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LATEST LETTERS

Surveillance program

Tuesday, May 29 at 11:43 AM

Marc Hertz of Denver writes:

As a citizen and a voter, I urge the editorial page to push for a vigorous investigation into the classified domestic surveillance program the U.S. Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel refused to certify as legal when it came up for reauthorization in March of 2004.
Testifying at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this past Tuesday (May 15), then-acting Attorney General James Comey explained that he and other senior Justice officials, including Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, decided they would resign rather than certify the surveillance program at that time because, “...the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Dept. of Justice had said had no legal basis.”
Mr. Comey suggested in his testimony that the surveillance program had operated for some time before the annual recertification was denied and that it may have continued without any changes for some weeks after the recertification deadline passed.
Mr. Comey’s testimony illustrates, in the clearest possible way, why the Legislative Branch of our government must investigate if the Executive Branch conducted programs that were illegal. If it did, the people who both conducted this program and directed that it be carried out must be held responsible and accountable for breaking the law.

This letter has not been edited.

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