Posted on 09/14/2008 7:49:44 PM PDT by An American!
This is the first of two stories adapted from "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency," to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press. EXCERPT: "The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief.
But they had not been asked to give their own written assessments of the legality of domestic espionage. They based their answer in part on the attorney general's certification of the "form and legality" of the president's orders. Yet neither man had been allowed to see the program's codeword-classified legal analyses [5], which were prepared by John C. Yoo, Addington's close ally in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Now they wanted to read Yoo's opinions for themselves [6]."
The more questions they asked, the less Goldsmith and Philbin liked the answers. Parts of the program fell easily within the constitutional powers of the commander in chief. Others looked dicier.
The two lawyers worked at the intersection of three complex systems: telecommunications, spy technology, and the statutory regimes that governed surveillance. After a few weeks, Goldsmith said, he decided the program "was the biggest legal mess I'd seen in my life."
He asked for permission to read in Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's new deputy, James B. Comey [14]. As always, he found Addington waiting with Gonzales in the White House counsel's corner office, one floor up from the chief of staff. They sat in parallel wing chairs, much as Bush and Cheney did in the Oval Office.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You actually think the Post will report the facts that will help you understand? Dream on..........
I read it this morning. While I admire VP Cheney’s determination to take down terrorists wherever they may be, I’m afraid the facts brought to light in this series doesn’t reflect well on Cheney or his staff, particularly David Addington. Political fights with the opposition are one thing; but OVP seems to have waged a war within the key players of the Administration against people who were as committed as any in the anti-terrorism fight. That’s a big mistake.
It’s the Post so you have to ask, “How does this help al-Qaeda?”
James Comey is the “snake in the grass” at “the eye of the storm” - pardon me for mixing metaphors here. He is at the center of all the problems Wh had relating to Plamegate and domestic communications surveiilance program. He was hired from NY District on recommendation of (drum roll!) Chuck Schumer, one of several personnel mistakes by President Bush promoting his “new tone” policy.
Without reading the whole article I would not be surprised if he is the one that is copiously praised, while everybody else in WH is made to look like a bumbler or a sinister goon.
LOL! As if the WaPost would print anything other than “Cheney is the Boogeyman!”
Please. Accepting what they say is like believing in Santa Claus.
That is a very interesting narrative, but in the end all I got out of it was that a bunch of stinking lawyers were bickering over the complex legal technicalities of a vital national security tool. I hate to think that national security might be compromised because a room full of stinking lawyers wants to play with themselves as they try to “win” their argument against the other team. Screw that.
An issue like this one should be easily resolved: If legality falls into a “gray” area (even a dark gray area), and national security is in the balance, err on the side of national security. Friggin’ duh. I have zero respect for cowardly pantloads like Comey.
Did you get the impression that the primary source for this piece was Democrat mole James Comey?
Back around 1994, the then President of the U.S. was told that he needed permission (FISA) to authorize a break-in of the house of a suspected spy. Said President said something like: “Hell, I’m the most important person in the world, I can do whatever the hell I want.”
Actors in this sequence include Bubba and Aldrich Ames who was found guilty of espionage. Bubba’s actions were never questioned of course.
Many conservatives burrowed within the Department of Justice have long complained that Gonzales (therefore, Bush) has permitted career government employees and hold-overs from Democratic Administrations to remain in perches of power and thereby water down conservative directives from the top. As one conservative and Federalist Society member in the Justice Department told me: “This is definitely not Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, I assure you. You have holdovers from Clinton calling the shots in a lot of places here.”
- - John Gizzi from: Should Gonzales Go?
Human Events | March 20, 2007 |
I am pretty sure the entire story is told from the point of view of James Comey, the “hero” of the left. In fact, I doubt that al-Qaeda agent in Comey’s place could do more damage to Bush’s policies in the GWOT than he managed to inflict from Day 1 after being sworn in to his position in Justice Department.
The Washington Post recently ran a long article about the ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Written by Barton Gellman, the article was prominently featured on the front page of the Post’s Oct. 26 Sunday edition. Gellman’s conclusion, that inspectors have yet to find any evidence of a reconstituted Iraqi nuclear program, was devastating to the Bush administration. If the article had been accurate, that is. Gellman claims that weapons inspectors required little effort to conclude that prewar allegations about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program were "insubstantial" or "untrue."The letters sent by Meekin and Kay smoked Gellman.He writes that the inspectors have determined that Iraq has done "no significant arms-related work" since the end of the first Gulf War. He implies that these judgments are being withheld from the public by David Kay, the chief weapons inspector in Iraq, and the CIA.
