"I Only Put It In A Little Ways, Your Honor, So It's Not Rape!"

Bush defends eavesdropping amid calls for testimony

By Tabassum Zakaria Sun Jan 1, 6:25 PM ET
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush defended domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency on Sunday after a newspaper report about a Justice Department official's resistance to the program prompted new calls for a Senate inquiry.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that James Comey, a deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, was concerned about the legality of the NSA program and refused to extend it in 2004. White House aides then turned to Ashcroft while the attorney general was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery, the Times said.

"This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America," Bush said after visiting wounded troops at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

The NSA program "listens to a few numbers called from the outside of the United States and of known al Qaeda or affiliate people," he said.

"If somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why," Bush said.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy later said that while the president focused on calls being made from abroad, the eavesdropping program was also conducted on communications originating from inside the United States.

"We're at war," Bush said. "I've got to use the resources at my disposal, within the law, to protect the American people. And that's what we're doing."

(emphasis added) You mean, despite the fact that the DoJ refused to sanction it, you STILL felt it was within the law???

The bullheadedness of this administration in defending their crimes is flabbergasting.

History will make a bigger deal over Bush's failures and frauds than our media ever will, with the possible exception of Blogtopia©.

There are days I wake up and wonder where my country went to: the nation that promised all of us freedom from tyranny and oppression. The nation that told me that I could do anything or be anybody I wanted to be.

Now, it's "all that, but be careful: we're watching, and if we so much as suspect you of having any evil intent, it's off to the hoosegow with you!"