Ashcroft speaks, sort of: Officials fought over snooping

[babylonsister]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_go_co/eavesdropping;_ylt=AtlozOQTybi9v7uKGwjC4Jys0NUE

Ashcroft: Officials fought over snooping

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The administration was sharply divided over the legality of President Bush's most controversial eavesdropping policies, a congressman quoted former Attorney General John Ashcroft as telling a House panel Thursday.

"It is very apparent to us that there was robust and enormous debate within the administration about the legal basis for the president's surveillance program," Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Ashcroft.

The point is critical to two matters being considered in the Democratic-controlled Congress: One is the House and Senate Intelligence committees' ongoing review of 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which includes an extensive examination of the president's warrantless eavesdropping program.

The other is the House and Senate Judiciary Committees' parallel examinations of current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' service to the administration. Under that probe, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey revealed that Gonzales, then White House counsel, tried to pressure him and a critically ill Ashcroft to certify the legality of the wiretapping program.

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[BOSSHOG]

1. The robust debate consisted of

a handful of honest people being shouted down by the rovian slime in the white house when they dared state that what was being suggested was illegal, immoral, unconstitutional and criminal. Robust indeed.

[cassiepriam]

2. Robust my a**.

Yah right, so many fought so hard to do the right thing.