tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post4067715335729009916..comments2024-01-10T17:36:15.040-07:00Comments on The Lippard Blog: NSA's data mining and eavesdropping describedLippardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-32965910716271802082008-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:002008-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:00I would still emphasize that we don't know the con...I would still emphasize that we don't know the content and scope of what was going on with that program from 2001 - 2004.Hume's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551684109760430351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-3995859874301910372008-03-14T10:17:00.000-07:002008-03-14T10:17:00.000-07:00Thanks for the correction ... I've even read The T...Thanks for the correction ... I've even read The Terror Presidency (and watched Cheney's Law previously.) <BR/><BR/>You see what happens when I comment without refreshing my memory.Hume's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551684109760430351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-85074263165793340732008-03-13T15:08:00.000-07:002008-03-13T15:08:00.000-07:00See pages 6-7 of this Jeffrey Rosen article in the...See pages 6-7 of <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/magazine/09rosen.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1" REL="nofollow">this Jeffrey Rosen article in the NY Times last year about Goldsmith</A>.Lippardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-77108439934528614532008-03-13T15:03:00.000-07:002008-03-13T15:03:00.000-07:00Hume's Ghost:I don't think you have it quite right...Hume's Ghost:<BR/>I don't think you have it quite right. John Ashcroft refused to sign off on the *re-authorization* of what the administration was already doing, not a new program or new technique. He refused to do so because after Jack Goldsmith (author of _The Terror Presidency_) had looked into it (after he replaced his friend John Yoo as head of the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel), he argued that it was clearly illegal. Goldsmith was able to persuade Ashcroft, Deputy AG James Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and others in the DOJ of his position in a dispute with Cheney's chief of staff David Addington. Bush personally overrode Ashcroft to continue the program, at which point Comey, Ashcroft, Mueller, and others threatened to resign if the administration didn't modify the program to make it constitutional, which apparently it did to their satisfaction.<BR/><BR/>The Frontline on "Cheney's Law" goes into this.Lippardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-40965941712295889362008-03-12T17:46:00.000-07:002008-03-12T17:46:00.000-07:00We still don't know what exactly it was that the a...We still don't know what exactly it was that the adminstration was attempting to do that was so extreme that John Ashcroft refused to sign off on it.<BR/><BR/>If Bush gets his way we'll never know, either.Hume's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551684109760430351noreply@blogger.com