Bush Blocked Ethics Inquiry!

www.statesman.com
WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that President Bush personally decided to block the Justice Department ethics unit from examining the role played by government lawyers in approving the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program.

Gonzales made the assertion in response to questioning from Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman. Specter complained that the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility had to call off an investigation into the conduct of department lawyers who evaluated the surveillance program because the unit was denied clearance to review classified documents. "Why wasn't OPR given clearance as so many other lawyers in the Department of Justice were given clearance?" Specter asked.

"The president of the United States makes decisions about who is ultimately given access," Gonzales replied, adding that the president "makes the decision because this is such an important program."
The head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Marshall Jarrett, began the investigation in response to requests from members of Congress in January. But in May, Jarrett told Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., that he could not proceed because he and his colleagues had been denied security clearances to review the history of the secret surveillance program.

The shutting down of Jarrett's efforts had been reported, but Gonzales' comments Tuesday during a hearing on oversight of the Justice Department were the first acknowledgment of Bush's direct role.

Administration officials said that Bush made the decision because he felt that there were other avenues of oversight, including investigations by the inspectors general of the Justice Department and the National Security Agency as well as intelligence committees of both houses.
"We had to draw the line somewhere," said a senior Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to comment. "There was already lots of oversight on this program, and we had to consider the interest" in protecting the program's secrecy.






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