” ‘The [National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance] program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting to its legality,’ he [acting Attorney General James Comey] said [on March 11, 2004]. ‘And I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th… I didn’t believe that as the chief law enforcement officer in the country I could stay when they had gone ahead and done something that I had said I could find no legal basis for… It was going forward even though I had communicated, *I cannot approve this as to its legality.* ‘ “
– James Bamford, The Shadow Factory, Pages 284-285