Spy Lies

Alberto Gonzales continues his job of being an upstanding Attorney General spinning for the President and doing legal gymnastics for the Executive branch to justify the unjustifiable (torture, warrantless wiretaps, etc):
Gonzales Says Criticism of NSA Misleading (AP)

You're right, Alberto, it is a little misleading. It doesn't fully explain what liars you all are.

And Alberto gets some founding fathers-inspired protesting...



[See video report here and full speech video here]

There is also new information out (in light of Gen. Hayden's remarks and fourth amendment confusion) that further damages the Administration's excuses on the spying program:

In June, 2002, Republican Sen. Michael DeWine of Ohio introduced legislation (S. 2659) which would have eliminated the exact barrier to FISA which Gen. Hayden yesterday said is what necessitated the Administration bypassing FISA...

...In other words, DeWine's bill, had it become law, would have eliminated the "probable cause" barrier (at least for non-U.S. persons) which the Administration is now pointing to as the reason why it had to circumvent FISA...

...And yet, look at what [Justice Department lawyer James A.] Baker said in his Statement [to Congress on behalf of the administration]. He began by effusively praising the Patriot Act on the ground that the 72-hour window provided by the Patriot Act had given the Administration the speed and flexibility it needed in order to engage in eavesdropping:

The reforms in those measures (the PATRIOT Act) have affected every single application made by the Department for electronic surveillance or physical search of suspected terrorists and have enabled the government to become quicker, more flexible, and more focused in going "up" on those suspected terrorists in the United States.

One simple but important change that Congress made was to lengthen the time period for us to bring to court applications in support of Attorney General-authorized emergency FISAs. This modification has allowed us to make full and effective use of FISA's pre-existing emergency provisions to ensure that the government acts swiftly to respond to terrorist threats. Again, we are grateful for the tools Congress provided us last fall for the fight against terrorism. Thank you.

...So, in June, 2002, the Administration refused to support elimination of the very barrier ("probable cause") which Gen. Hayden claimed yesterday necessitated the circumvention of FISA.

I am glad someone is keeping track of all this. As Atrios notes, the only logical conclusion we're left with (occam's razor- the simplest explanation is usually correct) is that "They wanted to spy on whoever they wanted to without any oversight or accountability".