More Illegal Spooking?

We all had a feeling the Attorney General wasn't telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, during his visit to Capital Hill a few weeks back. Well, guess what? He was holding back. How "quaint." Here's the deal from today's Washington Post:

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appeared to suggest yesterday that the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance operations may extend beyond the outlines that the president acknowledged in mid-December.

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.

"It seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance programs ongoing that the president hasn't told anyone about," said Bruce Fein, a government lawyer in the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations. [Emphasis Added]

And the question is begged: Why concede this extra spying now? I have to assume another leak is on it's way. This administration is so steeped in shit that even the cess-pool that is Washington can't contain it. Stay tuned.

For more on this and everything NSA I highly recommend paying Glenn Greenwald a visit today. I'll let him know you're coming. Cake is being served.