Manhattan, Kan. – President Bush said Monday that the National Security Agency’s spying on U.S. citizens and the soon-to-expire elements of the USA Patriot Act are legal means to fight terrorism
In a public embrace of the programs aimed at turning them to political advantage, Bush offered his lengthiest public explanation of the NSA eavesdropping, which the administration has taken to calling the “terrorist surveillance program” since it was revealed in December.
He said a 2004 Supreme Court ruling found that a congressional resolution passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks gave him the authority to act to protect the country from terrorism.
“It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn’t prescribe the tactics. It said: ‘Mr. President, you’ve got the power to protect us, but we’re not going to tell you how.”‘
“If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?” he said.
Bush spoke for an hour and 41 minutes in a speech and question-and-answer session, perhaps his longest such event as president.
His audience was made up of local residents, students and soldiers from Fort Riley who nearly filled Bramlage Coliseum, a sports arena at Kansas State University.
Bush spoke for nearly 45 minutes about the war in Iraq and his anti-terrorism programs, and then took questions covering not only Iraq but student loans, the future of Social Security, beef exports and what he is doing to eliminate nuclear weapons.
His visit to Kansas coincided with a speech in Washington by Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the deputy director of national intelligence, who vigorously defended the domestic surveillance operation.
The speeches kicked off an aggressive effort by the administration to present the eavesdropping as a crucial element in what it calls the global war against terrorism. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is expected to speak about the spying program today, and Bush plans to visit the National Security Agency headquarters outside Washington on Wednesday.
Last week, the Justice Department made public a 42-page analysis in which it argued that the president’s action rested on the inherent power of his office and that the post-Sept. 11 congressional resolution confirmed that authority.
Bush said Monday that the program was limited to monitoring the conversations or e-mail of someone inside the United States and someone beyond its borders in which “one of the numbers would be reasonably suspected to be an al-Qaeda link or affiliate.”
“In other words, we have ways to determine whether or not someone can be an al-Qaeda affiliate or al-Qaeda. And if they’re making a phone call in the United States, it seems to me we want to know why,” he said.
“These are not phone calls within the United States,” he said. “This is a phone call of an al-Qaeda, known al-Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States.”
The debate over the spying program pits post-Sept. 11 concern about terrorism against privacy issues, and the outcome could determine whether the public thinks the administration has gone too far in its efforts to fend off another terrorist attack.
“I’m mindful of your civil liberties, and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process,” Bush told the Kansas gathering.
Bush also encouraged Congress to extend key sections of the Patriot Act beyond the scheduled Feb. 3 expiration. He said the measure is under constant review and that no abuses have been documented.
Critics have said the measure, like the NSA surveillance, violates or comes very close to violating constitutional provisions protecting Americans’ privacy.
On Friday, two Democratic senators, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, introduced a resolution challenging the administration’s assertion that the congressional resolution passed shortly after the 2001 attacks gave Bush the authority he needed to avoid court approval.
The resolution, Kennedy said, “says nothing about domestic electronic surveillance.”
He argued that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act establishing the ground rules for monitoring such communications and establishing a special court to grant warrants for wiretaps, provided for criminal prosecution of anyone who failed to comply with the eavesdropping rules.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that the measure “didn’t anticipate some of the technological issues that needed to be addressed.”
