[Infowarrior] - Tice: NSA even collected credit card records

[Richard Forno]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_NSA_collected_credit_card_records_0122.html
  	

Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Thursday January 22, 2009

Ex-analyst believes program actually the remnants of 'Total  
Information Awareness,' shut down by Congress in 2003

On Wednesday night, when former NSA analyst Russell Tice told MSNBC's  
Keith Olbermann that the Bush administration's National Security  
Agency spied on everyone in the United States, specifically targeting  
journalists, the Countdown host was so flabbergasted that Tice was  
invited back for a second interview.

On Thursday, he returned to the airwaves with expanded allegations  
against the NSA, claiming the agency collected Americans' credit card  
records, and adding that he believes the massive, warrantless data  
vacuum to be the remnants of the Total Information Awareness program,  
shut down by Congress in 2003.

Asked for comment by Olbermann's staff, the agency responded, "NSA  
considers the constitutional rights of US citizens to be sacrosanct.  
The intelligence community faces immense challenges in protecting our  
nation. No matter the challenges, NSA remains dedicated to performing  
its mission under the rule of law."

Olbermann ran the quote under a banner which read, "Non-denial denial."

"As far as the wiretap information that made it though NSA, there was  
also data-mining that was involved," Tice told Olbermann during the  
pair's second interview. "At some point, information from credit card  
records and financial transactions was married in with that  
information."

At this point on the audio track, Olbermann can be heard taking a deep  
breath.

"So, lucky American citizens, tens of thousands of whom are now on  
digital databases at NSA, who have no idea of this, also have that  
information included in those digital files that have been  
warehoused," said Tice.

"... Do you have any idea what all this stuff was used for?" asked the  
stunned host.

"The obvious explanation would be, if you did have a potential  
terrorist, you'd want to know where they're spending money, whether  
they purchased an airline ticket, that sort of thing," said Tice.  
"But, once again, we're talking about tens of thousands of innocent US  
citizens that have been caught up into this trap. They have no clue.

"This thing could sit there for 10 years, then all the sudden it  
marries up with something else and 10 years from now and they get put  
on a no-fly list and they of course won't have a clue why."

Tice added that "in most cases," spied-upon Americans didn't have to  
do anything suspicious in order to trigger the surveillance.

"This is garnered from algorithms that have been put together to try  
to just dream up scenarios that might be information that is  
associated with how a terrorist could operate," he said.

Ultimately, the technical explanation boils down to this: "If someone  
just talked about the daily news and mentioned something about the  
Middle East, they could easily be brought to the forefront of having  
that little flag put by their name that says potential terrorist,"  
said Tice.

"Do you know, or do you have an educated guess, as to who authorized  
this? Who developed this?" asked Olbermann.

"I have a guess, where it was developed," he replied. "I think it was  
probably developed out of the Department of Defense, and this is  
probably the remnants of Total Information Awareness, that came out of  
DARPA. That's my guess, I don't know that for sure."

Olbermann then asked if Tice knows who had access to the data.

"I started looking into this, and that's when ultimately they came  
after me to fire me," said Tice. "They must have realized that I'd  
stumbled onto something, and after that point I of course had no  
ability to find anything else out."

Tice concluded that he does not know if the program, as he understands  
it, continues to this day, and he refused to specifically state which  
media organizations the Bush administration's NSA had targeted for  
surveillance.

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 22, 2009

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_NSA_collected_credit_card_records_0122.html