Snow: Gonzales was truthful

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- The White House Friday defended U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Senate testimony this week, saying the dispute about it is a matter of interpretation.

Spokesman Tony Snow told the daily press briefing Gonzales was truthful in his testimony and there was no conflict with what FBI Director Robert Mueller said. The problem, he said, is there were a number of surveillance programs and it is unclear whether Mueller and Gonzales were commenting on the same thing.

Snow said, however, there was no disagreement in the administration regarding the necessity of surveillance on al-Qaida suspects.

The controversy stems from Gonzales' testimony this week that he did not discuss a domestic warrantless wiretap program with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 while Ashcroft, who opposed the program, was hospitalized. Mueller testified Thursday the program was indeed the subject of that meeting.

"I don't want to stand here as the judge and try to interpret for you what everybody means when they use that term, when they use 'terrorist surveillance program' because it may have different significations to different people," Snow said, adding that Gonzales defined the terminology narrowly.

Snow also accused members of Congress of sandbagging Gonzales.

"You've got an interesting situation when members of Congress, knowing that somebody's constrained by matters of classification, they can ask very broad questions, and those questions they know the person sitting on the other side cannot answer thoroughly in an open session," he said.