CAMP DAVID, Md. — President Bush said those who agree with a federal judge that his warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional "simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live."

"This country of ours is at war," the president said Friday. "And we must give those whose responsibility it is to protect the United States the tools necessary to protect this country in a time of war."

The day before, a federal judge in Michigan struck down the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, ruling it was an unconstitutional infringement on the rights to privacy and free speech. On Bush's orders, the Justice Department appealed within hours.

"I strongly disagree with this decision. Strongly disagree," he said of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bush suggested he sees the issue as a politically potent one in a year when most of Congress is up for re-election, and GOP control of the Capitol is in danger.
"I made my position clear," he said.

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