Bush defends his internal spying program

SAN ANTONIO -- After visiting wounded troops suffering from what he described as the ''horrible consequences" of war, President Bush minced no words in defending the domestic spying program he authorized to foil terrorists.

''Some say, 'Well maybe this isn't a war -- maybe this is just a law enforcement operation.' I strongly disagree," Bush said yesterday at Brooke Army Medical Center. He was answering questions about the eavesdropping program set up after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ''We're at war with an enemy that wants to hurt us again."

In Washington, lawmakers are preparing for hearings into the domestic spying program, which Bush says does not involve widespread eavesdropping on Americans. ''This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America and, I repeat, limited," Bush said. ''I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy's thinking."

Four senators -- two of them Republicans -- indicated yesterday that congressional hearings were appropriate.

The hearings, they said, were to consider Bush's assertion that he had constitutional and congressional authority to authorize domestic wiretaps without a court order in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. ''In the first few weeks we made many concessions in the Congress because we were at war and we were under attack," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

''We still have the possibility of that going on, so we don't want to obviate all of this. But I think we want to see what, in the course of time, really works best."

Last month, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had been conducting surveillance without warrants since 2002.

After that report, Bush acknowledged that he had authorized the NSA program. He said he had informed congressional leaders, and had given regular reviews, via administration officials as evidence of oversight for the program.

The Justice Department on Friday opened an investigation into the leak, which resulted in news stories about the secret order to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists.

''The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States," Bush said before he returned to Washington from a holiday break at his Texas ranch. ''There's an enemy out there," Bush added.

The president stressed that the surveillance had involved telephone calls from ''a few numbers" outside the United States by people associated with Al Qaeda. The White House clarified Bush's remarks, saying he meant to say calls going to and originating from the United States were being monitored.

''It seems logical to me that if we know there's a phone number associated with Al Qaeda or an Al Qaeda affiliate and they're making phone calls, it makes sense to find out why," he said. ''They attacked us before, they'll attack us again."

Bush did not answer a reporter's question about whether he was aware of any resistance to the program at high levels of his administration, and how that might have influenced his decision to approve it.

A top Justice Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the NSA program, The New York Times reported, and the official declined to sign off on its continued use as required by the administration's guidelines.

James B. Comey, a top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, was concerned with the program's legality and oversight, the Times and Newsweek reported. Officials then went to Ashcroft, who had been hospitalized for gall-bladder surgery, to gain his approval, according to the newspaper, but it was unclear whether Ashcroft gave his approval.

Neither Comey nor Ashcroft commented on the meeting, the Times said.

A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, declined yesterday to answer questions about internal discussions.

Many in Congress have questioned whether Bush's actions went beyond the constitutional powers and congressional resolution he has cited. In 1978 Congress established a secret court to handle sensitive requests for surveillance and to issue warrants. The NSA program bypassed that system.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has called for hearings into the program. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said yesterday that he would prefer that any hearings be held by the Intelligence Committee, which likely would be in secret.

''We're already talking about this entirely too much out in public as a result of these leaks . . . and it's endangering our efforts to make Americans more secure," McConnell said.

Appearing with McConnell on ''Fox News Sunday," Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat, 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 United States?" Schumer asked. ''Or might it have been someone in the department who felt that this was wrong, legally wrong, that the law was being violated?"