Lederman "What Was "The Program" Before Goldsmith and Comey?"

[mod mom]

Thursday, May 17, 2007


What Was "The Program" Before Goldsmith and Comey?

Marty Lederman

"We're doing what?"

That's a quotation from the original Risen & Lichtblau New York Times article that broke the unlawful wiretapping story., attributed to "a senior government official recalled that he was taken aback when he first learned of the operation."

What, indeed, was the nature of the "program" before Goldsmith, Comey and Ashcroft -- those notorious civil libertarian extremists -- called a halt to it, and threatened to resign if the President continued to break the law? And what was the nature and breadth of its legal justification? I am hardly alone in realizing that these are the most important questions arising from the recent Comey testimony. It's the question of the night, all over the Web. (When will the mainstream press catch on? And more importantly, as I asked in my last post -- When will the Congress insist on comprehensive and public hearings, both on this and on the legal support for the Administration's torture practices?)

Was it a full-bore data-mining program of some sort, akin to the TIA program that Congress had de-funded? (John Yoo suggests as much in his new book.) Something involving the FBI as well as the NSA (hence the central role of the FBI Director in the Comey narrative)? A program in which once a U.S. person was suspected of receiving a call from a suspected Al Qaeda individual, that U.S. person's calls were all monitored thereafter? These are among the theories receiving a good deal of speculation this evening. There's a lot of great stuff to read -- this is just the tip of the iceberg:

-snip

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-was-program-before-goldsmith-and.html

[mod mom]

1. Interesting theory posted under comments @ link above:

Here are two theories:

1) Mueller is involved because the FBI gave national security letters (NSLs) to the phone companies demanding ALL of their records. This caused Comey and Ashcroft concern because it was like a "general warrant" (not for an individual but rather for all customers).

2) Comey and Ashcroft had problems with the phone companies giving the NSA access to all communications via splitters (see Mark Klein testimony in EFF case / Frontline documentary).

In "State of Denial" Bob Woodward says George Tenet approached the CEOs of the phone companies to make the deals. Is this the result of better communication among intelligence agencies. Were the NSA, FBI, and CIA ALL part of this?
# posted by Armin Tamzarian : 9:35 AM