Gonzales admits vagueness

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales conceded on Wednesday that he used confusing language in describing national security efforts in recent Senate testimony.

His letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders stopped short of an apology as the Bush administration pushed to expand eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.

But in response, the committee's top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, joined Democrats who said Gonzales should not have sole authority to approve the warrantless interception of messages between foreign terrorists overseas.

The exchange marked the latest twist in a standoff between Congress and the administration over the beleaguered attorney general and his Justice Department.

Even as the administration sought to compromise with lawmakers over updating a 1978 surveillance law, the White House stood its ground against Congress on a separate matter. The White House invoked executive privilege in refusing to let two political aides testify in an inquiry about the Justice Department's firing of federal prosecutors.

That inquiry was the basis of what brought Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week when he repeatedly said a dramatic 2004 hospital room dispute between him and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was about "other intelligence activities" -- and not what has since become known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

In his two-page letter to the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Gonzales sought to clear up the confusion.

"I am deeply concerned with suggestions that my testimony was misleading, and am determined to address any such impression," Gonzales wrote. A copy also went to Specter.

"I recognize that the use of the term 'Terrorist Surveillance Program' and my shorthand reference to the 'program' publicly 'described by the president' may have created confusion," Gonzales wrote.

Leahy was not swayed.

"The attorney general's legalistic explanation of his misleading testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is not what one should expect from the top law enforcement officer of the United States," Leahy said in a statement after receiving Gonzales' letter.

Specter, too, said Gonzales misled the committee. But Specter said the attorney general's testimony did not amount to perjury; it was a crucial if reluctant vote of support.

"I don't think he did try to provide frank answers," Specter said. "It was more than confusion, it was misleading."

Specter sided with Democrats who said they would not let their disdain for Gonzales factor into decisions about whether to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the attorney general would oversee. But Specter said Gonzales should not have any say in the intelligence-gathering at issue. "This is a temporary bill at most," he said. "I think we can do without an attorney general for six months; we've done without one for a long time."

Democrats edged closer to a compromise with the White House on the pending legislation, agreeing to give the government greater authority to spy on suspected foreign terrorists. But they said the overhaul would only be temporarily, and would require Gonzales to get court approval before eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists overseas.

Any proposal without the review by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "is simply unacceptable," said Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. He said the court "must continue to play an essential role in authorizing surveillance and overseeing its execution."

"They are the trusted steward of FISA, and they can and must be a part of any new streamlined approach," Rockefeller said.

At issue is a rush to update the law before week's end, when Congress takes a monthlong break. Summer generally is considered a vulnerable time for attacks, with more people traveling and terrorists able to move around undetected more easily.

The changes would fix what the White House says is a significant gap: the missing of foreign intelligence that could protect the country against terrorist attacks. The law generally applies to spying on suspected foreign terrorists in the United States. But changes in technology since 1978 have resulted in overseas communications being routed through U.S. companies.

Currently, the special court must approve a warrant for investigators to intercept messages that are believed -- but not proved -- to be between foreign suspects who are overseas.

The administration wants to give the attorney general authority to approve such intercepts without waiting for the court to issue a warrant. Rockefeller's proposal would require the court to review the process that the attorney general uses to determine the suspects are, indeed, overseas.

The White House responded with a counterproposal late Wednesday, endorsed by Senate Republicans, requiring that the director of national intelligence -- not just the attorney general -- sign off on plans for foreign surveillance.

The White House will not accept court review of eavesdropping plans before they are executed, according to a knowledgeable administration official. Instead, the administration is proposing that the court rule within 120 days of the time the director of national intelligence and the attorney general authorize the surveillance.

Also Wednesday, in a separate letter to Leahy, White House counsel Fred Fielding said Bush would invoke executive privilege to keep political advisers Karl Rove and J. Scott Jennings from answering questions or submitting documents at Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on the U.S. attorney firings.

Jennings was expected to appear at the hearing, but Rove was not, committee aides said.

"The president remains committed to protecting the ability of future presidents to ensure that the executive's decisions reflect and benefit from the candid exchange of informed and diverse viewpoints and open and frank deliberations that such a privilege provides," Fielding wrote.

Fielding's letter included a brief legal position by Solicitor General Paul Clement that backs up the White House's stand. Because Gonzales has withdraw from the matter, Clement is the acting attorney general on issues dealing with the fired prosecutors.