james comey was now the acting attorney general. >> comey notifies the white

james comey was now the acting attorney general. >> comey notifies the white house formally that he's not going to sign, and we're now within 48 hours of expiration of this program. >> narrator: with 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

sincerely yours, james b. comey." >> george bush is on the edge of a cliff. his presidency is at stake. this was going to be something on the order of two dozen,

catherine. >> reporter: jon, nine months into his tenured term as fbi director james comey said he underestimatedstrength of al qaeda's affiliates. quote i didn't have anywhere near the appreciation i got after i came into this job how virulent the affiliates had become, mr. comey said. they are stronger than i appreciated. though bin laden was killed in the 2011 compound raid in pakistan the network proved resilient and ideology spread to affiliates in yemen, north africa and west africa as the head of the powerful senate intelligence committee explained sunday. >> i know they will come after us if they can. i see the intelligence. terror is not down in the world, it is up both deaths, injuries, in many, many different places. al qaeda has metastasized. the question comes, how do we prevent an attack in this country? >> reporter: the latest example of al qaeda's growth is now in nigeria. the u.s. and nigerian authorities now sharing intelligence including satellite photos to locate the nigerian girls kidnapped by the group of called boko haram which means western education is sin. they are going

three years, you need not apply to the fbi but a bit of a buzz has been created after fbi director james comeyon monday if the fbi would hire a talented computer whiz who smokes pot. in response comey said, i have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber criminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview." does that mean the fbi is considering a change in the pot policy? the fbi said hold on and the fbi director said the comments were partly in jest. >> i'm determined not to lose my sense of humor, but unfortunately there i was trying trying to be both serious and funny. i'm absolutely dead set against using marijuana. i don't want young people to use marijuana. it is against the law. i did not say i'm going to change that ban.xd i said i have to grapple with the change in my workforce. >> reporter: some members of congress were not laughing, worried all the smoke may confuse young people. pierre thomas, abc news, washington. >> there you have it. i happen to understand that this was a joke. i don't think it is that big of a deal. it's pretty clear th

james comey. today his attempt at a joke about marijuana back fire and back fired big time. abc's senior justice correspondent now on the punch line gone wrong. >> reporter: the fbi has been known as the straight-laced just the facts lawmen depicted in the abc classic tv show. >> you're under arrest. >> reporter: if you smoked marijuana in the past three years, you need not apply to the fbi. but a bit of buzz has been created after director was asked on monday if the fbi would hire a computer wiz who smokes pot. in response, he said, i have to hire a great workforce to compete with the cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview. does that mean the fbi is considering a change in its pot policy? today the fbi said hold on and the director said those comments were partly ingest. >> i am determined not to lose my sense of humor. but unfortunately i was trying to be serious and funny. >> i am dead set against using marijuana. i don't want young people to use marijuana. it's against the law. i did not say i'm going to change that ban. i s

in an abc news exclusive, fbi director james comey recently warned that americans who have gone to fight in the syrian conflict might return home to form sleeper cells for al qaeda. >> can you give us a sense of how active you are at making sure you're keeping on eye on those people? >> we are very active. a civil war there is offering an opportunity for thousands of foreign fighters to get training in the worst arts of terrorism. they're going to come back to europe and the united states. >> reporter: a civil war in a land far away with potentially huge implications for the u.s. homeland. pierre thomas, abc news, washington. >>> and now there is growing outrage tonight over the va hospitals and the breakdown of care for american veterans. right now a growing chorus calling for va secretary eric shinseki to step down. let's bring in abc's chief white house correspondent, jonathan karl. jon, is he out and where does it stand at this moment? >> reporter: diane, there are now well over 100 members of congress, many of them democrats, who are saying it is time for shinseki to resign. there's

so, how about we bring in james comey and the fbi? this is criminal. reports are some hospitals are shredding documents. the evidence needs to be preserved. witnesses need to be spoken to. time is of the essence. they're gaming the system, cooking the books. there's an on going seem to defraud the american people. this is an organized criminal enterprise. with criminally negligent homicide. am i the only one fed up with the politicking? >> is it possible that unrealistic expectations have created the system where some are cooking the books? >> mr. president, your secretary said this before the senate. >> if any allegations are true, they're completely unacceptable. >> where have i heard that one before? >> as i said last night, it's simply unacceptable. the suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and unacceptable. >> obviously, these reports, if they're true are unacceptable. >> i have an idea, you're all unacceptable. and for a little window dressing, mr. president, you sent out michelle and dr. jill biden. they made it their priority to support militar

