Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testfied before a Senate Committee today about the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program. He made a startling admission: It was Bush himself who blocked Justice Department lawyers in the Office of Professional Responsibility from obtaining security clearances to conduct the investigation of the program that members of Congress had requested.

President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the anti-terror eavesdropping program that intercepts Americans' international calls and e-mails, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.

Bush refused to grant security clearances for department investigators who were looking into the role Justice lawyers played in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency listens in on telephone calls and reads e-mail without court approval, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Without access to the sensitive program, the department's Office of Professional Responsibility closed its investigation in April.

I wrote about Congressman Hinchey's request at length back in May, linking to several of the letters exchanged between the OPR and Hinchey, it's a pretty good backgrounder if you want some history.

Note that the May 11 letter from Hinchey to the OPR directly asks, "Who made the decision not to give you clearance?"

Murray Waas has an excellent article that just came out about today's disclosure by Gonzales.