sense of the nature of the issues or the pace. >> narrator: before long, goldsmith headed for david addington's office. it was time to learn about "the program." >> jack, like most of the others who are briefed on this, walks into addington's office, which he regards as a little bit peculiar, "what's this doing in the vice president's lawyer's office?" addington opens the safe and pulls it out. there's the red cover-- it says "top secret/ si/comet/stellarwind," the cover name for this program. >> narrator: as he read the document, goldsmith began to have grave doubts. >> the program was an example of the administration going it alone in secret based on inadequate legal reasoning and flawed legal opinions. >> narrator: goldsmith discovered that as part of the program, the government had been tracking data about the emails of tens of millions of americans. >> he said, "you can't justify the email collection. it is, on its face, a clear violation of the 4th amendment and perhaps the 1st amendment as well." >> narrator: addington was furious that goldsmith would raise questions about "the program,"

. >> cheney and david addington draft a new order. and this time, it has one subtle difference. instead of having a signature page for the attorney general, "i certify the lawfulness of this order," there's a new signature for the white house counsel, alberto gonzales, who does not have the same legal authority. >> i satisfied myself that there was sufficient legal authority to move forward. and i felt that the president was not a lawyer, and that it was my job, if i felt comfortable that it was in fact lawful, to provide that signature. i did it because i wanted to protect the president. that's why i signed that document. >> narrator: but the white house wondered, "would general hayden go out on a legal limb and

." >> that order is written by david addington, the vice president's lawyer. it's not written by the president's lawyer. and this is not only unusual but probably unique in the history of major u.s. intelligence operations: it's written by the vice president's lawyer and stored in his own safe. >> narrator: addington worked out of a small office next to the white house in the old executive office building. >> this order is one of the most closely kept secrets of the bush/cheney administration for four years. it's kept so secret that many people involved in national security inside the white house and the government don't know about it. >> narrator: addington personally hand-carried a copy of the secret document out to fort meade.

the deadline looming inside the white house, alberto gonzales, chief of staff andrew card and david addington headed to attorney general ashcroft's hospital room. >> we went to the west wing, picked up david, who had the authorization. we get to the hospital and i tell david to stay back because there was history between david and the attorney general and i didn't want to aggravate the attorney general needlessly. >> janet ashcroft, the attorney general's wife, is very alarmed. she calls up ashcroft's chief of staff and says, "oh my god, they're coming over." ashcroft's chief of staff calls comey, the deputy. comey is in a car

>> david addington calls me and says, "are you willing to do this without the signature of the attorney general? with the signature of white house counsel al gonzales and authorization from the president?" and i thought and i said, "yes." >> narrator: hayden and gonzales say their willingness was informed by something that happened just before the addington call. (explosions) >> in madrid this morning, more than 190 people were killed... >> after at least ten simultaneous bomb blasts... >> narrator: it was one of the worst terrorist attacks since september 11. >> series of bomb attacks at three train stations during... >> given that starkness of the al qaeda threat and given the ambiguity of the situation, i thought the correct operational, legal and ethical decision was, "all right, we'll do this one more time on a somewhat different framework." >> so that was a point where he

that was exactly the kind of logic that was used by david addington, the top lawyer for dick cheney in first term of the bush administration to justify the president's war time authorities. i thought it was interesting because obama as a candidate certainly campaigned as somebody who believed the executives should not have all that authority and his lawyers are making that exact case. >> mohammed, your sources in yemen and elsewhere are depply worried about some kind of thought that may be in the works. >> deeply concerned there are plots in the works right now and this is happening at the time where the largest offensive that's been carried out, going on in yemen, this is happening in different parts of the country. there are yemeni boots on the ground in the most inhospitable parts of the country. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has been takie ining fighters and having street fights killing dozens of soldiers in the most secure part of the country. that's one of the reasons yemenis and u.s. officials are worried about what might happen there and looks like it is deteriorating there