. >> and james comey tried to make a joke about recruiting new agents from america's pot smoking computer geniuses. >> sounds like somebody finally tried pot. >> six iranians are free from arrest after their video of the pharell song "happy." >> police said it wasn't because of the video, just because i am so sick of that song. >> welcome to "cbs this morning." good morning, nora. >> good morning, charlie. >> we begin with the fires. thousands of people in arizona watching a fast-growing wildfire. they will have to leave their homes at any moment if the flames get too close. >> that fire is in a vital tourist area outside of flagstaff. carter is in flagstaff where the weather is not helping. >> reporter: good morning. investigators believe this fire started two days ago and they believe right now it may have been man made. this part of arizona is a popular tourist spot and many will come here for the memorial day weekend, though much of the area is now under evacuation. strong winds caused the fire to double in size to nearly 4,500 acres. it's now burning out of control. >> we have no con

up, fbi director james comey testifies before the senate judiciary committee. president obama, on this management at the veterans affairs department. they may give the veterans affairs secretary the authorities are senior executives. >> coming up on the next washington journal, congressman phil roe from tennessee. the white house investigation into allegations of mismanagement at the facilities. representative peter defazio of oregon he will discuss funding the highway trust fund. washington journal is live every morning at 7:00 a.m. you can join the conversation on facebook or twitter stop starting at the slanting, all of this, the stairwell and the banister, are the originals. this is where clara barton was. we are walking on the same stairs that clara barton did. that was for an eight year period of time when she lived in this building. what we find in the attic is the set, ae for a stationary military portfolio as it is called on here she used these as a fundraising product. this was well the civil war was going on. you can see how nice and fancy the engrav

if you have used marijuana in the past you can't work for agency but james comey says, the agency wantsare attract the best computer programmers and hackers. and a lot of them want to get high. hiring 2,000 employees to work on cyber-task force. richelle carey is here with the briefing. >> the country on nigeria's northeastern border. the group was suspected of mounting several attacks to nigeria since tuesday that have killed hundreds of people. the balkans are starting to recover from their largest floods in more than a century . serbia and bosnia hercegovina were the worst hit. former egyptian president hosne mubarak was sentenced to prison today. out offed in the 2011 uprising around is held in hospital because of his ill health. if convict id john, mubarak could face life in prison. >> all right richelle thank you. >>> israeli police are beefing up security prior to pope francis's visit to the west bank. he will also meet with palestinian president mahmoud abbas and israel president benjamin netanyahu. >>> his jerusalem trip also includes a visit to the church of the holy sepulcher

. >>> and also, james comey found out that pot is not a laughing matter. >> and senator mcconnell, thise is between you and me, and that is the name that appears on the ballot. >> my opponent is in this race, because barack obama and harry reid want her to be in this race. a vote for my opponent is a vote for obama care. >> if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, and it is disgraceful, and i will not tolerate it, period. >> the reports that continue to come are appalling. this is awful stuff. and somebody ought to be held accountable for it. >> we don't need to spend money on another committee, because someone is afraid of hillary clinton's candidacy. just deal with it. >> and i have seen first hand how abusive the republicans have been during this investigation. i believe that we need somebody in that room to simply defend the truth. to defend the truth. >>> i am dead set against using marijuana. i don't want young people to use marijuana. it is against the law, and i did not say that i will change that ban. >> and joining me live now, cnbc news editor mark murray, a

