Those are the 4 people most responsible for the illegal surveillance during the 1st Bush term.
Barton Gellman has a nice summary:
RAY SUAREZ: Well, did those people go along with the programs for a time and then there was one that they just couldn't go along with?
BARTON GELLMAN: Well, the brief history of it is that it was invented largely by Vice President Dick Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, with the help of Mike Hayden, who was running the NSA.
The Justice Department had secret opinions written by John Yoo, who's the same guy who wrote the torture opinions and some others that became quite controversial later. And when Jack Goldsmith became the head of the Office of Legal Council at the Justice Department by around the end of 2003, he started to become convinced there was a big problem with this program.
In March of 2004, Comey -- sorry -- Goldsmith and Jim Comey, who's the deputy attorney general, convince Attorney General John Ashcroft that he has to say no to part of it. And then John Ashcroft becomes quite sick. Comey has the confrontation with Cheney and eventually with the president and nearly resigns.
BTW, Pres. Obama isn't doing so well in this area:
Europe furious, 'shocked' by report of U.S. spying
By Josh Levs and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
July 1, 2013 -- Updated 0020 GMT (0820 HKT)
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