Fergie's Tech Blog

Decoding the NSA Surveillance Debate

Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff write in Newsweek:

It read like a dime novel.

Former Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey shocked Washington this week with his testimony on Capitol Hill about a turning point in the Bush administration’s controversial domestic eavesdropping program. The program was about to expire, Comey testified, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft lay incapacitated in a Washington hospital bed.

Comey’s Justice Department colleagues had persuaded him that the program was constitutionally unsound. But emissaries from the White House were rushing to Ashcroft’s hospital bed, Comey said—determined to convince the ailing Ashcroft to reauthorize the program as the deadline for its expiration approached. Comey enlisted FBI Director Robert Mueller as an ally, and raced to beat the White House team (then Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then White House Counselor Alberto Gonzales) to Ashcroft’s room. Comey threatened to resign if the program was reauthorized without changes.

Ultimately, the president intervened, and the program was revised to meet Comey’s concerns.

Newsweek’s Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff, who covered the program for the magazine, discussed the developments—and what comes next.

posted by Fergie @ 5/18/2007 06:03:00 PM