this program, that program

* the other day i mentioned that abu gonzales always refers to 'this program' when referring to snoopgate - and that the slicing and dicing is intentional:

" they appear to have found a lawyerly way of saying stuff that is literally true - becuase they are only referring to some small subset of snoopgate, unbeknownst to the rest of us. abu gonzales seemed to be doing the same thing yesterday, for example "he expressed "concern" that amending FISA will "jeopardize this program"" - my best guess is that this is how they are able to make claims like 'al qaeda-linked' and 'the call must orginate or end outside the US'"

glenn has more:

"As I've noted before, every time Gonzales or the DoJ has issued assurances that eavesdropping is confined only to international calls where one of the parties is an Al Qaeda affiliate, the assurance is always limited by the conspicuous and intentional limitation: "under the program described by the President." Gonzales used that same phrase repeatedly when testifying, and there is simply no doubt that this phrase is carefully crafted and deliberately invoked. There is some reason why they are limiting their assurances in that fashion."

liars.