NYTimes: Notes Detail Visit to Ashcroft’s Hospital Room

[understandinglife]

Notes Detail Visit to Ashcroft’s Hospital Room
By DAVID JOHNSTON and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — John Ashcroft was “barely articulate,” “feeble” and “clearly stressed” as he sat in a hospital room chair in March 2004 when top White House aides unsuccessfully tried to persuade him, as the Attorney General, to sign an extension for warrantless domestic eavesdropping on Americans, according to notes made by Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I.

Mr. Mueller’s notes of his visit to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital room provide another eyewitness account of the dramatic confrontation over the secret surveillance program. They confirm an account of the encounter given by James B. Comey, the former deputy attorney general, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about it in May.

Mr. Mueller’s typed notes, which are undated, also reveal a series of meetings earlier and later that month between the F.B.I. director and other administration officials, including Mr. Comey, Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House Counsel and General Michael V. Hayden, then the director of the National Security Agency, which conducted the electronic monitoring program.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/washington/16cnd-inquiries.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

IT IS TRIBUNAL TIME IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

[PDJane]

1. What are you waiting for?????

Impeach, Indicte, Imprison........and send the war criminals to the hague.

[calimary]

22. No shit. WTF MORE do they need????

Honest to Pete - WHAT MORE do they need???

I swear, it boggles the mind. It just does. The footdragging and reluctance and hesitation, the absolute SPINELESSNESS - it all drives me frickin' NUTS.

[understandinglife]

2. Conyers: "Unfortunately, this heavily redacted document raises far more questions than it answers.

We intend to fully investigate this incident and the underlying subject matter that evoked such widespread distress within the Department and the FBI. We will be seeking an unredacted copy of Director Mueller’s notes covering meetings before and after the hospital visit and expect to receive information from several of the individuals mentioned in the document."

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More of Conyers statement and some excellent comments at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/16/154345/268

Awaiting inherent contempt ...

[understandinglife]

11. Link to the .pdf file

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/washington/2007-08-16powers.pdf

[understandinglife]

14. "That compartmentalization is the key to their whole conspiracy operation. It must be used to ...

... create plausible deniability so only those who "need to know" about their crimes in order to execute them are allowed to know. It explains how "no one knows" how the various US Attorneys got onto their firing list. It explains how come they're all so smug when they tell Congress and the press "I don't know". Because they are kept from knowing, because no one can know too much.

It's a fiendishly clever scheme to stay stupid. Who cares if those compartments prevent them from keeping the country running. It is keeping them in power, and safer from impeachment and prosecution.

Congress must demand to know how the compartmentalization works. And how it doesn't work. How it works against accountability and organizational competence.

And then IMPEACH THESE GODDAMN CRIMINAL CONSPIRATORS already.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/8/16/154345/268/75#c75

Interesting perspective.

I prefer inherent contempt ...

[sabra]

3. so the MSM picks this up...good!

[EFerrari]

4. The Democats have a crisis on their hands.

I hope they rise to the occasion.

[understandinglife]

6. Conyers and Waxman have all they need ... it's "inherent contempt" time ...

... and it doesn't stop with Gonzo ...

[EFerrari]

7. They certainly do have enough to proceed. But/ and

they seem to be on a short leash against 2008.

And that's just flat out wrong, imho.

Can you see the Republics sitting on such a situation instead of exploiting it?

[understandinglife]

9. "Can you see the Republics sitting on such a situation instead of exploiting it?" Simply, NO.

One can well imagine what Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann will do with the story ... ;)

[frylock]

15. they're on vacation..

and that's all need you to know about what the dems have in mind for this so-called constitutional crises.

[Ossaeane]

5. Where's my popcorn

This oughta get interesting now...

[mod mom]

8. Just finished reading it through Muckraker:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003940.php

although I believe they are mistaken calling the Program RSM, which probably stands for Robert Swann Mueller.

of interest:

"But Mueller reveals something intriguing. According to the FBI director, Ashcroft tells Card and Gonzales that "he was barred from obtaining the advice he needed on the program" -- again, note program, singular -- "by the strict compartmentalization rules of the " Now that's cronyism! For the first time, there's the suggestion that even John Ashcroft -- the attorney general of the United States and by all accounts a loyal Bushie -- didn't know all there was to know about the warrantless surveillance efforts. Apparently, Ashcroft wasn't considered trustworthy enough to be kept in the loop on the most legally controversial program of them all -- though his counterpart at the White House, and eventual successor, clearly was."

[understandinglife]

10. "Apparently, Ashcroft wasn't considered trustworthy enough to be kept in the loop ..."

The essence of just how corrupt and paranoid the Bush gang is ... Bush, Rove, Gonzo, Condi, Bolton, Card, Cheney, Libby ... i.e., anyone with a shred of ethics or respect for the law would automatically be kept out of the loop ...


Awaiting inherent contempt ...

[mod mom]

13. Even if it takes the Sergeant of Arms to enforce it! Absolutely inherent contempt!

[mod mom]

16. folks @ TPM are reading this to possibly mean that he Ashcroft was placed in a position

similar to Sen Rockefeller in that he was informed BUT not allowed to speak of it or confer with others regarding it's legality.

[Octafish]

12. ''Tribunal Time in the United States of America''

The phrase has a special ring to it, the sound we've all been waiting for.

KR5

[Disturbed]

17. "General Michael V. Hayden, then the director

of the National Security Agency" participated in Illegal Spying but instead of being indicted he was rewarded with the job of Head of the CIA. Thank you Dems.

[understandinglife]

18. WaPo coverage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081601358.html?hpid=topnews

Just how long before Ashcroft and his wife are brought before Conyers committee, willingly or otherwise, and asked the direct questions including "Did Bush call? What did he ask you to do?" ...


IT IS TRIBUNAL TIME IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM IS INHERENT CONTEMPT

[Disturbed]

20. Ashcroft already testified in a private meeting.

He confirmed what Comey testified to in Congress. What was actually said was not reported because it was a secret meeting.

[understandinglife]

21. I should have been clearer ...

The type of hearing I'm urging is public, open, and either Ashcroft and his wife answer the direct questions like - Did Bush call you, Mrs Ashcroft, on the night of .... ? What did he tell you to do?

No more secret Q&As ... these people work for us and they should answer questions so we can all hear exactly what they have to say.

As someone wisely posted in a "sticky" -- "Secrecy is the Freedom Tyrants Dream of"

Thank you for noting Ashcroft's secret session and that he confirmed Comey's testimony.

[understandinglife]

19. Google News ... just enter "Mueller notes released"

The list of news sites reporting is growing ... and include "A D.C. Scene Flips to Black" http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/a-dc-scene-flips-to-black/

[Ellipsis]

23. K&R

Thanks, UL

[DemReadingDU]

24. morning kick

[understandinglife]

25. Thank you!

:hi:

Awaiting inherent contempt charges on Bu$h and his neoconster minions ...

[pacalo]

26. Here's an afternoon kick.

Okay, the portion of Mueller's notes that described his meeting with Bush is heavily redacted, but the length of that portion of notes is very telling, isn't it?

When are they going to be put out of business?!