National Security Agency U S

President Bush acknowledged Wednesday that congressional hearings into his domestic spying program were inevitable, but he said they would be "good for democracy" as long as they did not "tell the enemy what we're doing."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on Sunday reiterated his reservations about President Bush's legal authority to order domestic spying, saying that Congress had not given Bush a "blank check" to order warrantless eavesdropping. Specter also said that if planned congressional hearings determined that the president broke the law, one possible remedy could be impeachment, though he quickly added that such talk was theoretical -- and premature.

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 ...

Two lawsuits filed Tuesday in federal courts seek to end President Bush's electronic eavesdropping program, saying it is illegal and exceeds his constitutional powers. The lawsuits -- one filed in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the other in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups -- say the program bypasses safeguards in a 1978 law requiring court approval of electronic monitoring.

Seeking to allay concerns from the public and Congress, the Bush administration ratcheted up its defense of a controversial domestic surveillance program Thursday, saying the power of the president to gather such intelligence during wartime was well-established and had been practiced by some of the most revered commanders in chief. The inherent power of the president to order such warrantless surveillance, moreover, was confirmed and enhanced by Congress after the terrorist attacks of Sept.

The Bush administration is launching an aggressive effort to persuade Americans that a controversial National Security Agency program of domestic eavesdropping without obtaining warrants is legal and justified. With public opinion polls indicating that Americans are divided over the program, President Bush's top political lieutenants on Friday used the surveillance program as a weapon against Democrats during speeches to Republican activists.

President Bush said Monday that spying on people in the United States by the National Security Agency and soon-to-expire elements of the Patriot Act were legal means to fight terrorism as he made a public embrace of the programs aimed at turning them to political advantage.

President Bush made a rare visit Wednesday to the National Security Agency, the office at the center of the controversy over warrantless eavesdropping, telling employees there: "When terrorist operatives are here in America communicating with someone overseas, we must understand what's going on." And he urged Americans to take seriously the words of Osama bin Laden, likely the NSA's No. 1 target, in an audiotape released last week.

An Internet rights group filed suit Tuesday against AT&T, accusing the long-distance telephone giant of violating federal privacy laws by helping the National Security Agency monitor calls and e-mail as part of its recently disclosed domestic spying operation.

The nation's top intelligence officials resisted pressure to provide more details about a controversial domestic eavesdropping program during congressional testimony Thursday, but said without elaborating that the operation had enabled authorities to disrupt potential terrorist plots. National Intelligence Director John D.