[Infowarrior] - NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists

[Richard Forno]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_Bushs_NSA_targeted_reporters_0121.html
	
Whistleblower: NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday January 21, 2009

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped  
expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now  
come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's  
Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans  
were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but  
specifically targeted journalists.

"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans'  
communications -- faxes, phone calls, and their computer  
communications," Tice claimed. "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."

Tice further explained that "even for the NSA it's impossible to  
literally collect all communications. ... What was done was sort of an  
ability to look at the metadata ... and ferret that information to  
determine what communications would ultimately be collected."

According to Tice, in addition to this "low-tech, dragnet" approach,  
the NSA also had the ability to hone in on specific groups, and that  
was the aspect he himself was involved with. However, even within the  
NSA there was a cover story meant to prevent people like Tice from  
realizing what they were doing.

"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."

When Olbermann pressed him for specifics, Tice offered, "An  
organization that was collected on were US news organizations and  
reporters and journalists."

"To what purpose?" Olbermann asked. "I mean, is there a file somewhere  
full of every email sent by all the reporters at the New York Times?  
Is there a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my  
little nephew in upstate New York?"

Tice did not answer directly, but simply stated, "If it was involved  
in this specific avenue of collection, it would be everything." He  
added, however, that he had no idea what was ultimately done with the  
information, except that he was sure it "was digitized and put on  
databases somewhere."

Tice first began alleging that there were illegal activities going on  
at both the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency in December 2005,  
several months after being fired by the NSA. He also served at that  
time as a source for the New York Times story which revealed the  
existence of the NSA's wireless wiretapping program.

Over the next several months, however, Tice was frustrated in his  
attempts to testify before Congress, had his credibility attacked by  
Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, and was subpoenaed by a federal grand  
jury in an apparent attempt at intimidation.

Tice is now coming forward again now because George Bush is finally  
out of office. He told Olbermann that the Obama administration has not  
been in touch with him about his latest revelations, but, "I did send  
a letter to, I think it's [Obama intelligence adviser John] Brennan --  
a handwritten letter, because I knew all my communications were  
tapped, my phones, my computer, and I've had the FBI on me like flies  
on you-know-what ... and I'm assuming that he gave the note to our  
current president -- that I intended to say a little bit more than I  
had in the past."


This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 21, 2009.


http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_Bushs_NSA_targeted_reporters_0121.html