dougs digs

President Bush acknowledged on Saturday that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program on U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants, and said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."

He also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance, with warrants, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The revelation that Mr. Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.

The program was first reported by the media in a New York Times report Friday and Bush said that information about the program had been improperly leaked to news organizations and warned that the unauthorized disclosure was illegal. Friday evening, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) promised to hold hearings to investigate the "inappropriate" granting of powers to the NSA to spy on Americans.