Documents Contradict Gonzales Testimony

AP: AG Told Congress Meetings Did Not Focus On Surveillance, Documents Show Otherwise

(AP)  Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

A Gonzales spokesman maintained Wednesday that the attorney general stands by his testimony.

At a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Gonzales repeatedly testified that the issue at hand was not about the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on suspects in the United States without receiving court approval.

Instead, Gonzales said, the emergency meetings on March 10, 2004, focused on an intelligence program that he would not describe.

Gonzales, who was then serving as counsel to Bush, testified that the White House Situation Room briefing sought to inform congressional leaders about the pending expiration of the unidentified program and Justice Department objections to renew it. Those objections were led by then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey, who questioned the program's legality.

"The dissent related to other intelligence activities," Gonzales testified at Tuesday's hearing. "The dissent was not about the terrorist surveillance program."

"Not the TSP?" responded Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. "Come on. If you say it's about other, that implies not. Now say it or not."

"It was not," Gonzales answered. "It was about other intelligence activities."

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director's office shows that the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, 2004, was about the terror surveillance program, or TSP.

The memo, dated May 17, 2006, and addressed to then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, details "the classification of the dates, locations, and names of members of Congress who attended briefings on the Terrorist Surveillance Program," wrote then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.

It shows that the briefing in March 2004 was attended by the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders and leading members of both chambers' intelligence committees, as Gonzales testified.

Bush acknowledged the existence of the classified surveillance program in December 2005 after it was revealed by The New York Times. In January, it was put under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for judicial review before any wiretaps were to be approved.

Asked for comment on the documents Wednesday evening, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Gonzales "stands by his testimony."

"The disagreement referenced by Jim Comey in March 2004 was not about the particular intelligence activity that has been publicly described by the president," Roehrkasse said. "It was about other highly classified intelligence activities that have been briefed to the intelligence committees."

The disagreement over whether to renew the program led to a dramatic, and highly controversial, confrontation between Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on the night of March 10, 2004.

After briefing the congressional leaders, Gonzales testified that he and then-White House chief of staff Andy Card headed to a Washington hospital room, where a sedated Ashcroft was recovering from surgery. Ashcroft had already turned over his powers as attorney general to Comey.

Comey was in the hospital room as well, and recounted to senators in his own sworn testimony in May that he "thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me."

Ultimately, Ashcroft sided with Comey, and Gonzales and Card left the hospital after a five- to six-minute conversation.

Gonzales denied that he and Card tried to pressure Ashcroft into approving the program over Comey's objections.

"We never had any intent to ask anything of him if we did not feel that he was competent," Gonzales told the Senate panel Tuesday. "At the end of his description of the legal issues, he said, 'I'm not making this decision. The deputy attorney general is.' And so Andy Card and I thanked him. We told him that we would continue working with the deputy attorney general and we left."

Democrats and Republicans alike expressed disbelief at Gonzales' version of events.

[imnho]

When you can't keep your perjured testmony stright it is time to resign and find something else to do. The AG is so lyoal to his boss that he will wind up going of the deep end to protect him. I wonder how he will look in jumpsuit Orange?

[prinzowhales]

So, we've got a real 'page turner' here...with Dennis Hastert, with his sweet sixteens...the Congressional pages...we've got Albert Gonzalez who helped ocver up the child rape rooms and other goings on in the Texas juvenile justice system and, last but not least, the duke of death squads, John Negroponte...all involved in a 'secret intelligence program' that Gonazalez doesn't want to talk about....with all of the surveillance equipment going into public schools I bet it is the "Let's watch little boys shower" intelligence program.

[stevex47]

Good Evening neocon nut-jobs. Hey your guys are lying about criminal activity again...stop that.

[donnie900]

Well, I don't see whats so wrong with surveillance anyway. Any telephone company employee can spy on ya. Heck, yer credit card company knows more about you than yer government does. And ya go to a casino in vegas and they stare at ya all day long! A buncha woppps! Yer computer has so much frig'n spyware on it, it turns a 1 year old computer into a 10 year old computer! And yet somehow.. someway.. Gonzales is wrong. Unbelievable.

That guy just wants to stop terrorism!

