Sen. Rockefeller: NSA may have spied on me
Update: Ex-NSA
analyst believes program is last remnant of 'Total Information Awareness'
Wiretapping whistleblower Russell Tice has been heard. Loud and clear.
Following Wednesday's allegation by the former National Security Agency analyst that
President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program had spied on everyone, contrary to what the
administration had claimed, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on
Thursday that he was "quite prepared to believe" the allegations.
"I think they went after anyone they could get -- including me," Tice added.
Tice, during an appearance on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann the prior
evening, proclaimed, "The National Security Agency had access to all Americans'
communications -- faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. It didn't matter
whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign
communications at all. They monitored all communications."
"In one of the operations that I was in, we looked at organizations, just supposedly
so that we would not target them," Tice told Olbermann. "What I was finding out,
though, is that the collection on those organizations was 24/7 and 365 days a year -- and
it made no sense. ... I started to investigate that. That's about the time when they came
after me to fire me."
President Bush shaking hands with Sen. Rockefeller in July 2008, shortly after the
passage of the FISA Amendments Act. (Reuters)
When Olbermann pressed him for specifics, Tice offered, "An organization that was
collected on were US news organizations and reporters and journalists."
The allegation essentially changes America's debate about domestic spying by the
government, from one of listening to terrorists, as the Bush administration had framed it,
to that of an intelligence operation beyond President Nixon's greatest aspirations, if
it's true.
It should also raise new questions about a 2004 revelation in the New York Times
that the paper had withheld a story for over a year, at the administration's request,
which described scant few, albeit now-known false details of the program.
"While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it said
the N.S.A. eavesdropped without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any
given time," the Times wrote, shortly after the 2004 election. "The list
changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this
country may have reached into the thousands over the past three years, several officials
said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at
one time, according to those officials."
The paper also notes that additional information was omitted, again at the request of the
Bush administration. The allegations at hand would seem to quickly dovetail into, 'Why?'
On July 9, 2008, the
US Senate passed a bill expanding legal authority for electronic wiretaps by spy
agencies, handing victory to President George W. Bush after a standoff over anti-terror
strategy. Then-Senator Obama, along with newly appointed Secretary of State Clinton, said
they would support Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn) in filibustering the GOP effort, specifically
when it came to immunity for the private telecom companies which allowed the NSA to
conduct warrantless spying.
Obama
ultimately "compromised," saying: "The President's illegal program of
warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap
statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance making it clear that the
President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American
people."
Clinton maintained her position, voting against the majority.
"I've never seen contempt for the rule of law such as this," said Sen.
Dodd in Dec. 2007.
With this latest round of revelations, perhaps another new question should be, 'Has
Obama?'
Tice reappeared on Countdown the following night, bearing
new allegations against the NSA. (rawstory,
1.22.2009, David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster)
This video is from MSNBC's Hardball, broadcast Jan. 22, 2009.
Download
video via RawReplay.com
Further reading:
Whistleblower:
NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rockefeller_NSA_may_have_spied_on_0122.html
Ed. note: John Davison Rockefeller IV runs the U.S. Corp. with his uncle David. When David croaks JDR IV will run the U.S. Corp. by himself. The NSA does NOT spy on him. It spies for him.