Gonzales is Just Hopping, Double Darn, Madder than a Hornet!
By Mona
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales learned of the findings three weeks ago and “was incensed when he was told the contents of the report,” according to a Justice Department official.
“The attorney general commends the work of the inspector general in uncovering serious problems in the FBI’s use of NSLs,” said Tasia Scolinos, a spokeswoman for Gonzales. “He has told [FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III] that these past mistakes will not be tolerated, and has ordered the FBI and the department to restore accountability and to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of national security letters.”
Now, some people are perhaps as “incensed” as Gonzales, but not at all shocked. For, when The Patriot Act was renewed in ‘06 with little to no debate, our President employed one of his infamous “signing statements” to declare that he and his FBI would do whatever they dang well pleased, or as not-shocked Greenwald puts it, my emphasis:
When the FBI obtains information essentially in secret — with no judicial oversight — that information is stored in those data bases. This is all being done by the executive branch with no safeguards and no oversight, and the little oversight that Congress has required has been defiantly and publicly brushed aside by the President, who sees legal requirements as nothing more than suggestions or options which he will recognize only if he chooses to. That is the constitutional crisis that we have endured under virtually the entire Bush presidency — the crisis which, for the most part, our mainstream political and media elite have collectively decided not to acknowledge.
The story here is not merely that the FBI is breaking the law and abusing these powers. That has long been predicted and, to some degree, even documented. The story is that the FBI is ignoring the very legal obligations which George Bush vowed were not obligations at all, but mere suggestions to be accepted only if he willed it. It is yet another vivid example proving that the President’s ideology of lawlessness exists not merely in theory, but as the governing doctrine under which the executive branch has acted, time and again and as deliberately as possible, in violation of whatever laws it deems inconvenient.
Only if he wills it.
Trackback by Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator —
March 9, 2007 @ 11:51 am
Report Slams FBI Use Of Patriot Act…
A blistering Justice Department report accuses the FBI of underreporting its use of the Patriot Act …
Comment by Dave Trowbridge —
March 9, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that…”
Oops, sorry, wrong movie.
Comment by Nell —
March 9, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
OT/admin: Today I have to ‘view source’ to read the blog. Everything below the first paragraph of the Borowitz post is cut off by the rampaging calendar, even in one-post-with-comments view. The blogroll isn’t visible except in 1pwc view of this post only.
I’m still running an unworthy browser, v6.1, so not looking for sympathy — but things were fine yesterday.
Comment by sglover —
March 9, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
I’m all for nailing Gonzales to the wall, but I think this episode highlights another scumbag who really should not be overlooked: Senator Arlen Specter. He’s the guy who wrote the streamlined prosecutor appointment process into the “Patriot” Act. True to his weasel nature, he denied having anything to do with it. Specter got some press yesterday or today by hinting that Gonzales may be removed from office, but you can bet a month’s pay that if that ever came up, Darlin Arlen would vent, he would spew, he would boil over with outrage — and then he’d vote to retain Gonzales, right along with every other Republican tool. He did exactly this only a couple of months ago, when he helped gut habeus corpus protections.
Unfortunately, the weasel’s term doesn’t expire until 2010, but I think good government folks ought to start planning now to get him out of Washington. I don’t even live in Pennsylvania, but I intend to donate at least a few hundred dollars to every serious challenger he faces, both in the primary and the senatorial election.
Comment by Dave W. —
March 9, 2007 @ 5:43 pm
Makes me wonder if the FBI think the Democrats will win the White House in ‘08 and are beginning to act accordingly.
That would explain why Mr. “Incensed” is suddenly worried about people’s privacy. Tomorrow it might be his privacy.
Comment by Keifus —
March 9, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
Agreed with Nell. Prior to this post, your blog has gone batshit.
(And I must agree that this is a fine example of the whole libertarian slippery slope sort of thing. But I’m amazed at the speed. The ridiculous extraconstitutional privelege has been in effect for a handful of months, but already the FBI’s been caught abusing it? Thank god there remain means by which they were caught.)
K
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July 19, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
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