September 14, 2008
This letter to the President of the United States was written after the President had signed a surveillance order, having been told by the Justice Department that the authorized conduct was criminal:
Former acting attorney general James Comey's resignation letter to Bush over NSA domestic spying showdown with Cheney.
"Over the last two weeks, I have encountered just such an apocalyptic situation, where I and the Department have been asked to be part of something that is fundamentally wrong."LETTER HERE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/cheney/doc-comey-resig.html********************
Bart Gellman explains:
For Cheney, it didn't matter much whether one official or 10 or 20 took a walk. Maybe they were bluffing, maybe not. The principle was the same: Do what has to be done. "The president of the United States is the chief law enforcement officer -- that was the Cheney view," said
Bartlett, Bush's counselor, who was later briefed into the program and the events of the day. "You can't let resignations deter you if you're doing what's right." Cheney and Addington "were ready to go to the mat," he said, and the vice president's position boiled down to this: " 'That's why we're leaders, that's why we're here. Take the political hit. You've got to do it.'"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401974.html
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Posted by Laura at September 14, 2008 10:28 PM
more at:
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/008045.html
More: "All hell was breaking loose at Justice."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/cheney/doc-comey-resig.html?hpid=topnews
Unexpectedly, Ashcroft roused himself. Previous accounts have said he backed his deputy. He did far more than that. Ashcroft told the president's men he never should have certified the program in the first place.
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It has been widely reported that Bush executed the March 11 order with a blank space over the attorney general's signature line. That is not correct. For reasons both symbolic and practical, the vice president's lawyer could not tolerate an empty spot where a mutinous subordinate should have signed. Addington typed a substitute signature line: "Alberto R. Gonzales."
What Addington wrote for Bush that day was more transcendent than that. He drew up new language in which the president relied on his own authority to certify the program as lawful. Bush expressly overrode the Justice Department and any act of Congress or judicial decision that purported to constrain his power as commander in chief. Only Richard M. Nixon, in an interview after leaving the White House in disgrace, claimed authority so nearly unlimited.
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"I'm sure when we leave office we're all going to be hauled up before congressional committees and grand juries," Addington told one colleague in disgust. ...;