On legally-dubious surveillance, Gonzales wasn’t telling the whole story

March 1, 2006

When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified on the legality of the president’s warrantless-search program, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would only address the now-infamous NSA program because Bush had authorized it “and that is all that he has authorized.”

Yesterday, Gonzales clarified this a bit.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appeared to suggest yesterday that the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance operations may extend beyond the outlines that the president acknowledged in mid-December.

In a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration’s original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago. […]

[In yesterday’s letter, Gonzales] wrote: “I did not and could not address . . . any other classified intelligence activities.” Using the administration’s term for the recently disclosed operation, he continued, “I was confining my remarks to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the President, the legality of which was the subject” of the Feb. 6 hearing.

In other words, Gonzales wanted senators to understand that there very well may be other domestic surveillance programs, and his Senate testimony should be applied only to the one that everyone now knows about.

Bruce Fein, a top lawyer in the Reagan administration, said, “It seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance programs ongoing that the president hasn’t told anyone about.”

The surveillance on American soil that’s been exposed is disconcerting enough; I shudder to imagine what the Bush administration has decided to keep under wraps.

The imagination boggles:

Magazine Subscription Surveillance Program- NSA has learned that terrorists tend to subscribe to certain types of magazines… Popular Mechanics, Home and Bombing, Ladies’ Home Jihad and Playboy…but just for the articles about targeting infrastructure.

Recipe Intercept Program – NSA also targets the recipe exchanges of certain non-U.S. individuals. Many explosive devices can be concealed as recipes for Bundt cake or Tuna Casserole.

Coupon Clippers’ Club Surveillance – NSA had determined that terrorists tend to purchase certain home goods and groceries with coupons, therefore many grocery chain sales are being monitored by sku number. Of particular interest is anyone who buys Tidy Bowl or the tabloid Weekly World News.

Television Program Preference Surveillance Program – NSA is intercepting Tivo data to monitor terrorist television watching habits. Unfortunately, most terrorists are picking up classified information and/or sensitive schmatics by watching common cable shows such as the History Channel’s “Classified Information and Other Sensitive Documents” or Discovery Channels “Terrorist Targets – Imminent Danger”. Also, the terrorists seem to be watching American Idol and flooding phone lines in attempt to affect the voting so that Brenna Gethers wins.

This is only a small sampling of secret NSA programs…. shudder away!

  • Unpeeling the onion….. are secrets, and then secrets about secrets, and secrets about secrets about secrets.. on to infinity… only waiting to be revealed by emerging checks and balances.
    I hope that congress will eventually get to the level where they learn that Bush has been spying on them.

  • What a big fucking surprise it is to learn that the Royal Buffoon’s consigliore is a mendacious prevaricator. Yes, I know that the two synonyms for “liar” are redundant; it’s intentional to highlight that the son-of-a-bitch AbuGonzo has a consistent track record for more than 15 years of enabling the Royal Buffoon to lie, and AbuGonzo himself lies to effectuate the Royal Buffoon’s lies.

    This is just one more bad set of facts to highlight why, when one is actually sworn in as a witness (at a trial at least), one must (1) tell the truth — what one says MUST, in fact, be demonstrably and verifiably true; (2) tell the whole truth — the witness cannot omit anything that is part of the truth and/or necessary to make true everything else he has said; and (3) tell nothing but the truth — the witness cannot mix in some lies with the truthful testimony.

    It would seem that AbuGonzo has violated parts (2) and (3) of the truth-telling obligations. Oops, wait just one minute — the fucker Specter refused to swear the witness in…. so AbuGonzo HAD NO LEGAL OBLIGAGTION TO TELL THE FUCKING TRUTH.

    I guess the IOKIFYAR rule still applies. Lying.Fucking.Bastards.

    P.S. I know some are offended by what they perceive to be my vulgarity (if you happen to be one, stay away from MaryScott O’Connor and My Left Wing). However, I submit that my frame of calling the Rethugs and those who serve them — wittingly or otherwise — as “Lying.Fucking.Bastards” IS both accurate and helps to express our collective sense of outrage.

    First: Lying. Self-explanatory. Just see CB’s post above on AbuGonzo.

    Second: Fucking. They are either screwing someone figuratively (e.g., see the poor, the powerless, women’s autonomy, taxpayers, Democrats/progressives/liberals, other countries, etc.) or literally (see Jeff/James Gannon/Guckert, extra prostitues at Rethug National Conventions, numerous Rethug Congresscritters and religious leaders having extra-marital affairs, etc.). The “frame” fits.

    Third: Bastards. A colloquial expression of outrage whenever another is guilty of perfidy, unethical and/or immoral conduct, and is both shameless in the act and oblivious of the consequences/effects on others.

    Lying.Fucking.Bastards is an apt description. Feel free to make liberal use of it!

  • Since this administration believes they can ignore FISA because previous presidents had such surveillance programs before FISA was evem enacted, does that mean it’s okay to ignore the 13th Amendment and buy slaves? Hey, Washington and Jefferson had them, so why not?

    Sorry, gave up snacking for Lent, so I’m kinda grumpy right now.

  • One wonders why he bothered to clarify anything–it’s not like he was sworn in during his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The only possible reason I could see is so he and Georgie could knock back a few shots and laugh about stirring up Congress again.

  • Even if he wasn’t under oath, lying to Congress is still a crime. My guess is that Mr. Window-Dressing is starting to smell the coffee and wants to insulate himself from the criminal proceedings that we all hope, and he may now fear, are on the way.

  • Gridlock ,that’s it I’m canceling my Playboy and Hom eand Bombing subsciptions.

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