WASHINGTON D.C. - President Bush defended a secretive program that eavesdrops on some international phone calls involving U.S. citizens, saying the United States must be "quick to detect and prevent" possible near-term terrorist attacks.
"We know that a two-minute phone conversation between somebody linked to al Qaeda here and an operative overseas could lead directly to the loss of thousands of lives," Bush said. "To save American lives, we must be able to act fast and to detect these conversations so we can prevent new attacks. It has been effective in disrupting the enemy while safeguarding our civil liberties,"
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who appeared on several network morning shows, said technological advances used by terrorists made it necessary to conduct the surveillance without a court order.
"But technological advances work for them as well as against them," continued Gonzales. "For instance, to disrupt their communications, we can make that annoying 'wha wha wha' busy signal in the middle of their conversation. In fact, because of the plethora of ring tones available online, we can pretty much play any annoying sound we want to disrupt their conversations. One particularly effective ring tone has been Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby' - the terrorists really don't like that one."
"Heh heh," Bush said. "That one's my favorite."
"Sure," Gonzales continued, "the RIAA isn't happy with us right now. We are currently downloading these ring tones illegally from the internet, but we are in negotiations to settle with them for $2.3 Billion with the option to buy all future ring tones through them for $99.99 per ring tone. Of course, Halliburton has been a key middleman in the negotiations and will continue to facilitate the United States' purchase of ring tone technology to defend America against the terrorist threat."