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."
Then the twelve apostles of treason need to be brought to justice.
That's cute. But fatboy's going to jail.
In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and his four colleagues on the Committee of Secret Correspondence unanimously concluded that they could not tell the Continental Congress about covert assistance being provided by France to the American Revolution, because "we find by fatal experience that Congress consists of too many members to keep secrets." When the Constitution was being ratified, John Jay--America's most experienced diplomat and George Washington's first choice to be secretary of state--wrote in Federalist No. 64 that there would be cases in which "the most useful intelligence" may be obtained if foreign sources could be "relieved from apprehensions of discovery," and noted there were many "who would rely on the secrecy of the president, but who would not confide in that of the Senate." He then praised the new Constitution for so distributing foreign-affairs powers that the president would be able "to manage the business of intelligence in such manner as prudence may suggest." In 1790, when the first session of the First Congress appropriated money for foreign intercourse, the statute expressly required that the president "account specifically for all such expenditures of the said money as in his judgment may be made public, and also for the amount of such expenditures as he may think it advisable not to specify." They made no demand that President Washington share intelligence secrets with them. And in 1818, when a dispute arose over a reported diplomatic mission to South America, the legendary Henry Clay told his House colleagues that if the mission had been provided for from the president's contingent fund, it would not be "a proper subject for inquiry" by Congress. For nearly 200 years it was understood by all three branches that intelligence collection--especially in wartime--was an exclusive presidential prerogative vested in the president by Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, John Marshall and many others recognized that the grant of "executive power" to the president included control over intelligence gathering. It is enough to observe that the Constitution is the highest law of the land, and when Congress attempts to usurp powers granted to the president, its members betray their oath of office. In certain cases, such as the War Powers Resolution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it might well have crossed that line.
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alk show host Sean Hannity has exposed a Democrat conspiracy to undermine Bush's war effort by leaking classified information.
An incriminating memo suggests that Democratic members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were planning to release classified data at a strategically-advantageous moment during next year's presidential campaign. The leak would be aimed at undermining Americans' will to fight by accusing the Bush White House of invading Iraq without just cause.
Rockefeller Connection
Democratic Senator John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller of West Virginia -- co-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- appears to have played a key role in the plot. An outline of the strategy appears on a memo written by one of Senator Rockefeller's staffers. Rockefeller has long been a vocal critic of Bush's War on Terror.
An unidentified source leaked the Rockefeller memo to talk show host Sean Hannity, who read it on-air to his national radio audience on Tuesday. Go here for a full transcript of the memo.
Rockefeller admits that he instructed his staff to write the memo, but says he never approved it for distribution .
The Senate Intelligence Committee is currently investigating the Bush Administration's case for war on Iraq. According to Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas -- who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee -- the Rockefeller memo outlines a plan to, "discredit the committee's work and undermine its conclusions ... before those conclusions are even reached."
The memo urges Democrat committee members to make a show of cooperating with their Republican colleagues up to a certain point, then "pull the trigger" on the investigation during the 2004 presidential campaign, publicly accusing the White House of "dubious" and "dishonest" motives for going to war and launching their own separate investigation.
"Perhaps Treasonous"
Democrat Senator Zell Miller of Georgia issued a statement calling the Rockefeller memo "perhaps treasonous."
"If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin. The ones responsible - be they staff or elected or both - should be dealt with quickly and severely sending a lesson to all that this kind of action will not be tolerated, ignored or excused," said Miller.
A Washington Times editorial calls the plan a flagrant "abuse of power" and a betrayal of "custodial responsibility over classified information" on the part of the U.S. Congress. The incident "warns U.S. intelligence agencies that there are security risks in providing information to Congress," says the Washington Times.
Republicans Befuddled, Impotent
Incredibly, Senator Pat Roberts has failed to call for an investigation. Instead he urges his Democrat colleagues to simply "disavow" their scheme, like gentlemen, and get on with the "bipartisan" work of the Senate Intelligence committee!
