NSA Whistleblower claims he saw documents authorizing wiretaps on Obama

[think]

and the Supreme Court Justices, the leaders of Congress, journalists, lawyers & law firms....

Russ tice is the NSA whistle blower who was the source for leaks for the 2005 New York Times report on Bush's illegal wiretaps.

Tice states he personally handled paperwork authorizing wiretaps on some of the most powerful members of govt. You can hear him in his own words in this Youtube.com video from Boiling Frogs website which is run by Sibel Edmonds:

So tell me again why we should trust the NSA?

[NightWatcher]

1. Why would there be a paper trail on something like that

Black ops usually don't like permission slips and paper trails.

[think]

2. You'd have to ask Russ Tice. I honestly don't know. /nt

[NJCher]

3. think about this

The Germans kept meticulous records of every Jew they sent to their death.


Cher

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. When I first saw this story I brought out the boulder of salt

Well, some local things now it is a single grain of salt, if any.

Reality is, this explains quite nicely the failure of those who we elect to represent the people, to do so.

[HardTimes99]

5. Furthermore, if true, it helps to demystify the troubling notion that the

national security state was never really about protecting us. Instead, it was about blackmailing and intimidating anyone who threatens (or even potentially threatens) the interests of the national security state to play ball or be destroyed. See Eliot Spitzer, et. al.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yup

[think]

10. Unless all 3 branches of the Govt are full of terrorists

you make an excellent point...

[sabrina 1]

21. Exactly. Even if they couldn't do it, it is a great way to silence those who might otherwise

be inclined to speak out.

A lot of what was only suspected has been revealed now and the desperation to suppress it all is palpable.

[think]

6. If Tice's allegations from last week are true all 3 branches of govt were spied upon by the NSA

How scary is that?

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Now ask yourself this

Why does General Keith Alexander get a growing budget when everybody else does not?

[think]

11. Could it be

or something much more nefarious.....

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Yup

We played with this in an rpg campaign. Here is how the victim dealt with it in the end...they went to the press and came clean. The blackmail suddently lost power. Was the Npc embarrassed? Yup, but open secrets hold no power

[HardTimes99]

14. Here's why the right to privacy is so important (its pooh-poohers and

nay-sayers here notwithstanding). All of us are guilty of something but not all of us deserve to go to prison, nor to have our lives and careers destroyed. But with this kind of surveillance state, all of us now face the very real threat of the latter, if not the former (at least not until and unless a President Santorum or President Huckabee is inaugurated).

[newfie11]

9. Kick

[Octafish]

13. What do you think the universal domestic spy op is for?

It is absolutely essential for defending the wealthy, warmongering blackmailer's way of life.

[think]

15. I must admit being somewhat naive as to the vast spying that was done on our leaders

I'd always figured there was some of this going on but never to the extent Tice is claiming.

I hope he gets some airtime somewhere to get this information out to the general public.

Because this is fucking insane....

[Octafish]

24. It's like reporting sin to the devil.

In 2005, Tice went to the Senate before going public. They said, "So?"

The guy went to the networks. They said, "So?"

"As the responsible committee for intelligence in the Senate, I have been waiting for your directions on this matter. If another committee is the proper place for me to testify, I believe it is your responsibility to forward my request to that committee and keep me informed of the process."

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2013/07/01/whistleblower-russell-tice-tells-more

It's not a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" when We the People are the Enemy.

[hootinholler]

16. When is this from? n/t

[think]

17. I think the spying happened under Bush. Tice just went public with these new allegations

around two weeks ago.

[hootinholler]

18. Thanks! I had heard about the latter. n/t

[Waiting For Everyman]

19. Link to Tice's original interview on this (more than 15 min. on this subject).

He got much more specific in the original interview. It was dated 6/19/2013

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023137828#post109

[think]

20. TY for the link.

Will check it out.

[Waiting For Everyman]

22. I'm glad to see you post this OP, Tice's observations need more notice.

When I heard what he had to say in that interview, the current news stories about NSA became a lot clearer.

Thanks back to you.

[leveymg]

23. Tice couldn't testify before the Intel Committees because the programs were too highly secret!

Tice was terminated by the NSA in May 2005, just days after publicly urging Congress to pass stronger protections for federal intelligence agency whistleblowers facing retaliation. In September 2005, the inspector general issued an unclassified report that found "no evidence" to support Tice's claims.[citation needed]

In December 2005, Tice alleged the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional conduct against the American people, and helped spark a national controversy. Tice stated that the activities involved the Director of the NSA, 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), more commonly referred to as 'black world' programs, or 'black ops'. Tice was a technical intelligence specialist dealing with SAP programs and operations at both NSA and DIA.[citation needed]

On December 16, The New York Times revealed that the NSA was engaged in a clandestine eavesdropping program that bypassed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. Media reports on January 10, 2006, indicated Tice was a source of the Times leak, which revealed that, under the direction of the White House and without requisite court orders, the NSA has been intercepting international communications to and from points within the US.[citation needed]
< . . .>

In a letter dated December 18, 2005, to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and to Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he said he was prepared to testify about the SAP programs, under the provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act. It is not known, however, what the testimony would specifically involve.[citation needed]

It has been assumed that the problem concerned the electronic surveillance of Americans, but in an interview published 13 January 2006 on the reasononline web site,[1] Tice said "there's no way the programs I want to talk to Congress about should be public ever, unless maybe in 200 years they want to declassify them. You should never learn about it; no one at the Times should ever learn about these things. But that same mechanism that allows you to have a program like this at an extremely high, sensitive classification level could also be used to mask illegality, like spying on Americans."[2]
< . . .>
I
n December 23, 2005, the Austin American-Statesman, reported Tice's allegations that spying on Americans may involve a massive computer system known as ECHELON, which is able to search and filter hundreds of thousands of phone calls and e-mails in a matter of seconds.

On January 3, 2006, Tice appeared on the national radio/TV show Democracy Now! and said he wants to testify before Congress. Tice said "I'm involved with some certain aspects of the intelligence community, which are very closely held, and I believe I have seen some things that are illegal."

On January 5, 2006, The Washington Times reported that Tice wants to testify before Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and DIA. "I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Tice stated in letters, dated December 16, 2005 and disclosed by the Times.

In a letter dated January 10, 2006, Renee Seymour, Director of the NSA Special Access Programs Central Office, warned Tice that members of neither the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, nor of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had clearance to receive the classified information about the SAP's that Tice was prepared to provide. Wike: Russ Tice

[nineteen50]

25. The ability to tell the difference between the truth and a lie

has been murdered by blind allegiance and his inebriated accomplice political debris.

[Recursion]

26. You mean FISA reined in illegal mass surveillance like this?

Yes, you're right.

EDIT: reined.

[think]

27. A whistleblower just let it be known that all 3 branches of govt were wiretapped

and that's the best you got?

[Recursion]

28. Not sure what you mean. I was outraged by illegal wiretapping

I wish FISA were stronger, but it at least removed the "anybody anytime" problem. We need to improve the law, though.

[think]

29. Tice just broke silence on the 3 branches govt being wire tapped

It sounds like you already knew about this as you seem to be implying it's old news.

I just heard this on the net today and the story broke about 2 weeks ago.

Yes I knew there was illegal spying under Bush but this indicates it breached our entire fucking govt and they kept it secret!

And the only reason I know now is because a NSA whistleblower finally revealed it almost 10 years after the fucking fact.

So I'm a little pissed off after these revelations. I apologize for being a bit hostlie but this is big fucking shit.

Not your every candy ass spy on a dirty hippie type story......