Scoop’s Views

Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mishandled classified information dealing with the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance program and the terrorist detainee interrogation program that is so sensitive it was never to leave the confines of the U.S. Justice Department’s Command Center, according to a 29–page report into his actions.

It seems Gonzales took information home, as well as kept it in places with no security, as well as in his office where several people not authorized to see the material came into contact with it, and perhaps did more with the information. Unfortunately, investigators couldn’t determine what those non-authorized persons did with the information, as it is so sensitive, the investigators could not question the people about the documents.

According to the report, Gonzalez took home documents that were never to leave the Command Center at the U.S. Justice Department. In fact, the report notes, he had just been briefed on these very security precautions hours before.

“Gonzales did not fulfill these obligations and instead mishandled highly classified documents about the NSA surveillance program and a detainee interrogation program,” the report notes.

It seems Alberto Gonzales must have been sleeping or otherwise mentally occupied during meetings discussing handling of sensitive and secure documents. With this report, issued this morning, it makes you wonder what else Alberto Gonzales took home, stored in non-secure places — especially those where other folks without appropriate security clearances could read them — took home or lost.

“Gonzales was responsible for safeguarding classified materials, familiarizing himself with the facilities available to him in the [Office of the Attorney General] for storing these materials, and observing the rules and procedures for the proper handling of classified documents,” the report notes.

Despite being one of President George W. Bush’s top pansies and cheerleaders for many illegal actions, it was a tip from within the Bush Administration White House to the National Security Division’s office on counter-terrorism programs. That office later asked for a more intense, deeper review of Gonzales’ actions.

On page 26 of the report, the Inspector General’s office noted some of the most simple-minded thinking – or should it be called lack of any thought – by the former top law enforcement official of the United States. In full, the comments read:

By storing the notes and the other TS/SCI documents in the safe outside his office instead of in a SCIF, Gonzales also made them accessible to individuals not cleared into the two compartmented programs. We found that at least five members of the OAG staff — none of whom were cleared into the NSA surveillance program — had access to the OAG safe, and had access to some or all the NSA surveillance program documents. Further, four of those OAG staff members had not been read in to the detainee interrogation program that was the subject of some of the other documents stored in the safe.

Gonzales told us that he never gave “conscious consideration” to the fact that people who were not read in to certain programs would have access to documents in the safe by his office related to those programs. He stated that his assistants were “trusted people,” and that he did not equate access to the safe with access to his notes about the NSA program because the notes were double-wrapped. He also said he doubted his assistants would open and read the contents of an envelope marked “AG — EYES ONLY” or with similar restrictive language. However, the fact remains that several people on Gonzales’s staff had access to the materials stored in the safe yet lacked clearances for the NSA surveillance and detainee interrogation programs. Moreover, we learned that two of Gonzales’s assistants may have gone through all documents stored in the OAG safe in response to a FOIA request.

The start of the first sentence of the second paragraph above, “Gonzales told us that he never gave ‘conscious consideration’ to …” says it all. The U.S. Attorney General, carrying documents he wasn’t allowed to remove from the Justice Department’s Command Center, didn’t give “conscious consideration” to his actions. Charming, huh? Perhaps he thought he was above the law, which is a good possibility, too.

For his lack of “conscious consideration” in taking the documents home, and God only knows what else happened to them, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ought be shipped off to Guantanamo for several years of interrogation. Perhaps then he can be returned to the U.S., and, possibly, just possibly, have a new respect for the laws of the land, especially for sensitive government documents.

Again, at the time of his actions, Alberto Gonzales was the top law enforcement official for the United States.

cforms contact form by delicious:days