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Bush blames bin Laden
26/01/2006 13:24 - (SA)
Washington - United States President George W Bush said on Wednesday that a controversial domestic spying programme that some critics say is illegal was necessary in light of new threats on an audiotape from Osama bin Laden.
"I'll continue to reauthorise this programme for so long as our country faces a continuing threat from al-Qaeda and related groups," Bush said during a visit to the National Security Agency (NSA), which runs the surveillance initiative.
"Listen to the words of Osama bin Laden and take him seriously. When he says he's going to hurt the American people again, or try to, he means it," he said. "I take it seriously. And the people of NSA take it seriously. And most of the American people take it seriously as well."
The al-Qaeda mastermind threatened fresh attacks on the United States in a new audiotape broadcast last week by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station.
Under Bush's order, issued in the weeks after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, the NSA no longer needs a court's permission to intercept US citizens' telephone calls or electronic mail overseas.
"We must be able to quickly detect when someone linked to al-Qaeda is communicating with someone inside of America. That's one of the challenges of protecting the American people," the president said.
"We've seen that part of the terrorist strategy is to place operatives inside of our country. They blend in with the civilian population. They get their orders from overseas. And then they emerge to strike from within.
"When terrorist operatives are here in America communicating with someone overseas, we must understand what's going on if we are going to do our job to protect the people," said Bush.
- AFP
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