NSA Surveillance Watch: President Bush defends Spying as “A Necessary Part of My Job to Protect” Americans from Attack

U.S. President George W. Bush answers a question during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington December 19, 2005. Bush vowed on Monday to authorize more eavesdropping on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists and said he believed a probe was underway into who committed ‘the shameful act’ of revealing the covert program.

The ASSociated Press has Bush Says NSA Surveillance Necessary, Legal

President Bush, brushing aside bipartisan criticism in Congress, said Monday he approved spying on suspected terrorists without court orders because it was “a necessary part of my job to protect” Americans from attack. The president said he would continue the program “for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens,” and added it included safeguards to protect civil liberties.

The Democrats and the MSM are so quick to label President Bush as an authoritarian power grabbing despot.

Congressional leaders were briefed over a dozen times. If there was such deep concern from the Congress why was the program allowed to proceed without congressional rancor?

Why did the New York Times LEAK the story just prior to the Senate vote on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act?

Do you think the Democrats and MSM want Bush to fail?

YOU THINK!

Bush bristled at a year-end news conference when asked whether there are any limits on presidential power in wartime.

“I just described limits on this particular program, and that’s what’s important for the American people to understand,” Bush said.

Raising his voice, Bush challenged Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton _ without naming them _ to allow a final vote on legislation renewing the anti-terror Patriot Act. “I want senators from New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas to explain why these cities are safer” without the extension, he said.

Reid represents Nevada; Clinton is a New York senator, and both helped block passage of the legislation in the Senate last week.

“In a war on terror we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment,” he said.

Indeed!

Come on Hillary – PUT UP OR SHUT UP

And Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, Reid………