Posted on 01/10/2006 4:22:59 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.
For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.
"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."
But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the National Security Agency in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.
Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use.
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."
According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.
President Bush has admitted that he gave orders that allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without the usual requisite warrants.
But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used.
"That would mean for most Americans that if they conducted, or you know, placed an overseas communication, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum," Tice said.
The same day The New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants, Tice surfaced as a whistleblower in the agency. He told ABC News that he was a source for the Times' reporters. But Tice maintains that his conscience is clear.
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said. "We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."
The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."
determine he was a nutjob before they hired him.
20 years it took the feds to discover this.
Maybe he had some kind of a spook breakdown later in life.
Looks like he hangs around the refrig quite a bit.
Thanks!
That's exactly what I meant, and as I am hopping on the board in between bedtimes for my kids, I have yet to have a chance to look it up myself.
Could there be a more obvious admission that the Dims got nothing in the Alito hearings than the timing of this story?
Thank you to you too!
Adult onset.
On the other hand, it could make one wonder what sort of critter is manning the NSA.
ROFL! You finally arrived at the perfect match!
This repeated story makes me madder than hell every time I read it.
I would hardly call the vacuuming of international comm channels into the supercomputer farm "illegal wiretaps" since the computers are not "sentient beings". I would suggest to anyone trying to understand this that NSA is looking at millions of digital data streams daily and looking for a particular phone number or Internet IP address, AND one end of this link must be outside the US. Further analysis would then be to search for a particular term or group of words after the subject has been identified (or vice versa). NSA is prohibited from intercepting connections that both originate and terminate inside the US. How can any sane person argue this "outside US connection" is an "illegal wiretap" as defined by any definition? Wiretap Mystery: Spooks React
This Tice guy is way in over his head, and I know that he does not have enough knowledge to know if laws were broken or not. BUT in any event he should have followed the whistle blower regulations and retained an attorney - NOT run to the MSM. This is the felony crime that he has committed and he must be imprisoned and I don't want to hear some sanctimonious Congresscritter get up and start ranting on Bush and protecting this Tice guy. That action should create a storm of letters to Congress if any conservatives are paying attention - THIS GUY IS A TRAITOR JUST LIKE Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
It is fairly hard to terminate a "civil servant", although one would certainly argue today this guy is much more than a "servant" - unless you are a LIB. Libs, DemonRATs, and the NYT are going to honor this guy just like Bob Woodward for being the "whistle blower". He is a TRAITOR, pure and simple.
Precisely what did he reveal that was classified? He said himself in the article that he's not going to try to reveal classified information.
I'm sure he signed a non-disclosure agreement when he initially received a clearance. Breaking this subjects him to criminal prosecution. I hope they hang him by the neck until dead.
Damn, you guys are good.
Not only does the technology exist but we probably didn't want everyone to know about it.
I've been out of town for a week - when did "treasonous leaker" become "whistleblower"?
I wonder how much of the abuse was during the Clinton administration, when we were not in a war mode.
He should be sent down - not given immunity to testify on anything about how the NSA does what it does (so that national security is not compromised).
Arrested, Convicted, and Terminated
Boy, this Tice guy get's around. First the porno boat, then scalping Super Bowl tickets, now this.
Sarc.
The American public will surely want to impeach Bush for this. The only question is, how many Republicans will be stupid enough to join with the scumbag Democrats to press the issue?
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