
His critics said that under that law, the administration could have obtained the same information.
Bush said Saturday that he acted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks because the United States had failed to detect communications that might have tipped it off to the plot.
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has acknowledged that he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and he said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."
In an unusual step, Bush delivered a live weekly radio address Saturday from the White House in which he defended his action as "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."
Bush also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The disclosure that Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.
"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," Bush said, referring to the Patriot Act.
He said the Senate's action "endangers the lives of our citizens" and added that "the terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," a reference to the approaching deadline of Dec. 31, when critical provisions of the current law will end.
His statement came just a day before he was scheduled to make a rare Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, celebrating the Iraqi elections and describing what his press secretary on Saturday called the "path forward."
Bush's public confirmation on Saturday of the existence of one of the country's most secret intelligence programs, which had been known to only a select number of his aides, was a rare moment in his presidency. Few presidents have publicly confirmed the existence of heavily classified intelligence programs like this one.
The disclosure of the domestic spying program, which the administration temporarily suspended last year because of concerns about its legality, came in a leak. Bush said the information had been "improperly provided to news organizations."
As recently as Friday, when he was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of Public Broadcasting, Bush refused to confirm the report that day in The New York Times that in 2002 he authorized the domestic spying operation by the security agency. The agency is usually barred from intercepting domestic communications.
But as the clamor over the disclosure rose and Vice President Dick Cheney and Andrew Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, went to Capitol Hill to counter charges that the program was an illegal assumption of presidential powers, even in a time of war, Bush and his senior aides decided to abandon that approach.
"This is directly taking on the critics," said a senior administration official, speaking on background because, he said, the White House wanted the president to be the only voice on the issue. "The Democrats are now in the position of supporting our efforts to protect Americans, or defend positions that could weaken our nation's security."
Not surprisingly, Democrats saw the issue differently.
"Our government must follow the laws and respect the Constitution while it protects Americans' security and liberty," said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate's leading critic of the Patriot Act.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said he would conduct hearings on why Bush took the action.
In his statement on Saturday, Bush did not address the main question directed at him by some members of Congress on Friday: why he felt it necessary to circumvent the system established under current law. This allows the administration to seek emergency warrants, in secret, from the court that oversees intelligence operations.
His critics said that under that law, the administration could have obtained the same information.
Bush said Saturday that he acted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks because the United States had failed to detect communications that might have tipped it off to the plot.
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has acknowledged that he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and he said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."
In an unusual step, Bush delivered a live weekly radio address Saturday from the White House in which he defended his action as "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."
Bush also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The disclosure that Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.
"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," Bush said, referring to the Patriot Act.
He said the Senate's action "endangers the lives of our citizens" and added that "the terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," a reference to the approaching deadline of Dec. 31, when critical provisions of the current law will end.
His statement came just a day before he was scheduled to make a rare Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, celebrating the Iraqi elections and describing what his press secretary on Saturday called the "path forward."
Bush's public confirmation on Saturday of the existence of one of the country's most secret intelligence programs, which had been known to only a select number of his aides, was a rare moment in his presidency. Few presidents have publicly confirmed the existence of heavily classified intelligence programs like this one.
The disclosure of the domestic spying program, which the administration temporarily suspended last year because of concerns about its legality, came in a leak. Bush said the information had been "improperly provided to news organizations."
As recently as Friday, when he was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of Public Broadcasting, Bush refused to confirm the report that day in The New York Times that in 2002 he authorized the domestic spying operation by the security agency. The agency is usually barred from intercepting domestic communications.
But as the clamor over the disclosure rose and Vice President Dick Cheney and Andrew Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, went to Capitol Hill to counter charges that the program was an illegal assumption of presidential powers, even in a time of war, Bush and his senior aides decided to abandon that approach.
"This is directly taking on the critics," said a senior administration official, speaking on background because, he said, the White House wanted the president to be the only voice on the issue. "The Democrats are now in the position of supporting our efforts to protect Americans, or defend positions that could weaken our nation's security."
Not surprisingly, Democrats saw the issue differently.
"Our government must follow the laws and respect the Constitution while it protects Americans' security and liberty," said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate's leading critic of the Patriot Act.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said he would conduct hearings on why Bush took the action.
In his statement on Saturday, Bush did not address the main question directed at him by some members of Congress on Friday: why he felt it necessary to circumvent the system established under current law. This allows the administration to seek emergency warrants, in secret, from the court that oversees intelligence operations.
His critics said that under that law, the administration could have obtained the same information.
Bush said Saturday that he acted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks because the United States had failed to detect communications that might have tipped it off to the plot.
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has acknowledged that he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and he said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."
In an unusual step, Bush delivered a live weekly radio address Saturday from the White House in which he defended his action as "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."
Bush also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The disclosure that Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans and terrorist suspects inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.
"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," Bush said, referring to the Patriot Act.
He said the Senate's action "endangers the lives of our citizens" and added that "the terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," a reference to the approaching deadline of Dec. 31, when critical provisions of the current law will end.
His statement came just a day before he was scheduled to make a rare Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, celebrating the Iraqi elections and describing what his press secretary on Saturday called the "path forward."
Bush's public confirmation on Saturday of the existence of one of the country's most secret intelligence programs, which had been known to only a select number of his aides, was a rare moment in his presidency. Few presidents have publicly confirmed the existence of heavily classified intelligence programs like this one.
The disclosure of the domestic spying program, which the administration temporarily suspended last year because of concerns about its legality, came in a leak. Bush said the information had been "improperly provided to news organizations."
As recently as Friday, when he was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of Public Broadcasting, Bush refused to confirm the report that day in The New York Times that in 2002 he authorized the domestic spying operation by the security agency. The agency is usually barred from intercepting domestic communications.
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