Current News |
President Intervened in Dispute Over
Eavesdropping
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16nsa.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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.
Mr. Comey, the former No. 2 official in the Justice
Department, said the crisis began when he refused to
sign a presidential order reauthorizing the program,
which allowed monitoring of international telephone
calls and e-mail of people inside the United States
who were suspected of having terrorist ties. He said
he made his decision after the department’s Office
of Legal Counsel, based on an extensive review,
concluded that the program did not comply with the
law. At the time, Mr. Comey was acting attorney
general because Mr. Ashcroft had been hospitalized
for emergency gall bladder surgery.
Mr. Comey would not describe the rationale for his
refusal to approve the eavesdropping program, citing
its classified nature. The N.S.A. program, which
began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks and did not
require court approval to listen in on the
communications of Americans and others, provoked an
outcry in Congress when it was disclosed in December
2005.
Mr. Comey said that on the evening of March 10,
2004, Mr. Gonzales and Andrew H. Card Jr., then Mr.
Bush’s chief of staff, tried to bypass him by
secretly visiting Mr. Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft was
extremely ill and disoriented, Mr. Comey said, and
his wife had forbidden any visitors.
Mr. Comey said that when a top aide to Mr. Ashcroft
alerted him about the pending visit, he ordered his
driver to rush him to George Washington University
Hospital with emergency lights flashing and a siren
blaring, to intercept the pair. They were seeking
his signature because authority for the program was
to expire the next day.
Mr. Comey said he phoned Mr. Mueller, who agreed to
meet him at the hospital. Once there, Mr. Comey said
he “literally ran up the stairs.” At his request,
Mr. Mueller ordered the F.B.I. agents on Mr.
Ashcroft’s security detail not to evict Mr. Comey
from the room if Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card objected
to his presence.
Mr. Comey said he arrived first in the darkened
room, in time to brief Mr. Ashcroft, who he said
seemed barely conscious. Before Mr. Ashcroft became
ill, Mr. Comey said the two men had talked and
agreed that the program should not be renewed.
When the White House officials appeared minutes
later, Mr. Gonzales began to explain to Mr. Ashcroft
why they were there. Mr. Comey said Mr. Ashcroft
rose weakly from his hospital bed, but in strong and
unequivocal terms, refused to approve the
eavesdropping program.
“I was angry,” Mr. Comey told the committee. “ I had
just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very
sick man, who did not have the powers of the
attorney general because they had been transferred
to me. I thought he had conducted himself in a way
that demonstrated a strength I had never seen
before, but still I thought it was improper.”
Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card quickly departed, but Mr.
Comey said he soon got an angry phone call from Mr.
Card, demanding that he come to the White House. Mr.
Comey said he replied: “After what I just witnessed,
I will not meet with you without a witness, and I
intend that witness to be the solicitor general of
the United States.”
Mr. Comey said he reached Theodore B. Olson, the
solicitor general, at a dinner party. At the White
House session, which included Mr. Olson, Mr.
Gonzales, Mr. Comey and Mr. Card, the four officials
discussed the impasse. Mr. Comey knew that other top
officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney,
wanted to continue the program.
Mr. Card expressed concern about mass resignations
at the Justice Department, Mr. Comey said. He told
the Senate panel that he prepared a letter of
resignation and that David Ayres, Mr. Ashcroft’s
chief of staff, asked him to delay delivering it so
that Mr. Ashcroft could join him. Mr. Comey said Mr.
Mueller was also prepared to quit.
The next morning, March 11, Mr. Comey went to the
White House for a terrorism briefing. Afterward, he
said Mr. Bush took him aside for a private 15-minute
meeting in the president’s study, which Mr. Comey
described as a “full exchange.”
At Mr. Comey’s urging, Mr. Bush also met with Mr.
Mueller, who emerged to inform Mr. Comey that the
president had authorized the changes in the program
sought by the Justice Department.
“We had the president’s direction to do what we
believed, what the Justice Department believed, was
necessary to put this on a footing where we could
certify to its legality,” Mr. Comey said. “And so we
set out to do that and we did that.”
Mr. Comey said he signed the reauthorization in “two
or three weeks.” It was unclear from his testimony
what authority existed for the program while the
changes were being made. Mr. Comey said he shelved
his resignation plans that day when terrorists set
off bombs on commuter trains in Madrid.
Mr. Comey left the Justice Department in August
2006, saying publicly that he had never intended to
serve through the end of Mr. Bush’s second term.
Privately, he has told friends that he grew weary of
what he felt was increasing White House influence on
the agency.
Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, deflected
questions about Mr. Comey’s testimony, but defended
the N.S.A. program. Mr. Snow also noted that the
Justice Department placed the program under the
supervision of a special intelligence court earlier
this year, which department officials said placed
the program on an even firmer legal footing.
“Jim Comey can talk about whatever reservations he
may have had, but the fact is that there were strong
protections in there,” Mr. Snow said. “This is a
program that saved lives, that is vital for national
security, and furthermore has been reformed in a
bipartisan way that is in keeping with everybody.”
Spokesmen for Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Mueller, and the
Justice Department declined to comment. Mr. Card did
not respond to a reporter’s inquiries. |
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