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Article I, Section 1, US Constitution: First Amendment to the US Constitution: Seventh Amendment to the US Constitution:
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GONZALES TOLD SENATE NO DISPUTE OVER WIRETAPPING, MUELLER TELLS OF MASS RESIGNATION THREATENED IN 2004 PROTEST AT JUSTICE 2 August 2007 FBI director Robert Mueller, the top law-enforcement agent within the Justice Department, testified before that House Judiciary Committee that there was in fact a heated confrontation between senior Justice Department officials and White House aides in 2004, regarding President Bush's warrantless NSA wiretapping program. Two days earlier, AG Gonzales had told the Senate there had never been any disagreements within the administration regarding the legality of the program. Mueller testified that the crisis was so severe, he had to intervene to prevent a wave of resignations at Justice. Tuesday's testimony by the attorney general had already stirrd controversy, as it differed significantly from information already learned in hearings and sworn testimony. According to the International Herald Tribune, "In a separate development, Senate Democrats, who were unaware of Mueller's comments, demanded the appointment of a special counsel to investigate whether Gonzales committed perjury in his testimony on Tuesday about the intelligence dispute." AG Gonzales reportedly testified that the disagreement that occured in early 2004, which nearly led to a raft of top-level resignations, was to do with "other intelligence activities", and not the NSA-based "terrorist surveillance program", which wiretapped American citizens en masse and without warrants. A Justice spokesman said of Gonzales' testimony that he did not lie, that "confusion is inevitable when complicated classified activities are discussed in a public forum where the greatest care must be used not to compromise sensitive intelligence operations". But four senators —Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island— have called for an independent inquiry into the veracity of the attorney general's testimony before Congress. It is believed he wanted to diminish the likelihood that it be perceived there was an impression among government officials that the program he had crafted the legal parameters for was in fact illegal. The four are calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor, and have done so in a formal letter to the solicitor general. In the letter, they write "it is apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements." Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, sent a transcript of the testimony to the attorney general, urging that he "mark any changes you wish to make to correct, clarify or supplement your answers so that, consistent with your oath, they are the whole truth." Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter, the top ranking Republican on the judiciary committee, also joined in the call for a perjury probe. [s]
BACKGROUND: Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, James Comey, former deputy attorney general, who acted as AG during Ashcroft illness in early 2004, said Pres. Bush intervened to halt a raft of resignations in protest over the policy clash. Comey reportedly had to rush to AG Ashcroft's hospital bedside to prevent White House officials from gaining authorization, despite official opposition from Justice Dept. lawyers and then acting AG Comey. [Full Story] ACLU ACQUIRES GOV'T DOCUMENTS SHOWING SURVEILLANCE OF PEACEFUL, LAW-ABIDING GROUPS New information acquired by the ACLU by way of the Freedom of Information Act, shows the FBI and the Joint Terrorist Task Force have been monitoring, infiltrating and spying on innocent, law-abiding individuals and both non-religious and faith-based activist groups whose activities are entirely peaceful and are protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. [Full Story] AT&T SUED FOR VIOLATING LAW IN NSA DOMESTIC SPY PROGRAM AT&T was once the nation's telecommunications monopoly, and abuses there led to the break-up of the Bell monopoly and the regulation of telecoms, with the intent of encouraging competition and achieving the goal of forcing providers to serve the customers first. Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit alleging that the telecommunications giant has violated federal law by assisting the government in spying on innocent Americans without any court authorization. [Full Story] DATA SHADOWS & IMPROBABLE CONSENT Neither contracts nor "terms and conditions" including indemnities disclaimers, can be classified as legislation. They do not make or construct legal limits by themselves. Obvious as this may seem, it is a necessary introduction to the problem of the trade in personal information and "soft surveillance", whereby one is routinely subjected to interrogation, inspection and even physical search, not for having broken any laws or even aroused any reasonable suspicion, but simply because "that's policy". [Full Story] |
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