Oh That Alberto!

He knew nothing. Washington Post (07.10.07):

"As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. 'There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse,' Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have."

Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations

"It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act."

"The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated."

"The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March."

Last March, the Inspector General for the Justice Department released an audit which found that there "were pervasive problems with the FBI's handling of NSLs and another investigative tool known as an exigent circumstances letter."

Alberto was shocked, just shocked. "'I was upset when I learned this, as was Director Mueller. To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report would be an enormous understatement,' Gonzales said in a speech March 9, referring to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller.

The attorney general added that he believed back in 2005, before the Patriot Act was renewed, that there were no problems with NSLs. 'I've come to learn that I was wrong,' he said, making no mention of the FBI reports sent to him."

Thanks, But No Thanks

No Comment (05.19.07):

"For decades, the best and brightest law school graduates of any generation would battle over the handful of openings at main Justice and with various U.S. attorneys offices.

No longer. Today, association with the Gonzales Justice Department is feared as a taint on any lawyer’s résumé."

I’d Rather Trade Places with Jose Padilla

"And here’s the best evidence I have seen of this so far. When asked if he would take Paul J. McNulty’s slot as Deputy Attorney General, the man who ran the Office of Legal Policy for John Ashcroft, Viet Dinh, has an instant response: 'I’d rather trade places with Jose Padilla,' he says, referring to a man [ed. - a US citizen, we'd hasten to add] who was tortured and placed in solitary confinement in the Naval brig in South Carolina."

Held there for three years without charges.

Guess you could say Dinh really doesn't want the job.