FBI director contradicts Gonzales
WOW how do we investigate the Attorney General for perjury?
YAHOO- The head of the FBI contradicted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ sworn testimony and Senate Democrats requested a perjury investigation Thursday in a fresh barrage against President Bush’s embattled longtime friend and aide.
In a third blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to compel the testimony of Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political adviser, in connection with its investigation of the firings of federal prosecutors.
FYI
FBI Director Mueller Contradicts Gonzales’ Senate Testimony
NPR-Four Democrats from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday called for a perjury investigation against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, saying they believe he lied to them. Shortly after that, FBI Director Robert Mueller contradicted some of the attorney general’s sworn Senate testimony.
A group of Senate Democrats on Thursday called for a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales perjured himself in testimony regarding dissent over President Bush’s domestic surveillance program.
His Senate testimony on Tuesday contradicted documents concerning a 2004 meeting with key lawmakers. The documents show that, contrary to Gonzales’ testimony, a terror surveillance program was discussed at the meeting.
“We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether attorney general Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress,” four Democratic senators wrote in a letter Wednesday, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press.
“It has become apparent that the Attorney General has provided, at a minimum, half-truths and misleading statements” to the Judiciary Committee, they added.
“We do not make this request lightly,” wrote Sens. Charles E. Schumer of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement.
Schumer said Gonzales has abused his power and misled the American public, and that Congress cannot afford to let it go unchecked.
“For months we have seen the dept. of justice unravel like a ball of string. I have seen nothing like it” in my years in office, he said. “At the helm of this Department of Justice is a man who has potentially misled the American people, again and again.”
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-CO) said Reid supports the request for a special counsel.
A Gonzales spokesman earlier maintained 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 serving as counsel to Mr. Bush in 2004, 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 Schumer. “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 says 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.
Schumer called the memo evidence that Gonzales was not truthful in his testimony.
“It seemed clear to just about everyone on the committee that the attorney general was deceiving us when he said the dissent was about other intelligence activities and this memo is even more evidence that helps confirm our suspicions,” Schumer said.
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.
FYI
NY Times
WASHINGTON, July 26 — The dispute over the truthfulness of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales reached a new intensity today as the F.B.I. Director, Robert S. Mueller 3rd, contradicted Mr. Gonzales’s sworn testimony before a Senate committee.
Mr. Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee that the Bush administration’s secret eavesdropping program was the main topic at an encounter in the hospital room of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on March 10, 2004, contrary to what Mr. Gonzales told a Senate panel on…
Gonzalez may be facing impeachment.
This has been a truly sad administration. I don’t mean policy as much as communication and ethics.
When Pinochet wanted to end socialism in his country, at least he was very open about it. He became the “dictator” and everyone knew it. Whether you agree with what Bush’s goals are or not, time and time again, poor communication, unethical conduct by subordinates, secrecy, and hidden agendas seem to be common. I, believe much of that is not at Bush’s request as much as at the request of party leaders advising the President. I have no faith and haven’t had for decades in the GOP leadership but, lately instead of just inept marketing of their party and its goals, they seem to be getting worse. Much worse.
I think they face a huge barrier to winning anything back in 2008 because of it. Does that mean I think the Democrats are any better? NO!
Neither party is serving this nation as much as they are serving themselves and their own respective power bases. The two parties have so much hate for each other that even a good bill will be challenged if they think the other party will gain from it with the voters.
They don’t seek solutions as much as they see “weapons” they can use to gain votes and take power away from each other.
Time for some totally new leadership in both parties or a new choice for American voters.