NSA WHISTLEBLOWER IS SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY BEFORE FEDERAL GRAND JURY

[appleannie1]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- July 28, 2006





NSA WHISTLEBLOWER IS SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY BEFORE FEDERAL GRAND JURY



Government Begins its Witch Hunt Targeting Whistleblowers





On Wednesday, July 26, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. NSWBC has obtained a copy of the subpoena issued for Mr. Tice’s testimony and is releasing it to the public for the first time. The subpoena directs Mr. Tice to appear before the jury on August 2, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Tice “will be asked to testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law." .





In response to the subpoena, Mr. Tice issued the following statement: “This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.” He continued: “To this date I have pursued all the appropriate channels to report unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I served as an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. It was with my oath as a US intelligence officer to protect and preserve the U.S. Constitution weighing heavy on my mind that I reported acts that I know to be 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.”





On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition made public a request by Tice to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts by the government while he was an intelligence officer with NSA and DIA. In a press release, NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Mr. Tice, a responsible veteran intelligence officer, tried to use the so-called appropriate channels, including the United States Congress, to responsibly and lawfully disclose government wrongdoing. .



“What we are seeing here is a government desperate to cover up its criminal and unconstitutional conduct. They now are going beyond the usual retaliation against whistleblowers who courageously come forward to report cases of government fraud, waste, abuse, and in some cases such as this one, criminal actions. Their old tactics of intimidation, gag orders, and firing, have not stopped an unprecedented number of whistleblowers from coming forward and doing the right thing. Desperate to prevent the public’s right to know, they now are getting engaged in a witch hunt targeting these patriotic truth tellers.” stated Sibel Edmonds, the Director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

In addition, the timing of the subpoena appears to be more than a little suspect. On July 25, 2006, Judge Matthew Kennelly upheld the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege in Terkel v. AT&T. The crucial issue in the case was whether or not the government’s program of surveillance had been publicly acknowledged, and Kennelly wrote "the focus should be on information that bears persuasive indication of reliability." If there were reliable public reports of the program then the fact of the program’s existence could not be a state secret. Kennelly found that there were no reliable sources of public information about the contested program’s existence sufficient to thwart the government’s need for secrecy. In other words, the existence of the program had not been conclusively established, and the government therefore had a right to prevent probing into the matter. This stops a case that represented a serious threat to the Bush administration.

Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, stated: “Russ Tice is the only publicly identified NSA employee connected to the New York Times in its December 2005 story publicizing warrantless Bush-ordered surveillance. Tice is also publicly perceived as someone who could authoritatively establish the existence of the program at issue in Terkel; Tice could remedy the defect in the plaintiff’s case cited by Kennelly that allowed the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege to be successful. Later, on the same day Kennelly’s opinion was filed, the Department of Justice sent out Tice’s subpoena. The date on the subpoena is July 20th, before Kennelly’s decision was filed, but the issue in the Terkel case was so pregnant that it would be easy for the government to anticipate the ruling and only issue the subpoena to Tice if necessary. It has now become necessary, and the government seems to be moving to put pressure on Tice not to reveal information that would confirm the electronic surveillance program at issue in Terkel by threatening him with investigation and possible indictment.”



National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org



# # # #

© Copyright 2006, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Information in this release may be freely distributed and published provided that all such distributions make appropriate attribution to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

[stop the bleeding]

1. Nominated

this is good news for the weekend :)

thank you

[ThomCat]

2. not necessarily.

If they're being called because the government is trying to build a case against THEM, then whistleblowers would not think this is such good news.

[stop the bleeding]

3. in that case

not so good news. :(

[hedgehog]

4. Grand juries can be pretty independent, can't they?

Let's hope they indict the NSA, not the whistle blowers

[immoderate]

5. On the other hand,

it has been said a grand jury "will indict a ham sandwich" if the prosecutor wants it.:shrug:

IMO, this has a great chance of back firing, which is good.

--IMM

[Mnemosyne]

6. H. Res. 895

H. Res. 895

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) supports efforts to identify, track, and pursue suspected foreign terrorists and their financial supporters by tracking terrorist money flows and uncovering terrorist networks here and abroad, including through the use of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program;

(2) finds that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program has been conducted in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and Executive Orders, that appropriate safeguards and reviews have been instituted to protect individual civil liberties, and that Congress has been appropriately informed and consulted for the duration of the Program and will continue its oversight of the Program;

(3) condemns the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by those persons responsible and expresses concern that the disclosure may endanger the lives of American citizens, including members of the Armed Forces, as well as individuals and organizations that support United States efforts; and

(4) expects the cooperation of all news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans and the capability of the government to identify, disrupt, and capture terrorists by not disclosing classified intelligence programs such as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.


more at link:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:3:./temp/~c1... ::

Welcome to DU appleannie1! :hi:

[me b zola]

7. Hell's bells

Moving from black lists to political prisoners. I weep for what has been done to our nation.

