Cheney Defends Domestic Spying

VP Calls Surveillance Program Essential Tool In War On Terror

(CBS/AP)  Vice President Dick Cheney offered a robust defense of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program Thursday, calling it an essential tool in monitoring the activities of al Qaeda and associated terrorist organizations. But he stressed the program was limited in scope and had been conducted in a way that safeguarded civil liberties.

In a luncheon speech at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative public policy think tank, Cheney warned that the United States still faced significant threats from terrorists intent on establishing a radical Islamic empire throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. He insisted the U.S.-led war in Iraq was essential to combating that threat, and said American military presence in that country would be determined by military commanders, "not by artificial timelines set by politicians in Washington, DC."

Much of the vice president's speech addressed the warrantless eavesdropping on international communications conducted by the National Security Agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The program, first disclosed in The New York Times last month, has come under heavy criticism by Congressional Democrats and civil libertarians and is now the focus of at least two federal lawsuits.

"A spirit of debate is now under way, and our message to the American people is clear and straightforward: these actions are within the president's authority and responsibility under the constitution and laws, and these actions are vital to our security," he said.

President Bush has acknowledged that beginning in October 2001, he authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States without seeking warrants from the courts. Cheney told the audience Mr. Bush had reauthorized the program more than 30 times since 2001 and would continue to do so.

Critics insist federal law allows domestic surveillance under extreme situations but only with court approval.

"It's hard to think of any category of information that could be more important to the safety of the United States than international communication, one end of which we have reason to believe is related to al Qaeda," Cheney said, arguing that the surveillance program had addressed a concern identified by the 9-11 Commission report, suggesting an inability to link the activities of domestic and international terrorists.

Also Thursday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent congressional leaders a 42-page legal defense of warrantless eavesdropping, expanding on arguments that he and other administration officials have been making since the program was first disclosed last month.

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen reports that in the legal defense, the spy program now is being called an “early warning system” to prevent attacks and is being referred to as “signals intelligence activities”—part of an effort by government lawyers to make it seem more of a military than law enforcement function since the president’s war powers are greater than his law enforcement powers.