Bush defends domestic surveillance

US President George W. Bush said on Monday that he authorized the eavesdropping of international communications of terror suspects within the United States to protect the country against future attacks.

"I intend to do so for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens, " he told a news conference at the White House.

Bush said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York and Washington, he pledged "to do everything within my power to prevent this from happening again."

The new threat against the United States following the attacks required the country to think and act differently, and "to prevent this from happening again, we need to connect the dots before the enemy attacks, not after," he said.

The president argued that he authorized the interception of international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations, "consistent with US law and the Constitution."

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, he had reauthorized the program more than 30 times, and the program was carefully reviewed approximately every 45 days to ensure it was being used properly, he added.

In response to some lawmakers who called for an investigation and congressional hearings, Bush said the administration had briefed Congress leaders more than a dozen times on the program.

The New York Times revealed on Dec. 16 that shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct domestic eavesdropping of international calls and e-mails despite legal prohibitions against doing so.

Source: Xinhua