Bush Defends His Actions

In a speech this morning at Kansas State University, President Bush defended his actions to listen in on the conversations and e-mails of suspected Al Qaeda terrrorists coming into this country. He said it was well within the Constitution and has paid dividends.

“It’s amazing when people say to me, ‘Well, he’s just breaking the law.’ If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?” Bush said. “Federal courts have consistently ruled that a president has authority under the Constitution to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance against our enemies. Predecessors of mine have used that same constitutional authority.”

In his address, Bush spent time talking about the war on terrorism in general and then spent time defending what he calls a necessary act to preserve the safety of our country.

“I knew right after Sept. 11, though, the attack would begin to fade from people’s memories. Who wants to go through life thinking you’re going to get hit again? … I want to assure you and our fellow Americans I’m not going to put it in the past … for me, it’s not an isolated incident, I understand there’s still an enemy who lurks out there.”

He also went on to push the need for Congress to make permanent the contents of the Patriot Act saying that the enemy hasn’t gone away since 9/11, neither should the same tools we have used up to now to defend ourselves.

In an effort to explain to the American people why FISA is not always being used while at the same time trying to protect the program’s effectiveness and not divulging to the enemy, Fox News was told by Dan Bartlett, Presidential advisor, that the procedure is inadequate for the war.

“FISA court procedure is inadequate when it comes to this type of activity,” presidential adviser Dan Bartlett told FOX News on Monday. “The FISA court does play a critical role. I want to stress that. We use it to its fullest extent. But the type of activities, intelligence activity, surveillance of the enemies that’s happening at the National Security Agency is in a way that’s different from what the FISA envisioned and requires a lot more agility and speed.”

Bartlett also went on to explain that the White House was not hiding anything.

“We consulted at the highest levels of the leadership and the intelligence committees, both Republican and Democrats, Senate and House,” Bartlett told FOX News. “And the very conversation came up as to whether we should go and try to change law and the fact of the matter is, during those consultations, the conclusion was ‘no,’ the president had the authority to do what he was doing, the program was vital to the security of the American people. So we went forward, continuing to brief them as appropriate.”

Pete Hoekstra (R) from Michigan, who is chair of the House Intelligence Committee, says he was briefed 4 times since he has been chair in 15 months.