Judiciary Members Demand Answers from Attorney General on 9/11 Surveillance

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
April 3, 2008

(Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Subcommittee Chairmen Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Robert "Bobby" C. Scott (D-VA) sent a letter to United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding answers about a recent public statement claiming there was a pre-9/11 call from a terrorist safe house in Afghanistan that was apparently not intercepted by federal authorities.

The members also followed up on previous requests for an October 2001 Office of Legal Counsel memo providing legal analysis about the president's war powers. The letter notes: “The notion that the president can claim to operate under 'secret' powers known only to the president and a select few subordinates is antithetical to the core principles of this democracy."

The full text of the letter