US President George W. Bush vowed to extend an unprecedented spy effort targeting US citizens with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda and denied that the program was illegal or an abuse of his power.
In a year-end press conference, the president said he presumed the "shameful" leak that revealed the secret program, first reported in the New York Times on Friday, would trigger a US Justice Department investigation. "My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in time of war" [The shame is on you, GW, for disrespecting the Constitution and Bill of Rights] |