Bush said the need for speed in preventing terrorist attacks made it necessary to circumvent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which operates in secret and has approved all but a handful of the warrant requests it has received since it was created. When a reporter asked why the government did not use the FISA provision that allows retroactive warrant approval in emergencies, Bush had no answer.

 Bush also emphasized that the NSA's warrantless surveillance includes only calls and messages between the United States and other countries, not purely domestic communications. When a reporter asked the rationale for that distinction, given the president's broad view of his own war powers, Bush had no answer.

 If FISA somehow prevents timely monitoring of terrorists, the appropriate response is to fix the law. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters, "We have had discussions with ... certain members of Congress as to whether or not FISA could be amended to allow us to adequately deal with this kind of threat, and we were advised that that would be difficult, if not impossible."

 Since the president thought Congress was not willing to change the law, he simply ignored it, although he was polite enough to let some legislators know he was ignoring it. The details of these briefings are a matter of dispute, but secretly telling a few members of Congress about a policy that cannot be publicly discussed clearly is not the same as seeking congressional authorization.

 When a reporter at the president's press conference referred to "the unchecked power of the executive," Bush scolded him. "I disagree with your assertion of unchecked power," he said. This is the message all Americans should be sending the president.