In addition to "records" reviewed, he claimed the Post has interviewed "arms investigators" from the U.S., U.K. and Australia. The only such "investigator" identified is Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Meekin, commander of the Joint Captured Enemy Material Exploitation Center, identified by Gellman as the largest of six units "that report to Kay."
Gellman writes that Meekin’s team had uncovered the aluminum tubes cited by the CIA and the administration before the war as evidence of Iraq’s efforts to reconstitute its nuclear program. Meekin told Gellman, however, that investigators have determined the tubes to be "innocuous." Gellman quotes Meekin as saying the "tubes were used for rockets."
But within a week, Kay and Meekin had issued rebuttals to Gellman’s claims. Instead of running their letters on the editorial page, the Post chose to bury these in its "Free for All" page deep inside its Saturday edition. Meekin wrote that Gellman had misrepresented both Meekin’s mission and his comments on the aluminum tubes. Meekin stressed that he had told Gellman that his unit’s job was focused on Iraq’s conventional arms program.
He wrote that he had not given Gellman "assessments or views" on the status of Kay’s nuclear inspections. Meekin also disputed Gellman’s interpretation of his judgment that the aluminum tubes were "innocuous."
He wrote that he had made clear that the reference was to the contribution of the tubes within the context of Iraq’s overall conventional capabilities. He wrote, "I did not make any judgment on the suitability of the 81-millimeter aluminum tubes as components in a nuclear program."
Kay’s letter affirmed that Meekin has never reported to him in any capacity and he called Gellman on several other key points in the article. Kay’s bottom line: Gellman’s article gave the "false impression" that judgments about Iraq’s nuclear program could already be made. Too much work remained to be done, wrote Kay, before any conclusions can be drawn.
Shortly thereafter, the Post published two more corrections on its Internet Web site. The Post noted that Gellman had misstated the size of the work force searching for WMD by a factor of 10. And he overstated the technical credentials of one scientist working on Kay’s team.
- "Post Story Wildly off the Mark ," Notra Trulock, Friday, Nov. 21, 2003 Notra Trulock is the Associate Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at aimeditor@yahoo.com.
The aluminum tubes were supposed to be one of super-secret double-deep cover CIA operative Valerie Plame's responsibilities. Comey also figured in the Plame deal and this eavesdropping biz, and the NSA eavesdropping biz also allowed Comey to circumvent Ashcroft in the attack on Libby over Plame.
Sidenote: IMHO, one thing all these people and their spin seem to circle perpetually around is Pakistan... a need to insulate Pakistan- in particular the trail of A Q Khan's proliferation network.
Comey was involved in the Khobar Towers / Hezbollah investigation which of course links to Iran.
The aluminum tube story also involves Iran; as I recall there was a shipment of tubes intercepted on its way to Iran around the time Libya was waiting for its tubes.
You recall correctly. Libya's nuclear program (which it agreed to dismantle after fall of Saddam's regime and death of Uday and Qusay) was based on A. Q. Khan's design and involved thousands of Iraqi "workers" in Libya. Libya has used aluminum tubes identical to those that were found in Iraq but which were pronounced "dual-use" by "deniers" of Iraq's WMD programs (NBC, active or dormant, awaiting the lifting of UN sanctions).
I personally think Bill Clinton tried to use those two spy systems to help himself. He was largely thwarted with regards to Echelon as I understand it. Carnivore? He made that program later, so he likely did find a way to exploit it. I imagine that Pellicano and/or Lensner or some other private I agency now has Carnivore software. [Just speculation, but when you think of the 900 raided FBI files ... ]
Oh yes, talk about domestic spying — 900 raided FBI files.
But no, wait until there's a GOP president in the middle of a war before griping.
If those creeps want to investigate Bush in the MIDDLE OF A WAR, let's talk about who hired Craig Livingston. It's been reported that Hillary Clinton hired him. And what did Livingston do? Raid raw FBI files of political rivals.
Heck, since the Clintons GOT AWAY WITH IT, I darn well hope that Bush did it three times as much. I hope he raided every frigging RAW FBI file of every rat. But he didn't, or rats would be falling like flies.
[Fuzzy memory alert.]
Excellent points.
Shall we bring up ABLE DANGER????!!?!???
Hmmmmmmmm?
AMEN
The supreme court ruled in the 70s that the president has this power. I’m not sure why this continues as an issue.
Excellent post there, AWM !
bump! bump! bump!
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