[Supersedeas]

8. that's one hell of a stmt by Tice

[EVDebs]

9. The secret government acting in secret to prevent its illegal acts

from becoming public. But the truth always outs eventually anyway so why don't they just face the music ? You know, with a Democratic House and Senate...and Executive branch...this kind of charade wouldn't be taking place.

Blowback is a bitch.

[NoodleyAppendage]

10. Russell Tice has more integrity in his sh*t than Bush could ever hope for.

Russell Tice reaffirms my hope for humanity and a return to the values that made America great. We need more citizens like Mr. Tice in this world.

I think DU should collect or donate funds to assist Mr. Tice in his legal defense against this FASCIST CABAL that has subverted our beloved Constitution.

J

[Pokey Anderson]

11. It's like a room (country) full of people being held hostage by a few.

If one steps forward to fight, alone, they can be cut down. The rest just shiver and cower.

Tice, and Sibel Edmunds, and others, deserve great support for their courage. So many others faced with the same momentous decision, and the same access to information, are being silent.

[cascadiance]

13. What's interesting is that Russ Tice is a Republican...

And I believe Sibel or someone else from NSWBC indicated that a MAJORITY of their members are Republicans. According to the Vanity Fair article, Sibel's husband was a Republican too. In my mind that speaks loudly! If there are that many Republicans willing to take a courageous stand to do the right thing when they know what is really going on and not subjugated to the filters we've been enduring through the MSM and other parts of this fascistic system that's public instead of private.

Perhaps that will also speak well for a Grand Jury, if properly informed of the facts will also do the right thing later too, and go after the real culprits instead of decent and courageous folks like Tice.

Makes you wonder if either the Democrats have been "flushed out" of the system to make this ratio happen with this administration, or if they are even more intimidated from speaking up than those who've joined this group, and the NSWBC really is the tip of an iceberg.

[Duppers]

14. indeed

From Wayne Madsen:
>>
Ed. note: The venue of the grand jury that has subpoenaed Tice, the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, is noteworthy. It indicates that Tice may merely be a witness and not a target in the investigation. NSA and DIA, where Tice worked, are in Maryland and the District of Columbia, respectively. Any case involving those agencies would be normally handled by the District Courts for Southern Maryland and the District of Columbia, respectively. However, when Porter Goss was CIA director, he stated he wanted to prosecute journalists who published what he considered classified information. The CIA is headquartered in Virginia and the US District Court for Eastern Virginia is considered a "rocket docket" for CIA legal matters.

It should also be noted that Tice was a witness for the defense in the Bush administration prosecution of former NSA "Iraqi shop" signals intelligence analyst Kenneth W. Ford, who was convicted in a joint FBI-NSA set-up operation for removing classified documents in broad daylight and under heavy security from an NSA facility to his home. That case was tainted by David Salem, a federal prosecutor with close links to neo-con operatives in the Bush administration. Ford authored an NSA signals intelligence report that called into question the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That report ended up on the desk of Vice President Dick Cheney where it earned him the wrath of Cheney, Scooter Libby, and other neo-cons who were part of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG). Ford was sentenced to six years at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The WHIG was the same group that targeted CIA non-official cover officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Former NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, who oversaw the harassment of NSA employees during his tenure at Fort Meade, Maryland, is now CIA Director at headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Any CIA-initiated national security investigations would normally end up in the hands of the US District Court for Eastern Virginia, especially if the target(s) is(are) residents of the court's eastern Virginia jurisdiction. Tice is a resident of Maryland.
>>

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

[Dark]

12. Wow. No good deed goes unpunished. n/t

[Seabiscuit]

15. No more question about it. We now live in a fascist dictatorship.

No democratic government behaves the way this one has with Tice, by definition.

Tice is a national hero.

[cal04]

16. Leak of Classified Information Prompts Inquiry

A federal grand jury has begun investigating the leak of classified information about intelligence programs to the press and has subpoenaed a former National Security Agency employee who claims to have witnessed illegal activity while working at the agency.

