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Ear to the Ground

More Trouble for Gonzales

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Posted on Sep 2, 2008
gonzales
AP photo / Ron Edmonds

It’s reassuring to know that when Alberto Gonzales was our nation’s attorney general, he schlepped highly classified documents to his home in Virginia in an unlocked briefcase. Oops! Also, once he’d toted them home, Gonzales didn’t put them in a safe for extra protection because he “couldn’t remember the combination.” Fiddlesticks!


The Washington Post:

Former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales told investigators he did not remember whether he took home notes regarding the government’s most sensitive national security programs and did not know they contained classified information despite notations on the papers that they were “eyes only—top secret,” according to a report released [Tuesday] morning.

The Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that Gonzales had improperly handled materials about the government’s most sensitive national security programs, carrying the notes home in an unlocked briefcase for an “indeterminate” period of time. Gonzales failed to keep them in a safe at his Northern Virginia home because he “could not remember the combination,” according to the report.

A National Security Agency official who reviewed the notes told investigators that at least one item in the documents was “zealously protected” by the NSA and that designating the papers as highly classified was “not a close call,” the report said.

Improper handling of classified material can result in criminal charges, but prosecutors in the department’s National Security Division declined to bring a case after reviewing the allegations and consulting with senior career officials at Justice, according to the report and lawyers involved in the case.

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By Simpleman, September 3, 2008 at 9:17 am Link to this comment

I heard they are not going to prosecute him because he didn’t know the laws.  Whatever happened to ignorance of the law is no excuse?  The Attorney General has no excuse for being ignorant!!

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By Hulk2008, September 3, 2008 at 6:53 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Folks,  Didn’t one of Clinton’s guys get waxed by the Press and by the Administration for a similar faux pas with documents?  See http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/sandy_berger_what_did_he_take.html  -  where former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger is said to have improperly handled “confidential” papers from the Archives.  Since this is the first I have seen anything about Gonzo’s mis-handling, I must presume the Administration has been suppressing it.

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By ApprxAm, September 2, 2008 at 11:53 pm Link to this comment

He’d be a freakin’ genius if he wasn’t so froo-eeking stupid.  One day, Kove and Cheney’s boys are going to cut this tree down because he might not be smart enough to keep those Bush secrets.  Gonzaley better hope McCain wins or he dead!

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By RS, September 2, 2008 at 11:41 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The only thing Gonzales remembers, is not to remember.

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By LibertyWatch, September 2, 2008 at 6:47 pm Link to this comment

Just another incompetent crony, nothing new here! These Repukes are doing their best to screw over America.

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By JimM, September 2, 2008 at 6:46 pm Link to this comment

Gonzo is fully emblematic of the Bush style of ‘governance.’
I hope his rat’s ass roasts in hell for all of the lives he has destroyed.

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By Jim C, September 2, 2008 at 6:27 pm Link to this comment

I just saw the other day where Chita from the old Tarzan movies is in his seventies , still alive living happily in retirement . Now I also know where the monkey from ” Bedtime for Bonzo ” wound up , serving george bush as attorney general .

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By cann4ing, September 2, 2008 at 3:27 pm Link to this comment

I’m beginning to think that Fredo is actually the guy who played Sgt. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes.”

“I know nothing!”

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By samosamo, September 2, 2008 at 3:09 pm Link to this comment

***During his government service, Gonzales received at least two briefings on security procedures and signed a nondisclosure form indicating that negligent handling of sensitive information “could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by a foreign nation.” ***

You mean irreparable injury and harm to w & dick, so alberta gets a free pass and the current criminals in office aren’t exposed anymore than they need to be for now.
I still say with 4 months left to go anything can happen that will keep the transfer of power from going through to keep w & dick in charge; up to and including invading Iran on 1.19.2009 just to rub more shit in everyone’s faces.

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By Ed Harges, September 2, 2008 at 2:36 pm Link to this comment

He always has that look on his face: “Yes, I’m getting away with murder, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

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By skulz fontaine, September 2, 2008 at 1:46 pm Link to this comment

Bert-o, Bert-o, Bert-o! What a class act. Smarmy, sniveling, shifty, shiftless, sneaky, slimy, and corrupt. Say, didn’t Justice jump all over Sandy Berger for playing footsy with “classified” government docs? Why, I believe that Justice did EXACTLY that for just about the same squid-like perfidy. Ah those Bushistas are such a funny bunch. Yes they are. Say, wasn’t old Bert-o a former Texas Supreme? Hmmm, seems there’s an air of expedience wafting o’er the ridge. Tommy Ridge? What a minute, get your duct tape and plastic sheeting ready. Yeah that Bert-o is a real class act.

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