Senators Question Whether Gonzales Lied Under Oath About NSA Wiretapping Program
Senators Question Whether Gonzales Lied Under Oath About NSA Wiretapping Program
A group of senators led by Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent Alberto Gonzales a letter today highlighting an apparent lie Gonzales told while testifying under oath last year about the NSA warrantless spying program.
As ThinkProgress noted this morning, Gonzales said in 2006 that there was no “serious disagreement about the program,” a claim that flies in the face of the extraordinary testimony delivered by former Justice official James Comey yesterday. In the letter, the senators ask Gonzales if he stands by his claim:
You testified last year before both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Judiciary Committee about this incident. On February 6, 2006, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you were asked whether Mr. Comey and others at the Justice Department had raised concerns about the NSA wiretapping program. You stated in response that the disagreement that occurred was not related to the wiretapping program confirmed by the President in December 2005, which was the topic of the hearing. …
We ask for your prompt response to the following question: In light of Mr. Comey’s testimony yesterday, do you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish to revise it?
As Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Peter Swire wrote this morning, Gonzales’s testimony raises two possibilities:
1) Comey’s objections apply to the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that Gonzales was discussing. If so, then Gonzales quite likely made serious mis-statements under oath. And Gonzales was deeply and personally involved in the meeting at Ashcroft’s hospital bed, so he won’t be able to claim “I forgot.”
2) Perhaps Comey’s objections applied to a different domestic spying program. That has a big advantage for Gonzales — he wasn’t lying under oath. But then we would have senior Justice officials confirming that other “programs” exist for domestic spying, something the Administration has never previously stated.
Read the full letter HERE.
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82 Responses to “Senators Question Whether Gonzales Lied Under Oath About NSA Wiretapping Program”
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OK, WHICH DOMESTIC SPYING operation were you specifically asking about, I can’t remember them all??
May 16th, 2007 at 3:53 pmA letter?
Wow, I guess that they’ve really taken off the gloves now.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:53 pmthere MUST be strong moves taken to restore accountability… i appreciate the fact that congress must move slowly and deliberately, but time is of the essence… day by day, the foundations of our republic are being chipped away to the point where our country is becoming unrecognizable… congress needs to MOVE… we cannot afford to wait…
And, yes, I DO take it personally
May 16th, 2007 at 3:54 pmQuestion all you want you spineless twerps.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:59 pmhe works for the bush administration, doesn’t he? liar enough for me.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:01 pmA letter?
Why not a citation of contempt and perjury?
Why has this lawbreaker not been jailed yet?
Why are the Democrats not taking their Oath of Office any more seriously than the Repukes?
Impeachment is the only tool left to restore our government.
If they are short on tables, to put impeachment on, maybe I should buy a new table and have it shipped to Pelosi =P
Also,what is this BS with the Democrats not supporting reforms?
We may need to replace the whole lot of them.
I am sick of this bullsh*t.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:05 pm“….do you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish to revise it?”
Gonzoid: “I don’t recall my testimony from 2006, I’m very busy, you see, and my deputies and underlings are the ones who make all the decisions anyways.”
May 16th, 2007 at 4:06 pmQuestion all you want you spineless twerps.
Comment by Redneck, Redstate — May 16, 2007 @ 3:59 pm
Say the trolls cowering under their beds, afraid some Arab is coming after them.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:08 pmMost important fact of all: Bush authorized this program, even KNOWING that the Justice Department considered it illegal. If that’s not provable “high crimes,” I don’t know what is, and I don’t know what else it will take to get Bush and Cheney both impeached, along with all their other enablers.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:09 pmStay focused guys.
This is not an NSA program they wanted to re-authorize.
This is an FBI program — probably one not yet disclosed… The FBI falls under the direct control of DOJ. Comey said he spent significant time with Muller talking about the program.
Comey virtually gave it away — IT’S A SECRET FBI SPYING PROGRAM, NOT AN NSA PROGRAM!!!!!!!!
