WASHINGTON, Dec 20: Rebuffing assurances from President George W. Bush, bipartisan members of the US Senate’s Intelligence Committee called on Tuesday for an immediate inquiry into his authorization of spying on Americans.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney predicted a backlash against critics of the administration’s anti-terrorism policies as he forcefully defended a programme that critics say may have exceeded Bush’s powers.

Republican Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine joined Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan, Dianne Feinstein of California and Ron Wyden of Oregon in calling for a joint investigation by the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees into whether the government eavesdropped “without appropriate legal authority.”

Cheney, speaking to reporters during a trip to the Middle East and Asia, said: “The president and I believe very deeply that there is a hell of a threat,” adding this obliged them to “do everything in our power to defeat the terrorists.”

“And I don’t think that there is anything improper or inappropriate in that and my guess is that the vast majority of the American people support that, support what we’re doing, believe we ought to be doing it,” he said. “So there’s a backlash pending,” he said, speaking on a plane to Oman from Pakistan.

— Reuters