CAMP DAVID, Md., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Saying the United States is at war and needs information, President George Bush ordered an appeal of a judge's ruling that a spying program is unconstitutional.
Bush, speaking Friday, said, "We must give those whose responsibility it is to protect the United States the tools necessary to protect this country in a time of war."
The president said he instructed the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit regarding a National Security Agency anti-terror program. The judge said that communications intercepted without warrants violated the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The Bush administration has argued it is within the president's powers to order such surveillance -- the NSA had been monitoring communications by suspected al-Qaida members -- even without judicial warrants.
"I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live," Bush said.
He later said, "The American people expect us to protect them, and therefore I put this program in place. We believe -- strongly believe it's constitutional."
