WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (KUNA) — President Bush pressured Congress, on Thursday, to renew a surveillance bill, set to expire on Saturday that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies involved in wiretapping.
President Bush, speaking at the White House Rose Garden, urged the House of Representatives to quickly pass a new version the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, dubbed the “Protect America Act”, passed by the Senate earlier this week, which would expand the government’s ability to eavesdrop on Americans and prevent law suits from being filed against phone companies for helping the administration spy on customers.
He warned the congress, “failure to act would harm out ability to monitor new terrorist activities and could reopen dangerous gaps in out intelligence” and added “failure to act would make the private sector less willing to help us protect eh country, and this is unacceptable.” Bush supports the Senate-passed bill, but the House of Representatives has not agreed on the measure to provide immunity from lawsuits for phone companies included in the bill.
He defended the controversial measure as “fair and just liable protection,” and stated “without this liability shield we may not be able to secure the private sector’s cooperation with out intelligence efforts, and that, of course would put the American people at risk.” Bush said he would not approve another 21-day extension of the law, but wants the act quickly approved so he can sign it into law immediately.
Bush is trying to get Congress to pass the act before he embarks on a five-national tour of Africa on Friday. But with the bill set to expire at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, said he will postpone his long-scheduled trip if necessary.
“If we delay the trip, we’ll delay,” Bush said, but there is “really no excuse for letting this critical legislation expire.” “If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning will be compromised,” Bush said.
He denied that Congress was engaging in a game of “chicken” on the matter.
“I certainly hope not. I can assure you that al-Qaeda in their planning isn’t thinking about politics, they are thinking about hurting the American people again,” He said.
He noted the absence of further terrorist attacks in the US was in part due to the government’s surveillance tools approved by Congress, but the threat of further attacks continues.
“I recognize there hasn’t been an attack on our country, but that does not mean that there’s not still an enemy that lurks, plans and plots,” he said.
“The threat is still there. It’s still real and we better be worried about it as a nation.”