President Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night.
Bush on Friday refused to discuss whether he had authorized such domestic spying without obtaining warrants from a court, saying that to comment would tie his hands in fighting terrorists.
In a broad defense of the program put forward hours later, however, a senior intelligence official told The Associated Press that the eavesdropping was narrowly designed to go after possible terrorist threats in the United States.
The official said that since October 2001, the program has been renewed more than three dozen times. Each time, the White House counsel and the attorney general certified the lawfulness of the program, the official said. Bush then signed the authorization.
�Only if those conditions apply do we even begin to think about this,� he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence operation.
�The president has authorized NSA to fully use its resources � let me underscore this now � consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution to defend the United States and its citizens,� the official said, adding that congressional leaders have also been briefed more than a dozen times.
Senior officials asserted that that the president would do everything in his power to protect the American people while safeguarding civil liberties.
�I will make this point,� Bush said in an interview with �The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.� �That whatever I do to protect the American people � and I have an obligation to do so � that we will uphold the law, and decisions made are made understanding we have an obligation to protect the civil liberties of the American people.�
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