Bush defends spying at home, calls it terror surveillance

Times of India | January 25 2006

Comment: Spying on citizens because we are all possible terrorists.

MANHATTAN: President Bush is pushing back at critics of his once-secret domestic spying effort, saying it should be called a "terrorist surveillance program" and contending it has the backing of legal experts, lawmakers and the US Supreme Court.

Several members of Congress from both major parties have questioned the legality of having the National Security Agency snoop without first obtaining court warrants.

That is because the program bypasses a special federal court that, by law, must authorise eavesdropping on Americans; and because the president provided only limited notification to a few lawmakers.

"It's amazing that people say to me, 'Well, he's just breaking the law.' If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" Bush said on Monday before a large and friendly audience on a college campus in the heartland state of Kansas.