December 16, 2005JIM LEHRER: First, the New York Times story this morning that says that you authorized secret wiretaps by the National Security Agency of thousands of Americans. Is that true?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Jim,
we do not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country, and the reason why is that there's an enemy that lurks, that would like to know exactly what we're trying to do to stop them.
I will make this point. That whatever I do to protect the American people, and I have an obligation to do so, that we will uphold the law, and decisions made are made understanding we have an obligation to protect the civil liberties of the American people.
JIM LEHRER: So if, in fact, these things did occur, they were done legally and properly?
PRESIDENT BUSH: So you're trying to get me to talk about a program--
JIM LEHRER: Yeah.
PRESIDENT BUSH: --
that's important not to talk about, and the reason why is that we're at a war with an enemy that still wants to attack.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec05/bush_12-16-05.htmlDecember 17, 2005, The NEXT DAY!He acknowledged during the address that he allowed the NSA "to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/17/bush.nsa/index.html