Barack Obama's former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has blasted news media he said had sensationalised his remarks.
He made the comments in an often confrontational appearance at a reporters' club earlier today.
The Chicago preacher stood by the fiery sermons that have dogged Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign since they gained public attention in March.
When asked today about a speech in which he asserted the 11 September 2001 attacks were retaliation for US foreign policy, Rev Wright said that 'you cannot do terrorism on other people and not expect it to come back to you’.
Asked about another sermon in which he suggested the US government created the AIDS virus to kill black people, Rev Wright also did not retreat.
He said based on what has happened to Africans in the US, he believes the government is capable of doing anything.
Barack Obama, who is battling fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton for the right to take on Republican John McCain in the November presidential election, joined Rev Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ 20 years ago.
Senator Obama has distanced himself from Rev Wright's remarks and denounced some of his views, which many voters have interpreted as anti-American.
Asked about a remark, ‘God Bless America? No, God damn America’, that has been widely circulated online, Rev Wright said he had been quoting an Iraqi official.
He said that God damns some practices, and there is no excuse for some of the things the government, not the American people, has done.
‘That doesn't make me not like America, or unpatriotic,’ he said.
The 66-year-old reverend said the news coverage of his sermons showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the black religious tradition in America, which evolved over hundreds of years of slavery and repression.
He said it is an attack on the black church. ‘If you think I'm going to let you talk about my momma and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious tradition, you've got another think coming,' he told the assembled media.
He said his church has a long history of political activism but also feeds, houses and educates thousands of needy people each year.
The reverend was cheered enthusiastically by many black churchgoers in the audience, who often groaned in exasperation when the moderator asked questions submitted by journalists.
Rev Wright, too, often challenged his questioners. He asked the moderator when she had last been to church and what her pastor had said there. Others he dismissed as ignorant.
US Supreme Court upholds state i.d. law
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has upheld a tough state law requiring voters to show photo identification.
The decision, critics say, could keep some blacks, poor people and other traditional Democratic supporters from voting in the November election.
Stepping into a partisan political battle, the court voted 6-3 to reject a challenge to Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation voter identification law.
Democrats and other opponents had argued the law was unconstitutional because it made it too difficult for some people to vote, especially minorities, the poor, the disabled and the elderly. Those groups are most likely not to have government identification and also tend to vote for Democrats.
Supporters, mainly Republicans, defended the law as necessary to prevent voter fraud and to heighten public confidence in the integrity of elections. The Bush administration supported the law.
The court handed down the ruling just eight days before the crucial Indiana presidential primary election featuring Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The decision could have broad national significance because more than 20 states have adopted voter identification laws and other states are considering similar legislation.
The law requires a photo ID such as a driver's licence to vote in federal, state and local elections. Those without identification may vote using a provisional ballot, which is counted only if the voter travels to a government office to prove his or her identity within 10 days of the election.
