A Few Flashbacks: Bush Says U.S. Spying Is Not Widespread & Shuts down Investigation into the Matter

[maddezmom]

By JOHN O'NEIL
Published: May 11, 2006
President Bush today denied that the government is "mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans," as Democrats expressed outrage over a news report describing a National Security Agency program that has collected vast amounts of telephone records.

The article, in USA Today, said that the agency did not listen to the calls, but secretly obtained information on numbers dialed by "tens of millions of Americans" and used it for "data mining" — computer analysis of large amounts of information for clues or patterns to terrorist activity.

Making a hastily scheduled appearance in the White House, Mr. Bush did not directly address the collection of phone records, except to say that "new claims" had been raised about surveillance. He said all intelligence work was conducted "within the law" and that domestic conversations were not listened to without a court warrant.

"The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," he said. "Our efforts are focused on Al Qaeda and their known associates."

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/washington/11cnd-phone.html?ex=1179547200&en=d3569c0dd80d55bd&ei=5070

Bush denies misleading public over wiretapping
By Eric Lichtblau The New York Times

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006


WASHINGTON President Bush continued to defend both the legality and the necessity of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, and he denied that he misled the public last year when he insisted that any government wiretap required a court order.

"I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy's thinking, and that's what we're doing," Bush told reporters in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday as he visited wounded soldiers at the Brooke Army Medical Center.

~snip~

The New York Times reported Sunday that James Comey, then deputy attorney general, refused to sign on to the recertification of the program in March 2004.

That prompted two of Bush's senior aides - Andrew Card Jr., his chief of staff, and Alberto Gonzales, then the White House counsel and now the attorney general - to make an emergency visit to John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, to try to persuade him to give his authorization, as required by White House procedures for the program.

Officials with knowledge of the events said that Ashcroft also appeared reluctant to sign on to the continued use of the program, and that the Justice Department's concerns appear to have led in part to the suspension of the program for several months. After a secret audit, new protocols were put in place at the NSA to better determine how the agency established the targets of its eavesdropping operations, officials have said.

Asked Sunday about internal opposition, Bush said: "This program has been reviewed, constantly reviewed, by people throughout my administration. And it still is reviewed.

more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/02/news/bush.php

Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Updated at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today that President Bush personally halted an internal Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales and other senior department officials acted within the law in approving and overseeing the administration's domestic surveillance program.


President Bush made the decision to deny the security clearances for the investigators, Alberto Gonzales said in his testimony before the Senate.


The investigation, by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, was halted when lawyers who were going to conduct the investigation were denied the security clearances that would have allowed them to view classified documents related to the surveillance program. President Bush made the decision to deny the security clearances for the investigators, Gonzales said in his testimony today.

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales said in response to a question by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who wanted to know who denied the clearances to the investigators.

more:http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0718nj1.htm

[Botany]

1. Somebody is very nervous

"Making a hastily scheduled appearance in the White House, Mr. Bush .... "

This has to be lethal to bush .... Spying on Kerry in 2004????????

[havocmom]

2. Answer in John Dean book title?

Worse Than Watergate

John Dean outta know. He was sacrificed on the alter of power by the same basic crew destroying America today.

[Botany]

3. Well bush called the N.Y. Times and begged 'em not to report the story

Even though the N.Y. Time held the story until after the 2004 bush is on
tape in Oct. of 2004 saying that "they" got warrants before all wiretaps.


With the millions of calls tracked and recorded the notion that they were
after al Qaeda is straight up preposterous. Because if they were tracking
"terrorists" how come we have gotten bin Laden & company and how come
the # of terrorists attacks has gone up world wide.

This clearly was spying and part of bigger effort to gain more control over
America. Google "Total Informational Awareness."

[stilpist]

4. Of course they never investigated "innocent Americans"

I'm sure that everyone they investigated was guilty of at least being a Democrat or opposing the administration's policies or otherwise being a terrorist or a supporter of terrorists.

Just like the Republics all "know" that the police never arrest innocent people.