May 16th, 2007 at 4:10 pmwhat exactly is there to question… of course he lied! thats all these people do. lie, murder and steal
May 16th, 2007 at 4:11 pmSo, if he revises his testimony from last year, does that mean he’s off the hook for lying to Congress in the first place?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pmYes, of course. Keep piling it on Gonzales.
You still don’t see what a feint this is. Pathetic.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:19 pmIf his lips were moving he lied, not much else to add.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:19 pmWhy is he being given the opportunity to revise his testimony?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:20 pmPerjury, at last! Now there’s prima facie evidence that Gonzo lied so he can be tried and sent to spend time with Scooter Libby!
May 16th, 2007 at 4:20 pmThe idea of sending a probable perjurer a “letter” sounds ridiculously inane and unsophisticated to me. Where’s the convening of a grand jury in the face of mistatements (aka: Lies)??
May 16th, 2007 at 4:20 pmIt’s clear that either Democrats convene a grand jury for Gonzo’s lies or they, too, will be bundled with the WH and Rethugs and they all will be pitched out of office!! They have an obligation to the american people to rid the corruption in this administration and SWIFTLY bring the perpetrators to justice. If there isn’t more than a “letter of inquiry” issued by Congress, the people will revolt.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:22 pmA lie….is a lie…..is a lie……and it’s called “perjury” - plain & simple. To think that he can now adjust his lies from the previous time only ‘aids and abets’ his criminal behavior. It’s one thing for a common citizen to lie under oath but when the Chief Legal Officer in the COUNTRY lies under oath, that’s monumental and he needs to be seriously punished.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:23 pmYou still don’t see what a feint this is. Pathetic.
Comment by BottomBoy
Your moniker is what is pathetic.
Bottomboy? hahaha
May 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pmAnd you expect to be taken seriously?
hahahahahahahahahaha
I think the letter, and asking Gonzo if he wishes to revise his testimomy, is a polite and statesmanlike way of announcing he has reached the end of his rope.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pmResign now, come clean, or he strangles on his own words.
Gonzo was talking about a different domestic spying program that has become so top secret that he can’t talk about it anymore so he didn’t lie, see?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:27 pm#13…
May 16th, 2007 at 4:27 pmplease elaborate on your feint theory, plush tush
go get ‘em, Russ!
May 16th, 2007 at 4:28 pmWill anything ever happen to ANYBODY in this administration?
OR IS IT ALL TALK AND NO ACTION?
Will anybody be fired or go to jail?
No.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:29 pmOk. Here it is. Short and simple:
We (GOP) disregard any law we see fit. It was massive. It was all over the place. It was done because the national security demanded - and still demands - it.
If you want to address that, you’ve got to impeach and indict practically everyone in the current executive branch and countless people who sat in the previous Congress.
Now, are you going to do that and plunge this country into a constitutional crisis like it has never seen (in the middle of an existential war, no less), or are you accept that it was all done with the best interests of this country in mind and suppress all legal silliness?
Are you really prepared to dig into all the dirt and destroy this country? I think not. Or maybe you are, but the dems - flawed as they are - are not.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:31 pmWhen the porta-jonny gets full,
May 16th, 2007 at 4:32 pmit gets emptied,
or pushed over,
jonny
#20: What? You’ve got something against us queers?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:32 pm“Are you really prepared to dig into all the dirt and destroy this country? I think not. Or maybe you are, but the dems - flawed as they are - are not.”
You must be aware of just how much dirt there is, being a boy on the bottom.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pmThat wasn’t me who testified. It was my evil twin brother who I put in charge.
Does that make it more clear?
=
May 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pm#23: Successfully stonewalling all the investigations or taking the fall for the WH. Everybody knows that WH was behind the firings, but you can never prove that.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pmGonzo will just pass a note back to them, “F**K YOU, so I’m a liar, what you gonna do about it?”
They are sooooo corrupt that they are making a mockery of the entire country and everything that WAS good that we USED to stand for.
