George W. Bush's domestic spying: cover-up?

"President Bush is the decider," The Morning Call stated July 20, 2006.

"That," it said, "in a nutshell, was the response that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales gave" on July 18, 2006, before the Senate Judiciary Committee when Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) "asked who decided to block a Justice Department investigation of the secret NSA eavesdropping program. It was a moment of clarity both because of Mr. Gonzales's frankness and because of what it revealed about the presidency of George W. Bush."

Gonzales testified "that President Bush personally halted an internal Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales and other senior department officials acted within the law in approving and overseeing the administration's domestic surveillance program," Murray Waas reported in the National Journal.

Bush "personally sidetracked an internal Justice Department probe into the warrantless domestic surveillance program earlier this year, even as other Justice officials were assigned to defend the program in court and investigate who may have leaked information about it to the news media, according to administration officials and documents released" July 18, 2006, Richard B. Schmitt wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

The "government has in effect curtailed an investigation of itself" and "hardly anyone has noticed. It has not caused much interest in Congress, or on the nation's editorial pages, or the even in the blogosphere, which takes pride in causing a stir about things that should but nobody else has yet taken notice," Waas wrote in the New York Sun.

"Bush's move -- denying the requisite security clearances to attorneys from the department's ethics office -- is unprecedented in that office's history," Dan Froomkin wrote in the Washington Post.

"Bush's action," Froomkin wrote, "is also another example of what I have previously noted is a consistent White House modus operandi: That time and time again, Bush and his aides have selectively leaked or declassified secret intelligence findings that served their political agenda -- while aggressively asserting the need to keep secret the information that would tend to discredit them."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * George W. Bush's domestic spying

2006

 * Faiz Shakir, "VIDEO: Bush Personally Blocked DOJ Investigation Of Wiretapping Program," Think Progress, July 18, 2006.
 * Jason Ryan, "White House Blocked Spy Program Probe," ABC News, July 18, 2006.
 * Mark Sherman, "Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Program Probe," Washington Post, July 18, 2006.
 * Murray Waas, "Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation," National Journal, July 18, 2006.
 * Charlie Savage, "Bush blocked probe, AG testifies. Senate examines wiretap program," Boston Globe, July 19, 2006.
 * Neil A. Lewis, "Bush Blocked Ethics Inquiry, Gonzales Says," New York Times, July 19, 2006.
 * "Bush 'blocked phone tap inquiry'," BBC, July 19, 2006.
 * "ACLU Slams Bush's Block of Justice Department Inquiry on NSA Spying," Common Dreams, July 19, 2006.
 * Dan Froomkin, "Cover-Up Exposed?" Washington Post, July 19, 2006.
 * Richard B. Schmitt, "Bush Blocked Internal Justice Probe of Wiretaps," Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2006
 * Editorial: "Bush pulls plug on probe," Boston Globe, July 20, 2006.
 * Editorial: "Tap-Dancing as Fast as He Can," New York Times, July 20, 2006.
 * Chris Floyd, "Craven Image: The Senate Bows to Imperial Power," Empire Burlesque, July 20, 2006. Also see rubber-stamp Congress
 * Jayne Lyn Stahl, "Office of Professional Responsibility," The Huffington Post, July 20, 2006.

2007

 * Murray Waas,"Cheney's Call" National Journal, Feb. 15, 2007.
 * Declan McCullagh, "Report: FBI's snooping did not follow rules," CNet, March 9, 2007.
 * Murray S. Waas "Internal Affairs", National Journal, March 15, 2007.
 * Frank Rich, "When Will Fredo Get Whacked?" New York Times, March 25, 2007.
 * Declan McCullagh, "Senators won't take away FBI surveillance power," CNet, March 21, 2007: "The FBI's illegal use of secret methods to obtain confidential information, including telephone and e-mail records, on American citizens, drew criticism from a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday."
 * Declan McCullagh, "FBI chief blames computers for privacy flap," CNet, March 27, 2007.
 * Rodrique Ngowi, "FBI director defends use of national security letters," Associated Press (Boston Globe), April 26, 2007.
 * "FBI involved in domestic spying?" Think Progress, May 17, 2007. See Bush administration warrantless wiretapping.
 * Murray Waas,"Gonzales Investigated Subordinates Who Were Likely to Testify Against Him" Huffington Post, Oct. 7,2007.
 * Murray Waas, "Justice Department Sought Guilty Pleas in NSA Case. Huffington Post, Oct. 19, 2007.

2008

 * Murray Waas, "The Case of the Gonzales Notes," The Atlantic, Sept. 26 2008.
 * Murray Waas, "What Did Bush Tell Gonzales?" The Atlantic, Sept. 26, 2008.

More external articles

 * Related Links & Commentary 2001-2005
 * Related Links & Commentary 2006