WASHINGTON, Dec 19: US President George W. Bush vowed on Monday to renew a controversial spy effort targeting US citizens with suspected links to Al Qaeda and denounced the “shameful” leak that revealed the secret programme.

The president said he had not ordered an investigation into who revealed the initiative to The New York Times because he expected the US Justice Department to carry out a formal legal probe.

In a year-end press conference, Mr Bush said he had repeatedly reauthorized the surveillance effort and would do so “for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill our American citizens.”

“We need to connect the dots before the enemy attacks, not after,” he said as he brushed off the congressional outcry and calls for an investigation into the initiative’s legality, saying he had acted within his wartime powers.

Under a secret order Mr Bush signed in 2002 that was revealed last week by The New York Times, the National Security Agency (NSA) can monitor without a court warrant US citizens’ telephone and electronic mail when they are in touch with someone abroad, something contrary to legal precedent.

“My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in time of war,” said the president.—AFP