Hating the Repukian Mafia Daily
May 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pm#32: Glad to see that someone here gets it. Except for the good part. We are the good guys.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:39 pmHouse of cards, trolls.
If you believe in god, you’re not fooling him/her/it.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:40 pmheyzeus, I am with you. They are giving him all the rope he needs to hang himself. Game’s up for Gonzo…
May 16th, 2007 at 4:41 pmBottomboy: “What? You’ve got something against us queers?”
No, but the people you support do, you self-loathing dumbass.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pmOh, Zooey. There is no god. We do it all for ourselves.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pmSo, if he “revises” his testimony from last year, does that mean he gets away with lying to Congress? Or would the revision spell PERJURY and Gonzo goes to jail?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pmEven Nixon’s creeps cracked under pressure eventually. The ability to keep the White House insulated has fallen full blown on Gonzo, the question is can he hold up, my thoughts no not really.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:43 pmThis would the second time Alberto Gonzales lied under oath:
During his January 18, 2007 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales almost surely lied about the political purge underway among the ranks of the U.S. attorneys, as well as the vital role of the Patriot Act in facilitating it.
During the January 18th hearing, Gonzales pompously declared, “I would never ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons or that in any way would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.” But as the email exchanges between Gonzales’ chief-of-staff Kyle Sampson, White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Karl Rove deputy Scott Jennings show, that’s exactly what was going on. A damning Sampson email described the system Gonzales’ DOJ would use for ranking U.S. attorneys, keeping those who “exhibited loyalty to the president and attorney general” and sacking the prosecutors who “chafed against administration initiatives.”
Gonzales also misled the Senate about the critical importance of a hitherto little-known provision of the Patriot Act enabling the Attorney General to appoint new prosecutors without Senate confirmation. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee that:
“I am fully committed, as the administration’s fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.”
But as a September 13, 2006 Sampson email to Harriet Miers shows, Gonzales’ DOJ was committed to exactly the opposite course of bypassing Congressional approval for its new U.S. attorneys.
“I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. […] By not going the PAS route, we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House.”
May 16th, 2007 at 4:44 pmWhy is this lying scum bag being given the opportunity to change his TESTIMONY. If this was you or me in this situation, we would be held for contempt.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:46 pmThey are sooooo corrupt that they are making a mockery of the entire country and everything that WAS good that we USED to stand for.
Comment by Buck Fush — May 16, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
It’s true. The entire system will never be the same again. These guys have simply TRASHED the rules and invented their own.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:46 pmInitially, I was very disgusted about the length of time Congress is taking with all of these investigations but now I realize their strategy and it’s working like a charm. They ARE giving them enough rope to hang themselves - every last one of them and soon Bush and Rove will be right there along with them when the fingers on all things corrupt begin to point in only direction - to the top.
We’ve all witnessed how the telling of one lie leads to a subsequent lie or a cover-up which is intended to obscure the first lie…..so it’s lie atop lie until there are so many distortions of the truth that the liar can’t recall what he said nor to whom. Ironically, the only thing the liar is certain of is the TRUTH of the event - hah! What a haunting thought as Bush Cabal thinks about (if they can remember) all of the lies they’ve spun and the only that thing that is durable is the Truth.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pmOh, Zooey. There is no god. We do it all for ourselves.
Comment by BottomBoy
I should have known. The good thing is, you don’t have to believe in karma — karma believes in you.
Have fun.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pmWe (GOP) disregard any law we see fit. — Bottomboy
So you admit that all the GOP are lawbreakers
May 16th, 2007 at 4:49 pmThanks for confirming…..
I take full responsibility.
And it was all McNulty’s fault.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:50 pm#10 @ 4:10
Great point. Let’s remember, Mueller admitted to widespread abuse of authority in his testimony before the HJC back in March.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:56 pm#45: Well, actually we don’t break it - we just bend it to the limit where we could actually get punished for it - but otherwise you’re right. You should learn that too, or you’ll be relegated into a permanent minority (regardless of whether you’re actually in the majority). Just how much have you accomplished with your new “majority” in the House?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:57 pm#44: Ah yes, karma. The last refuge of the desperate.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:58 pm#26 ButtBoy
…or are you accept that it was all done with the best interests of this country in mind and suppress all legal silliness?
