Bush renews call for Senate to extend anti-terror law

US President George W. Bush on Wednesday reiterated his call for the US Senate to approve the extension of the Patriot Act, saying obstruction of its extension at the Senate "is inexcusable."

Calling the law an effective tool in the war against terror, Bush urged the Senate to reauthorize the Patriot Act. "The terrorists still want to hit us again," he told reporters before departing the White House to see soldiers injured in Iraq at a Naval hospital in suburban Bethesda, Maryland.

He said that as the Patriot Act was scheduled to expire at the end of this year, "the terrorist threat is not going to expire at the end of this year."

Bush said the law, which passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, "tore down the wall between law enforcement and intelligence communities" and "gave law enforcement tools to investigate terrorism."

The House has voted to reauthorize the law, but it has been blocked at the Senate, where some lawmakers were concerned about a secret domestic surveillance program Bush authorized and wanted stronger civil liberties protections.

Bush said a majority of senators supported reauthorization of the law, but a minority of senators was filibustering and preventing the Senate from voting to renew it. "This obstruction is inexcusable," Bush said of the Democrats' move to block its extension.

"The expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers," he said.

Democrats have proposed a three-month extension to provide time to resolve differences. But the White House and Republican congressional leaders have rejected the proposal.

Bush also urged the Senate to approve the 453-billion-US dollar defense spending bill, which included 50 billion dollars in emergency funding for US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Source: Xinhua