JURIST - Paper Chase: Gonzales says no additional warrantless surveillance

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] said Thursday that the administration is not conducting any additional warrantless domestic surveillance [JURIST news archive] beyond what President Bush acknowledged in December. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) [official website] disclosed the information in an interview with the Washington Post, saying that Gonzales responded to a fax she sent him regarding Gonzales’ February 28 letter [PDF] to Senate Judiciary Committee members in which Gonzales appeared to suggest that there might be additional wiretap operations when he offered clarifications to his February 6 testimony [JURIST report] before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Patrick Leahy [official website], ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat, had expressed similar concern about possible undisclosed surveillance programs in a letter [JURIST report] to Gonzales Wednesday.

Harman and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) [official website], chairman of the House Intelligence Committee [official website], plan to press the White House for a full committee briefing on the NSA program. In addition, Harman and Hoekstra plan to hold hearings [JURIST report] on the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text] in order to modernize it to account for technological advances. The Washington Post has more.

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