You were being very candid up until that point. But, nobody believes “that it was all done with the best interests of this country in mind.” Rove, Bush, and Gonzales are not concerned with the best interests of this country. Their primary concern is with making themselves richer and making the GOP more powerful in order to ensure that they’ll just keep getting richer.
Are you really prepared to dig into all the dirt and destroy this country? I think not.
I’m prepared to dig into all that dirt to save this country and the Constitution from a bunch of maniacal fascist sociopaths.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:01 pmI think people are missing Gonzales’ weasel-wording that’s already in the letter: “You stated in response that the disagreement that occurred was not related to the wiretapping program confirmed by the President in December 2005, which was the topic of the hearing. …”
We already have Comey’s testimony that the White House made changes to the original NSA spying program in response to the threat of mass resignations from DOJ. So Gonzales is simply “assuming” that the revised program confirmed by the President in Dec. 2005 is not the same program that Comey et al. refused to endorse in 2004.
I wish we really had the smoking gun, but this isn’t it.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:08 pmWell, actually we don’t break it
Comment by BottomBoy
Actually yes you do, that is why more Republican congresscritters are going to jail than Democrats, even under a Republican controlled Justice Dept.
What is amazing to me is you admit it and still support Bush.
It’s not about a party majority, it’s about doing whatis right. It looks like almost no Republicans want to do what is right, and very few Democrats. That has to change in order to save this country.
it’s almost time to throw a hemp necktie party in Washington and clear the whole bunch out, then start over.
.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:19 pmRuss, walk away while you still have some dignity.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:21 pmWayne: “What is amazing to me is you admit it and still support Bush.
It’s not about a party majority, it’s about doing whatis right.”
Not if you’re a sociopath.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:43 pmThere are more than enough grounds to remove Gonzales now, either through Bush asking for his resignation or through impeachment by Congress.
Members of the House and Senate involved in the ongoing investigations seem to think that if they uncover “one more scandal,” it will force Bush to get rid of Gonzales. Members of Congress have said this after each new scandal has been uncovered. They don’t seem to get it. They think ’shaming’ Bush and Cheney will pressure them into doing the ‘right thing,’ the ‘just’ and ‘moral’ act. Bush, Cheney, Rove, neocons, HAVE NO SHAME!
Unless they are forced, by law to do something, they won’t do it. And even then, it’ll have to be with the muscle of a sergeant-at-arms.
Democrats in Congress have already decided not to impeach him or any member of his administration - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse just reiterated that on Hardball.
Whitehouse also admitted that by the time the Senate Judiciary Committee finishes letting Bush stall through the usual channels of how the committee does business, it’ll be too late (end of Bush’s term in office) for the committee to go through the legal or Court channels to force Bush to turn over the emails and other documents the White House is sitting on. Whitehouse also admitted that with each passing day, the chances that the emails and other electronic documents continue to exist lessens.
So let’s call this what it is - Democratic complicity.
Democrats are worse than spineless and feckless; they’re now co-conspirators.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:45 pmThis is a tired rehash of very old news. The New York Times and various lefty blogs tried to make hay out of this nonstory last year. They got no traction with the American people, who very sensibly found no problem with the NSA eavesdropping on al-Qaeda and their minions within the US. Comey is obviously axe grinding based on some personal animus against Alberto Gonzales. It is clear to any unbiased observer that Comey’s story makes no sense and leads one to be thankful that our AG is the honest plain-spoken Gonzales and not a conniving schemer like Comey. Fortunately no one outside the liberal blogosphere and lefty rags in the Northeast and San Francisco are paying attention to these histrionics.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:55 pm#26 Are you really prepared to dig into all the dirt and destroy this country?
