In his two-page letter to the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Gonzales sought to clear up the confusion.
"I am deeply concerned with suggestions that my testimony was misleading, and am determined to address any such impression," Gonzales wrote. A copy also went to Specter.
"I recognize that the use of the term 'Terrorist Surveillance Program' and my shorthand reference to the 'program' publicly 'described by the president' may have created confusion," Gonzales wrote.
Leahy was not swayed.
"The attorney general's legalistic explanation of his misleading testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is not what one should expect from the top law enforcement officer of the United States," Leahy said in a statement after receiving Gonzales' letter."
Specter, too, said Gonzales misled the committee. But Specter said the attorney general's testimony did not amount to perjury; it was a crucial if reluctant vote of support.
"I don't think he did try to provide frank answers," Specter said. "It was more than confusion, it was misleading."
Specter sided with Democrats who said they would not let their disdain for Gonzales factor into decisions about whether to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the attorney general would oversee. But Specter said Gonzales should not have any say in the intelligence-gathering at issue. "This is a temporary bill at most," he said. "I think we can do without an attorney general for six months; we've done without one for a long time."
If you go to Specter's site in the Senate and search for Gonzales you get pages full of communications from the lying lout Attorney General such as the January 17, 2007 "Specter Reacts to Letter From Attorney General Gonzales on the Terrorist Surveillance Program" which states "The administration had refused to disclose the details of the program to the Judiciary Committee. They maintained that attitude consistently up until today. They finally did submit it, after a lot of pressure, to the Intelligence Committees-first a subcommittee of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then when the House resisted only a subcommittee, it was finally submitted to the full committees-really it was only submitted when the time came for the confirmation of General Hayden for Director of the CIA.
"I have not been privy to what was disclosed to the Intelligence Committee, but based on my chairmanship of that committee during the 104th Congress, I have some doubts as to the adequacy of the disclosure. I know when I was chairman, the chairman was supposed to be informed about those classified and secret programs, but that was in fact not the case."
Can't we remember Senator Russ Feingold's March 2006 speech about the "illegal eavesdropping"?
He stated "Mr. President, last week the President of the United States gave his State of the Union address, where he spoke of America's leadership in the world, and called on all of us to "lead this world toward freedom." Again and again, he invoked the principle of freedom, and how it can transform nations, and empower people around the world. But, almost in the same breath, the President openly acknowledged that he has ordered the government to spy on Americans, on American soil, without the warrants required by law.
The President issued a call to spread freedom throughout the world, and then he admitted that he has deprived Americans of one of their most basic freedoms under the Fourth Amendment - to be free from unjustified government intrusion.
The President was blunt. He said that he had authorized the NSA's domestic spying program, and he made a number of misleading arguments to defend himself. His words got rousing applause from Republicans, and I think even some Democrats. The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program.
How is that worthy of applause? Since when do we celebrate our commander in chief for violating our most basic freedoms, and misleading the American people in the process? When did we start to stand up and cheer for breaking the law? In that moment at the State of the Union, I felt ashamed. Congress has lost its way if we don't hold this President accountable for his actions."
What Senator Russ Feingold said was the truth. Specter's comments were the truth also, but he never follows through on his statements. He gets swallowed up by the depravity of the GOP.
The other day I heard Orrin Hatch say that the Democrats were on a fishing expedition regarding Gonzales and that they should allow the matter to be investigated by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility. He said that because he knew it would lead nowhere. The article "Gonzales: Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Probe" states "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.
"I am deeply concerned with suggestions that my testimony was misleading, and am determined to address any such impression," Gonzales wrote. A copy also went to Specter.
"I recognize that the use of the term 'Terrorist Surveillance Program' and my shorthand reference to the 'program' publicly 'described by the president' may have created confusion," Gonzales wrote.
Leahy was not swayed.
"The attorney general's legalistic explanation of his misleading testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is not what one should expect from the top law enforcement officer of the United States," Leahy said in a statement after receiving Gonzales' letter."
"I don't think he did try to provide frank answers," Specter said. "It was more than confusion, it was misleading."
Specter sided with Democrats who said they would not let their disdain for Gonzales factor into decisions about whether to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the attorney general would oversee. But Specter said Gonzales should not have any say in the intelligence-gathering at issue. "This is a temporary bill at most," he said. "I think we can do without an attorney general for six months; we've done without one for a long time."
If you go to Specter's site in the Senate and search for Gonzales you get pages full of communications from the lying lout Attorney General such as the January 17, 2007 "Specter Reacts to Letter From Attorney General Gonzales on the Terrorist Surveillance Program" which states "The administration had refused to disclose the details of the program to the Judiciary Committee. They maintained that attitude consistently up until today. They finally did submit it, after a lot of pressure, to the Intelligence Committees-first a subcommittee of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then when the House resisted only a subcommittee, it was finally submitted to the full committees-really it was only submitted when the time came for the confirmation of General Hayden for Director of the CIA.
"I have not been privy to what was disclosed to the Intelligence Committee, but based on my chairmanship of that committee during the 104th Congress, I have some doubts as to the adequacy of the disclosure. I know when I was chairman, the chairman was supposed to be informed about those classified and secret programs, but that was in fact not the case."
Can't we remember Senator Russ Feingold's March 2006 speech about the "illegal eavesdropping"?
He stated "Mr. President, last week the President of the United States gave his State of the Union address, where he spoke of America's leadership in the world, and called on all of us to "lead this world toward freedom." Again and again, he invoked the principle of freedom, and how it can transform nations, and empower people around the world. But, almost in the same breath, the President openly acknowledged that he has ordered the government to spy on Americans, on American soil, without the warrants required by law.
The President issued a call to spread freedom throughout the world, and then he admitted that he has deprived Americans of one of their most basic freedoms under the Fourth Amendment - to be free from unjustified government intrusion.
The President was blunt. He said that he had authorized the NSA's domestic spying program, and he made a number of misleading arguments to defend himself. His words got rousing applause from Republicans, and I think even some Democrats. The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program.
How is that worthy of applause? Since when do we celebrate our commander in chief for violating our most basic freedoms, and misleading the American people in the process? When did we start to stand up and cheer for breaking the law? In that moment at the State of the Union, I felt ashamed. Congress has lost its way if we don't hold this President accountable for his actions."
What Senator Russ Feingold said was the truth. Specter's comments were the truth also, but he never follows through on his statements. He gets swallowed up by the depravity of the GOP.
The other day I heard Orrin Hatch say that the Democrats were on a fishing expedition regarding Gonzales and that they should allow the matter to be investigated by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility. He said that because he knew it would lead nowhere. The article "Gonzales: Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Probe" states "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.
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