From remarks in Chicago today:

The President has made a number of decisions since 9/11 that are designed to do exactly that. One of those is the terrorist surveillance program some of you have heard recently referred to as the domestic surveillance program by the press corps. It is not domestic surveillance. This is a program that’s targeted upon communications one end of which is outside the United States, and one end of which, we believe, is affiliated with al Qaeda. It is a good program. “There’s another program that has been in the papers this morning that deals with finances, that is referred to – or I will refer to it as the terrorist finance tracking program, that allows us to track the movements of funds internationally that are al Qaeda-related and al Qaeda-affiliated. “Now, the President has been criticized. We’ve been criticized, the administration on the terrorist surveillance program – may also be criticized on the financial program by our opponents. Russ Feingold, the senator from Wisconsin, has called for the censure of the President over the terrorist surveillance program. The fact of the matter is that these are good, solid, sound programs. They are conducted in accordance with the laws of the land. They are – they’re carried out in a manner that is fully consistent with the constitutional authority of the President of the United States. They are absolutely essential in terms of protecting us against attacks. And I am personally persuaded that they are absolutely – have been absolutely essential in the fact that we have not been hit again since 9/11. “The thing that I find most disturbing about these stories – even though these programs have been briefed to the Congress, and they are conducted in a way to guarantee and safeguard the civil liberties of the American people, what I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that some of the news media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent future attacks against the American people. That offends me.