DOJ's Gonzo Defense: Just The Data Mining
Posted on Tue Jul 31, 2007 at 05:51:08 PM EST
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As we suspected, the Bush leak to the NYTimes on Attorney General Gonzales' trouble with the truth was all a setup for this:
[F]rom the letter: It states, “One particular aspect of these activities and nothing more, was publicly acknowledged by the President and described in December 2005.” . . . That is what Gonzales says was the Terrorist Surveillance Program. . . .
We will repeat this again - that is NOT what the President confirmed:
. . . This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security. Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends and allies. Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. . . .
The news report in question revealed that:
In mid-2004, concerns about the program expressed by national security officials, government lawyers and a judge prompted the Bush administration to suspend elements of the program and revamp it. . . . A complaint from Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the federal judge who oversees the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, helped spur the suspension, officials said. The judge questioned whether information obtained under the N.S.A. program was being improperly used as the basis for F.I.S.A. wiretap warrant requests from the Justice Department, according to senior government officials.
This is the program President Bush confirmed. The one with internal disputes. The very disputes Gonzales denies existed. More.
In its most recent article, the NYTimes described the program it reported on thusly:
In December 2005, The Times published articles describing the program, the data mining and the internal legal debate. The newspaper reported that the N.S.A. had combed large volumes of telephone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects. . . .
The President confirmed the ENTIRETY of the program, noting that:
. . . The review includes approval by our nation's top legal officials, including the Attorney General and the Counsel to the President. I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups.
The program dates to 2001. The program reported on by the NYTimes, and confirmed by the White House, was the entire program. It is ridiculous of the White House to pretend the President was only confirming ONE aspect of the program. Indeed, there is nothing in Bush's statement that excludes data mining. In fact, IF the disputes were over datamining, President Bush confirmed THAT program when he referenced the Times report, that EXPRESSLY reports on the disputes.
This is sheer nonsense from the White House. Gonzales' testimony was contradicted by the FBI Director, James Comey, the Gang of 8 and has been backed up by no one. This misrepresentation by the White House of what the President said is transparently false.
Gonzales must be impeached. The White House now is engaged in a cover up. This too must be investigated.
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