"The infamous showdown took place in March 2004, while Ashcroft was recovering from illness in a hospital bed. Acting attorney general James Comey—now President Obama’s nominee to head the FBI—was refusing to reauthorize one component of the secret surveillance program. Comey concluded that it was illegal. This prompted White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to rush to Ashcroft’s hospital room in hopes of getting the ailing AG to countermand Comey, who was tipped off about Gonzales’ plan and sped there as well. In the confrontation that ensued, Ashcroft supported Comey both formally (because Comey was legally the attorney general while Ashcroft was incapacitated) and on the legal substance. Bush reauthorized the program despite the Justice Department’s conclusion that it was unlawful. Comey then threatened to resign—with Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and other top officials reportedly ready to join him. Bush ultimately backed down and the troublesome program was briefly suspended, until it could be renewed under a different legal authority. In 2008, we learned that the central bone of contention during this showdown wasn’t warrantless wiretapping but rather some form of data mining. More recently, via reporting in The Washington Post and a classified NSA report leaked by The Guardian, we learned that the controversy specifically involved Internet—not telephone—metadata. The NSA report in particular makes it fairly clear what the controversy must have been about—at least if you’re steeped in surveillance law. For those who aren’t, this is what probably happened." arstechnica/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-showdown-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about/
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:34:27 +0000
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