Investigate surveillance, but be careful, Bush says

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2006 | by John Diamond and David Jackson

LOUISVILLE -- President Bush on Wednesday dropped his opposition to upcoming Senate hearings into his program of conducting electronic surveillance on domestic targets without court-approved warrants. He said he welcomes such hearings.

Hearings will be "good for democracy, Bush said during a town-hall-style meeting filled with supporters and interrupted often by applause. "Just so long as the hearings, as they explore whether or not I have the prerogative to make the decision I made, doesn't tell the enemy what we're doing. See, that's the danger."

After the program was revealed publicly last month by The New York Times, Bush said that hearings would be counterproductive and that the members of Congress who needed to know about the surveillance of people linked to...