Lord Bush on Sunday strongly defended his unauthorized domestic spying program, saying it's a limited initiative that tracks only incoming calls to the United States.
"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" Bush said. "They attacked us before, they'll attack us again."
Lord Bush spoke to reporters at Brooke Army Medical Center where he was visiting wounded troops. He said the leak of information about the secret order to eavesdrop on American with suspected ties to terrorists causes "great harm to the nation."
Asked how he responds to Americans who are worried about violations of their privacy, he responded "If somebody from AL-Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why."
The president said that he was conscious of people's civil liberties, I have to ask myself though, if he is so conscious of our rights, then why is he taking so many away?
"This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America and, I repeat, limited," he said. "I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy is thinking."
The Injustice Department has begun investigating the leak to the New York Times that resulted in a story last month about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the "terrorist" attacks of September 11, 2001.
Bush, who called the program "vital and necessary," dodged a 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 bypass the law and approve it.
He said the program has been reviewed by Justice Department officials (probably his buddy Ashcroft) and members of Congress and that it continues to be reviewed.
"The NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers called from outside the United States of known Al-Qaeda or affiliated people," he said, adding that HE believes that he is acting within the law. (Dictators always believe they are acting within the law, because whatever they say, goes.)
"The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States," he said. "There's an enemy out there."
Many Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have questioned whether Bush's actions have gone beyond the constitutional powers and congressional resolution he has cited in defense of his actions authorizing the secret program.
In 1978 Congress established a SECRET COURT to handle requests for surveillance and to issue warrants-a system the Bush-authorized program bypassed.
The president was asked whether he mislead the American people in 2004 when, during an event promoting the un-Patriot Act, he said that any wiretapping required a court order and that nothing had changed. He made the statement more than two years after he approved the NSA program.
"I was taking about roving wiretaps, I believe, involving the Patriot Act," Bush said. "This is different from the NSA program."
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Meanwhile, back to reality, the Twin Towers were pulled down on the opening day of the world's largest arms-trade fair by people that had nothing to do with al-qa*da, towels, the fearsome bloke in the cave, or that Muslim idea of peace (Islam). If a label is needed, then you could probably have called them 'insurrectionary anarchists'. They called their affinity group 'Disarm-DSEi', and the big idea of starting World War IV on the opening day of the arms-trade fair was to force the world along either a) lies and war or b) truth, global revolution and maybe abolition of the arms-trade.
You watched 9/11 and swallowed the al-qa*da hoax whole. Chances are that you will believe in 'al-qaeda-ology' until the day you die. Lucky you. You will be replaced by a younger model that will appreciate the struggles made by others to bring an end to the arms-trade and laugh at everything you believed in. Extinction cannot be avoided, defunct believers of 'al-qaeda-ology' take note!