And: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. 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.
Caroline Fredrickson, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new documents raise questions about whether Gonzales misled Congress at a moment when lawmakers were poised to renew the Patriot Act and keenly sought assurances that there were no abuses. "It was extremely important," she said of Gonzales's 2005 testimony. "The attorney general said there are no problems with the Patriot Act, and there was no counterevidence at the time."I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.
{Yawn} Another day, another lie from the Reactionaries. Bor-r-r-r-r-r-ing. The sun rises in the east, the poor get poorer, the Bush administration lies. If you have to pick a startling news item from this list, you might be able to work something out with a story about the sun.
ReplyDeleteBesides, this one is only about civil liberties we weren't using anyway, not about something fun like killing soldiers or endangering national security. What's the big deal?