A former high-ranking national security lawyer at the Justice Department has come forward to criticize some of the Bush administration’s key legal justifications for the warrantless spying program. Former associate deputy attorney general David Kris says the Bush administration’s contention that Congress had authorized the NSA program by approving the use of force against al-Qaeda was a “weak justification” unlikely to be supported by the courts. Kris oversaw national security issues at the Justice Department from 2000 until 2003.