The former employee, Russell D. Tice, 44, of Linthicum, Md., said two F.B.I. agents approached on Wednesday and handed him the subpoena, which requires him to testify next Wednesday before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va.

The subpoena, which Mr. Tice made public on Friday, says the investigation covers “possible violation of federal criminal laws involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” It specifically mentions the Espionage Act.

For months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking into disclosures of secret intelligence operations, including The New York Times’s reports in December about the N.S.A.’s domestic surveillance program and The Washington Post’s articles on the Central Intelligence Agency’s overseas jails for terror suspects. But the subpoena is the first public confirmation that a grand jury has begun to hear evidence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/washington/29leak.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=70502580d9c3de59&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[DeSwiss]

17. Update.........

NSA Whistleblower's Testimony Postponed
TPMmuckraker
By Justin Rood
July 31, 2006, 3:15 PM

Russ Tice, the former NSA employee who's said he spoke with the New York Times about the NSA's domestic spying efforts, was subpoenaed last week to testify before a grand jury on Aug. 2. A quick letter from a decent lawyer has now won Tice an indefinite postponement, according to the advocacy group National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

Meanwhile, another group argues that the federal investigation into who leaked the NSA program to the NYTimes may itself be illegal. According to federal law, “Until the government demonstrates that any properly classified information has been released, it is illegal to spend federal funds investigating Mr. Tice," said Government Accountability Project legal director Tom Devine in a press release today.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001240.php

http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=567

[DeSwiss]

18. Leak Investigation May Violate Congressional Spending Ban

Leak Investigation May Violate Congressional Spending Ban

July 31, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Washington, D.C.) – The Government Accountability Project (GAP) today commented that the Bush administration’s ongoing “leak investigation,” opened to identify and prosecute the individuals who disclosed the existence of a domestic surveillance program, may violate a congressional spending ban commonly known as the “anti-gag statute.”

According to a July 26 press release from the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency intelligence analyst, was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. This was likely in connection with the NSA leak investigation. Tice was not informed whether he is a subject of the grand jury inquiry, or simply a witness.

Tice maintains that, while he was a source for the New York Times initial story on domestic surveillance, he was careful not to disclose any classified information to the media.

“This is an important distinction,” states GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. “Until the government demonstrates that any properly classified information has been released, it is illegal to spend federal funds investigating Mr. Tice. So far all that’s been revealed publicly is the warrantless nature of the wiretapping without additional detail on the program. That is exposing illegality and perfectly legal.”

To be properly classified, there must be specific notice designating information’s classification status, and its release must aid and abet the enemy. Examples of this include revealing specific ways terrorists could infiltrate the surveillance system, the design of a nuclear warhead, or the identities of secret agents.

Devine challenged, “How does simply disclosing the existence of illegality make speech classified, unless the enemy you’re aiding is the American public? If the government overcomes that hurdle, it is entitled to check whether Mr. Tice received and defied specific notice of any information’s secret status. But until those two tests are passed, it crosses the legal line to investigate his disclosures.”

That conclusion is based on the interplay between two key whistleblower laws. First, under the Lloyd Lafollette Act of 1912, it is illegal to obstruct communications with Congress. For over 25 years, it has been accepted in the law that media disclosures qualify as communications with the government.

Second, the anti-gag statute shields speech protected by Lloyd Lafollette and other good government laws from any government spending on retaliatory investigations against the whistleblower. It has been passed annually in appropriations legislation since 1988. It states that free speech rights listed in certain good government laws supersede any other restrictions against unclassified disclosures. The government violates the anti-gag statute if it spends money to implement or enforce the superseded policies. Under the Anti Deficit Act, officials responsible for the illegal spending are personally liable to repay the Treasury.

Devine commented, “This investigation is not about national security – it’s about covering up government illegality. This is precisely why the anti-gag statute was written and why it has been passed every year since 1988. It allows Congress to exercise its right to know about government misconduct, and allows government workers to serve as the public’s eyes and ears, and prevents agencies from holding the information hostage with an agency gag order.”

For more information on Russell Tice’s legal proceedings, please visit the National Security Whistleblower’s Coalition at http://www.nswbc.org.

Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, WA.


Government Accountability Project • www.whistleblower.org
National Office
1612 K Street, NW Suite #1100
Washington, D.C. 20006
202.408.0034
West Coast Office
1511 Third Ave. Suite 321
Seattle, Washington 98101
206.292.2850