Data Mining Figured In Dispute Over NSA

Some privacy advocates contend that the Bush administration should disclose how it has used metadata and explain the legal justifications.

"The administration is creating unbelievable amounts of distrust and confusion by not coming forward and giving us its interpretation of the law," James Dempsey, policy director for the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, said yesterday. "Instead, it is dribbling out bits of information and partial justification. It's a crazy way to run a war on terror."

Dempsey noted that Bush is pressing Congress for changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs clandestine spying in the United States. Bush voiced that call again yesterday in his weekly radio address.

"The administration is asking Congress to make changes in FISA law without first coming clean on what they've been doing for the last five years," Dempsey said.

One source familiar with the NSA program said yesterday that there were widespread concerns inside the intelligence community in 2003 and 2004 over how much Internet and telephone data mining could occur, as well as about the NSA's direct intercepts of communications without court approval.

In March 2004, James B. Comey, who was acting attorney general, warned the White House that the Justice Department could not certify the legality of the intelligence activities at issue. That prompted Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time, to accompany then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. to Ashcroft's bedside, seeking his approval of the program. Ashcroft rebuffed the two men. Comey testified about the episode to the Senate earlier this year.

Staff writer John Solomon contributed to this report.