President Intervened in Dispute Over Eavesdropping

[cal04]

Source: DAVID JOHNSTON

President Bush intervened in March 2004 to avert a crisis over the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after Attorney General John Ashcroft, Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. and other senior Justice Department aides all threatened to resign, a former deputy attorney general testified Tuesday.

Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval, also directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance with the law, according to Congressional testimony by the former deputy attorney general, James B. Comey.

Although a conflict over the program had been disclosed in The New York Times, Mr. Comey provided a fuller account of the 48-hour drama, including, for the first time, Mr. Bush’s role, the threatened resignations and a race as Mr. Comey hurried to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital sickbed to intercept White House officials, who were pushing for approval of the N.S.A. program.

Describing the events as “the most difficult of my professional career,” Mr. Comey appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of its inquiry into the dismissal of federal prosecutors and the role of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. Several lawmakers wanted to examine Mr. Gonzales’s actions in the N.S.A. matter, when he was White House counsel, and cited them to buttress their case that he should resign.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16nsa.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[pstans]

1. Feingold should reissue his Censure motion or maybe even impeachment

[EVDebs]

2. Bush admits he violated his oath of office

He can't do anything right except deceive. When can we expect truth from this bunch ?

[Fridays Child]

3. k/r

[magellan]

4. Is this some kind of joke?

"Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval, also directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance with the law"

So essentially the Justice Department told Bush** they wouldn't approve it because IT DIDN'T COMPLY WITH THE LAW, but Bush** did it anyway and supposedly brought it into compliance with the same law that Ashcroft and Comey had already made clear IT DIDN'T COMPLY WITH.

What's it gonna take, huh? Is anything other than a BJ in the oval office a non-criminal offense in our government now?

[ShockediSay]

5. Hardly "strict construction" of existing law, but still he's gone a long ways towards killing checks

and balances like his soulmate Putin

[bleever]

6. God bless James Comey,

American patriot.

:patriot:

A true profile in courage.

[PassingFair]

9. Comey is also the man who hired....

Fitzgerald.

[Marie26]

15. And Ashcroft, believe it or not.

"When the White House officials appeared minutes later, Mr. Gonzales began to explain to Mr. Ashcroft why they were there. Mr. Comey said Mr. Ashcroft rose weakly from his hospital bed, but in strong and unequivocal terms, refused to approve the eavesdropping program.

“I was angry,” Mr. Comey told the committee. “ I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. I thought he had conducted himself in a way that demonstrated a strength I had never seen before, but still I thought it was improper.”

[pepperbear]

7. willikers! and there's Gonzo all up in it. n/t

[madrchsod]

8. is scooter and his wife thinking .....let`s make a deal?

a reduced sentence for more information on the plame affair and other illegalities?

comey is the guy who appointed fitzgerald and now we know why

[L. Coyote]

10. Senate Judiciary Committee is really frying the BIG FISH it seems.

The Gonzo-gate hearings seem to have a TARGET in this context. And Gonzo is just the lawyer in that scenario.

[Canuckistanian]

11. I wish they'd stop calling it a "program"

It's a criminal act.

We don't talk about bank-robbing "programs" or extortion "programs".

Calling it a "program" gives it an air of near-respectability.

[HuffleClaw]

12. "...directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance..."

WOULD seem to me be the proverbial SMOKING GUN, that holy grail of impeachment-worthy EVIDENCE. this says the chimp KNEW he was breaking the law.

[Marie26]

13. Isn't this a bombshell?

"Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval."

Uh, how does that make it legal? Acting AG refuses to approve program because it is illegal, hospitalized disoriented AG refuses to approve program, FBI director intervenes to protect AGs, all threaten to resign. So Bush lets the illegal NSA program continue for three weeks - w/o any authorization at all. Sounds like a high crime to me. This should be enough to impeach, if there was any justice at all.

[Marie26]

14. dupe

[bobthedrummer]

16. Kick and a question: how much did Carol Haave and the DoD influence this?

[The Stranger]

17. How can so many threaten to resign, so many oppose him, yet he continues unabashed, unabated? How?

[reprobate]

19. Don't ask us. Ask the Democratic leadership in congress. They're the ones who can do something

about it.

[DavidDvorkin]

18. Look! Over there!

It's a fluffy news story!

These big items keep turning up, and nothing happens. Very depressing.

[libodem]

20. Breaking...Danilyn's dad goes on a date

Those scandalous bastards, forget procecution..it will never happen. I'm surprised they aren't awarding prize money and metals of honor by now for getting away with murder and mayhem. That's right rewards for destroying civil rights and the constitution. Televised Award Cerimonies...'Look What I Got Away With Now'. Bill Clinton had over 1,000 subpoenas issued over Monica. This White house has had 8. And listen to all the squawking about disruption of business as usual to deal with them. This is the most crooked, illegal, unrepentant, rotten bunch of Mafioso types to get away with everything I've ever dreamed of. It's just plain crazy.

[rocktivity]

21. He defines "intervening" as blowing them off?

Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval, also directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance with the law, according to Congressional testimony by the former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.

The program IS illegal because it doesn't require warrants. "(A)llowing it to continue without Justice Department approval" was therefore ALSO illegal. And there is only ONE "necessary step" that would make the program legal...wait for it...REQUIRE WARRANTS!!!

:banghead:
rocknation

[Evergreen Emerald]

22. BS: he more than intervened. He instigated the attempt at coercion

He made the phone call to Ashcroft's wife at the hospital. He is in it up to his neck. They are now attempting (again) to re-write history. Bush has been in it from the beginning.