If we don’t, the country is destroyed.
That’s the dilemma. If what Bush and Cheney have done these last 7 years to the country isn’t addressed and reversed, what is to prevent any future administration from doing the same thing?
The Constitutional crisis isn’t holding this administration to account, by the way. The crisis comes when Congress starts taking the Bush administration to court, and the courts start sending back decisions that “it’s a political matter, figure it out yourselves.”
These aren’t political matters, but what results when a ruthless and power-mad Executive branch with no respect for the Constitution (3 co-equal branches of government) takes advantage of procedures that have been loosely defined for over 200 years and not written in stone because wise and reasonable people compromise for the good of all.
You can’t have a democracy with people like Bush and Cheney in the White House - they don’t believe in democracy, in compromise, for the good of all.
The grand experiment is over.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:58 pmco-conspirators???!!! Listen, if the Dems could override a veto and didn’t, you’d have a leg to stand on, but that’s not the case. Democrats believe in effective governance. Unlike the Repubs, they’re not going to waste time in impeachment hearings as a political show if they can’t really follow through. You need a supermajority in the Senate to impeach and they don’t have it. It’s called reality. Check into it.
Besides, please keep in mind that there is nothing stopping a supermajority Democratic congress and a Democratic administration’s Justice Department from bringing charges and indictments after the fact. Just because he is able to serve out his term doesn’t necessarily mean he’s off the hook.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:59 pmFortunately no one outside the liberal blogosphere and lefty rags in the Northeast and San Francisco are paying attention to these histrionics.
Comment by nabalzbbfr — May 16, 2007 @ 5:55 pm
Except of course for congress, a number of national news services from from the east to the west coast, and the American public. But just keep on pushing that “nothing to see here” line. It might even work again.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:00 pmnabalzbbfr, evidently your position is that it’s ok to break laws if people aren’t paying attention. Typical sociopath.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:01 pm“If so, then Gonzales quite likely made serious mis-statements under oath.”
Why is that people keep calling them mis-statements or saying I misspoke. They are lies pure and simple. There is no other way to put it.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:10 pm#58: You’re correct that the super-majority votes needed to impeach are not their. But, its not that it is successful, but that it is simply brought forthe. We need a restoration of faith in our government. And the rest of the world needs to see that we are attempting to clean up our mess.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:17 pmBegin the impeachment process now. You know if Repubs were smart they would have impeached Bush and Cheney. The GOP would show itself distantcing from an idiot and the GOP would not have lost a seat in the last election.
#10 Well this was about the re-authorization of the NSA program. That is what the legal certification on the authorization of the program was about, which led to the “rush to Ashcroft’s bedside” becuase DoJ certification that the program, as it had existed at the time (and had been operating for two years), was legal under law was needed by the following day. Comey and Ashcroft would not sign it. Otherwise the POTUS would be authroizing a program which was illegal. They went ahead and authrozied it without DoJ sign-off, and then made unspecified modificaitons which Ashcroft used as the needed changes to make the already operting illegal program “legal”.
Though it does beg the question raised by Comey’s testimony which indicated a centrality of the FBI head in this matter, which when taken in context with Feingold’s question about whether this was some other domestic spying program, does hint at the sort of speculation you talk about.
#17 Convening a Grand Jury is something the DoJ has to do. It is not something Congress can do. SO in essence you are demanding that Bush convene a Grand Jury on himself and blaming Democrats in Congress for him not doing so.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:43 pmUgh… In my previous comment, #17 was meant to be in response to #18 instead.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm#56 The good ol’ ostrich defense. “nothin’ to see here, move along”.
