Remember Ashcroft in hospital: Card & Gonazles pressuring re NSA spying?

[seafan]

This lengthy Newsweek "Palace Revolt" piece is floating around here, but so far I haven't seen this additional information from near the end of it highlighted. Major dots connected here on the NSA illegal wiretaps.

As per usual, DU was far ahead of this curve.

Great work, Newsweek. We demand more.


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11079547/site/newsweek/


snip

The chief opponent of the rebels, though by no means the only one, was an equally obscure, but immensely powerful, lawyer-bureaucrat. Intense, workaholic (even by insane White House standards), David Addington, formerly counsel, now chief of staff to the vice president... //snip//...Presidential appointees quail before his volcanic temper, backed by assiduous preparation and acid sarcasm.

snip

The rebels were not whistle-blowers in the traditional sense. They did not want—indeed avoided—publicity. (Jack) Goldsmith confirmed public facts about himself but otherwise declined to comment. Comey also declined to comment.) They were not downtrodden career civil servants. Rather, they were conservative political appointees who had been friends and close colleagues of some of the true believers they were fighting against. They did not see the struggle in terms of black and white but in shades of gray—as painfully close calls with unavoidable pitfalls. They worried deeply about whether their principles might put Americans at home and abroad at risk. Their story has been obscured behind legalisms and the veil of secrecy over the White House. But it is a quietly dramatic profile in courage. (For its part the White House denies any internal strife. "The proposition of internal division in our fight against terrorism isn't based in fact," says Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney. "This administration is united in its commitment to protect Americans, defeat terrorism and grow democracy.")

snip

Addington's problems with Goldsmith were just beginning. In the jittery aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration had pushed the top-secret National Security Agency to do a better and more expansive job of electronically eavesdropping on Al Qaeda's global communications. Under existing law—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, adopted in 1978 as a post-Watergate reform—the NSA needed (in the opinion of most legal experts) to get a warrant to eavesdrop on communications coming into or going out of the United States. Reasoning that there was no time to obtain warrants from a secret court set up under FISA (a sometimes cumbersome process), the Bush administration justified going around the law by invoking a post-9/11 congressional resolution authorizing use of force against global terror. The eavesdropping program was very closely held, with cryptic briefings for only a few congressional leaders. Once again, Addington and his allies made sure that possible dissenters were cut out of the loop.

There was one catch: the secret program had to be reapproved by the attorney general every 45 days. It was Goldsmith's job to advise the A.G. on the legality of the program. In March 2004, John Ashcroft was in the hospital with a serious pancreatic condition. At Justice, Comey, Ashcroft's No. 2, was acting as attorney general. The grandson of an Irish cop and a former U.S. attorney from Manhattan, Comey, 45, is a straight arrow. (It was Comey who appointed his friend—the equally straitlaced and dogged Patrick Fitzgerald—to be the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak-investigation case.) Goldsmith raised with Comey serious questions about the secret eavesdropping program, according to two sources familiar with the episode. He was joined by a former OLC lawyer, Patrick Philbin, who had become national-security aide to the deputy attorney general. Comey backed them up. The White House was told: no reauthorization.

The angry reaction bubbled up all the way to the Oval Office. President Bush, with his penchant for put-down nicknames, had begun referring to Comey as "Cuomey" or "Cuomo," apparently after former New York governor Mario Cuomo, who was notorious for his Hamlet-like indecision over whether to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s. A high-level delegation—White House Counsel Gonzales and chief of staff Andy Card—visited Ashcroft in the hospital to appeal Comey's refusal. In pain and on medication, Ashcroft stood by his No. 2.

A compromise was finally worked out. The NSA was not compelled to go to the secret FISA court to get warrants, but Justice imposed tougher legal standards before permitting eavesdropping on communications into the United States. It was a victory for the Justice lawyers, and it drove Addington to new levels of vexation with Goldsmith.

snip

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11079547/site/newsweek/page/4/


Again, WTG, Newsweek!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11079547/site/newsweek/

[Imagevision]

1. This story should be bounced around more often -- Bushco has

pullrd too many shady and/or illegal moves it's difficult to remember even half of them

Kick and recommend!

[natrat]

4. it's almost as if--given the same result---they'd go for the illegal path

[Pirate Smile]

2. I read it earlier. It is a long but very good article. As usual, Darth

Cheney and his minions are in the forefront but Bush is in complete agreement.

It is horrifying when Ashcroft is the reasonable one. But now Gonzales is in that position. eeeckkk!

[Missy Vixen]

3. Goldsmith and Comey are heroes

We need all the help we can get. If those on the other side of the aisle are willing to join hands with us and stand up against wholesale violations of the rule of law by this administration, they deserve nothing less than our most heartfelt thanks.

Again, not all * appointees are our enemies. It seems they're just as sick of it as we are.

Julie

[Marie26]

7. It's actually sort of hopeful to know

that there are people in our government who are willing to fight this.

[bleever]

5. Very interesting reading.

Rec'd. Thanks.

[seafan]

6. Oops, typo Gonzales in subject line...my bad. nt

[seafan]

8. These men would be great witnesses for the Judiciary Committee.

These are the voices that the Judiciary Committee needs to call before them -- the lawyers with the integrity to risk their jobs, their livelihoods, their futures, to do the right thing.

snip

And a short note to Dems on the Judiciary: please, read the article and put together a witness list. There are quite a few people who would likely give you some meaty answers -- and a few folks, like Dick Cheney and David Addington who owe you a hell of a lot of explanations. (Not that I think they'll give you any, but subpoena their asses anyway. They work for the American public. It's time to remind them of that fact.)

(Thanks to ReddHedd at firedoglake!)

http://www.firedoglake.blogspot.com/