WASHINGTON, February 7, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Former US president Jimmy Carter on Tuesday, February 7, blasted President George W. Bush's warrantless spying on US citizens was illegal, a day after a number of senior US senators made a similar judgment.

"Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision - we're not going to let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter said according to the Associated Press (AP).

"And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act."

Bush admitted last December that he had authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to carry out domestic spying without the necessary court warrants.

He argued the eavesdropping was limited only to monitoring international phone calls and e-mails linked to people with connections to Al-Qaeda.

But The New York Times has revealed that the NSA has "directly" tapped the country’s main communications to implement the program.

"This administration is effectively saying it doesn't have to follow the law," Feinstein said.

Carter's remarks came one day after US Democrat and Republican senators cast doubts on the legality of Bush's eavesdropping program, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

"This administration is effectively saying it doesn't have to follow the law," Democrat Dianne Feinstein said.

"This is a very slippery slope. It's fraught with consequences."

Bush claimed that he had the right to authorize spying under his constitutional war powers as well as a resolution passed by Congress in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

"It did not authorize the domestic surveillance of American citizens," Sen. Patrick Leahy, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told a daylong Senate hearing on the issue, attended by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

A report by the Congress’s research arm, the first nonpartisan findings on the program to date, said in December that Bush violated existing laws by authorizing warrantless eavesdropping on Americans and his justification depended on a weak legal argument.

It said the broad presidential powers granted to the US president in the wake of the 9/11 attacks did not authorize him to order the secret monitoring of calls made by US citizens, but authorized him to use military force when necessary to protect homeland security.

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, the panel's chairman, said he was also skeptical of the legality of the eavesdropping program, Reuters said.

"The president of the United States has the fundamental responsibility to protect the country, but even... the president does not have a blank cheque," he said.

Specter urged Bush to review the legality of the program before a federal court.

"You think you're right. But there are a lot of people who think you're wrong. As a matter of public confidence, why not take it to the FISA court?"

But Gonzales rebuffed the lawmakers' charges, insisting that the spying program was legal and necessary.

He claimed that the ingenuity and determination of Al-Qaeda to launch new strikes against the US made it necessary to devise equally creative means to combat it.

"In this new kind of war it is both necessary and appropriate for us to take all possible steps to locate our enemy and know what they are plotting before they strike," Gonzales argued.

But Specter counter-argued.

"I do not think that any fair, realistic reading of the September 14 resolution gives you the power to conduct electronic surveillance."

On January 16, Specter said that Bush could face impeachment and criminal prosecution if found to have violated the law by authorizing the domestic spying.

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin accused Gonzales of misleading the Senate during his confirmation hearings in January 2005 when the attorney general said under oath that Bush would not authorize illegal action.

Carter also blasted the US attorney general for defending the spying program.

"It's a ridiculous argument, not only bad, it's ridiculous," he said in response to Gonzales's assertion that the program is authorized under Article 2 of the Constitution and does not violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"Obviously, the attorney general who said it's all right to torture prisoners and so forth is going to support the person who put him in office. But he's a very partisan attorney general and there's no doubt that he would say that.

"I hope that eventually the case will go to the Supreme Court. I have no doubt that when it's over, the Supreme Court will rule that Bush has violated the law."