Now we know why Bush appointed his "yes man" Al Gonzales Attorney General

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gore17jan17,0,1301835.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the NSA program. The authority to appoint a special prosecutor rests with Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Bush aide who, the president has said, is among those who regularly review the spying program.

Gore said a special counsel was needed because of Gonzales' "obvious conflict of interest" in investigating the program.

Gonzales did not respond directly when asked in a television interview Monday night about Gore's call for a special counsel. But the attorney general suggested that he did not consider such an investigation necessary because he believes the president has the legal authority to order the NSA surveillance.

"The president not only has the authority, he has the duty … to protect America against another attack," Gonzales said on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "And he's exercising his authorities in a lawful manner."

___________

Recommend reading the entire article. It is principally about Gore's speech yesterday.

[rodeodance]

1. if i am not mistaken, on LKLive--he did say directily that a special proc.

was not needed. anyone recall?

[flpoljunkie]

3. Here is the pertinent text and link to the LKLive transcipt.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/16/lkl.01.html

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, does the government need permission to spy on Americans it suspects are talking to terrorists? We'll ask the United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and two Senators who will hear him testify about it.
Plus, James Risen, "The New York Times" reporter who broke the story and Russell Tice, the former National Security Agency employee who says he was a source for that story, all next on LARRY KING LIVE.

We begin with the Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzales. He's with us at our studios in Washington. General, Al Gore said today that President Bush repeatedly and persistently broke the law with the NSA domestic spying program and he wants a special counsel named to investigate. What are your thoughts?

ALBERT GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I didn't see the speech of the former vice president. What I can say is that this program from its inception has been carefully reviewed by lawyers throughout the administration, people who are experienced in this area of the law, experienced regarding this technology and we believe the president does have legal authorities to authorize this program.

I would say that with respect to comments by the former vice president it's my understanding that during the Clinton administration there was activity regarding the physical searches without warrants, Aldrich Ames as an example.

I can also say that it's my understanding that the deputy attorney general testified before Congress that the president does have the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in physical searches without a warrant and so those would certainly seem to be inconsistent with what the former vice president was saying today.

KING: General, doesn't the idea of spying run against the grain of Americans?

GONZALES: I think, Larry, people need to understand that this is a very targeted and limited program that the president has authorized. We have to put this in context. Of course, we're talking about the most horrific attack on our soil in the history of this country, 3,000 lives lost on September 11th.

The president pledged to the American people that he would do whatever he could within the Constitution to protect this country. It has always been the case since we've had electronic communications that in a time of war this country engages in electronic surveillance in order to get information about the enemy.

We need to know who the enemy is. We need to know what the enemy is thinking. We need to know where the enemy is thinking about striking us again. And so absolutely, this president is going to utilize all the tools that are available to him to protect this country and I think the American people expect that of the president of the United States, who is the only public official charged, not only with the authority with the duty of protecting all Americans.

KING: Originally I think you were supposed to testify in secret and then the administration changed that. Do you know why?

GONZALES: There was never an agreement as far as I know regarding my testimony in secret. I had a conversation with Chairman Specter about coming before the Senate Judiciary Committee and explaining the legal authorities for this president to authorize these activities and we're working on a day.

As far as I know, I don't believe that date has been set. I believe it will be sometime after the State of the Union. Of course, we're obviously focusing on other issues, such as a confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court, the authorization of the Patriot Act, which of course is another valuable tool in protecting this country.

But, I'm anxious to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I'm anxious to talk to the American people about the importance of this program and the legal authorities that support this program.

KING: Senator Specter, though, did say he is troubled by it did he not?

GONZALES: Well, I haven't seen Senator Specter's comments.

KING: "The Wall Street Journal" reported that today.

GONZALES: And, again, I don't know what's been reported. We'll have an opportunity to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee and to lay out the case for the president's legal authorities and he'll have ample opportunity, as will other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to ask me questions about these legal authorities and I'm looking forward to it.

KING: General, isn't there a happy medium? Isn't there a way to get quickly to a judge who signs off on a warrant to tap or listen in? Isn't there a way to do that quick?

GONZALES: Larry, whenever you involve another branch of government in an activity regarding electronic surveillance, inherently it's going to result in some cases in delay. Perhaps in straightforward cases we can get authority relatively quickly but not all of these cases are straightforward and it's very, very important that the president has the agility and the speed to gather up electronic surveillance of individuals that may be in contact with the enemy.

