Comey Details White House Attempt to Force Approval of Secret Program

[babylonsister]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003221.php

Comey Details White House Attempt to Force Approval of Secret Program
By Paul Kiel - May 15, 2007, 11:31 AM

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey detailed the desperate late night efforts by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew Card to get the Justice Department to approve a secret program -- presumably the warrantless wiretapping program.

According to Comey's testimony this morning, only when faced with resignations by a number of Justice Department officials including Comey, his chief of staff, Ashcroft's chief of staff, Ashcroft himself and possibly Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, did the White House agree to make changes to the program that would satisfy the requirements of the Justice Department to sign off on it (Comey refused to name the program, but it's apparent from the context and prior reports that this was the warrantless wiretapping program).

The events took place in March of 2004, when the program was in need of renewal by the Justice Department. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft fell ill and was hospitalized, Comey became the acting-Attorney General.

The deadline for the Justice Department's providing its sign-off the program was March 11th. On that day, Comey, then the acting AG, informed the White House that he "would not certify the legality" of the program.

more...

[Greeby]

1. Ashcroft? Showing a shred of integrity?

DOES.NOT.COMPUTE :nuke:

[Inuca]

3. I heard part of this, including....

... feingold thanking Comey for respect and defense of the law, and also mentioning Ashcroft as doing the same. He said that in spite of the many and major differences he has with Ashcroft, he (i.e., Ashcroft) was very different from Gonzalez in that respect. Difficult as it may be to compute, I think that indeed Ashcroft was much better than the current toady.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Gee whiz. They didn't have to go through all that trouble.

They just should have put in deep within the PATRIOT Act, known Congress wouldn't read or debate it, it would be enacted and signed into law, and they would have had the same result.

[maddezmom]

4. K&R

[whistle]

5. What exactly made Ashcroft so ill that he had to be hospitalized?

<snip>
Ashcroft: 9/11 Commission ignored facts
Keith Olbermann talks to the former U.S. Attorney General on "Countdown"
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
MSNBC
Updated: 10:34 a.m. ET Oct 17, 2006
On Monday, "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann talked to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft about his new book, "Never Again," the warning signs before 9/11 and the accusations in David Kuo's new book, "Tempting Faith."

You can read the transcript below.

KEITH OLBERMANN, "COUNTDOWN' HOST: The title of former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s book is “Never Again,” perhaps not intended to be interpreted differently by his admirers and by his critics, but doubtless to be so, and no doubt to the good in terms of book sales. It is, not surprisingly, a staunch defense of the Bush administration and some of its most controversial actions by one of the pivotal figures of Mr. Bush’s first term.

Our third story on the COUNTDOWN tonight, the new book by the man who ran the U.S. Justice Department from 2001 to 2005, former attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft.

Thank you for some of your time tonight, sir.

JOHN ASHCROFT, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, thank you. Nice to be with you.

OLBERMANN: Let me start with your assessment in “Never Again” about the 9/11 Commission, that it was, quote, “obsessed,” unquote, with finding fault with the Bush administration.

Two Republican members of that commission have responded. Former Senator Gorton of Washington, former Governor Thompson of Illinois, told “The St. Louis Post Dispatch” that your claims are not true, that President Bush ended up apologizing to the commission for your behavior.

Did that apology occur, and why would commission Republicans have gone after the Bush administration in the first place?

ASHCROFT: Well, I’m not in the business for answering for their behavior, their statements. I felt that the commission, frankly, was ignoring a number of very important things, and it could be that some would be disenchanted for what I did, because I took information to the commission that it seemed intent on ignoring or not otherwise providing, including the fact that the wall which separated intelligence and law enforcement had been crafted and developed in a memorandum authored by a member of the commission.

Now, for people to sit in judgment on conduct and not reveal the fact that they in fact were the sponsors of the conduct seemed to me to be something that people deserved to know, and it added, I think, to the way in which the commission should operate.

It wasn’t something the commission, I suppose, was happy to hear, but I thought they needed that as well as some other things to be revealed.

So in my commission appearance, I basically told them things that I thought they didn’t—weren’t giving the right emphasis to, and which I thought were important for an objective and fair deliberation, which should have been the responsibility of the commission.

OLBERMANN: Governor Thompson said—and then I’ll move on from this subject, if that’s all right with you—that you “had tried to put us”—referring to the 9/11 commission—“on trial, and it backfired. The President of the United States apologized to us in the Oval Office for his conduct, which is kind of embarrassing.”

Do you know if the president apologized for your actions to the commission?

ASHCROFT: I do not know. I wasn’t in the Oval Office with the commission. And if I caused any embarrassment to the president, I regret that. But I felt that, as I explained earlier, my conduct in the commission was in line with I thought appropriate matters to be brought to the attention of both the commission and the American people, not just about the facts of the matter, but relating to the way in which the commission had been involved in specific policies that were major problems with our fight against terror.



