2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has finally broken her silence on the Bush administration National Security Agency program that conducts surveillance on suspected terrorists based in the U.S. - saying that she opposes spying on "Americans."
The top Democrat chose an unusual forum to announce her opposition - a fundraising letter emailed Friday in which she detailed her resolutions for the New Year.
"I am resolved to keep speaking out about my disagreements with this administration and their congressional allies," Clinton told her supporters, listing among her complaints: "A secret program that spies on Americans!"
After noting the NSA program, Mrs. Clinton vowed to fight for "national security policies that tell the truth and level with the American people."
She also observed that "the values that made America in the 20th century not just the economic leader of the world, but the moral leader of the world are under attack today."
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In the two weeks since the New York Times erroneously claimed that NSA surveillance of American citizens began under the Bush administration, the former first lady has assiduously maintained her silence on the topic.
Not a word about the NSA program, for instance, appears on Mrs. Clinton's official Senate web site, which covers her positions on everything from "inappropriate" video games to her recent statement on the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2006.
While Mrs. Clinton's email makes her opposition to President Bush's targeted surveilliance program clear, she does not explain why her husband, while president, authorized the NSA and FBI to conduct much wider surveillance on American citizens under secret programs like Echelon and Carnivore, which randomly captured and screened millions of phone calls and emails daily.