Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program

The top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused two years ago to approve important parts of the secret program that allows domestic eavesdropping without warrants, prompting two leading White House aides to try to win the needed approval from Mr. Ashcroft himself while he was hospitalized after a gall bladder operation, according to officials knowledgeable about the episode.

With Mr. Ashcroft recuperating from gall bladder surgery in March 2004, his deputy, James B. Comey, who was then acting as attorney general, was unwilling to give his certification to crucial aspects of the classified program, as required under the procedures set up by the White House, said the officials, who asked for anonymity because the program is classified and they are not authorized to discuss it publicly.

That prompted two of President Bush's top aides - Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff, and Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House counsel and now the attorney general - to make an emergency visit to George Washington University Hospital to review the program with Mr. Ashcroft during what aides have described as a difficult recovery, the officials said.

The White House and Mr. Ashcroft, through spokesmen, declined to comment Saturday on the emergency meeting. "As the president has stated, the intelligence activities that have been under way to prevent future terrorist attacks have been approved at the highest levels of the Justice Department," said Jeannie Mamo, a White House spokeswoman.

Accounts from other officials differed as to exactly what was said at the meeting at the hospital. Some officials indicated that Mr. Ashcroft, like his deputy, was also reluctant to give his signoff to continuing with aspects of the program in light of concerns among some senior government officials about the program's legality and its operational controls.

At some point, the operation was suspended as controls and checklists were either refined or put in place. Maybe the balking by DoJ official or officials was in that timeframe.

The evidence is equivocal, but appears to point to a different reason for the balk by Comey.

SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2004
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Attorney General John Ashcroft was discharged from the George Washington University Hospital shortly after noon today, March 14, 2004.
Attorney General Ashcroft entered G.W. Hospital on March 4, 2004 with a severe case of Gallstone Pancreatitis. On March 9, 2004, Attorney General Ashcroft underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder which contained several gallstones that were of concern to the doctors.
http://www.gwhospital.com/p13762.html
In mid-2004, concerns about the program expressed by national security officials, government lawyers and a judge prompted the Bush administration to suspend elements of the program and revamp it.
For the first time, the Justice Department audited the N.S.A. program, several officials said. And to provide more guidance, the Justice Department and the agency expanded and refined a checklist to follow in deciding whether probable cause existed to start monitoring someone's communications, several officials said.
A complaint from Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the federal judge who oversees the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, helped spur the suspension, officials said. The judge questioned whether information obtained under the N.S.A. program was being improperly used as the basis for F.I.S.A. wiretap warrant requests from the Justice Department, according to senior government officials. While not knowing all the details of the exchange, several government lawyers said there appeared to be concerns that the Justice Department, by trying to shield the existence of the N.S.A. program, was in danger of misleading the court about the origins of the information cited to justify the warrants.
Bush Lets US Spy on Callers Without Courts
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU | New York Times | December 16, 2005

This is on the FISA site: "Amending the Foreign Surveillance Act" 2003 I'll do an exerpt beginning on page S5922:

Mr Rockefeller speaks: "We live in a time in which we can never feel completely safe. There are terrorists around the world and here at home who have sworn to kill Americans"....

"Our challenge is to write the laws that stregthen our security without undermining privacy and liberty. This is something our Nation has never faced before".....

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was designed to regulate the collection of foreign intelligence inside the United States using electronic wiretaps. Later, physical searches were added to the Law."

BEFORE FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RAN WIRETAPS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY PURPOSES WITHOUT JUDICIAL REVIEW, WITHOUT APPROVAL OF ANY SORT." (Then he does the civil liberties bit...which makes security secondary. Please note that ACLU has already LOST its' case over FISA on the grounds that National Security comes first.

My Comment: FISA was in no way enacted to diminish the Powers of the President. It was so that the Justice Department could operate effectively in an electronic world..a world without bounds......period.

IMHO: Rockefeller is very clear as to his PERSONAL feelings about wiretapping and "that's nice". He just has some weird idea that everyday FISA rules apply to Presidential Powers. The use of an Executive Order for Pardons is another good example of a Power over which Congress has no say.

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