world. another topic, i wrote to the president on monday about my continued concern that the administration has not formally withdrawn legal opinions, including the january, 2006, white paper that provided legal justifications for the bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. and the letter was prompted in part by a recent speech that i'm sure you're aware of by the director of national intelligence. and which he asserted that the program was not illegal but he later clarified that. in a speech to the american constitution society in june,

administration's warrantless wiretapping program. and the letter was prompted in part by a recent speech that i'm sure you're aware of by the director of national intelligence. and which he asserted that the program was not illegal but he later clarified that. in a speech to the american constitution society in june, 2008, you, sir, said the following, i never thought i would see the day when a president would act in direct defines of federal law by authorizing warrantless n.s.a. surveillance of american citizens and the president himself several times as a senator and during the campaign said the program was illegal. now that you are the attorney general, is there any doubt in your mind that the warrantless wiretapping program was illegal? >> well, i think that the warrantless wiretapping program as it existed at that point was certainly unwise in that it was put together without the approval of congress and as a result did not have all the protections, all the strength that it might...

consider the various legal and policy concerns that are involved. any system of indefinite detention raises those kind of issues. i would say even with the kind of due process protections that you discussed. i do think this done a -- could be a very big mistake, especially because of how such a system could be perceived around the wormed, frankly after some of the progress that the administration is making to the president's good work in our relationships around the world. another topic, i wrote to the president on monday about my continued concern that the administration has not formally withdrawn legal opinions, including the january, 2006, white paper that provided legal justifications for the bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. and the letter was prompted in part by a recent speech that i'm sure you're aware of by the director of national intelligence. and which he asserted that the program was not illegal but he later clarified that. in a speech to the...

general, is there any doubt in

general, is there any doubt in your mind that the warrantless wiretapping program was illegal? >> well, i think that the warrantless wiretapping program as it existed at that point was certainly unwise in that it was put together without the approval of congress and as a result did not have all the protections, all the strength that it might have had behind it as i think it now exists with regard to having had congressional approval of it. so i think that the concerns that i expressed in that speech

world.