BUSH: President Bush has admitted he secretly authorised the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens within the United States but claimed the action was necessary to prevent terrorist attacks.
The president used his weekly radio address to defend the action, which some Democratic and Republican lawmakers believe is illegal.
"In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with US law and the constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al-Qaeda and related terrorist organizations . . . This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security. Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends and allies," he said.
Outrage over last week's revelation of the spying operation helped Senate Democrats to win enough votes to block the extension of parts of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act that are due to expire on December 31st. Democrats want to extend the measures by just three months while Congress considers whether civil liberties safeguards are adequate but Mr Bush has threatened to veto anything less than a full extension that would make some of the measures permanent and extend others for four years.
"The senators who are filibustering must stop their delaying tactics, and the Senate must vote to reauthorise the Patriot Act. In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," he said.
Republican Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the spying revelations almost certainly helped to block the Patriot Act extension. He said the committee would hold hearings into the agency's operation early in the New Year.
"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," he said.
Democrats went further, with Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin accusing Mr Bush of behaving like an absolute monarch rather than a president.
"We have a system of law. He just can't make up the law . . . It would turn George Bush not into President George Bush, but King George Bush," he said.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires that agency phone taps should be authorised by the special court that meets in secret at the Justice Department.
"A person is guilty of an offense if he intentionally . . . engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized by statute," it says.
The White House argues that Mr Bush has the authority to authorize the spying under the president's war-making powers, as set out in the constitution and in statutes. Mr Bush said he had reviewed the agency's authorisation more than 30 times since September 11th, 2001.
He said the agency's activities under this authorisation were thoroughly reviewed by the Justice Department.
"Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorisation and the activities conducted under it," Mr Bush added.