Gonzales Seeks to Clarify Testimony on Spying

Gonzales Seeks to Clarify Testimony on Spying

Extent of Eavesdropping May Go Beyond NSA Work

By Charles Babington and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page A08

Snip...

In a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration's original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago.

At that appearance, Gonzales confined his comments to the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, saying that President Bush had authorized it "and that is all that he has authorized."

But in yesterday's letter, Gonzales, citing that quote, wrote: "I did not and could not address . . . any other classified intelligence activities." Using the administration's term for the recently disclosed operation, he continued, "I was confining my remarks to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the President, the legality of which was the subject" of the Feb. 6 hearing.

At least one constitutional scholar who testified before the committee yesterday said in an interview that Gonzales appeared to be hinting that the operation disclosed by the New York Times in mid-December is not the full extent of eavesdropping on U.S. residents conducted without court warrants.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801587.html

Posted on Wed, Mar. 01, 2006

Guard unit may be part of spying program

By EDWIN GARCIA
Knight Ridder Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - A special California National Guard unit that was disbanded last year amid suspicion it was engaged in domestic spying may have been part of a nationwide effort to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, a state senator charged Tuesday.

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A Guard spokesman denied the allegations and said three independent investigations cleared the California National Guard's Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion unit. Spokesman Jon Siepmann also denied the program ever conducted surveillance on American citizens.

Officials at the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., did not return telephone messages and e-mails.

The unit formed in California, first disclosed by the Mercury News in an article in June, had been given ''broad authority'' to monitor, analyze and distribute information on potential terrorist threats. Top Guard officials, the Mercury News learned, were involved in tracking a small Mother's Day anti-war rally organized by families of slain American soldiers.


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/montereyherald/news/state/13988596.htm?source=rss&channel=montereyherald_state

Wexler stifled in unveiling spying like that on Lake Worth peace group

By Larry Lipman

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 02, 2006

WASHINGTON — Voting along party lines, a Republican-controlled House committee Wednesday rejected a resolution seeking information from the Bush administration about the Pentagon's spying program on dissident groups.

The House Armed Services Committee's action came on a "resolution of inquiry" filed by Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat from Delray Beach, in response to reports that the Pentagon's secret "TALON" program had spied on peace groups including the Truth Project Inc., which sought to counter military recruitment efforts in local high schools.

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Wexler's resolution would have required the administration to provide the legal authority for the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping activities, as well as the justification and scope of the Pentagon's counterterrorism intelligence program, known as TALON.

Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., argued that Wexler's resolution was not needed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave Congress a 42-page legal brief in December outlining the administration's justification.

In addition, Hunter said, the Defense Department has admitted mistakes with the TALON program.

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/02/s3b_truth_0302.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17