WASHINGTON – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales spent more than seven hours Monday sparring with skeptical lawmakers over a controversial domestic eavesdropping program, defending its legality while refusing to answer dozens of questions about its operations.
Gonzales also suggested in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the administration had considered a broader effort that would include purely domestic telephone calls and e-mails, but abandoned the idea in part because of fears of the negative public reaction. He emphasized in other comments that the legality of such an approach had not been fully evaluated.
| Access granted?
The largest U.S. long-distance carriers cooperated with the National Security Agency’s wiretapping of international calls without warrants, according to a report published Monday in USA Today that cited unnamed telecommunications executives and intelligence officials. MCI, Sprint and AT&T grant access to their systems without warrants or court orders, and provide call-routing information that helps physically locate the callers, USA Today reported. Associated Press |
Under the current program, secretly ordered by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and revealed in news accounts in December, the National Security Agency intercepts some international calls and e-mails between U.S. residents and contacts overseas. But it does not monitor domestic calls, Gonzales and others have said.
In often tense and sometimes angry exchanges with Democratic and Republican critics, Gonzales generally avoided answering specific questions about the program’s scope, effectiveness or potential consequences. He focused instead on a series of legal arguments that the administration has put forth in recent weeks.
The Justice Department argues in a 42-page legal analysis that Bush has the inherent power to mount warrantless surveillance in a time of war, even if that includes spying on U.S. citizens or residents, and that Congress reinforced his power by passing a resolution authorizing the use of force against al-Qaida after the terrorist attacks.
Legal and national security experts from both parties have argued that Bush overstepped his authority and may have broken the federal law that governs clandestine surveillance in the United States.
Gonzales faced sharp questioning Monday from all the Democrats and some Republicans on the panel. Its chairman, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., questioned the legal justification for the program and urged a thorough, closed-door investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees.
In one of the tensest exchanges, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., angrily accused Gonzales and Bush of misleading Congress by implying that the government was not engaged in wiretapping or other surveillance without a court’s approval.
Gonzales replied that he had been “totally consistent” in his statements.
At another point, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the panel’s ranking Democrat, said sarcastically after a series of questions went unanswered: “Of course, I’m sorry, Mr. Attorney General, I forgot: You can’t answer any questions that might be relevant to this.”
Leahy also condemned Gonzales’ disclosure that the administration had consulted with the leadership of the intelligence committees in 2004 over possible legislation to cover the NSA program.
“You mean you’ve been doing this wiretapping for three years and then suddenly you come up here and say, ‘Oh, by the way, guys, could we have a little bit of authorization for this?’ Is that what you’re saying?” Leahy said. He added later: “Does this sound like a CYA on your part? It does to me.”
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