Nice try.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:51 pmTo me, it seems so senseless for Gonzales to stay in since he keeps looking more like a fool by not leaving. Then now questions are surfacing if there is yet another secret spying program, so why and what next? Could it be that there is a mountain of underlying criminal activities that are begging to surface? I know of a few and one in particular is that there are weekly $100 Million Dollar shipments of Cocaine coming in across the boarder into Texas each and every week. The shipments aren’t checked as corruption guarantees safe passage all the way to the destination point. The shipments are trucked to Chicago where they are split up and redistributed to New York and Florida. Up until 2004 the truck used was a Pepper Truck as the odor from Peppers is a good cover. I don’t think anyone will believe who is involved in this. I also feel that most people won’t believe who actually ships the Cocaine as well. I know this because I was in a family for more than 26 years who launders criminal money for this criminal system here in Chicago. The money is laundered straight into property using Mortgage Fraud with big Banks. I also feel that most people won’t believe of how many people are involved in this criminal system. But no one will ever believe how this criminal system spies on everyone because snooping helps them manage their criminal activities.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:47 pmThis sh*t is too much like those Heinz Ketchup commercials (in the 70’s)…
…used to be…
…I want some fu*kin’ blood!
…and treasure…
May 16th, 2007 at 7:52 pmSo number #56 fool you decided to post your crap on this site also. Sure going to a lot of blogs to make your non-point.
What a load of crap. No one knew what the hell the story meant back them. They hadn’t caught up with the Gonzales we now know who is incompetent and certainly no AG but still works as a WH counsel. The “schemer” is self-evident by merely listening to Comey and then to Gonzales. It’s very easy to see. Their personalities give them away. You just want to sweep it all under the rug…nothing to see here. You also give yourself away by using the phrase ” al-Queda and their minions within the USA”, pathetic fear mongering. Far from “histronics”, we are all paying attention now that the corruption and lies are pouring out of this administration, who, like the ” honest and (ha-ha) plain spoken “(I can’t remember, I can’t recall) AG makes plain by ignoring a subpoena and forgetting to turn over pertinent withheld DoJ-WH documents and the conveniently lost emails of Rove, not to mention the hiring and firing practices of Goodling (which he approved), ran an illegal operation for weeks because Comey wouldn’t sign off on it and neither would Ashcroft. But you say nothing to see here, just a bunch of liberal bloggers making something out of nothing. Better to keep one’s mouth shut and let people wonder if you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt as in Comment # 56. The only way to not know is to not want to know(Penn-Warren) and it’s for certain you don’t want to know. Look at what you have become, another complacent denier of truth…or in other words, a spineless liar.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:01 pmImpeachment is not Republican or Democrat; it’s American. Regardless of outcome it is the means by which the people may make it’s elected representatives accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors like treason. Whatever, we and you know who and what they are.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:09 pmJohnathan Turley just said it all…
When asked by Keith Olbermann if we had reached the point of needing a…
…Special Prosecutor to investigate this Bush domestic wiretapping crime…
…Turley replied that we had long ago pased that point…
…and he added…
…”The problem is Keith, this is a clearly IMPEACHABLE offense. Nopresident in modern history has EVER had such an impeachable (situation).”
TRANSLATION:
If we don’t IMPEACH and PROSECUTE these bi*ches…
…we might as well become a dictatorship…
…because we’ll NEVER be able to IMPEACH a president EVER!
If you know Repulsivescum Bushites…
…PRESSURE them to call for THEIR Representatives and congresspeople…
…to IMPEACH this son-of-a-bi*ch!
May 16th, 2007 at 8:34 pmGonzales lie under oath? If The Question was about sex, then can we impeach him?
May 16th, 2007 at 8:39 pmRep Conyers: Re Gonzales-Go to the episode about Gonzales and Card trying to get Ashcroft, barely alive in a hospital bed, to sign a document authorizing an illegal warrantless permission to have spy surveillance. Comey,then the acting attorney general (Ashcroft was hospitalized with cancer) ,was also against the illegal spying was present with Gonzales and Card but was pushed aside for Ashcroft. Comey was furious about this epsode and so was the head of the FBI, Mr.Mueller,who kn ew about this too and also threatened to resign. Shortly afterwards, Comey spoke to Bush in an active exchange for 15 minutes or so and worked out a deal to allow the spying with later legal restraints to follow. Specter said that it sounderd like “the Saturday night massacre” of Nixon’;s Watergate!.