OLBERMANN: On that subject, and the topic also of 9/11, I’m sure you’re aware of the reaction to another new book, Bob Woodward’s “State of Denial,” specifically his claim that then NSA Adviser Rice had gotten a briefing on July 10th, 2001 about the growing threat of al Qaeda attacks.

After some research, her office confirmed that, and as part of that confirmation from Dr. Rice’s office, her spokesman says she had then asked that you be given the same briefing that she had received at that time.

Were you given that briefing, and if so, what measures did you take?

ASHCROFT: We were given briefings all through that period of time, which was a time when a great deal was spoken of elevated risk levels. I specifically queried the individuals providing me with the briefings—and I suspect she did the same—about whether these were domestic or whether these were threat levels that were in line with the kind of damage we had received in our embassies in Eastern Africa and to the USS Cole when it had been docked in Yemen and the boat bomb came and took the lives of a number of our sailors.

I was over and over again told upon my—in response to my inquiry that there was no evidence of domestic threat.

The real question, I guess, here is, what was the nature of the briefing? No one denies that we were getting briefings regularly through the summer, and there were indications about elevated threat levels. I just simply did not get indication, even upon specific inquiry, that there was an elevated or anticipated threat level based on any evidence that there would be attacks in the United States.
<MORE>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15295378/

[grasswire]

6. is it possible that he was MADE sick?

It was pretty convenient.

[whistle]

7. Exactly my point, and this book which I guess came out last fall 2006

....is still an attempt on Ashcroft's part to push his original position that nobody in CIA/FBI and elsewhere screamed WOLF loud enough to get anyone in BushCo to pay attention to the treat. In fact Ashcroft even in the KO interview was claiming that intelligence briefings were minimizing the threats. Ashcroft also in the book lays the blame back onto the Clinton administration and that memo that was supposed to have cut all cross communication between intelligence sources.:puke:

[L. Coyote]

8. Snow being grilled at Press Conference right now on this. NIXON WH comparisons...

Snow; "I don't know anything about the conversation..."

FROM Kiel: "Comey said that it took two to three weeks for the Justice Department to do the analysis necessary to have the program approved. During that time, the program went on without Justice Department approval. But following the Justice Department's suggested changes, the Justice Department (either Ashcroft or Comey) did sign off on the program...."

More on this soon.

[Peace Patriot]

9. Dramatic, explosive testimony by Comey...

Here's a firedoglaker's description:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/05/15/comey-sjc-testimony-liveblog-three/#comments
Comment #68
LS says:
May 15th, 2007 at 9:04 am

"When Comey described the night of the hospital visit, it was like listening to a movie script. Unbelievable. He was really afraid for Ashcroft. He said he got all of his guys together and they rushed to the hospital, that he sprinted up the steps..they were RUNNING to get to the room and they would not leave the AG alone. They were guarding him for his life. And, oh BTW, the AG got sick the week before just hours after they had agreed that the unnamed SPYING ON US CITIZENS program was discussed between Comey and Ashcroft and that they were not going to certify it as legal. (Do you suppose they were being EAVESDROPPED ON?????). Ashcroft almost died folks.

"Then, in came Gonzo and Card. Gonzo the irreverent thug. What a scene. Then outside the room, Comey was called into another room to speak with Card, and they had words. It sounds like a mafia story. Also, he said it was the president that made the call personally that Gonzo and Card were coming to the hospital, even though the AG was in INTENSIVE CARE and visitors were banned by Mrs. Ashcroft.

"What a crazy scenario. What a movie this is going to make someday. Who needs to make this stuff up…I’m still peeling my jaw off the ground."

------------

Here's another juicy bit for Firedoglake (Comment #94):

looseheadprop says:
May 15th, 2007 at 9:13 am

(QUOTES PREVIOUS COMMENTER) cbl @ 59

f’ the hospital visit - I found the part about Card barring Solicitor General of the US from his office explosive !

(THEN SAYS) No, I found the part about Muller feeling the need to order Comey’s FBI agents not to allow Comey to be REMOVED from the hospital room.

(IN BOLDFACE) WHy did Muller fear that Comey was going to be forcibly removed?????

------------

The time frame on the "Night Visit to the Hospital Bed" was March 2004, I believe. Boy, did they need that illegal domestic spying program up and running fast! (--(s)election coming up!)

It's unbelievable that this hearing was not on C-Span. But Firedoglake's live blogging is almost as good (if to a much more limited "audience"), and you get lots of spicy and informative commentary!

[Peace Patriot]

10. Here's another Firedoglake comment...

Comment #150, at
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/05/15/comey-sjc-testimony-liveblog-three/#comments

Mary4 says:
May 15th, 2007 at 9:29 am

"94 - Secret service?

"I thought the wildest part was testimony that the Acting AG, standing DAG AND the FBI Director, had so little trust for White House Counsel that, upon learning WHC is on the way to the hospital, both envision efforts to get the signature of a medicated person who may be non-compis mentis, and to get that signature from them in a capacity - Attorney General - which they would not even have at the time of the signature.

"Wow - the AG and the FBI Director both thought WHC was willing and able to perpetrate that kind of, well I won’t use the 'f' word, but still."