"[T]he biggest thing we ought to do is build a bridge back to a bipartisan compromise so we can go ahead with our work," Roberts told an incredulous Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. "...We are asking our colleagues across the aisle to completely disavow this report or this attack plan. Somehow build a bridge back to some kind of bipartisan coalition...
"[I]t's my responsibility to try to work with my colleagues across the aisle to make the Intelligence Committee what it's supposed to be... I think we've got to get past this draft memo and get on to the business, again, of doing our oversight responsibility, which we have to do in the interest of our national security."
Sounds like Senator Roberts has been gelded. Shades of File-gate. Does Hillary have some sort of dirt on Roberts from his FBI background file?
Link to a .pdf of a letter sent to Tice by RENEE SEYMOUR
Director, NSA Special Access Programs Central Office of the SAP
Very succinct!
http://abcnews.go.com/images/Nightline/NSAletter.pdf
Copied and pasted from the .pdf:
UNCLASSIFIED
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755-6000
Serial: LEG/OO3/06
9 January 2006
Dear Mr. Tice:
(U) It has come to my attention that you intend to meet soon with the staff of the
House Pennanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) about what you perceive to
be probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while you were an intelligence
officer with the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
(U) Let me state unequivocallythat you have everyright to petition Congress for
a redress of grievances. This right is guaranteedto you by the First Amendmentof the
United States Constitution. The NationalSecurityAgencyhas no intent to inftinge your
rights.
(U) I want to congratulate you that, in the exercise of your rights. you are acting
responsibly to protect sensitive intelligence information. In an 18 December 2005 letter
purported to be from you to the HPSCI and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
(SSCI) posted on an open website. you asked them to provide assurances that the staffers
or members who will receive your information have the proper security clearances and
that the appropriate cleared facilities will be available for these discussions. You state
that the information you wish to provide pertains to sensitive intelligence programs and
operations known as Special Access Programs. or SAPs.
(U) Seeking such assurances is consistent with the Non-Disclosure Agreement
that you signed .with NSA. However. I need to inform you that additional steps are
required. The SAPs to which you refer are controlled by the Department of Defense
(DoD) and I understand that neither the staff nor the members of the HPSCI or SSCI are
cleared to receive the information covered by the SAPs. Moreover. I understand you
have not notified either DoD or NSA. appropriately cleared individuals. of the improper
behavior you allege.
UNCLASSIFIED
--~ - - -- ~ - -
(U) Therefore, it is the position of the National Security Agency that, before you
provide classified infonnation to the HPSCI or SSCI, you provide a statement to the DoD
Inspector General or the NSA Inspector General of your complaint or infonnation and
notice of your intent to contact the intelligence committees directly and, further, that you
obtain and follow direction fi'omthe Secretary of Defense, through the DoD Inspector
General, or the Director of the NSA, through the NSA Inspector General, on how to
contact the intelligence ...[did not copy correctly]
.RENEE SEYMOUR
Director, NSA Special Access Programs Central Office
Copy Furnished:
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Geez! It's Fred flinstone!
This guy comes off as another "Richard Clarke" type.
Looking for his 15 minutes of fame.
Could be? He's guessing? What kind of accusation is that!?
I think Tice needs to tighten the foil hat.
Jamacian Beef Patties are Good... But Cayman Beef Patties are the best... Yum....
Even more so when you read in one interview quoted on the Daily Kos that he initially got crosswise of the NSA over his complaint that a naturalized American from China should not have a high level security clearance. Sounds to me as though, like Clarke, he had problems with other people passing him by.
Your thinking of Xlinton.
ROTFL!!! What a likeness!
You'd think the NSA would be able to determine he was a nutjob before they hired him.
"I will never, ever disclose TOP SECRET information to a newspaper reporter and violate Federal law! Wait, you are offering me what?"
"I'll say anything! Anything you want - even if it isn't true!"
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