Related: US spy agency's eavesdropping revealed

         Bush authorized domestic spying: report

    BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. lawmakers on Sunday questioned President Bush's authority to order domestic spying without obtaining warrants.

    On Saturday, Bush confirmed that he authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept telephone and Internet communications between U.S. residents and people abroad. Those cases involved only those with "a clear link" to terrorist activities, Bush said, and had been reviewed more than 30 times by administration lawyers. He also said congressional leaders had been briefed "more than a dozen times."

    The NSA first began to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone calls and e-mail messages between the United States and Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to The New York Times.

    Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on Fox News Sunday the administration had briefed him on the program "a couple of months ago." But there wasn't enough congressional oversight, he said, and "there's no way the president can pass the buck."

    Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said on CNN "there is no legal authority under the statutes that I know of" to support the surveillance. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has promised hearings on the surveillance.

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on several occasions that the president had sufficient authority. She said she knew of the practice because of her prior job as his national security adviser.

    Many legal experts also expressed doubts about the legality of the surveillance.  Enditem

    (Agencies)