Surveillance vital in anti-terror war: US: Monitoring of phone calls
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan 31: The White House has said that it will continue to build up its relationship with Pakistan in the war against terror but refused to comment on media reports that all telephone calls to Pakistan are monitored.
“I’m not going to get into talking about specifics that might involve operational details of the terrorist surveillance programme,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan told a briefing in Washington.
“This terrorist surveillance programme is a limited effort targeted at Al Qaeda communications. It is focused on international communications, and it is about detection and prevention.”
Mr McClelland said President Bush believes that this surveillance programme “is a very important tool” in the war against terrorism.
The US media reported last week that domestic recording of telephone calls by America’s National Security Agency is basically focused on the terrorists in Pakistan and on calls going from the US to Pakistan and coming from Pakistan to the US.
Mr McClellan, however, disagreed with a reporter who suggested that the US authorities ordered the Jan 13 US missile attack on a village in Bajaur because they were not getting any cooperation from Pakistan.
