Bush defends spying after NSA database report

WASHINGTON - Following a report that the U.S. agency in charge of a domestic spying program is building a database of every phone call made in the country, President Bush on Thursday told the nation from the White House that all anti-terrorism efforts are within the law.

Facing new concerns in Congress, President Bush referred to the report but did not confirm or deny it and instead sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being “fiercely protected.”

“We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans,” Bush said before leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Biloxi. “Our efforts are focused on links to al-Qaida and their known affiliates."

Gen. Michael Hayden, in line to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, downplayed fears of abuse. "Everything that NSA does is lawful and very carefully done. And ... the appropriate members of the Congress, House and Senate, are briefed on all NSA activities. And I think I'll just leave it at that."

Hayden, who headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005, made his comments Thursday on Capitol Hill after a meeting with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the assistant Senate majority leader.

Hayden vowed to do everything in his power to fight terrorism, and “we will do so within the laws of our country.”

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call phone company executives to appear before the panel “to find out exactly what is going on.”

“We’re really flying blind on the subject, and that’s not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy,” Specter said of domestic surveillance in general.

USA Today reports on NSA database
USA Today reported Thursday that the National Security Agency has been building up the database using records provided by three major phone companies — AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. — but that the program “does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations.”

Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, the newspaper said.

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