U.S. president criticizes Democrats over surveillance legislation

Source: Xinhua | 02-25-2008 08:15

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday criticized House Democratic leaders over new terrorism surveillance legislation, urging the House to renew the law that expired last weekend.

Terrorists are plotting attacks "at this very moment," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

The law, the Protect American Act, expired on Jan. 31, but President Bush signed a 15-day extension of the surveillance law after he failed to have Congress make it permanent.

The core of the controversy is whether the wireless surveillance program violated provisions of the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that requires warrants for wiretaps whenever one of the parties involved in the communication resides in the United States.

The Justice Department and the Office of National Intelligence issued a joint statement on Saturday, saying that U.S. telecommunication companies have agreed to cooperate with spy agencies' wiretaps "for the time being."

"Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists," the statement said.

The surveillance bill, if passed, provides protection for telecommunications companies that wiretapped U.S. phone and computer lines at the government's request, but without the permission of a secret court created 30 years ago to oversee such activities.

The House version does not provide such immunity against lawsuits.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei