Another Surveillance Program or a Lie?

Either James Comey was talking about a new, secret surveillance program in his testimony last week, or Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress in 2006 about the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

In the initial coverage of Comey’s testimony, almost all reports treated it as a given that the clandestine program at the heart of the now-infamous late-night race to Ashcroft’s bedside was the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program — what the White House insists on calling the ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program’. But that may not be the case.

After the New York Times uncovered how the NSA was tapping calls between the U.S. and foreign countries, Gonzales testified before Congress that there were no objections to the program’s legality in the Justice Department.

But presumably the hospital room showdown would count as an objection.

So, either the press jumped the gun last week or Gonzales lied about how officials in the Justice Department actually interpreted the program’s legality.

Either way, Sens. Arlen Specter and Pat Leahy want documents explaining the program that caused the hospital-night scramble. In a letter Gonzales, that Paul posted here this afternoon, they ask for the NSA wiretapping documents, but end with a caveat. If it wasn’t the NSA program that caused the bedside confrontation, they want information on whatever did:

If you do not consider the surveillance program that was the subject of discussion during the hospital visit and other events that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey described in his May 15, 2007 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be covered by the requests made above, please provide all documents described in those requests relevant to that program, as well.

Steve Aftergood, who heads up the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, points out how craftily Specter and Leahy chose their words by making getting the documents the issue, rather than pointing out the possible lie.

“I think there is some gamesmanship going on. Leahy and Specter are attempting to go beyond on that,” Aftergood said. “I think this letter advances the debate.”