Rep Conyers–please face Gonzales with the implications of participating in an episode like the “massacre” of Watergate.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:53 pmSeriously, they might as well have said “Do you want us to believe you or our lying eyes?”
You know that Sponge Bob movie where Nemo’s daughter says “Stalling? I’m not stalling.” only she says it REALLY slow. That’s what this is.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:23 pmRe the letter from the Senators, and this post - are they kidding, or unable to read?
Read Gonzalez’ testimony - he quite clearly and craftily states that no one objected to the Dec 2005 version of the program, and he is probably right - Comey’s own version is that DoJ objected to the Mar 2004 version of the program, and changes were made to accomodate them.
Is this complicated?
May 16th, 2007 at 10:47 pmI am coming to this thread a bit late, but I did read most of Comey’s testimony earlier. As I read it, I got the impression that ther might be OTHER program going on, something even worse than the wiretaps. Remember, there was not a blip on the horizon about the wiretap program for over 4 years. We knew nothing about it - nada. And the torture? For over a year. How much did we know before the pictures got out? There just may be one worst program out there that we have no clue about yet.
If that is the case, and the way Gonzales parses words, it seems entirely plausible that he was telling the truth about no serious disagreement about the wiretaps, but if Comey is (not) talking about some other program, then it must be a DOOZY - especially if Ashcroft was ready to resign over it.
This scenario fits all the current evidence. Don’t be surprised if the sheit really hits the fan before too long: Someone will let the cat out of the bag, now that Congress under the Democrats is not enabling Bush.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:26 pmIMPEACH IMPEACH
May 17th, 2007 at 12:36 am/Question all you want you spineless twerps./
Yes, because it takes a real spine not to question authority.
As Americans, we remain free to obey, and free to conform. Anyone who wishes to use his freedom for other purposes is a coward.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:32 amI have a feeling the other program might be the citizen detention camps, which they have already built.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:01 pmyou ain’t a redneck if…
yer neck ain’t red
lmao, ya red!
May 17th, 2007 at 12:47 pmwhy? i got the blues..
May 17th, 2007 at 12:49 pmThe 72% of us on the lunatic fringe have had enough.
“It is clear to any unbiased observer that Comey’s story makes no sense and leads one to be thankful that our AG is the honest plain-spoken Gonzales and not a conniving schemer like Comey.” ?!?!?
Are you serious? COME ON 56! Do you even watch the news or read the paper? Do you realize that Gonzales said, “I don’t remember,” 71 times before lunch on the first day of testimony on the US Attorney firings? Once he actually said, “I don’t recall remembering.” I p$h!t you not–two ‘I don’t remembers’ in one sentence. Impressive. It takes a record-setting amount of gall to call Gonzo honest.
Though I feel that your use of words like ‘histrionics’ and ‘animus’ prove you own a thesaurus, your actual opinion is ample evidence that you don’t have access to any form of media.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:17 pmThe 72% of us on the lunatic fringe have had enough.
“It is clear to any unbiased observer that Comey’s story makes no sense and leads one to be thankful that our AG is the honest plain-spoken Gonzales and not a conniving schemer like Comey.”
Arre you serious? COME ON #56! Are you aware that, before lunch on the first day of US Attorney testimony, Gonzo said, ‘I don’t remember,’ in one form ore another 71 times? It’s a verifiable fact–I kid you not. Once, he actually said, “I don’t recall remembering.” ‘Impressive! ‘Two ‘I don’t remembers’ in one sentence. It takes a record-setting amount of gall to call Fredo honest. ‘Nice job.
While your use of words like ‘animus’ and ‘histrionics’ suggest you have access to a thesaurus, your opinion is proof you have no access to the media.
Just admit it–you made a mistake in the voting booth in ‘04.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:29 pm