ubuhh....Murray Waas on Bush, Gonzales. UPDATED
Thu Mar 15, 2007 at 09:34:08 AM PDT
Ok wait...This is making my head spin. Murray Waas
Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.
Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.
Oh where to start??!!
Lesseee, lemme get this straight...
Item # 1: So there are government records and interviews that indicate that there was something to be investigated regarding Alberto Gonzales' conduct warrantless domestic eavesdropping....otherwise known as evidence.
Item #2: Bush shut down the investigation of the illegal wiretapping. NATIONAL SECURITY!!!! Right. Old news but juicy news.
Item #3: Bush did this by denying investigators security clearances??
In his January 20 memo, Jarrett asked that he, four other attorneys in his office, and two administrative aides receive security clearances so that they could proceed with their investigation. OPR had never before been denied security clearances in its three-decade existence, according to former Justice Department officials. And the Bush administration had granted such clearances to a score of other Justice officials, enabling them to learn classified details of the program, as well as to a group of private citizens on a presidential privacy board.
Okay....
Item #4: Gonzales advised the President to block an investigation into his own conduct.
Item #5: To quote Murray:
But if Gonzales did inform Bush about the possibility and the president responded by stymieing the probe, that would raise even more-serious questions as to whether Bush acted to protect Gonzales, they said.
I'll say....What a pair!!
Do I detect the pungent scent of, oh let's see, eau de obstruction of justice? Is that what I smell?
Woe is me that I can merely quote 3 juicy Murray Waas paragraphs. There are many. many. many more loaded paragraphs to read. Look for yourself.
UPDATE: Ok, I just want to say that I think what we have been seeing this week and last as this has been building, is the difference between a Republican majority and a Democratic Majority. Chess is being played by Schumer and Leahy and Reid, and Gonzales is nearly in check mate, it seems to me. What would normally have been swept under the rug will no longer be so. {cough}subpoena power{cough.}
Mistakes were made. Cases will be built. People will be subpoenaed....
UPDATE #2: From ABC News
New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than previously acknowledged by the White House.
The e-mails also show Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse while he was still White House counsel — weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general.
The e-mails directly contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers and was her idea alone.
Liar-liar-pants-on-fire...
