Bush again defends spy program 53% of Americans approve, poll says

Wire services Jan. 27, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - President Bush suggested Thursday that he would resist any congressional move to change his controversial program of warrantless surveillance for terrorist threats and said, "There's no doubt in my mind it is legal."

Bush told a White House news conference that the domestic spying program "is designed to protect civil liberties" and declared that "it's necessary."

Democrats have accused the president of breaking the law in allowing eavesdropping on overseas communications to and from U.S. residents, and even some members of his own party have questioned the practice.

It was the Bush's first full-scale news conference of the new year and the 10th since he was re-elected in 2004. He previewed his upcoming State of the Union address and the administration's cooperation with Congress on its investigation of Hurricane Katrina.

Asked if he would support efforts in Congress to spell out his authority to continue the eavesdropping program, Bush cited what he said was the extreme delicacy of the operation. "But it's important for people to understand that this program is so sensitive and so important that if information gets out to how we run it or how we operate it, it'll help the enemy," he said. "Why tell the enemy what we're doing?

Bush defended his administration's level of cooperation with congressional investigations into the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, citing the thousands of documents the White House has provided.

Meanwhile, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll suggests Americans are willing to tolerate eavesdropping without warrants to fight terrorism but are concerned that the aggressive anti-terrorism programs championed by the Bush administration are encroaching on civil liberties.

The poll said that 53 percent of Americans approved of Bush authorizing eavesdropping without prior court approval "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism;" 46 percent disapproved. When the question was asked stripped of any mention of terrorism, 46 percent of those respondents approved and 50 percent said they disapproved.

The Times/CBS News telephone poll was conducted with 1,229 adults, starting last Friday and ending on Wednesday. Its margin of sampling error was 3 percentage points.

Associated Press and the New York Times contributed to this article.