NEW YORK -- Vice President Dick Cheney offered a robust defense of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program Thursday, calling it an essential tool in monitoring the activities of al-Qaida and associated terrorist organizations. But he stressed the program was limited in scope and had been conducted in a way that safeguarded civil liberties. In a luncheon speech at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative public policy think tank, Cheney warned that the United States still faced significant threats from a network of terrorists intent on establishing a radical Islamic empire throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East.
He insisted the U.S.-led war in Iraq was essential to combating that threat and said American military presence there would be determined by military commanders, "not by artificial timelines set by politicians in Washington, D.C."
But much of the vice president's speech addressed the warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"A spirit of debate is now underway, and our message to the American people is clear and straightforward: These actions are within the president's authority and responsibility under the constitution and laws, and these actions are vital to our security," Cheney said.