WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore, charging that President Bush's record on civil liberties posed a "grave danger" to America's constitutional freedoms, on Monday urged the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Bush's authorization of warrantless domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency.
In a detailed and impassioned speech sponsored by liberal and conservative groups, Gore said that although much remained unknown about the spying program, "what we do know ... virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law, repeatedly and insistently."
Gore, the Democratic nominee who lost to Bush in the bitterly disputed 2000 presidential race, also said Congress "should hold comprehensive ... hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the president."
Since acknowledging in December the existence of the surveillance program, Bush has said it targeted only people in the United States linked to terrorists and "is fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."
Bush said that his constitutional power as commander in chief and the congressional resolution authorizing him to use military force in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks provided a legal basis for such espionage activities.
Many Democrats and some Republicans have disputed those assertions, and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, in a study released this month, questioned the surveillance's legality.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the NSA program. The authority to appoint a special prosecutor rests with Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Bush aide who, the president has said, is among those who regularly review the spying program.
Gore said a special counsel was needed because of Gonzales' "obvious conflict of interest" in investigating the program.
Gonzales did not respond directly when asked in a television interview Monday night about Gore's call for a special counsel. But the attorney general suggested that he did not consider such an investigation necessary because he believes the president has the legal authority to order the NSA surveillance.
"The president not only has the authority, he has the duty ... to protect America against another attack," Gonzales said on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "And he's exercising his authorities in a lawful manner."
