@TH3WH17ERABB17 Q TIME TO SHOW THE WORLD

[Bush Master]

Private Citizens Using Data Brokers Outperform the FBI

[Dago66]

[Dago66]

[Thoughtful3]

I understand now why Comey's thriller was translated into Chinese. We have some new information about the highly classified NSA program Stellar Storm. Or it is new to me.

Would any of you believe that the documents approving this program and bearing the signature of President Bush were held outside the normal process? Instead they were held in a safe by Vice President Cheney's legal counsel David Addington.

There's a lot to cover here and the one thing that stands out most clearly is that there must be term limits to the most senior positions. Having 14 years or 12 years gives them the freedom to do as they please and it is crystal clear that they can hold the president hostage.

There is far too much "JOY" in this book.

[Thoughtful3]

STELLAR WINDS-

This was the highly classified NSA surveillance program that was implemented after 911, not just for terrorists but for us citizens too. Normal procedures allowed the President to enact emergency measures for a short duration of time- roughly six months or so. This amounted to an extraordinary assertion in presidential power.

Obviously this did not occur but continued on much, much longer.

The Justice Department has their own "Supreme Court" called the Office of Legal Counsel where the most complex legal questions are referred. When Stellar Storm was referred to them guess who made the decision to approve this program?

Non other than David Addington, VP Cheney's legal counsel. 

Let me get this straight. He approved this and then kept it in his safe. No doubt Cheney must have known about this.



Problems developed when Jack Goldsmith, the new guy in town, took over the lead position on this Supreme Court. 

"He had inherited a set of legal opinions written quickly and under great pressure by his predecessors following the attacks off September [11], 2001. These lawyers had attested to the lawfulness of aggressive counter- terrorism activities by the CIA and NSA."

Goldsmith and Patrick Philbin, from the same department, concluded that this Stellar Storm was unlawful.

In fact this program was on steroids. "What Bush appeared not to know was that the NSA was engaging in activity that went beyond what was authorized, beyond the legally dubious, and into what Goldsmith and Philbin concluded was clearly unlawful."

"The NSA was doing stuff that wasn't in the president's orders, so no one had authorized it at all."

[Maxmars]

Just to add some other ideas here...

The NSA was once, but is no longer, free of "politically-motivated" activity...
The drizzle of "political appointee" leadership became a flood...
and it changed many things...

But "NSA" didn't "do an unauthorized thing"... certain people in the NSA did...
they used the embedded compartmentalization to attempt to hide their actions.

The NSA as far as I am aware was the last bastion of uninterrupted, unconditional 
protection for the people of this nation... at least that was the gestalt...

Whether it is any longer is anyone's guess.

[Thoughtful3]

Continued.

This is really, really  .

In normal circumstances there would be a number of people informed about the program and one would conclude or at least expect that meetings would be held to discuss what was going on.

Of course this program was the exception. Very few people knew about it and those that did know were prohibited from speaking about it.

Comey at this time was Assistant Attorney General and was not in the know. The person before him also did not know about it. Suddenly there was this big push for him to be 'read into' or in our lingo told about this.

Why? Why the urgency? 

 David Addington was very opposed to this. Only 4 people in the entire Justice Department were in on it.

"On an activity of such profound importance, one that tested the limits of the law, that small circle was unusual if not unprecedented."

"Eventually, and only after considerable pressure, Addington relented and allowed me to be briefed."

They were prohibited from discussing this program with anyone. But after being briefed he did something most unusual.

 He met up with Fran Townsend, a fellow former prosecutor from New York and gave her the name -Stellar Storm- and asked her to relay the name to the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice

Wut? "On December 17, 2000 she joined the George W. Bush administration."

"Later that day, Townsend called me to say her boss knew that term, was fully up to speed, and had nothing to add."

Why did Comey say "I would get no help from Rice."?

[Thoughtful3]

Here we have this storm brewing...

The legality of this program had to be approved every so often and the looming expiring date was-

                     -M.A.R.C.H 11.

Anyone else find it interesting 9+11=20...2020.

Comey was briefed about the program by the Director of  the NSA, Air Force General Michael Hayden about this highly classified surveillance program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hayden_(general)

Wut? Wut? Okaaay he was born March 17 th. He was confirmed as Director of the CIA on May 26, 2006. 

Does anyone else find it strange that Comey was taking control when his boss should have been leading the charge?

Comey was not going to support renewing this program, or at least in its current form. On March 9, he went to a meeting at the WH which was held in Chief of Staff Andrew Card's office. In attendance were General Hayden, Card, FBI Director Robert Mueller, [SENIOR CIA OFFICIALS].

The looming date March 11 and this is the 9th.

Comey names names constantly but only uses that vague reference. Who were they?
Also Goldsmith and Philbin and David Addington and VP Cheney were in attendance.

His boss, AG John Ashcroft knew about this program and had repeatedly certified the legality for over 2 years. 

 Page 84- "Given what I knew, I had to ensure that my boss had all the facts. Many times over the past two-plus years, Ashcroft had approved Stellar Wind, and he needed to know that that had been a mistake and could not continue."

March 4th:
After "educating" Ashcroft-

Very weird- Right after this meeting Ashcroft suddenly became seriously ill, pancreatitis so were told. I do not like these coincidences.
He ended up in intensive care.

Now Comey became the Acting Attorney General.  This explains how he ended up attending that meeting. Wasn't it fortunate that he had been fully briefed?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashcroft

He currently sits on the board of Blackwater and was replaced by Alberto Gonzales- who just happened to be President Bush's legal counsel during this time.

[Thoughtful3]

Full steam ahead. VP Cheney was not taking Comey's resistance calmly.