because of james comey, the fbi director said some like to smoke weed. to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber-minds and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview. >> a man with an otherwise clean record faces preston for selling laced brownies. miss america 2013 and jolene kent, fox business reporter. you have been faced with a controversial topic. i will go to jolene. we're talking about higher people, people who can fight hacking like to smoke pot. can you make that correlation? >> it is monolithic in the sense he is assigning a description. the fbi is looking to hire about 2000 people, mostly in cyber-crime. you look at cyber-attacks, ebay suffered a major cyber- attaatt and forcing a lot of people to reset their password. it's how many people can he hire at a time. he later walked back the comments saying he was joking. it is one very specific way to describe those individuals. >> mallory, what do you think of th that? you're all pretty much young people here and i know things have changed looking at cultural th

director james comey and i asked him whether he agreed with the assessment of this incident as -- quote -- "workplace violence" which some had amazingly called this or whether he thought this was an al qaeda-inspired attack of terrorism here on american soil. and he made what i thought would have been the painfully obvious answer, that yes, it was a terrorist attack in 2009. was the shooter a card-carrying member of al qaeda? well, i'm not sure exactly what that is. but to me that's the wrong question entirely. we have to remember that al qaeda leaders like alglaw you what heiry has called on his followers commit small-scale attacks exactly like the one that occurred at fort hood in 2009. we do know from the rich evidence that was discovered during the prosecution of major hassan that the fort hood shooter was most certainly a disciple of anwar al-awlaki. the awarding of purple hearts should not be tingt on gee og -- contingent on dejeeography. if an al qaeda inspired terrorist kills a group of our men and women overseas, it shouldn't be treated any differently than if they kill one of

director james comey stated all of us with a memory of the 1980's and 1990's saw the line drawn from afghanistan to september 11. we see syria as that. but in order of magnitude worse in a couple of respects. far more people are going there and far easier to travel to and back from. already senior intelligence officers -- officials believe that between 6 and 12 americans who have gone to syria to fight have now returned to america. possibly with the intention to carry out attacks here. we know where some are, stated one senior u.s. intelligence official. some? what about the others? does that reassure you? the sheer scale of foreign fighters with western passports traveling to fight in syria has our senior most intelligence officers worried about how easy it would be for these people to slip through the cracks. in march, director of the national counterterrorism center, matthew olson testified that the n.s.a. does not the ability to track the thousands of jihadists flocking to area. he testified this raises our concern that radicalized individuals with extremist contacts could return

fbi director james comey tells pierre thomas about another crackdown on hacking.re allows cyber criminals to remotely hijack a computer and its web cam. >> it's not science fiction. these criminals have the ability to reach in and watch you, to record your key strokes, to take pictures of what you are looking at and use your computer to victimize your neighbors, to harvest your computer in to a zombie network. >> 97 people suspected of using or distributing the malicious software arrested in 16 countries include. including the software's owner, a 24-year-old swedish man. >> marshall law, staying it will restore peace and order across the country. >>> the move follows six months of anti-government demonstrations and comes a day after the acting prime minister refused to step down. troops took over tv stations to announce they were taking charge of security, but the military is denying that a coup is underway. >>> murder charges are expected to be filed against a bus driver in colombia. 32 children returning from church were killed when the bus went up in flames. ey

the of the eye director james comey testified that boko haram has communications training and weapons links with al qaeda and the maghreb as well as al-shabaab in somalia and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula based in yemen and then he also testified that these links in his words may strengthen boko haram's capacity to conduct terrorist attacks against u.s. and western targets of this nature. in terms of the weapons movements that is the fbi's testimony? >> we did expertise both from their and. >> we go to mr. mccaul from texas. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to follow up and last night i watched the video again of boko haram the leader with these 270 girls and it is horrific and it's hard to stand back idly and watch that happen knowing that we could do more to help them. the chairman raised the issue of the waiver process and i guess my question to dr. sewall is it that waiver was granted what additional assistance could be given to the situation? >> i think one of the distinctions that i've been trying to articulate is that the waiver really is geared towards the training and ma