[imprisonbush]

The Shrub can now be heard quietly sharpening his pardon pen....

[donnie900]

This is classic democrat two-face-ism.

You think if someone like Hillary Clinton could spy on you she wouldn't? Huh? That chick is so paranoid its a superstition! Remember the FBI files? Huh?

[rushlimpdrug]

Ok everybody, let's all sing-a-long!
-"Stand by your mannn n n and tell the world . . ."

[donnie900]

Obama's got a fridge fulla Beyonce going to the bathroom!

[donnie900]

John Edwards don't care. He's just.. combing his hair.

[lorinkundert]

Sounds like perjury to me, so why hasn't the AG been arrested yet?

[donnie900]

And did ya know that there are whole new ways of putting people in prison? Huh? "Whole new ways"! Surveillance ain't a republican thing. Its a sign'a the times we live in. And you'd be stupid.. STUPID! Not to use it in a war against terrorism.

Absolutely stupid. Thats what the NSA is! Thats what the intelligence community is! Surveillance.

[tomar0317]

another of Bush's yes men. Needs to be handcuffed, sent to prison and all benefits forfeited. Next!

[nyckate]

Documents contradict Gonzales testimony? That's without a doubt perjury.

Time to start locking these guys out - they're not only incompetent they are totally contemptuous of the Congress and US Constitution.

Bush, Cheney, et al are just like the thugs the Founding Fathers fought against - they are so unamerican they're monarchists, imperialists and would=be dictators.

[ioweign]

The Shrub can now be heard quietly sharpening his pardon pen....
Posted by ImprisonBush at 09:11 PM : Jul 25, 2007

Remember, no sharp objects but he has his crayolas...

[donnie900]

When you make a phone call? When you sign on the internets? When you wake up in the morning, brush yer teeth, wash yer face, and step out that front door. You are.. surveilled. You are surrounded.. by electronic signal. And there is nothing wrong with it. If you got nothing to hide? There is nothing wrong with it..

[nyckate]

donnie900 ... is an idiot. Which of course is the only pre-requisite to being a Bushite!!!

Bush has gotten tens of thousands of americans blown to bits and pieces -- yetyou are making moronic comments about hair cuts?? have you no idea how much of an idiot you show yourself to be with your assinine idiotic childish comments???

[ubrew12]

Article: "Gonzales denied that he and Card tried to pressure Ashcroft into approving the program over Comey's objections."

Is it lost on anyone that, a year after these events, Gonzales was the only one in the room who still had a job?

[pepperp1]

Yes he lied and he was under oath. No one in the Administration can tell the truth to much to hide? Now who thinks Gonzos defense fund will receive big Repug donor contributions, don't think so.

[nyckate]

donnie900 -- so in effect the only ones not answerable to the american people are bush and his bunch of thugs???? Not only shall they not be surveilled but they are also not answerable to Congress??

WOW - is stupidity your family trait???

[donnie900]

"WOW - is stupidity your family trait???"

And where were you on 9/11?

[nyckate]

ubrew12 -- For the likes of Ashcroft who's last political outing was losing an election to a dead man being appointed AG had to be the supreme highlight of his career.

I knew something big had to be up for him to resign -- as much as he wanted the job he was a decent enough American not to be able to stomache Bush, CHeney and their lawlessness.

[donnie900]

The prisons of the future ain't gonna have walls. The prisons of the future are going to have cameras in the streets, and in yer houses. And you're going to wear ankle bracelets. Even when you're innocent. Everybody is going to have an ankle bracelet. And God is going to watch you. He's going to watch you go to the bathroom..

[nyckate]

donnie900 -- where? NYC you low life POS.

And as a New Yorker I know that Bush has severely let this nation down - al queda is as strong now as then, and our own generals and intelligence agencies warn of an attack here again.

SO FU you lousy slug. Stupidity must be the family trait you brag about in your inbred Bushite family.

[donnie900]

Oh..

[donnie900]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm sign'n up fer hollywood security guard work.

[formrusmcsgt]

Everyone but Gonzales is lying, apparently......

[richnj1]

NYCKATE: have you noticed that the insane bloodthirsty types were nowhere near the WTC on 9/11? I live just across the GWB.