At that meeting the NSA personnel had charts that explained how valuable the surveillance was. They detailed the connection with an on-going Al Qaeda plot in the UK that showed connections among members in a terrorist cell. 

"I knew enough about the matter to have serious doubts about whether the NSA's program was needed to find those links, given the other legal tools we had."

After they left "The vice president looked at me gravely and said that, as I could plainly see, the program was very important. In fact he said, "Thousands of people are going to die because of what you are doing."

"Our job is to say what the law can support, and it can't support the program as is."

Cheney then pointed out that the Justice Department Supreme Court had written a memo in 2001 in support and the current AG had repeatedly certified the program's legality in the 2.5 years since.

President Trump fired Comey May 9 and the looming deadline for Stellar Wind was March 11th.

This surveillance program was seriously messed up. Bush was violating a law that Congress had passed a decade earlier. 

"General Hayden [NSA] was prohibited from discussing the program with his own staff and was strictly limited who he could consult about the program." Everyone appears to have been wandering around in the dark.

Events then took a strange turn. The Stellar Winds went mysteriously quiet and the deadline was looming the following day.

Following the wives, Janet Ashcroft, John Ashcroft's wife, oddly called Comey and told him that Al Gonzales and Andy Card were on their way to the hospital where he was in intensive care. Comey instantly knew they were going to try and get him to sign the certification of legality as had done previously.

He raced to the hospital and managed to arrive before they did. "My vehicle came to a screeching stop in the driveway of the hospital." Around 6 FBI agents were there protecting Ashcroft.

While on the way to the hospital Comey called in for backups. He had a number of his staff drop everything and race to the hospital as well.

MUELLER- He then called the head of the FBI and asked him to come and be a witness.

I'm trying to envision this high stakes poker game.

"I knew Card and Gonzales would arrive with a Secret Service details and, as incredible as it seems now, I feared they might try to forcibly remove me so that they could speak with Ashcroft alone. While standing with the FBI special agent, I called Bob Mueller again on his cell phone. He was on his way. 
Bob I need you to order your agents not to permit me to be taken from Ashcroft's room under any circumstances." Mueller was happy to oblige.

Now in Ashcroft's room there was Comey, Goldsmith and Philbin along with Janet Ashcroft." Poor man almost unconscious and heavily medicated.

Goldsmith was taking detailed notes.

They finally arrived-

Gonzales and Card were close to President Bush and informed Ashcroft that they were there "at the president's discretion about a vital national security program, that was essential that the program continue, that they had briefed the leadership of Congress, who understood the program's value, wanted to continue, and were willing to work with us to fix any legal issues."

Comey's 'special' education worked! Ashcroft " vented that he had long been denied the legal support he needed by their narrow "read in" requirements. "Then he said that he had serious concerns about the legal  basis for parts of the program now that he understood it."

Wasn't he a lawyer? I'm not buying this.

He was summoned to meet at the White House immediately but Comey being Comey- no way without a witness so he selected Ted Olson, the solicitor general of the U.S.

The war was far from over. 

Page 95- Stellar Wind had gone quiet again. What were they up to?

"The president had reauthorized the program despite our warnings. The new order had some significant differences.


The line for the attorney generals' signature had been removed and replaced with a line for White House Counsel Al Gonzales. 

Also added language to authorize NSA activity that had not been covered by the earlier draft sof the president's orders."

[Thoughtful3]

Recently President Trump was talking about the Grandfather clock at the WH. I'm not certain if this is relevant

Page 95- Comey was prepared to resign-

"Bob Mueller and I went through the motions at our usual early-morning terrorism threat session at FBI headquarters, then drove to the White House for the regular Oval Office threat briefing. We both stood silently looking at the Rose Garden as we waited by the door by the-[ grandfather clock]- to open so we could join the president's morning briefing."

So President Bush also tried to talk reason with Comey but he was not backing down.

"But I say what the law is for the executive branch.
"You do sir. But only I can say what the Justice Department can certify as lawful. And we can't here."

Now I'm not certain why Bush asked for an extension until May 6th to get a legislative fix.

Nope, Comey not even willing for that brief extension. He also had taken the extraordinary step to convince the entire Justice Department to quit.

"The entire Justice Department was going to quit, and just as he was running for reelection. An uprising of that sort hadn't even happened during the worst days of Watergate. I had to tell him, to warn him, but I didn't break my rule."

"You know that Bob Mueller is going to resign this morning, I said."

Mueller than met with Bush and resigned. Bush told him to give a message to Comey -"Tell Jim what to do what he needs to be done to get this to a place where Justice is comfortable."

I have a problem with this. Bush had just met with Comey, so why didn't he just give that message directly to Comey? Why through Mueller? Did Mueller make this up?

Mueller's actions were very unusual. He had his driver leave the car while he gave this message to Comey. He had never had his driver leave before.


Comey took this as an order to go around VP Cheney. He then gathered more lawyers from the CIA, NSA and other agencies- all now involved with Stellar Wind which no one was permitted to discuss.

Page 98-"The team worked all weekend to shape a new draft presidential order that narrowed the scope of the NSA's authority."

Some more plotting-
Not content he decided to send a classified memo to the WH summarizing the problems and recommending fixes. That would make a presidential record forever and answer in a formal way the president's directive to Mueller; this memo documented what needed to be done for Justice to be comfortable." Even Comey admits this was a jerk move.

Addington responded - claiming that he had "acted inappropriately by usurping presidential authority. It rejected all of our proposed changes..."

Once again he pulled out his resignation letter, now dated March 16th.

Page 99-March 18th Bush "the president signed a new order. It incorporated all of our changes we had requested."

Chapter 6 "On The Tracks" Pages 74- 99.