fbi director james comey speaking at the white collar crime institute earlier this week. is that where you learn how to do white collar crime? i didn't know there was a -- is that where the big graduates go right to goldman on an investment bank. >> you go straight there. >> like the phi beta capa. >> he said finding the best hacker recruits has been a challenge. >> i've got to hire a great work force to keep pace with the criminals. and i'm competing with a lot of better paying private sector entities for those kids. and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview with the fbi. we've got to figure out -- we've got to figure out how to deal with that. >> knowing comey, i mean, i give him a carte blanche. he's so good. for ten years i've known him. he's going to be -- he's great. he's like 8 feet tall. congress has authorized the agency to add 2,000 recruits mostly to fight cybercrime. we can't find anyone that knows about computers that doesn't get high, basically, i think they're saying. if you smoked pot in the last three years -- i didn't think yo

agency director james comey said he might loosen the three year pot restriction saying i have to hire kids want smoke on their way to thent view. this morning he's taking it back. >> one of our challenges we face is getting a good workforce. at the same time when young people's attitudes about marijuana and our state's attitudes about marijuana are leading more and more of them to try it. >> the question remains should we loosen the standards overall? joining us is former stpheurl -- military staffer. steve, is pot a joking matter especially when it comes from the tkerbgt of -- director of the f.b.i.? >> i'm incensed at the fact that the f.b.i. director and administration would consider national security and drugs a joke. we're trying to convey a message to young people to stay away from drugs. here we have federal government officers making jokes out of it. it's not a joke. >> pat, your response? >> well, okay. i think the director probably spoke a little too freely but i think he's got a reasonable point. i think the three-year period of time is too long because, okay, yes, it's not

earlier this week director james comey -- as many of the top computer experts smoke pot.rday he said he was trying to use humor and will not change the current policy. i actually -- i was joking around about it yesterday. i'm not actually joking now. if we're trying to track down the most dangerous cyber criminals in the world, if somebody smoked pot in the last five years, shouldn't be a disqualifier. that's bordering on ridiculous. >> joe, just take a look at the nsa and computer geeks who you hire. you're not going to go out and hire someone like thomas and myself. you're going to hire a 22-year-old person with a lip ring, nose ring who knows what to do with computers. >> seriously, does anybody in the federal government think that people that are some of the top programmers at google, yahoo! that work at apple or facebook, twitter, do they think people like this drink iced tea like me at night or maybe smoke pot? >> where do you think heilemann is right now? >> we look at this from a larger level. we have states that legalize marijuana now. they have a pool of contend

director james comey may have had a change of heart with the authority to hire two thousand new employees this year most of whom will be fighting cyber crime mr cohen he is now faced with a population of young computer programmers and hackers many of whom have an affinity for pot and the manual conference for the white collar crime institute the f.b.i. director said i have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview. so comey says the f.b.i. is grappling with the question of losing its no tolerance policy so the country can hire the best of the best talk about an agency with high standards get it right boom bust is coming up next year in our t. aaron a joins us for a quick preview parent who may not find. room votes are too skinny pilbeam was in shanghai covering the historic gas deal between russia and china and she brings us her full report event edward harrison and i are talking about junk bonds and bear markets in today's big deal it's all coming up the state sounds good see you later thanks i'm

today the judiciary committee welcomes james comey for his first appearance before this panel as director. director comey, it is good to have you here. it is a very busy time since your confirmation last year. i remember you set your confirmation hearing that your wife told you she did not think you would be chosen for this job. 90 were eight months into the job. i hope you and she are happy with the choice. one of the challenges i have observed is the focus on counterterrorism with a commitment to long-standing line oarsmen functions. most of us grew up knowing this. i urge you to make sure that the investigation are targeted and their, with respect for civil rights and civil liberties. that is a critical tool in successful and their prosecution. we see on reruns of law and order and the dna is automatically there. as you know, from your own experiences in law enforcement, dna analysis is not widely available. it does not solve a crime within a 60 minute time frame. there are two bipartisan bills. there is a criminal justice and rented science report. how prosecutors identify and prosecu