Same elephant, different clothing, in the State of the Union Speech.

"It is said that prior to the attacks of September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to Al Qaida operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late." ("Too late"? See Captainmarvel's comment in Elephant in the Living Room.) OneNationUnder1

"So to prevent another attack -- based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected Al Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America." (see Article: Elephant in the Living room for a rundown on the controversy about the legality and constitutionality of Bush's authorization of warrantless domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency.)

"Previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed." (except Bush has neither sought nor obtained approval from the Federal Court as required by law; the Congressional Research Service has found that Bush did not keep Congress informed as required by law. See Elephant in the Living Room Article.)

"The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again." (No one questions these remarks, though it remains to be seen whether or not the NSA eavesdropping has prevented anything because Bush refuses to divulge the specifics of the program, thus far. The rub isn't the program's objective, it's whether or not the program Bush authorized is legal and constitutional. See Elephant in the Living Room for details.)