"What, Me Lie?"

I guess they don't call the warrantless searches "secret" for nothing. If you admitted it, it wouldnt be a secret. Here is George Bush's comments on wiretaps a full three years after he instituted the NSA surveillance program:

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." -- George Bush, April 20, 2004