Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday strongly defended a secret domestic eavesdropping operation and said had it been in place before the September 11 attacks the Pentagon might have been spared. Cheney insisted that the highly classified program, authorized by President George W. Bush after hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, had helped fend off potential terror attacks and did not violate American civil liberties. Full Story