ALBERTO NO NO

“There’s a discrepancy here in sworn testimony,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said after listening to Gonzales, raising the possibility of a perjury inquiry. “We’re going to have to ask who’s telling the truth, who’s not.” Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, top Republican on the panel, also disregarded Gonzales’ description. “I do not find your testimony credible, candidly,” he told the attorney general. Three Democrats — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller and former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle — dispute Gonzales’ testimony. Rockefeller called it “untruthful".

Who are they talking about? Why our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, of course. The man responsible for upholding the laws of the land, no less. Testifying in front of the Senate oversight hearing on many miscues and dirty deeds of the Bush administration, Alberto testified that the issue at hand during a White House briefing 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, and was actually about intelligence issues he would not, or could not divulge.

“Not the TSP?” responded Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “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.”

Documents, however, indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director’s office says the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, was about the terror surveillance program, which was about to expire. 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.

The disagreement over whether to renew the program led to a dramatic, and highly controversial, confrontation between Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on the night of March 10, 2004.
After briefing the congressional leaders, Gonzales testified that he and then-White House chief of staff Andy Card headed to a Washington hospital room, where a sedated Ashcroft was recovering from surgery. Ashcroft had already turned over his powers as attorney general to Comey. Comey was in the hospital room as well, and recounted to senators in his own sworn testimony in May that he “thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me.”

Gonzales’ veracity during previous testimony has been called into question by senators, particularly his assertion that there was no internal dissent within the Justice Department over reauthorizing the terrorist surveillance program. Comey testified some top-ranking officials were prepared to resign over the dispute.

The documents underscore questions about Gonzales’ credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization. A Gonzales spokesman maintained Wednesday that the attorney general stands by his testimony.

Here’s some bold advice for Bush administration officials caught in an obvious misstatement, intentional or not. Admit the mistake, clarify the facts, apologize and move on. With any luck, everyone else will, too.