WP EDITORIAL: WHAT DID BUSH KNOW AND WHEN?

[DeepModem Mom]

(NOTE: The subject line above is the title given this editorial on the Washington Post homepage.)

Caller ID
It's not whether the president called. It's what he did.
Friday, May 18, 2007; Page A22

IT DOESN'T much matter whether President Bush was the one who phoned Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's hospital room before the Wednesday Night Ambush in 2004. It matters enormously, however, whether the president was willing to have his White House aides try to strong-arm the gravely ill attorney general into overruling the Justice Department's legal views. It matters enormously whether the president, once that mission failed, was willing nonetheless to proceed with a program whose legality had been called into question by the Justice Department. That is why Mr. Bush's response to questions about the program yesterday was so inadequate.

"I'm not going to talk about it," Mr. Bush told reporters at a news conference with departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "It's a very sensitive program. I will tell you that, one, the program is necessary to protect the American people, and it's still necessary because there's still an enemy that wants to do us harm."

No one is asking Mr. Bush to talk about classified information, and no one is discounting the terrorist threat. But there is a serious question here about how far Mr. Bush went to pressure his lawyers to implement his view of the law. There is an even more serious question about the president's willingness, that effort having failed, to go beyond the bounds of what his own Justice Department found permissible.

Yes, Mr. Bush backed down in the face of the threat of mass resignations, Mr. Ashcroft's included, and he apparently agreed to whatever more limited program the department was willing to approve. In the interim, however, the president authorized the program the Justice lawyers had refused to certify as legally permissible, and it continued for a few weeks more, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey's careful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Under the Constitution, the president has the final authority in the executive branch to say what the law is. But as a matter of presidential practice, this is breathtaking....

***

The president would like to make this unpleasant controversy disappear behind the national security curtain. That cannot be allowed to happen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051701974.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[aquart]

1. "Wednesday Night Ambush"!!!! It's got a name!

Rule of law. Rule of law. Rule of law. Rule of law. Rule of law. Rule of law.

Chant for every function a Republican is scheduled to attend.

DOES THIS EQUAL A FUCKING BLUE DRESS???????

[stevedeshazer]

17. That's catchy

I hope it sticks.

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

[StarryNite]

3. When will something stick?

And he still uses his scare tactics to try to keep people in line.

[calimary]

6. Yeah, but I'm wondering how long that will sustain, now.

Now, we have the Washington Post asking also. And indicating it should NOT sustain.

Man - and do I remember correctly that Comey was going to come back and testify before the Senate Judiciary - in a second, behind-closed-doors hearing?

Popcorn, anyone?

[bdamomma]

26. he also has a dangerous anger management problem

[WinkyDink]

46. He probably felt sand-bagged by an O'DONNELL, of all people.

[WiseButAngrySara]

29. I think the only thing that seems to 'stick' is sperm on a blue

dress! Unfortunate, but it seems to be the case. I can't believe that America would be so apathetic about this, but with minimal coverage of this event and the rest of the true crimes committed by the beasts in office, I almost blame the media more than the criminals. What cowards they are, and how they have sold their short term souls for what possible profit?

[ribrepin]

4. Happy to be the 5th vote

Off to the greatest page!

[kurth]

5. This President of the United States is nothing but a low-life street thug

But we've always known that.

[WinkyDink]

47. He's just a PUNK, a WANNABE thug. Ain't got the GUTS to be an actual THUG.

[live love laugh]

7. ",,,it continued for a few weeks more,..." Yeah right. It only continued a "few weeks" more.

:eyes: Bush defied the Justice Dept. and the WP says he only did for a "few weeks". Crap if I ever heard/saw/smelt it.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

8. After some time, the DOJ agreed to a modified program

That is what that time period is, IMO.

In any case, it's still a lot more important than lying about a BJ.

[Supersedeas]

42. minimize and marginalize -- Whorington Post style

[Tigress DEM]

9. Let WaPo feel our love of their actual factual reporting!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/mediacenter/html/about_contact.html


[email protected]

[DearAbby]

10. This is something anyone can understand

the whole thing reads like a movie plot...the thugs enter the hospital room...to what? What if Comey wasn't there, how far would they have gone to get that signature...Pinch off his IV Tube?

