Related: US spy agency secretly collects phone call records

U.S. President Bush makes a statement on the government's intelligence activities at the White House, May 11, 2006. (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

    WASHINGTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday repeated his defense of the domestic eavesdropping program he authorized after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, following a report published by the USA Today newspaper the same day that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting phone call records of Americans.

    Bush said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he vowed to protect the American people "within the law" against another terrorist attack.

    "As part of this effort, I authorized the National Security Agency to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al-Qaida and related terrorist organizations,"he said in a statement at the White House.

    Apparently referring to the USA Today report, Bush said there were "new claims about other ways we are tracking down al-Qaida to prevent attacks on America" and insisted that the intelligence activities "strictly target al Qaida and their known affiliates."

    He said that the government did not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval, the intelligence activities he authorized "are lawful," and "the privacy of ordinary Americans isfiercely protected" in all intelligence activities.

    He warned that the leaking of sensitive intelligence "hurts our ability to defeat this enemy," and insisted that the government would do its "most important job" to protect the American people "within the laws."

    The USA Today reported Thursday that since Sept. 11, the NSA has also been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans, most of whom are not suspected of any crime, using data provided by three major telecommunication companies.

    The spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, the newspaper quoted sources as saying.

    After the disclosure by The New York Times last December, Bush acknowledged that he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop, without court warrants, on international calls and international e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the United States.

    A law, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, makes it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without warrants issued by a secret court. Enditem