Bush officials ratchet up defense of domestic eavesdropping

Officials weigh national security against privacy issues
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Monday intensified its defense of a domestic surveillance program that supporters say protects against terrorism and critics say threatens civil liberties.

During a Washington address, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who headed the National Security Agency when President Bush first authorized the surveillance program after September 11, 2001, staunchly defended it.

"Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States and we would have identified them as such," said Hayden, who now serves as principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Addressing privacy concerns prompted by the program, Hayden said, "We know we can only do our job if we have the trust of the American people."
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Bush and other administration officials contend his constitutional powers as commander-in-chief, as well as a congressional resolution passed in the wake of 9/11, provide the legal authority for the warrantless surveillance.
full story at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/23/nsa.strategy/index.html

OMG I think they actually believe there own bullshit... are we to far down the path to turn around...

Bush Says He Was Within Law to Authorize Spy Program

link to story

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 23, 2006

Filed at 2:26 p.m. ET

MANHATTAN, Kan.(AP) -- President Bush said that those seeking to attack the United States cannot be appeased and terrorists must be destroyed.

Speaking at Kansas State University, the president said that the war on terror is an ''ideological struggle'' against an enemy that has a ''view of the world that is the exact opposite of our view of the world.''

''The United States must confront threats before they cause us harm,'' he said.

Bush reiterated his belief in preemptive action to thwart threats to the United States and he again defended his decision to go to war in Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein as a necessary part of the war on terror.

Bush, speaking in Manhattan, Kan., is expected to make a point of defending his secret domestic eavesdropping program. It's part of a new administration effort to convince Americans that the National Security Agency's communications spying program is necessary to fight terrorism.

The public relations campaign comes two weeks before congressional hearings to examine the top-secret program, disclosed last month by The New York Times, are set to begin. Critics have said the president broke the law by authorizing the eavesdropping without a judge's approval and by failing to fully consult with Congress.

As part of that campaign, presidential adviser Dan Bartlett made a pitch for the surveillance program Monday morning on network television news shows. He insisted that Bush was ''not bypassing the law. In fact, we're interpreting the law correctly.''

''It would be our choice to not to have to talk about this at all,'' he said on ABC's ''Good Morning America.''

if they thought it was within the law why are they so strongly trying to convince everyone that it is...