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Excellent reporting. We already knew that Jack Goldsmith, Jim Comey, and others saw John Yoo's legal analysis as flawed, which lead to the hospital room showdo

by jdp23 11y ago

Excellent reporting. We already knew that Jack Goldsmith, Jim Comey, and others saw John Yoo's legal analysis as flawed, which lead to the hospital room showdown -- see [1] for Comey's dramatic Senate testimony in 2007. Now it's revealed that the NSA was going beyond what was authorized, and collecting data on purely domestic calls. Bush responded by saying this collection was authorized, and in fact had been all along. Reading between the lines, it may well have been this that led to the threat of a mass resignation that caused Bush to back down. [Of course after a brief period of legal head-scratching they found theories to approve most if not all of the questionable activities. So while on the one hand the hospital confrontation was people dramatically standing up for the rule of law, on the other hand those same people are generally in favor of mass surveillance, just done in a lawful way. You can especially see this with Jim Comey, now running the FBI and spreading fear about how we need encryption back doors to keep intelligence agencies from "going dark".] BTW Jack Goldsmith blogs about national security law at Lawfare [2]. I disagree with him on several core points but his analysis is very crisp and always worth reading. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500864.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05... [2] https://lawfareblog.com/ https://lawfareblog.com/

jdp23 11y ago
Looking back at this Julian Sanchez article from 2013 [1] (after a Snowden leak related to the hospital conversation), he had already zeroed in on the issue. "The interception of phone and e-mail content was clearly electronic surveillance, but it was (in theory) limited to targets within the scope of the AUMF (which allowed the president to “determine” who had “aided” the 9/11 perpetrators). The bulk collection of phone records was not limited, but it also wasn’t “electronic surveillance” as defined by FISA. The bulk collection of Internet metadata, however, was both plainly “electronic surveillance” and also too broad to shoehorn into the language of the AUMF." So this latest story is just official confirmation. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-showdown-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft...
- zaroth 11y ago
  Reading that it does seem like just official confirmation. "The [resignation] threat became moot after an Oval Office meeting March 12 with Bush, Comey said. After meeting separately with Comey and Mueller, Bush gave his support to making changes in the program, Comey testified. The administration has never disclosed what those changes were."
yread 11y ago
Interesting what the newspaper thought domestic surveillance was about > The warrantless eavesdropping program was approved by Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It allowed the NSA to monitor e-mails and telephone calls between the United States and overseas if one party was believed linked to terrorist groups. Yet, you still find people claiming "everybody knew government is spying on everyone"

by jdp23 11y ago

jdp23 11y ago

Looking back at this Julian Sanchez article from 2013 [1] (after a Snowden leak related to the hospital conversation), he had already zeroed in on the issue. "The interception of phone and e-mail content was clearly electronic surveillance, but it was (in theory) limited to targets within the scope of the AUMF (which allowed the president to “determine” who had “aided” the 9/11 perpetrators). The bulk collection of phone records was not limited, but it also wasn’t “electronic surveillance” as defined by FISA. The bulk collection of Internet metadata, however, was both plainly “electronic surveillance” and also too broad to shoehorn into the language of the AUMF." So this latest story is just official confirmation. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-showdown-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft...

zaroth 11y ago
Reading that it does seem like just official confirmation. "The [resignation] threat became moot after an Oval Office meeting March 12 with Bush, Comey said. After meeting separately with Comey and Mueller, Bush gave his support to making changes in the program, Comey testified. The administration has never disclosed what those changes were."

yread 11y ago

Interesting what the newspaper thought domestic surveillance was about > The warrantless eavesdropping program was approved by Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It allowed the NSA to monitor e-mails and telephone calls between the United States and overseas if one party was believed linked to terrorist groups. Yet, you still find people claiming "everybody knew government is spying on everyone"