Presidential obstructionism.In July 18 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee The U.S. Senate established the Committee on the Judiciary on December 10, 1816, as one of the original 11 standing committees. It is also one of the most powerful committees in Congress; among its wide range of jurisdictions is investigation of federal judicial nominees and oversight of , Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admitted that "President Bush personally blocked an internal investigation into the role played by Justice Department lawyers in approving a controversial warrantless eavesdropping Secretly gaining unauthorized access to confidential communications. Examples include listening to radio transmissions or using laser interferometers to reconstitute conversations by reflecting laser beams off windows that are vibrating in synchrony to the sound in the room. program on calls between the United States and overseas" reported the Washington Post. Asked by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) why staff lawyers from the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR OPR Operator OPR Office of Primary Responsibility OPR Operations OPR Operate OPR Office of Population Research (Princeton University) OPR Office of Professional Responsibility OPR Office of Planning and Research ) weren't given security clearances necessary to investigate the program, Gonzales replied by invoking the administration's doctrine of presidential infallibility: "The president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. makes the decision." "The president decided that protecting the secrecy and security of the program requires that a strict limit be placed on the number of persons granted access to information about the program for non-operational reasons," insisted Gonzales. "Every additional security clearance ... increases the risk that national security might be compromised." However, OPR chief H. Marhsall Jarrett points out that "a large team of attorneys and agents" was immediately granted security clearances to investigate disclosure of the program. This contrasts sharply with the fact that OPR's "repeated requests for access to classified information about the NSA NSA abbr. National Security Agency Noun 1. NSA - the United States cryptologic organization that coordinates and directs highly specialized activities to protect United States information systems and to produce foreign program have not been granted. As a result, this Office, which is charged with monitoring the integrity of the Department's attorneys and with ensuring that the highest standards of professional ethics professional ethics, n the rules governing the conduct, transactions, and relationships within a profession and among its publics. professional ethics liability, n 1. are maintained, has been precluded from performing its duties." |
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