Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate President Bush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor the phone calls from suspected terrorists operating abroad.
Asked about former Vice President Al Gore's demand yesterday that the Justice Department appoint a "Spygate" special counsel, Gonzales told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" that there was no basis to believe any laws were broken by the NSA program.
"We firmly believe that this program is perfectly lawful," Gonzales explained. "The president has legal authority to authorize these kinds of activities."
Pressed by Sean Hannity on whether there would be "no special counsel, in any way, shape, matter or form?" Gonzales replied:
"This has been looked at very, very carefully. And the Department of Justice believes clearly that the president acted within his lawful authorities."
The top lawman also refused to comment on precedents for the Bush program, including an NSA surveillance operation that reached fruition during the Clinton administration known as Project Echelon.
Asked specifically about Echelon, Gonzales said: "Well, I'm not going to talk about super-secret, code-named programs, either now or in the past."
Reminded that Echelon had already received extensive publicity despite its classified status, Gonzales said: "Well, again, I'm only going to talk about that portion of the program that [President Bush] disclosed to the American public . . . where we believe one person of that phone call is affiliated with Al Qaeda or a member of Al Qaeda."
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