In a radio address to the nation, US President George W Bush admitted what the New York Times had first revealed:
that he’d secretly authorised the National Security Agency to eavesdrop
on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence
of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily
required for domestic spying. But he was quick to shift the blame – to
the paper and the people who leaked the story for putting Americans at
risk.

What commentators are saying:

  • The mass murders of 9/11 revealed deadly gaps in United States
    intelligence that needed to be closed. Most of those involved failure
    of performance, not legal barriers. Nevertheless, Americans expected
    some reasonable and carefully measured trade-offs between security and
    civil liberties. They trusted their elected leaders to follow
    long-established democratic and legal principles and to make any
    changes in the light of day. But President Bush had other ideas. He
    secretly and recklessly expanded the government’s powers in dangerous
    and unnecessary ways that eroded civil liberties and may also have
    violated the law. – New York Times editorial
  • Considering his track record, I am not too shocked to hear
    that President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to
    eavesdrop without warrants on people inside the United States. I am
    only disturbed by his reluctance to tell us about it … The story
    appropriately broke during the recent Senate debate over the renewal of
    the USA Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government’s ability to
    search and wiretap in the wake of Sept 11. Still, the administration
    would not discuss the specifics of the Times article, other than to
    assure us, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did, that President
    Bush has “acted lawfully in every step that he has taken.” Right. And
    we don’t torture, either. – Clarence Page, The Chicago Tribune
  • Make no mistake. The terrorists have media allies, witting and
    unwitting, both abroad and in America. Not just Al Jazeera. Even major
    American news operations are guilty of helping the terrorists.
    Examples: The Washington Post and The New York Times, the same two newspapers that published “The Pentagon Papers” during the Vietnam War, helping the Communists immensely, and Newsweek, the malicious magazine that put a picture of President Bush inside a bubble on its latest cover. – Michael Gaynor, Renewamerica.com
  • President Bush was cavalier on Friday night when he told Jim
    Lehrer on PBS that a report about the National Security Agency
    eavesdropping on U.S. citizens was “not the main story of the day.” He
    is entitled to his own news judgement, but it reveals a lot about his
    willingness to disregard constitutional safeguards and civil liberties
    while pursuing the war on terrorism. To the rest of us, the revelation
    in TheNew York Times that the National Security Agency
    has been eavesdropping on people within the United States without
    judicial warrants was stunning. – Los Angeles Timeseditorial