Also see below:     
Wiretaps Vital and within Law: Bush    [

    Looks Like Bush Knew Wiretaps Were Wrong
    By James Ridgeway
    The Village Voice

    Tuesday 03 January 2006

President's defense of spying yesterday doesn't square with past.

    Washington - While President Bush denies any wrongdoing in the National Security Agency domestic wiretap and data-mining program, saying yesterday that it was perfectly legal, actions by top officials in his own administration suggest Bush and his inner circle of confidants did indeed know the spying was wrong.

    Bush said yesterday in defense of the eavesdropping, "This program has been reviewed, constantly reviewed, by people throughout my administration. And it still is reviewed. Not only has it been reviewed by Justice Department officials, it's been reviewed by members of the United States Congress," he said. "It's a vital, necessary program."

    But the New York Times revealed Sunday that when Bush couldn't get top level clearance for the wiretaps from deputy attorney general James Comey, two aides - Andrew Card, White House chief of staff, and Alberto Gonzalez, then White House counsel and now attorney general - went to George Washington University Hospital here, in a circuitous effort to get Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was recovering from gallbladder surgery, to sign off on it.

    Moreover, the AP reports that Bush, in Buffalo in 2004, was asked about a remark he made at an appearance in support of the Patriot Act, the president said, "Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap," Bush said, "a wiretap requires a court order." He added, according to the AP: "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."

 

---

    Go to Original

    Wiretaps Vital and within Law: Bush
    By David Nason
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 03 January 2006

    US President George W.Bush has been forced into another defence of his National Security Agency's domestic spying program after revelations that a senior Justice Department official refused to give his sanction because of legal concerns.

    Speaking at an army medical centre in the pro-military southern Texas city of San Antonio, Mr Bush said that, as commander-in-chief in a time of war, he had an obligation to "protect the American people." "It's a vital, necessary program," Mr Bush said. "We're at war with a bunch of cold-blooded killers who will kill on a moment's notice and I have a responsibility, obviously, to act within the law, which I am doing.

    "Some say, well, maybe this isn't a war, maybe this is just a law-enforcement operation. I strongly disagree.

    "We're at war with an enemy that wants to hurt us again, and the American people expect the commander-in-chief to protect them, and that's exactly what I intend to do."

    But Mr Bush refused to address whether senior officials in his administration had opposed the program because it overrode the legal requirement for domestic spying operations to have a warrant issued by a secret intelligence court that was set up in 1978 to handle sensitive requests for surveillance.

    The New York Times, which last month broke the story of how Mr Bush had authorised the NSA to intercept emails and phone calls without first obtaining warrants, reported that former deputy attorney-general James Comey refused to sign off on the recertification of the program in March 2004.

    This prompted an emergency visit to then attorney-general John Ashcroft by White House chief of staff Andrew Card and Mr Ashcroft's successor, Alberto Gonzales, the then White House counsel. Mr Ashcroft was in hospital, having undergone gallbladder surgery.

    Their efforts to persuade Mr Ashcroft to give his authorisation, a requirement under White House procedures for the program, reportedly met more resistance, causing the NSA program to be shelved for several months.

    The Justice Department is now conducting its own investigation into the leaking of the NSA program to the media. Mr Bush said the leaking had caused "great harm" to the US.

    "The NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers, called from the outside of the United States and of known al-Qa'ida or affiliate people," Mr Bush said. "In other words, the enemy is calling somebody and we want to know who they're calling and why. And that seems to make sense to me."

    The White House later put out a statement clarifying Mr Bush's remarks, saying only phone calls going to and originating from the US were being monitored.

    The issue is now headed for congressional hearings. Many Democrats believe the administration will have a hard time arguing that powers vested in the office of president in the US constitution, combined with a post-9/11 resolution of Congress, give Mr Bush a legal power to override the courts.

    If Congress finds the NSA program illegal, the question becomes whether Mr Bush has committed an impeachable offence.

    Mr Bush's case is damaged by comments he made in Buffalo, New York, in 2004, two years after the NSA program started.

    He said: "Any time you hear the US Government talking about wiretap, a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."

    Asked about this in San Antonio, Mr Bush said: "I was talking about roving wiretaps, I believe, involved in the Patriot Act. This is different from the NSA program."

    New York Democrat Charles Schumer, speaking on Fox News, said the Justice Department investigation should explore the motivation of the person who leaked the information.

    "Was this somebody who had an ill purpose, trying to hurt the US, or might it have been someone in the department who felt that this was wrong, legally wrong, that the law was being violated?" he asked.

    Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said hearings into the NSA program will be his highest priority this year, but fellow Republican senator Mitch McConnell said any hearings should be heard in secret by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    "We're already talking about this entirely too much out in public," Senator McConnell said. "It's endangering our efforts to make Americans more secure."