Gonzales Technically Correct ?

This one comes from the "Talk About Splitting Hairs" department:
The New York Times has published an article, Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying, in the July 29, 2007 online edition.

In December 2005, The Times published articles describing the program, the data mining and the internal legal debate. The newspaper reported that the N.S.A. had combed large volumes of telephone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects.

Civil liberties groups, Congressional Democrats and some Republicans reacted to the disclosures with outrage, accusing the administration of operating an illegal surveillance program inside the United States. The uproar grew when USA Today reported in May 2006 more details of the N.S.A.’s acquisition from telephone companies of the phone call databases. In response to the articles, Mr. Bush confirmed the eavesdropping, saying it was limited to communications in and out of the United States involving people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda. He did not, however, confirm the data mining, nor has any other official done so publicly.

Mr. Gonzales defended the surveillance in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2006, saying there had been no internal dispute about its legality. He told the senators: “There has not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed. There have been disagreements about other matters regarding operations, which I cannot get into.”

So, when Gonzales says, under oath, that the conversations were about "other intelligence activities", technically, he may be right.
But is it "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"?
Who thinks this stuff up? Who's running the show?
Tony Snow?