As for Bush and his cronies: my prediction is that by the time the dust settles, so many Bush aides will have been tried, convicted, and pardoned that the reaction will be to forever limit the ability of the President to pardon members of his/her administration.

IMO, it would be a simple and desirable change to prohibit the President from pardoning anyone in the Federal government (any branch) who is convicted of crimes related to his/her government service.

[godseyesore-2009]

Of course, the congress will continue to lick bush & cheney's boots and do nothing about yet another repugnacan. Both sides of aisle are spineless, double speak zombies...but especially so are the egregious republicans who ignore the desires of America for their nazi leaders. Seig Heil!
Idiots.

[sharncedar]

Yeah its a good point - John Ashcroft had too much integrity for these clowns - how low that makes them, for Ashcroft to be disgusted at them.

[seven-pesos]

gonzalez...just another slave state republican creep

bush, gonzalez, condisleezeball, foley, swaggart, robertson, falwell, limbaugh

all southern, all christian, all snakes.

bush loving, fat azzed, ignorant, white trash bush loving snakes.

war, hate, arrogance, rednecks and reborns...

that's the south for you, folks!

[walt1944-2009]

The Great Gonzo has struck again, putting both his feet in his mouth. Apparently, the Gonz didn't think that someone else might be taking notes at his meetings "that never happened" and that those notes wouldn't be written on self-destructing paper or with disappearing ink.

How can anyone take the Justice Department seriously anymore when the Attorney General is such a total idiot! Even congressmen in his own party think the Great Gonzo should quit and open a dog and pony show in a carnival somewhere. The only person who supports this clown is the even bigger clown and joker in the Oval Office, a guy who says, "There are called 'Al Queada in Iraq' because they are Al Qeada and they're in Iraq."!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!

[hologram5]

And did ya know that there are whole new ways of putting people in prison? Huh? "Whole new ways"! Surveillance ain't a republican thing. Its a sign'a the times we live in. And you'd be stupid.. STUPID! Not to use it in a war against terrorism.

Absolutely stupid. Thats what the NSA is! Thats what the intelligence community is! Surveillance.
Posted by donnie900 at 09:21 PM : Jul 25, 2007

DUDE, you need to wake up, we do not need to lose freedom to security, PERIOD. There has been no evidence that the bad guys we were trying to kill were in IRAQ, NONE. we should not have to lose constitutional rights for security at all, if you feel that way then you should have lived in Nazi Germany.

[homespunlady]

nyckate Ashcroft won back my respect when he stuck with integrity and resigned. Even though I was half a nation away I lost a military firefighter friend to the towers. He by coincidence left to see his fianci in NJ right before and I refused to even consider the possibility until I'd heard his name spoken at a memorial a year later. A mother at the school function we were attending at the time had a sister in the apartments next to the towers. She was lucky and safe.
The biggest Irony was the financial newsletter I received the day before it happened. It announced "Something's Coming, Something Big" then talked about the 1993 bombing. a subsequent newsletter said he'd just guessed based on similar financial activity. Go Figure.

[radiob-2009]

It shows that the briefing in March 2004 was attended by the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders and leading members of both chambers' intelligence committees, as Gonzales testified.


So essentially they knew of the illegality of this both partys and remained silent and now Gonzales wants everyone to believe him when the records dispute his words.

[randalds]

he sits in front of congress and lies with a straight face and no one is surprised. This administration is so corrupt that when another bit of criminal behaviour is discovered people are getting to the point where they just say "Well what do you expect?". This administration makes Nixon's look like a sainthood.

[donnie900]

You liberals and yer in-the-noses. I know what I'm talking about! Ya hear? I KNOW! And there ain't no reason not to surveil. Mr. Fat ******* pony tail sit'n on de bidet eat'n beef jerky go'in: "I'm starving! I'm starving!" Rights my azzz.

[roach9703]

The impeachment of Gonzales is the only way to fix this mess. But, will congress have the courage?

[searingtruth]

Wow.

Alberto Gonzales, Dictator Bush's head of the Injustice Department, is a bald-faced liar.

Who would have figured?

Oh yeah, American patriots did long ago.

