like a good comrade....
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/washington/15intelcnd.html?hp&ex=1147665600&en=b4bca53da7cef6ff&ei=5094&partner=homepageWASHINGTON, May 14 — President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, insisted today that a newly disclosed government effort to compile data on millions of telephone calls in search of terrorist-linked calling patterns was a legal and "narrowly designed program" that did not involve listening to individual calls.
"The president has been very clear that we are to pursue our intelligence programs within the law," Mr. Hadley said, even as he declined to confirm details of the telephone surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency, which were reported Thursday by USA Today.
Mr. Hadley's comments came a day after Mr. Bush defended the program and days before its architect, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, is expected to face tough questioning about it during hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee on his confirmation as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. General Hayden is currently deputy to the national intelligence director.
Some top lawmakers criticized the surveillance program today and said that whether General Hayden is confirmed is likely to depend largely on how forthcoming he is during the committee hearings.
"This is the lawless White House, out of control with respect to a program like this," Representative Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the CBS News program "Face the Nation."