And don't tell me, * didn't know about this, these two men would not have done this without his permission. The call from the whitehouse, to Mrs Ashcroft is proof. They knew exactly what they were doing, they didn't care about the legality of this act. Blatant, calculating, premeditated, FUCKING CRIME! WHY AREN'T THESE BASTARDS FACING IMPEACHMENT???

[Hubert Flottz]

13. They were plucking with the old Eagle when he was very Soar!

Jon should have known better than to hang out with those gangsters from the Texas Taliban.

[DearAbby]

36. Damn soaring eagle pluckers!

:rofl:

[Diane R]

11. The sad thing is that bush can always use the stupidity defense when asked, 'what did you know?'.

[loudsue]

12. Or the standard republican-under-oath defense: "I don't remember"

"I know nuthink!!!"

:kick:

[avrdream]

14. Emphasis on:

"The president would like to make this unpleasant controversy disappear behind the national security curtain. That cannot be allowed to happen."

From a long way away, with what little U.S. news I get down here, I can see that the controversies within this administration are FINALLY starting to get some attention. Thanks to all of you who are doing your part.

[Disturbed]

15. Congress now needs to call up Asscrap, his wife,

Card, Mueler, and last but not least, Gonzo to discuss this matter Under Oath!

[Amonester]

33. ummm... Under Oath? Ashcroft: "I don't recall." Card: "I don't recall."

Mueler: "I don't recall." Gonzales: ...

Forgive my cynicism, but I know (from experience) what their answers will sound like...

[DeepModem Mom]

18. You're right -- this seems to have finally caught the attention...

of the Washington establishment. I hope it's the beginning of a march toward a day of reckoning for this administration.

[bleever]

31. And, welcome to DU, avrdream.

:hi:

[Senator]

16. Does This Mean Janet Ashcroft is Locked in a Closet Somewhere?

I'm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Mitchell_effect">just asking.

--

[WinkyDink]

48. And Mrs. E. Howard Hunt died in a plane crash.

Several writers, including Robert J. Groden, Peter Dale Scott, Alan J. Weberman, Sherman Skolnick and Carl Oglesby, have suggested that Dorothy Hunt was murdered. In 1974, Charles Colson, Howard Hunt's boss at the White House, told Time Magazine: "I think they killed Dorothy Hunt." (7/8/1974)

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhuntD.htm

[NBachers]

52. Paul Wellstone

I read it. Notice the similarities to the Paul Wellstone "accident?"

[mile18blister]

19. My question: Who pulled Chimpy's strings?

My guess is that he didn't come up with the "Wednesday Night Ambush" any more than he came up with the idea of signing statements. Puppets do as they are told.

We will know we're making progress if "Wednesday Night Ambush" becomes a Wikipedia entry.

[TwilightGardener]

41. Tweety thinks it's Cheney--I'll bet it was, too.

[Norquist Nemesis]

20. "It's a very sensitive program."

Yes, and it's really starting to touch a nerve... Keep it up and we'll see W getting testy about it any day now. LOL!!! :popcorn:

[tmlanders]

21. Every day...

More and more of the stinky onion get peeled back, until the idiot-in-chief is exposed for the evil little thug that he is.

[wicket]

22. K & R

:kick:

[Hamlette]

23. WTF?!?!? The Washington Post says something bad about Bush?

I'm shocked! They even say it can't be allowed to "disappear behind the national security curtain" as Bush wants it to!!!!!!!!!

Is the world coming to an end? The Anything-Bush-Does-Is-Good-Washington Post?

[gratuitous]

24. Glorioski! The Washington Post!

Who rattled the cage and woke the fat, toothless, rheumy old dog up? Don't worry; it's probably a one-day aberration. They'll be back to somnambulance in no time, wondering why everyone's so darned upset. A few soothing words from the Dean of All Pundits, and they'll be snoozing contentedly once again.

[Roland99]

25. And wouldn't the irony be so sweet if it *was* to spy on political opponents?

Just like Nixon!!

[bdamomma]

27. I have one comment

can * stop saying this, because clearly he does not give two sh$ts about the American people or our soldiers, who apparently do not deserve a pay raise. * can fu off.


"the program is necessary to protect the American people",

[ejbr]

28. That was two comments, but I'll consider the second one a natural punctuation n/t

[WiseButAngrySara]

30. KNR'ed. ....n/t

[Supersedeas]

32. When will the mainstream Corp broadcast media begin asking these questions!!!!!!!!!!!

[Amonester]

34. A. After they've all gone bankrupt. Or even then... n/t

[BuyingThyme]

35. Well, it was either Bush or Cheney.

And it wasn't Cheney.

