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Senators mull attorney general perjury probe

Documents show that eight US congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The documents come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

A spokesman maintained on Wednesday that the attorney general stood by his testimony.

At a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gonzales repeatedly testified that the issue at hand was not about the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on suspects in the US without receiving court approval.

Instead, Gonzales said, the emergency meetings on March 10, 2004, focused on a program that he would not describe.

testified

Gonzales, who was then serving as counsel to President George W. Bush, testified that the White House Situation Room briefing sought to inform congressional leaders about the pending expiration of the unidentified program and Justice Department objections to renew it. Those objections were led by then deputy attorney general Jim Comey, who questioned the program's legality.

"The dissent related to other intelligence activities," Gonzales testified at Tuesday's hearing. "The dissent was not about the terrorist surveillance program."

"Not the TSP?" responded Senator Charles Schumer of New York. "Come on. If you say it's about other, that implies not. Now say it or not."

"It was not," Gonzales replied.

"It was about other intelligence activities," he said.

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director's office shows that the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, 2004, was about the terror surveillance program.

The memo, dated May 17 last year, and addressed to then House speaker Dennis Hastert, details "the classification of the dates, locations and names of members of Congress who attended briefings on the terrorist surveillance program," wrote then director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.

It shows that the briefing in March 2004 was attended by the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders and top Intelligence Committee members, as Gonzales testified.

Bush acknowledged the existence of the classified surveillance program in December 2005 after it was revealed by the New York Times.

Asked for comment on the documents on Wednesday, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Gonzales "stands by his testimony."

"The disagreement referenced by Jim Comey in March 2004 was not about the particular intelligence activity that has been publicly described by the president," Roehrkasse said. "It was about other highly classified intelligence activities that have been briefed to the intelligence committees."

confrontation

The disagreement over whether to renew the program led to a dramatic, and highly controversial, confrontation between Gonzales and then attorney general John Ashcroft.

After briefing the congressional leaders, Gonzales testified that he and then White House chief of staff Andy Card headed to a Washington hospital room, where a sedated Ashcroft was recovering from surgery. Ashcroft had already turned over his powers to Comey.

Comey was in the hospital room as well, and recounted to senators in testimony in May that he "thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me."

Ultimately, Ashcroft sided with Comey, and Gonzales and Card left the hospital after a five to six minute conversation.

Gonzales denied he and Card tried to pressure Ashcroft into approving the program over Comey's objections.

"We never had any intent to ask anything of him if we did not feel that he was competent," Gonzales told the Senate. "At the end of his description of the legal issues, he said, `I'm not making this decision. The deputy attorney general is.' And so Andy Card and I thanked him. We told him that we would continue working with the deputy attorney general and we left."

Democrats and Republicans alike expressed disbelief at Gonzales' version of events.
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