Bush aides deny laws were broken in spy effort - Yahoo! News
"The New York Times said Friday that the president authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2002 to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without getting warrants previously required for internal spying.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "not going to comment on intelligence activities, because intelligence activities by their very nature are activities that are sensitive and that should not be compromised."
'The president of the United States acted lawfully in every step that he has taken to defend the American people and to defend them within his constitutional responsibility,' Rice told NBC television.
At any given time since the order, the NSA monitored 500 people inside the United States and 5,000 to 7,000 people overseas suspected of having terrorist ties, the daily reported.
US officials told the Times that the program had disrupted terrorist plots, citing Ohio trucker Iyman Faris, who in 2003 pleaded guilty to supporting Al-Qaeda by planning to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City."
- posted by geoff @ #