A formerly secret report detailing the George W. Bush administration’s aggressive surveillance program is now public.
The massive report, dated July 2009, criticizes former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for “misleading” Congress in his testimony about the program.
“Although we believe that Gonzales did not intend to mislead Congress, we believe his testimony was confusing, inaccurate and had the effect of misleading those who were not knowledgeable about the program,” the report states.
Gonzales’s testimony in question occurred in 2006, before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
While acknowledging that Gonzales was “in the difficult position” of testifying about a secret program in a public hearing, the investigators said Gonzales also had a duty “not to be misleading in his testimony about the events that nearly led to mass resignations of the most senior officials” of the Justice Department and FBI.
Citing the “broad nature of the collection activities” under the so-called Stellar Wind program, as well as the “substantial amount of information collected...related to U.S. persons,” the investigators further concluded the Justice Department should have “more carefully and thoroughly reviewed” the program’s legality.
The report notes that “only a single” Justice Department attorney reviewed the legality of the surveillance program for its first year and a half. It began in October 2001.
The report was prepared by the Offices of the Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
It was released under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the New York Times.
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