Posted on 01/04/2006 9:05:52 PM PST by Sybeck1
Gertz: NSA whistleblower asks to testify; Vows to describe illegal intelligence operations... DEVELOPING...
Sounds like the criminal statutes are window dressing. Oh well.
Background on Russ Tice :
http://federaltimes.com/index2.php?S=832118
May, 2005
"Whistleblower to be fired, watchdogs say
By STEPHEN LOSEY
A National Security Agency intelligence analyst who spoke at an April 28 event decrying retaliation against whistleblowers such as himself has lost his security clearance and will be fired, a government watchdog group said May 4.
Russ Tice, who spent nearly 20 years analyzing intelligence for the Air Force, Navy, Defense Intelligence Agency and NSA, will be fired May 16, said the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Project on Government Oversight.
In 2001, Tice, who was then working at DIA, reported his suspicions that a co-worker might have been a Chinese spy, POGO said. Two years later, after Tice had transferred to NSA, an FBI investigation into the DIA co-worker prompted Tice to raise his concerns again.
POGO said that led to a series of retaliatory actions against Tice, such as a psychiatric evaluation that led to his security clearance being revoked. Tice was also assigned to unload furniture from trucks at a warehouse, which led to a back injury, and worked in the NSA motor pool for eight months chauffeuring agency officials and checking fluids, vacuuming and cleaning vehicles. This “unusually abusive retaliation” was an attempt to force Tice to resign, POGO said.
And in another retaliatory action, POGO said, NSA withdrew an award Tice received for his intelligence work during the Iraq war after he lost his security clearance.
At a press conference in Washington with the National Security Whistleblower Coalition, Tice said agencies must be stopped from withdrawing security clearances from whistleblowers, which effectively fires them.
“Until the [intelligence community] can no longer use security clearances as weapons of retaliation without any fear of any form of oversight, there will be no incentive for them to stop this outrageous practice,” Tice said.
NSA would not comment."
Starting last year I totally ignore every poll displayed by the MSM or any of these loon websites. They are all either bogus or highly biased in the way questions are asked, who is sampled, where the sample is gathered, etc., etc. I can guarantee you that 53% of the population of my city do not want to have an impeachment. Most folks support President Bush with the WOT.
My guess is the lefties will surroud him and shut him up within 24 hours.
Trust me, NSA would not put this guy into a position that would allow compromise. They were probably tapping his phone!!
It has it's advantages too, I know of some people who used to work for the CIA and have a blast and make a ton of money in the UFO world. They write far fetched stuff about "classified" UFO investigations and meeting aliens and get away with it because who is going to challenge it. The government will never confirm or deny it.
I'm positive there is some freeper who can make this happen!
Memo to Tice: there are bunches of rules and regulations on when a person's security clearance can be suspended.
The fact that it actually was suspended (the action made it through all the hoops) speaks volumns.
Also there's an appeals process. Did Tice appeal?
Whistle-blowers are people who go over the heads of their bosses.
That's hilarious!
"Mr. Tice will face an NSA appeal board later this month, and he expects the agency to dismiss him"
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050219-115743-9136r.htm
Pentagon probes punishment of whistleblower
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 21, 2004
The Pentagon is investigating the National Security Agency for improperly punishing an official after he reported he suspected a co-worker was a Chinese agent in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Pentagon inspector general's office is probing the NSA, which specializes in electronic spying, for retaliating against Russ Tice, an 18-year specialist who worked on highly classified intelligence programs. Defense officials say the agency violated rules that protect "whistleblowers" in government who report wrongdoing by federal agencies.
A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Tice appears to have been punished unfairly.
"It looks like he communicated substantive concerns" to another agency outside of NSA, the official said, noting that investigators are trying to determine whether Mr. Tice was a victim of unfair reprisal by NSA.
"I'm being retaliated against because I followed the rules and reported suspicious behavior," Mr. Tice said in an interview. "I continued to report on that, and now I'm being retaliated against by having my security access denied and ultimately revoked."
Without a security clearance, Mr. Tice will be forced to end his employment at NSA. The agency formally began the termination process against Mr. Tice in August.
Prior to that, Mr. Tice was posted to the NSA motor pool at the agency's Fort Meade headquarters where he was placed on "red badge" status that prohibited him from working in his normal job.
Mr. Tice said he was one of at least 14 other NSA specialists who were sent to the motor pool as administrative punishment.
Mr. Tice also said NSA security officials forced him to undergo two evaluations by agency psychiatrists who declared him mentally unbalanced. The agency's security officials used the evaluations to suspend his clearance, he said.
Mr. Tice had been nominated to receive a medal for his intelligence work during the Iraq war. The medal was withdrawn after his clearance was suspended.
Mr. Tice said the evaluations were part of a tactic to remove him from the agency for reporting his suspicions about a spy. Three other psychiatric evaluations, including two conducted while he was at NSA, showed he was normal, he said.
An NSA spokesman said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.
