President Intervened in Dispute Over Eavesdropping

[BurtWorm]

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



By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 16, 2007

WASHINGTON, May 15 — 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....

[acmavm]

1. That's the Commander Guy all right. Let a totally disgusting and illegal

intrusion of everyone's civil rights continue under cover until they can figure out a way to be able to say it's a matter of national security so it's a good thing and legal to boot.

That bush** family has something terribly wrong with them. All of them.

[aquart]

3. They're fascists. Could be genetic.

Or simply what they taught their children.

[L. Coyote]

2. Fortunately, the Constitution preempts the law, so Bush can do anything to

defend it, and the laws no longer apply to him. He is bound by his duty to defend the Constitution, no matter if he violates every Article, just so long as it is still there later. You have to love this kind of thinking.

Seriously, "The President violated the law."