Here's an article by me!

Here it is! The gist?

When FBI director Robert Mueller appeared before Congress late last month, it was for the purpose of answering questions about the government's controversial national security letters program. A March Inspector General's report [PDF] had revealed alarming details about the program's abuse and Mueller, for the first time in his six years as the director of the bureau, sat before the House Judiciary Committee to report publicly on the FBI's response.

What happened instead is now famous. Mueller, once a peripheral figure in the many controversies surrounding the U.S. Attorney General, dramatically contradicted Alberto Gonzales' account of his March 2004 visit to John Ashcroft's hospital room (where he and then White House chief of staff Andrew Card attempted to get a disoriented Ashcroft to approve the administration's warrantless surveillance program), and so became a central figure in the clash between the Justice Department and Congress.

But what about the national security letters? Or, for that matter, other important FBI controversies? At the July 26 hearing, Mueller acknowledged a handful of bureau failings, some altogether unrelated to the national security letters program. But he both strongly asserted the need to maintain the program and declined at several points to provide answers to questions about its operation, citing his need to look into the details. As is typical at oversight hearings, the director promised to follow up with the information.

That information is still forthcoming. I'll have more when it's provided to the committee.