"WASHINGTON, April 6 ? Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested on Thursday for the first time that the president might have the legal authority to order wiretapping without a warrant on communications between Americans that occur exclusively within the United States.
'I'm not going to rule it out,' Mr. Gonzales said when asked about that possibility at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The attorney general made his comments, which critics said reflected a broadened view of the president's authority, as President Bush offered another strong defense of his decision to authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls and e-mail messages to or from the United States.
[snip]
At the House hearing, Mr. Gonzales faced tough questioning from Democrats and Republicans but declined to discuss many operational details.
Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and one of the administration's staunchest allies, accused the administration of 'stonewalling.'
'Mr. Attorney General, how can we discharge our oversight responsibilities if every time we ask a pointed question, we're told that the answer is classified?' Mr. Sensenbrenner asked. 'Congress has an inherent constitutional responsibility to do oversight. We are attempting to discharge those responsibilities.'
And the fucking NY Times doesn't miss a chance to reduce everything to the only terms it can understand as dictated by its bipartisan epistemology:
"The House and Senate have conducted limited inquiries into the surveillance program, which many Democrats contend is illegal."
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