And again, the FISA process, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that supervises our authorities under that act has been a very valuable tool in fighting the war on terror but it is one tool and the president has directed that we make available to him all the possible tools provided under the law and that's what we have done in this case.

KING: Can you say, general that actions have been prevented by these actions?

GONZALES: I believe that we can, Larry. I can't say it publicly. I can't give examples publicly. These are highly classified. This is a highly classified program but we have briefed certain members of Congress regarding the operations of these activities and have given examples of where these authorities, where the activities under this program have been extremely helpful in protecting America.

KING: Are you assuring that American citizens with nothing to hide have nothing to worry about?

GONZALES: Well, again, as the president indicated, and I'm only talking about what the president described to the American people in his radio address, we're talking about communication where one end of the communication is outside the United States and where we have reason to believe that a party on that communication is a member of al Qaeda or is a member of an affiliate group with al Qaeda.

And so, as the president said if someone in the United States, if you're an American citizen and you're talking to al Qaeda, we want to know why. I think it's very, very important that we know about communications that are occurring within the United States to folks outside the United States that may be affiliated with al Qaeda.

We know that on the attacks, with respect to the attacks on September 11th, we had the enemy here in our country and they obviously communicated with each other in order to initiate those attacks and that's why it's so very, very important that we have electronic surveillance of communications involving the enemy.

KING: Back to former Vice President Gore asking for a special counsel to investigate, would you object to that?

GONZALES: Well, I don't know why -- I don't know why there would be a need for a special counsel at this time, Larry, because what I can tell you is that from the very beginning, from its inception this program has been carefully reviewed by the lawyers at the Department of Justice and other lawyers within the administration and we firmly believe that the president does have the legal authority to authorize electronic surveillance in order to gather up foreign intelligence particularly, Larry, when we're talking about foreign intelligence of the enemy in a time of war.

KING: Thank you so much, general. It's always good seeing you. GONZALES: Thank you, Larry.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Notice how Al goes from "we believe" to "we firmly believe..."

Al also implies all the intelligence gathered is "foreign intelligence." I would say that remains to be seen.

Larry, however, seems to have bought what Al was selling. No surprise there.

[CottonBear]

2. The GOP is terrified of AL: they got Alberto on LKL last night.

The MSM had virtually NO mention of Gore's speeech UNTIL the GOP spin-meisters got out and accused Gore of being crazy and over wrought and blamed the Clenis for 9-11. CNN showed a Gore clip out on contect this morning (the president is breaking the law) and then cut to Alberto comparing Clinton physical searches to Bush's warrantless wiretapping and then included some Ken Melmahn spin.

[Rose Siding]

5. Ashcroft resisted months of pressure for a Plame SP, too

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 — Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself on Tuesday from any involvement in the investigation into whether Bush administration officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer. At the same time, the Justice Department brought in a special counsel to lead the politically charged case.

The two steps suggested that the three-month-old investigation had reached a crucial juncture at which Mr. Ashcroft's continued involvement was considered politically untenable, officials said. Leading Democrats had pushed for months for Mr. Ashcroft to remove himself from the case because of his close ties to the White House, but he had consistently resisted those demands until Tuesday.

http://newsmine.org/archive/cabal-elite/w-administration/cia-identity-leak/ashcroft-recused-self-from-investigation.txt

[flpoljunkie]

8. Predict Al Gonzales will go to the mat to protect his longtime benefactor.

[Vickers]

6. 'Gonzales said on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."'

AKA: The GOP Softball Network :eyes:

[sendero]

7. And this is exactly why..

... we have to do everything in our power to keep a rubber-stamper like Alito off the SC.

[flpoljunkie]

9. Dear Al, what do you have to say about this article today in the NYT?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html?pagewanted=print

January 17, 2006
Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends

By LOWELL BERGMAN, ERIC LICHTBLAU, SCOTT SHANE and DON VAN NATTA Jr.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.

But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.

F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans' international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy.

As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about "whether the program had a proper legal foundation," but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.

more...

[FloridaPat]

10. Gonzales - sees no evil, hears no evil, can't say much about anything.

This guy live in a vacuuum? So all we need is for the AG to decide what's legal and what isn't. So what do we need congress for?