Gonzales Hires a Top Gun

In recent days, the White House—seeking to gain a speedy confirmation for Mukasey and to win passage of new surveillance legislation from the Democratic-controlled Congress—has hinted that it may finally share key legal documents about the program with Capitol Hill. In a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, White House lawyer Emmet Flood said the White House "has agreed to assemble" a stack of materials relating to the program, including "all legal opinions" by the Office of Legal Counsel—a category that would include the memo Goldsmith wrote in 2004 that triggered the hospital room incident. Noting that these documents include "extraordinarily sensitive national security information," Flood pointedly did not commit to turning over any of this material—only to continue talking to congressional leaders about them.

But the Democrats appear to be running out of patience. Their version of proposed new surveillance legislation, unveiled yesterday by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, contains a striking provision that would require Fine's office to do a full audit of all surveillance activities undertaken by the Bush administration since September 11, 2001—and then prepare a public, declassified report to be delivered to Congress six months after the law is passed. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Democratic bill, a Justice official said that this one of the provisions the administration has "concerns" about.

Terror Watch, written by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball appears online weekly

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