By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 19, 2005; 2:18 PM

President Bush, strongly defending a secret domestic spying program and the USA Patriot Act as vital tools in the war on terrorism, today denounced the disclosure of the surveillance as a "shameful act" and said it was "inexcusable" for senators to block renewal of the 2001 law's key provisions.

In a year-end news conference that followed a series of speeches on Iraq and a televised address to the nation last night, Bush insisted that his decision to authorize the domestic spying program was legal.

Bush reserved some of his most forceful words in the hour-long news conference for a "minority of senators" who used a filibuster last week to block Senate reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Voicing concerns that some key provisions violate civil liberties, most Democrats and a handful of Republicans voted against cutting off debate on the renewal bill. The vote in favor of invoking cloture was 52-47, well short of the 60 votes required to defeat the filibuster.

Noting that most senators had voted for the Patriot Act when it was approved by Congress in 2001, Bush said the filibustering senators "need to explain why they thought the Patriot Act was a vital tool after the September the 11th attacks but now think it's no longer necessary." A number of key provisions expire Dec. 31.

Implicitly rejecting Democratic proposals to pass a temporary three-month reauthorization while a compromise is worked out, Bush said: "The senators who are filibustering the Patriot Act must stop their delaying tactics, and the Senate must vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act. In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment."

Declaring that terrorists remain determined to strike the United States again and hope to inflict even greater damage than four years ago, Bush said, "Congress has a responsibility to give our law enforcement and intelligence officials the tools they need to protect the American people."

He later argued that the Patriot Act "helps us connect the dots" of terrorist plots, tying together clues through analytical work that some critics have said was missing before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I want senators from New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas to go home and explain why these cities are safer" without the renewal of the Patriot Act, Bush said. "It is inexcusable to say . . . 'connect the dots' and not give us a chance to do so."

Bush added, "I happen to know there's an enemy there. And the enemy wants to attack us. That is why I hope you can feel my passion about the Patriot Act. It is inexcusable to say to the American people . . . 'We're going to be tough on terror,' but take away the very tools necessary to help fight these people."

The president also spoke out strongly against allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons or the capacity to enrich uranium, possibly creating material for such weapons.

He acknowledged that the failure of U.S. intelligence to accurately assess Iraq's weapons programs before the 2003 U.S. invasion had created a credibility problem in sounding the alarm on such countries as Iran and North Korea.

"No question, that the intelligence failure on weapons of mass destruction caused all intelligence services to have to step back and reevaluate the process of gathering and analyzing intelligence -- no doubt about that," Bush said. However, it was "universally accepted" that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be "in the world's interest," particularly after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad recently expressed a "desire to annihilate" Israel, Bush said.

"And so the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is -- people say, well, we can't let that happen," Bush said. "The next step is to make sure that the world understands that the capacity to enrich uranium for a civilian program would lead to a weapons program. And so, therefore, we cannot allow the Iranians to have the capacity to enrich."

After the news conference, Senate Democrats criticized Bush for claiming that the secret spying program was legally grounded, and they charged that he is not doing enough to push Iraqi leaders toward political compromises that would undercut the country's insurgency.

Addressing reporters in the East Room of the White House, Bush hailed Iraq's "historic elections" last week for a new National Assembly, leading to formation of a permanent government for a four-year term under the country's new constitution, which was ratified in October.

"Millions of Iraqis are looking forward to a future with hope and optimism," Bush said. He cautioned that Iraqis "still face many challenges" and that forming a new government "will take time," especially since vote-counting from the Dec. 15 elections is not expected to be completed until some time in January.

"The work ahead will require the patience of the Iraqi people and the patience and support of America and our coalition partners," Bush said. He added that "this election does not mean the end of violence, but it is the beginning of something new: a constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East."

In a Capitol Hill news conference, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and RussellFeingold of Wisconsin said they were pleased that millions of Iraqis, including large numbers of Sunni Muslim Arabs, voted in the elections. But they urged the administration to do more to help heal Iraq's divisions, an effort they said would strengthen counter-insurgency efforts and enable U.S. troops to come home.

Levin said the new constitution, crafted largely by representatives of the Shiite Muslim majority and ethnic Kurds, "is a divisive document" that needs to be amended to bring in the Sunni Arab minority, the main base of support for the insurgency.

Levin said Bush gave "a very weak response" when asked if he would urge Iraqis to amend the constitution. Sunnis have demanded amendments that would give their community a greater share of power and oil resources.

Feingold charged that Bush's policy in the war on terrorism is "Iraq-centric" and fails to deal adequately with the al Qaeda terrorist network that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I think the president continues to talk about Iraq so much because he's basically covering up for the fact that that wasn't the right next move in the fight against terrorism," Feingold said. "That wasn't the top priority. He keeps arguing that Osama bin Laden says that Iraq is the central focus in the war of terrorism. Since when do we let our opponents decide where the central focus should be?"

The U.S. military operation in Iraq "has essentially run its course," said Feingold, who favors a withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2006.