december
08-06-2007, 07:12 PM
Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps
http://rense.com/1.imagesH/chencard_dees.jpg
Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; Page A03
Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed
with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level
White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told
senators yesterday.
The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval
for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay
recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney
general James B. Comey.
Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate
Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely
involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality
of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National
Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States
and overseas.
Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior
Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising
concerns about the surveillance.
The disclosures also provide further details about the role played by
then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. He visited Ashcroft in his
hospital room and wrote an internal memorandum on the surveillance program
shortly afterward, according to Comey's responses. Gonzales is now the
attorney general. He faces possible congressional votes of no-confidence
because of his handling of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
http://rense.com/1.imagesH/chencard_dees.jpg
Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; Page A03
Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed
with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level
White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told
senators yesterday.
The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval
for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay
recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney
general James B. Comey.
Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate
Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely
involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality
of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National
Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States
and overseas.
Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior
Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising
concerns about the surveillance.
The disclosures also provide further details about the role played by
then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. He visited Ashcroft in his
hospital room and wrote an internal memorandum on the surveillance program
shortly afterward, according to Comey's responses. Gonzales is now the
attorney general. He faces possible congressional votes of no-confidence
because of his handling of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.