Bush Says Would Veto House Eavesdropping Bill

WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W.Bush, locked in a battle with Congress over eavesdroppinglegislation, said on Thursday the House of Representativesversion of the bill was "unwise" and he would veto it.

Bush is seeking immunity for telecommunications companiesthat participated in his warrantless domestic spying programafter the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and arenow facing lawsuits.

The House legislation, scheduled for a vote later onThursday, would allow phone companies to present their defensebehind closed doors in federal court, with the judge givenaccess to confidential government documents about eavesdroppingbegun after the Sept. 11 attacks.

About 40 civil lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T Inc.,Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. ofviolating Americans’ privacy rights in the surveillanceprogram.

"This litigation would undermine the private sector’swillingness to cooperate with the intelligence community,cooperation that is absolutely essential to protecting ourcountry from harm," Bush said.

The president supports a Senate bill passed last month thatwould give phone companies immunity and renew a law thatexpanded the power of U.S. authorities to track terrorismsuspects without a court order. That law expired on Feb. 16.

Bush urged the House to pass that version and send it tohim to sign into law.

"Unfortunately, instead of holding a vote on the goodbipartisan bill that passed the United States Senate, theyintroduced a partisan bill that would undermine America’ssecurity," Bush said.

He called the House bill "unwise" and said it could lead topublic disclosure of highly classified information that couldhelp terrorists.

Bush said the litigation against the phone companies was"unfair" because they had been assured by the U.S. governmentthat their cooperation was "legal and necessary" to fightingterrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Companies that may have helped us save lives should bethanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billiondollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in thefuture," Bush said.(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by David Alexander andJohn O’Callaghan)