Bush Gives Clearances for N.S.A. Inquiry

Source: New York Times

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: November 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Just four days after Michael B. Mukasey was sworn in as attorney general, Justice Department officials said Tuesday that President Bush had reversed course and approved long-denied security clearances for the Justice Department’s ethics office to investigate the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. The department’s inspector general has been investigating the department’s involvement with the N.S.A. program for about a year, but the move suggested both that Mr. Mukasey wanted to remedy what many in Congress saw as an improper decision by the president to block the clearances and that the White House chose to back him.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, and Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to say whether Mr. Mukasey had pressed Mr. Bush on the clearances for the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Mr. Mukasey himself had indicated in a written answer to senators on Oct. 30, before his confirmation, that the clearance issue had been resolved. But Democrats said they thought Mr. Mukasey deserved credit.

“It seems the new attorney general understands that his responsibility is to the American people and the rule of law and not to any particular person, including the president,” said Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, who had first demanded the internal Justice Department investigation.

In response to appeals from Mr. Hinchey and other members of Congress, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, H. Marshall Jarrett, said in February 2006 that he had opened an investigation of the conduct of department lawyers in approving and overseeing the N.S.A. program. But three months later he said the inquiry had been dropped because his staff had been denied the necessary high-level clearances....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/washington/14justice.html

... this case will get quickly and efficiently swept under the carpet.

But I would have to agree with you.

...without accomplishing a thing by Inauguration Day. Whereupon we will be told that the nation needs healing.

Or not.

MKJ

There are a couple of clearly divergent paths the Justice Dept could follow.

I hope there are enough there that can appeal to the retired judge's understanding of the law. MKJ

Edited to add a word.

Bush agrees to release information to make Mukasey look tough, Mukasey agrees to find nothing suspicious in whatever load of crap they feed him, to make Bush look good. NPR bought into it hook line and sinker today.

Ya know there was a point before election 06 where I knew in the depths of my soul that we would be rescued by a "Democratic" congress.

Every hope I have ever had for the restoration of our democracy and constitution has been smashed.

I fully expect the investigations w/clearances to be bleached.

I fully expect the telecoms to receive immunity.

I fully expect the further erosion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America to be systematically dismantled under the pretenses of "fighting the WOT" and "Political Expediency" by the leadership in both houses of congress.

I have come to the realization that you don't fight the bastages; you just watch their progress and wonder where to move.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In his second day on the job, Attorney General Michael Mukasey leaped into the political fray, telling a key Democratic senator he opposes his electronic surveillance plan and would recommend the president veto it if it is passed.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on the eve of crucial committee votes to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Mukasey was adamant in opposing Leahy's plan for changing the law.

Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell co-signed the letter released Wednesday night by the Justice Department.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/14/new-attorney-general-opposes-changes-to-wiretap-law/

I still do not trust Mukasey.