Mr. Tice's case began in early 2001 while he was working for the Defense Intelligence Agency. At that time, he said, he began to suspect that an Asian-American woman working with him at DIA was linked to Chinese intelligence.
The woman voiced sympathies toward China and against Taiwan, and showed what officials say are often signs of espionage, including personal travel abroad and unusual affluence.
Mr. Tice said he alerted DIA's security office to the woman's activities and initially was told his suspicions were unfounded. He transferred to a job at NSA in November 2002 and continued to report his security concerns about the DIA analyst.
His concerns were heightened by the case of the FBI's longtime paid informant, Katrina Leung, who was arrested in April 2003 for supplying FBI counterintelligence secrets to Chinese intelligence and for having affairs with two veteran FBI counterspies.
Mr. Tice said that after Miss Leung's arrest in April 2003, he sent an e-mail message from his NSA office to a DIA security official questioning the FBI's competence in probing Chinese espionage.
Mr. Tice said during one exchange with the DIA counterintelligence official he was told there is "reason to be concerned" about the female DIA analyst being a spy.
The DIA official forwarded Mr. Tice's e-mail to NSA security, which then ordered him to take the psychiatric evaluation that led to the suspension of his security clearances.
After several months of red-badge status, Mr. Tice sought administrative help from NSA Deputy Director William Black, the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, and several other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041020-112923-1126r.htm
"This guy has been trying to get on TV for the last month, offering to tell everything he knows about a program he didn't work on.
I don't know why Gertz and Drudge decided that it's news now."
Agreed-This has been out, even at DU since before Christmas.
That's probably an appeal on the personnel action, not the revocation of the security clearance. But whatevah! He knows he's getting the ax.
Who is the guy?
We've seen this guy many times before.
I bet he was at that recent "whistelblowers hearing" that was on CSPAN.
"I've got $20 on Larry Johnson."
Larry Johnson or Nancy Pelosi's advisor, John Dean would
be my guess.
Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Action Officer Urges To Be Heard By Congress Regarding Unlawful Conduct By NSA
Official's open letters to Intelligence Committees
by National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 12/22/05 -- Russ Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and action officer, has sent the following two letters to the chairs of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. Mr. Tice intends to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while he was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) and with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). These acts involved the Director of the National Security Agency, the Deputies Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs (SAP). SAP programs and operations are more commonly referred to as “black world” programs and operations. Mr. Tice was a technical intelligence specialist dealing almost exclusively with SAP programs and operations at both NSA and DIA.
Mr. Tice stated: “As a Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) officer it is continually drilled into us that the very first law chiseled in the SIGINT equivalent of the Ten Commandments (USSID-18) is that Thou shall not spy on American persons without a court order from FISA. This law is continually drilled into each NSA intelligence officer throughout his or her career. The very people that lead the National Security Agency have violated this holy edict of SIGINT." A pivotal question in this case is whether Americans were being spied on via a vacuum cleaner approach wherein vast amounts of information are sucked in. FISA warrants require a name of the target and would not cover such a mass approach. He also added: “In addition to knowing this fundamental commandment of not violating the civil rights of Americans, intelligence officers are required to take an oath to protect the United States Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. It is with my oath as a US intelligence officer weighing heavy on my mind that I wish to report to congress acts that I believe are unlawful and unconstitutional. The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state.”
"These actions by the current administration are a compulsion to secrecy, an expansive view of presidential authority, and reluctance to answer to the people and Congress. Woodrow Wilson, himself no novice concerning secrecy, claimed that it is a 'fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety'. That is a presumption that we have been called upon to suspend in the name of national security, but with recent disclosures that suspended judgment appears to have been unwise. We urge the congress to hold hearings and let patriotic witnesses like Russ Tice testify,” stated Sibel Edmonds, the director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC).
Michael Ostrolenk, National Director of the Liberty Coalition agrees with Mrs. Edmonds and stated further “I am glad to know that Mr. Tice takes his oath to the Constitution seriously. He obviously knows that his obligation is not to this or any Administration but to our Republican form of government with its proper checks and balances and to protect the rights it was instituted to secure.” He continued “This is less about a particular Administration and more about the natural tendency for government to become destructive to the very ends it was created to fulfill. I hope that Congress takes it oversight responsibilities seriously and investigates Mr. Tice’s allegations in an open and non-partisan manner.”
Here is the letter by Mr. Tice, sent on Dec 18, 2005, to the Senate & House Intelligence Committee:
Dear Chairman Roberts,
Under the provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA), I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) and with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). These acts involve the Director of the National Security Agency, the Deputies Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
These probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs (SAP)s. I was a technical intelligence specialist dealing almost exclusively with SAP programs and operations at both NSA and DIA.
Due to the highly sensitive nature of these programs and operations, I will require assurances from your committee that the staffers and/or congressional members to participate retain the proper security clearances, and also have the appropriate SAP cleared facilities available for these discussions.
Please inform me when you require my appearance on Capitol Hill to conduct these discussions in relation to this ICWPA report.
Very Respectfully,
Russell D. Tice
Former Intelligence Officer, NSA
Asked to testify to whom?
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