WASHINGTON — President Bush lobbied the House again on Wednesday to pass an intelligence law making it easier for the government to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists. Failure to pass the new law is "inexcusable" and "indefensible," he said.

"There is still an extremist threat," Bush said. "People still want to attack our country. And we'd better understand what they're thinking, what they're planning and who they're talking to."
The House approved its version of the law in October. The Senate this month passed its version, which would provide retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies that wiretapped U.S. phone and computer lines at the government's request after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, without court permission. The House version does not include telecom immunity. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that does not provide it.

In the meantime, a temporary surveillance law adopted by Congress last summer expired Feb. 16, forcing the government back to old eavesdropping authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Bush has refused to approve an extension of the expired law, a political gambit meant to pressure the House into abandoning its bill and adopting the Senate version that includes telecom immunity. House and Senate Democratic leaders are trying to work out compromise language that will satisfy both chambers. Republicans are boycotting the discussions.

They say the expiration of the law has caused dangerous gaps in surveillance as the intelligence agencies negotiated with telecommunications companies over how to conduct wiretaps without the temporary law.

In a lengthy and sometimes tense exchange Wednesday with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell conceded the agencies "probably" would not have missed any electronic intercepts had the expired law been extended.

Bush and congressional Republicans blame the House's refusal to swiftly approve immunity on trial lawyers' alleged influence over Democrats.

"It's expired because people want to take class action lawsuits against private phone carriers and other companies that are believed to have helped us protect America," Bush said in the Oval Office while he met with the leader of the Czech Republic. "It's not fair to say, 'It's important for you to help us and then you get sued for billions of dollars.' "

The president's pitch was the latest installment in a long-running debate between Bush and congressional Democrats.

The Democrats say they're trying to find a balance between protecting innocent Americans from violations of their right to privacy and the government's need to listen in on terrorists and foreign agents.

The matter is complicated by the so-called warrantless wiretapping program. The government allegedly violated wiretapping and privacy laws for more than five years by ordering telecommunications companies to eavesdrop on Americans' communications without the knowledge or approval of a secret court created 30 years ago by Congress for just that purpose. The White House asserts the president had the constitutional and wartime authority to do so after the terrorist attacks.

Bush, on his flight home from six days in Africa last week, told reporters he sees no way to compromise with Democrats over giving retroactive lawsuit immunity to telecoms that helped the government eavesdrop. Instead, he said his strategy for breaking the legislative deadlock would involve hammering away about why Congress should pass the law on his terms.

Bush lobbied for the terrorist surveillance law in his radio address Saturday, in welcoming the governors to the White House on Monday and in a political speech to Republican governors Monday night.




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