We realized that he was integral in the illegal kidnapping of foreign and domestic citizens, and their indefinite incarceration without charge or representation in secret prisons where they are regularly tortured, and sometimes murdered.

And of course integral in one of his favorite activities, the mass illegal surveillance of American citizens, most of whom are simply the loyal and legitimate political opposition.

And who could forget one of the least of his treasonous activities, obstructing justice by ousting loyal American Attorney Generals who refused to do the bidding of his beloved dictator.

Oh well. Thank goodness fascists never change, it sure makes them easy to recognize.
ST


"When everything is secret, everything is legal."
SearingTruth

"Republicans are in a unique historical position. They are the first group of people raised on this land, who call themselves Americans, that openly proclaim the virtues of torture, secret prisons, extra judicial abduction, universal surveillance, and dictatorial government."
SearingTruth

"If George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or Thomas Jefferson come back to life they are going to give the Republicans a good spanking.
And then put them in prison."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[gene0819]

Gonzales is inept. He has the right ethnicity to get ahead and he has achieved his highest level of ineptitude possible. Seems like another argument against affirmative action if you ask me. Time for him to go...

[randalds]

This scum has no conscious, no pride, no self-respect. He is a disgrace to all Americans. he is a Bush as*slicker and lapdog that if he had any sense of honor left he'd put a gun barrel in his mouth and blow the back of his head off. Here hoping he chooses that way out. He won't because just like his boss, Bush, he's one of the worlds biggest cowards and pus*sies. they make a perfect couple. Not one shred of integrity between these two as*sholes. I hope someday they both hang.

[donnie900]

When I'm hollywood security guard I'm gonna git permission to poop on yer foreheads.

[radiob-2009]

I think a few people are overlooking the fact that the article states that congressional leaders of both partys were briefed in Mar. of 04, and this did not come to light until Dec. 05.
Both party leaders were complecent in this.

[randalds]

DUDE, you need to wake up, we do not need to lose freedom to security, PERIOD. There has been no evidence that the bad guys we were trying to kill were in IRAQ, NONE. we should not have to lose constitutional rights for security at all, if you feel that way then you should have lived in Nazi Germany.
Posted by hologram5 at 10:35 PM : Jul 25, 2007

Ya got to read donnie900 for several days before you catch his game. One night he argues passionately for Bush and the next night just as passionately against him...on the very same issue. It all depends on if he's drunk, stoned or both (when he gets REALLY weird). He's best either toyed with for fun or ignored as a waste of time.

[jb01201a]

Well lookie here:
Gonzales is inept. He has the right ethnicity to get ahead and he has achieved his highest level of ineptitude possible. Seems like another argument against affirmative action if you ask me. Time for him to go...
Posted by gene0819 at 10:45 PM : Jul 25, 2007
And your great hero Janet Reno is better ? What was Waco. You people on the left are really smart and you are also abunch of smucks !

[truthspeake2]

John Gotti, the teflon Don, didn't have nothing on Bush and his Administration...

[donnie900]

"Ya got to read donnie900 for several days before you catch his game. One night he argues passionately for Bush and the next night just as passionately against him...on the very same issue. It all depends on if he's drunk, stoned or both (when he gets REALLY weird). He's best either toyed with for fun or ignored as a waste of time."

Sorry Randi.

[macusweil]

So he lied under oath, but he's above the law, so who give a flip?~ he's just a card carrying neo.con chicken hawk torture boy from hell!!

[randalds]

Sorry Randi.

Posted by donnie900 at 10:52 PM : Jul 25, 2007

That's OK donnie, some of us still love you. Most of the time anyway. Feel free to continue on please.

;-)

[radiob-2009]

Sorry Randi.
Posted by donnie900


Randall is going to place his trained one eyed mouses on you find out what you are really up to.
Now take your zanax, wellburtin, prozac, and whatever else that cures your ails. Just look out for those mice.

[jb01201a]

Here is a typical smuck lib remark:
This scum has no conscious, no pride, no self-respect. He is a disgrace to all Americans. he is a Bush as*slicker and lapdog that if he had any sense of honor left he'd put a gun barrel in his mouth and blow the back of his head off.

Now, this is lib intelligence at its best !