[Oilwellian]

37. Bush did NOT back down

I'm not sure when Ashcroft resigned but apparently Bush continued breaking the law with his illegal NSA spying as late as 2006.

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

Former NSA intelligence agent Russell Tice condemns reports that the Agency has been engaged in eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants. Tice has volunteered to testify before Congress about illegal black ops programs at the NSA. Tice said, “The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state."

We turn now to the growing controversy over President Bush’s decision to order the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens inside the country without the legally required court warrants. Bush’s decision was first revealed in the New York Times in mid-December. The Times published the expose after holding the story for more than a year under pressure from the White House. The paper reportedly first uncovered the illegal order prior to the 2004 election. When the editors at the Times decided last month to go ahead with the article, President Bush personally summoned the paper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, and executive editor, Bill Keller, to the Oval Office in an attempt to talk them out of running the story. Since the story broke, calls for Congressional hearings and the possible impeachment of the president have intensified. Conservative legal experts have even admitted Bush may have committed an impeachable offense by ordering the NSA to break the law.

On Sunday, the New York Times revealed there was dissent within the upper echelon of the Bush administration over the legality of the president’s order. According to the Times, Attorney General John Ashcroft's top deputy, James Comey, refused to sign on to the continuation of the secret program in 2004 amid concerns about its legality and oversight. At the time, Comey was serving in place of then Attorney General John Ashcroft while Ashcroft was hospitalized for a medical condition. Comey’s refusal prompted senior Presidential aides Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales to visit Ashcroft in his hospital room to grant the approval. The Times reports Ashcroft expressed reluctance to sign on to the program. It is unclear if he eventually relented. Both Ashcroft and Comey’s concerns appear to have led to a temporary suspension of parts of the program for several months. But the administration has repeatedly defended its actions.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/03/1435201

Then there's this:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly broke the law in order to obtain personal information about tens of thousands of Americans, much of which was never related to any sort of investigation, according to an inspector general’s report released Friday.

The report did not find that FBI agents deliberately broke the law, but misinterpreted or ignored it, and failed to implement procedures which would ensure that agents followed the law when using national security letters.

It also found that the FBI frequently used so-called “exigent letters,” to obtain telephone records for more than 3,000 telephone numbers, without having exigent circumstances, or even an open investigation. It just wrote up a letter, said there was an emergency, and threatened the phone companies with dire consequences should they fail to comply with these illegal requests.

The FBI used the letters to request telephone records, e-mail records, employment and credit histories, and other personal information on more than 52,000 people from 2003 to 2005, the report said.

Link to report:http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0703b/final.pdf

It looks as though Mueller continued the illegal spying once Ashcroft and Comey resigned.

[paparush]

38. The Enemy, who wants to do us harm, was answering the f#cking question!!!

[WinkyDink]

49. That's why he knew it to be a true statement.

[Divine Discontent]

39. this is great...

nails the sobs!


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

[thereismore]

40. Jonathan Turley said something like: there has never been a more

impeachable crime committed than this! Pushing domestic spying despite the DoJ's disapproval. This is much worse than Nixon! If they don't pin this on him, HE'S A FREAKING GENIUS and we deserve everything he has done to us.

[npincus]

43. it boggles the mind

How the HELL did that simian half-wit pull off what he's done to this country, with no penalty or accountability?

geater men wouldnt have gotten away with a fraction of what he's done.

[Z_I_Peevey]

44. Been boggled since 2000.

It does defy logic, doesn't it?

It's almost like an assault on reason. (Now why does that phrase pop into my head?)

[NBachers]

53. Domestic Spying on Kerry Campaign

They are desperately trying to conceal proof of the fact that they used domestic spying on the Kerry Campaign.

[Martin Eden]

45. OUTRAGE OVERLOAD ... AGAIN

Outrage piled on outrage doesn't produce anything but fatigue and a new plateau of normalcy.

We are like the proverbial frog in a pot of slowly boiling water.

[progressoid]

51. Yep,

Some days I just want to stay in bed.

[David Zephyr]

K&R

Excellent!

[David Zephyr]

50. K&R

Excellent!

[indie_voter]

54. Is this part of what the Washington Post wrote true?

" Under the Constitution, the president has the final authority in the executive branch to say what the law is."

Does he? Really? That doesn't sound right.