Video & Multimedia

matthewf

(3,781 posts) Mon Jul 15, 2013, 11:07 AM Jul 2013

Obama's Choice To Head The FBI James Comey Signed Off On Torture, Warrantless Spying

9 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Obama's Choice To Head The FBI James Comey Signed Off On Torture, Warrantless Spying (Original Post) matthewf Jul 2013 OP

another one? heaven05 Jul 2013 #1

Well, there is this: AnotherMcIntosh Jul 2013 #5

Hmmmm heaven05 Jul 2013 #6

Comey was the guy who prevented Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card from forcing John Ashcroft to MADem Jul 2013 #2

so heaven05 Jul 2013 #3

Actually, he did. matthewf Jul 2013 #7

yes heaven05 Jul 2013 #9

yep heaven05 Jul 2013 #4

That instance was not about ALL warrantless spying matthewf Jul 2013 #8

heaven05

(18,124 posts)

1. another one?

Reply to matthewf (Original post)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 11:13 AM

Jul 2013

Last edited Mon Jul 15, 2013, 12:00 PM - Edit history (1)

geez. ok after reading 'the hill' article on Comey, he did not sign off on torture and does not like the fact of "innocent americans" being spied on. Poster where did you get your information on Comey? All articles are saying the opposite of your claim. Something is not right here and I should have read up on Comey first

AnotherMcIntosh

(11,064 posts)

5. Well, there is this:

Reply to heaven05 (Reply #1)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 12:29 PM

Jul 2013

James Comey before the Senate: hardly a poster-child for civil liberties

"The nominee to head the FBI blocked illegal surveillance by the Bush White House, but backed it on waterboarding and detention
...
"There's one very big problem with describing Comey as some sort of civil libertarian: some facts suggest otherwise. While Comey deserves credit for stopping an illegal spying program in dramatic fashion, he also approved or defended some of the worst abuses of the Bush administration during his time as deputy attorney general. Those included torture, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite detention.
...
"Then, there's warrantless wiretapping. Many media reports describe that Comey's defiant stand at Ashcroft's bedside was in opposition to the warrantless wiretapping of Americans international communications. But we simply do not know exactly what Comey opposed, or why or what reforms he believed brought the secret program within the rule of law. We do, however, know that Comey was read into the program in January 2004.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/09/james-comey-fbi-senate-civil-liberties

heaven05

(18,124 posts)

6. Hmmmm

Reply to AnotherMcIntosh (Reply #5)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 12:42 PM

Jul 2013

so much equivocal information about this person. Hard to know what he is. But he comes out that era of total deceit and theft of our civil liberties, especially that 'office of legal counsel', John Woo right? Everything in that nest of snakes called our 'government' is such a clusterfuck. geez

MADem

(135,425 posts)

2. Comey was the guy who prevented Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card from forcing John Ashcroft to

Reply to matthewf (Original post)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 11:13 AM

Jul 2013

sign an illegal "warrantless spying" directive from a hospital bed. It was only nine years ago, or so...how soon people forget!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500864.html

On the night of March 10, 2004, as Attorney General John D. Ashcroft lay ill in an intensive-care unit, his deputy, James B. Comey, received an urgent call.

White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

In vivid testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Comey said he alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.....The broad outlines of the hospital-room conflict have been reported previously, but without Comey's gripping detail of efforts by Card, who has left the White House, and Gonzales, now the attorney general. His account appears to present yet another challenge to the embattled Gonzales, who has strongly defended the surveillance program's legality and is embroiled in a battle with Congress over the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

It also marks the first public acknowledgment that the Justice Department found the original surveillance program illegal, more than two years after it began....

heaven05

(18,124 posts)

3. so

Reply to MADem (Reply #2)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 11:50 AM

Jul 2013

he didn't sign off on torture and warrantless wiretapping? Right?

matthewf

(3,781 posts)

7. Actually, he did.

Reply to heaven05 (Reply #3)

Wed Jul 17, 2013, 10:56 AM

Jul 2013

See here
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/rick-perlstein#axzz2ZJYiVhmn
here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/james-comey-fbi-bush-nsa
here
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174585/two-crucial-questions-james-comey
here
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175176/comeys-crickets
here
http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/james-comey-closer-look

Did you actually watch the video?

heaven05

(18,124 posts)

9. yes

Reply to matthewf (Reply #7)

Wed Jul 17, 2013, 11:19 AM

Jul 2013

I did but HIS wording of what he did and didn't do says he did and he didn't approve different areas of surveillance and torture to cover his own ass. I saw and heard a lot of CYA for different reasons. I'm sure he'll make a fine FBI guy cause it really doesn't matter. That group of rethugs and rethug lite(democrats) 'leading' our country is a pretty closed and politically incestuous group. A lot are alike. Won't change the fact of a approaching fascist, corporate state. Oh, did I say on the way?

heaven05

(18,124 posts)

4. yep

Reply to MADem (Reply #2)

Mon Jul 15, 2013, 12:01 PM

Jul 2013

you are right, poster is way off.

matthewf

(3,781 posts)

8. That instance was not about ALL warrantless spying

Reply to MADem (Reply #2)

Wed Jul 17, 2013, 10:58 AM

Jul 2013

We actually still do not know what he actually blocked that night in the hospital.
And hey good on him for doing it, which DO I say in the video, but he did sign off on warrantless spying.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/james-comey-closer-look

Reply to this discussion