Dean: Bush abused power

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WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean told a Senate hearing Friday U.S. President George Bush abused his power by ordering domestic surveillance.

Dean, a key figure in the Watergate coverup, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the domestic eavesdropping program that allows the National Security Agency to monitor communications between people in the United States and suspected terrorists overseas without court order.

"I think I must say I have more experience first hand than anybody might want in what can go wrong and how a president" can get on the wrong side of the law, said Dean, remembered for telling President Richard Nixon the Watergate coverup had become a "cancer on the presidency."