Administration Meets Perjury Allegations By Disclosing New Surveillance Programs
The same day that a resolution was introduced seeking an impeachment investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Administration released new details concerning their warrantless wiretapping programs in what the Washington Post describes as an effort to defend Gonzales against perjury allegations.
Gonzales told Senators last week that a confidential briefing of eight senior lawmakers in 2004 did not concern the so-called "Terrorist Surveillance Program," a controversial warrantless wiretapping program which the Administration says it has since abandoned. Several lawmakers who attended that meeting have contradicted the Attorney General's testimony, as has a letter from former Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Yesterday's statements regarding newly disclosed surveillance programs, says the Washington Post, are intended to demonstrate that "other intelligence activities" could have been the subject of the 2004 meeting, and thus weaken the perjury case against the Attorney General.
Regardless of the contents of the 2004 meeting, Kate Martin, executive director of the Center for National Security Studies, says that the new disclosures raise questions about the Administration's prior statements. "They have repeatedly tried to give the false impression that the surveillance was narrow and justified," Martin said. "Why did it take accusations of perjury before the DNI disclosed that there is indeed other, presumably broader and more questionable, surveillance?"
The Administration is also pushing a bill which would amend the FISA statute to permit increased domestic spying without court approval.