Cheney Defends Domestic Spying

VP Calls Surveillance Program Essential Tool In War On Terror

(CBS/AP)  “Warrantless electronic surveillance aimed at intercepting enemy communications has long been recognized as a fundamental incident of the use of military force,” the paper reads.

Mr. Bush has authority under the Constitution and through the post-Sept. 11 congressional resolution granting him broad power to fight al Qaeda to order the warrantless wiretapping constitutional, the legal memo argues.

Gonzales said the analysis was needed to counter vocal critics of the program and show the public that "there's another side to this debate."

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the department attempts to argue that "the president can do no wrong in the war on terror."

The center is one of two civil liberties groups that sued the administration this week, calling the surveillance illegal and unconstitutional.

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Andrew Cohen writes about the first lawsuits filed this week to stop the domestic spying program.

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Cheney reiterated an oft-questioned connection between Iraq and the terrorists who engineered the 9-11 attacks.

"Some have suggested that by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein, we've simply stirred up a hornet's nest. They overlook a fundamental fact: we were not in Iraq on September 11, 2001, and the terrorists hit us anyway," he said. "The reality is that the terrorists were at war with our country long before the liberation of Iraq."

Cheney did not directly address an audiotape aired Thursday by Al-Jazeera in which a voice, determined by the CIA to be that of Osama bin Laden, said al Qaeda planned further attacks on the United States. But he said it was "more than obvious" the nation faced continued terrorist threats.

"The enemy that struck on 9-11 is weakened, fractured, but still lethal and still determined to hit us again," he said. "Either we are serious about fighting this war on terror or we are not."