Hinchey Introduces Measure to Force Bush Administration To Reveal Who Blocked Justice Dept. Probe of NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program

It looks like Gonzales blocked the clearances.

In an effort to find out who blocked an internal U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the agency's role in the National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless surveillance program and the reasons for doing so, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today introduced a resolution of inquiry in the House that would force top members of the Bush administration to turn over all materials related to the termination of the probe...read on"

Murray Waas and the National Journal broke more news today on this story. It looks like Gonzales blocked the clearances himself:

But earlier this month, DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility Counsel H. Marshall Jarrett again wrote [PDF] to Hinchey: "We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program.--Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation."

After the clearances were denied, a reporter asked Gonzales, "Did Mr. Jarrett come to you and ask you to assist him in getting those clearances?" Gonzales replied, "It would not be appropriate, and I would not get into internal discussions or the give and take that happened between the attorney general and other folks within the Department of Justice." "You were aware of this personally?" the reporter asked

"Again, I'm not going to comment on anything," Gonzales replied....read on"

You can view the series of letters between Hinchey and Jarrett by clicking on the following links: here, here, here, and here.

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