NSA Whistleblower: NSA Spying On – and Blackmailing – Top Government Officials and Military Officers

Washington’s Blog

Whistleblower Says Spy Agency Targeting Top American Leaders

NSA whistleblower Russel Tice – a key source in the 2005 New York Times report that blew the lid off the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretapping – told Peter B. Collins on Boiling Frogs Post (the website of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds):  

Tice: Okay. They went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of–heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Courtthat I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in theexecutive service that were part of the White House–their own people. They went after antiwar groups. They went after U.S. international–U.S. companies that that do international business, you know, business around the world. They went after U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs that–like the Red Cross, people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few antiwar civil rights groups. So, you know, don’t tell me that there’s no abuse, because I’ve had this stuff in my hand and looked at it. And in some cases, I literally was involved in the technology that was going after this stuff. And you know, when I said to [former MSNBC show host Keith] Olbermann, I said, my particular thing is high tech and you know, what’s going on is the other thing, which is the dragnet. The dragnet is what Mark Klein is talking about, the terrestrial dragnet. Well my specialty is outer space. I deal with satellites, and everything that goes in and out of space. I did my spying via space. So that’s how I found out about this.

Collins: Now Russ, the targeting of the people that you just mentioned, top military leaders, members of Congress, intelligence community leaders and the–oh, I’m sorry, it was intelligence committees, let me correct that–not intelligence community, and then executive branch appointees. This creates the basis, and the potential for massive blackmail.

Tice: Absolutely! And remember we talked about that before, that I was worried that the intelligence community now has sway over what is going on. Now here’s the big one. I haven’t given you any names. This was is summer of 2004. One of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with, with a 40-something-year-old wannabe senator from Illinois. You wouldn’t happen to know where that guy lives right now, would you? It’s a big white house in Washington, DC. That’s who they went after. And that’s the president of the United States now.

Other whistleblowers say the same thing.  When the former head of the NSA’s digital spying program – William Binney – disclosed the fact that the U.S. was spying on everyone in the U.S. and storing the data forever, and that the U.S. was quickly becoming a totalitarian state, the Feds tried to scare him into shutting up:

[Numerous] FBI officers held a gun to Binney’s head as he stepped naked from the shower. He watched with his wife and youngest son as the FBI ransacked their home. Later Binney was separated from the rest of his family, and FBI officials pressured him to implicate one of the other complainants in criminal activity. During the raid, Binney attempted to report to FBI officials the crimes he had witnessed at NSA, in particular the NSA’s violation of the constitutional rights of all Americans. However, the FBI wasn’t interested in these disclosures. Instead, FBI officials seized Binney’s private computer, which to this day has not been returned despite the fact that he has not been charged with a crime.

Other NSA whistleblowers have also been subjected to armed raids and criminal prosecution.

After high-level CIA officer John Kiriakou blew the whistle on illegal CIA torture, the governmentprosecuted him for espionage.

Even the head of the CIA was targeted with extra-constitutional spying and driven out of office.  Indeed, Binney makes it very clear that the government will use information gained from its all-pervasive spying program to frame anyone it doesn’t like.

(More examples here.)

Retired high-level CIA analyst Ray McGovern – the top CIA briefer to numerous presidents – said this a few weeks ago on a radio program:

Which leads to the question, why would [Obama] do all these things? Why would he be afraid for example, to take the drones away from the CIA? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s afraid. Number one, he’s afraid of what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. And I know from a good friend who was there when it happened, that at a small dinner with progressive supporters – after these progressive supporters were banging on Obama before the election, “Why don’t you do the things we thought you stood for?” Obama turned sharply and said, “Don’t you remember what happened to Martin Luther King Jr.?” That’s a quote, and that’s a very revealing quote.

McGovern also said:

In a speech on March 21, second-term Obama gave us a big clue regarding his concept of leadership – one that is marked primarily by political risk-avoidance and a penchant for “leading from behind”: “Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see.”

John Kennedy was willing to take huge risks in reaching out to the USSR and ending the war in Vietnam. That willingness to take risks may have gotten him assassinated, as James Douglass argues in his masterful JFK and the Unspeakable.

Martin Luther King, Jr., also took great risks and met the same end. There is more than just surmise that this weighs heavily on Barack Obama’s mind. Last year, pressed by progressive donors at a dinner party to act more like the progressive they thought he was, Obama responded sharply, “Don’t you remember what happened to Dr. King?”

We’re agnostic about McGovern’s theory. We don’t know whether Obama is a total corrupt sell-out … or a chicken. We don’t think it matters … as the effect is the same.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/nsa-whistleblower-nsa-spying-on-and-blackmailing-high-level-government-officials-and-military-officers.html

19 thoughts on “NSA Whistleblower: NSA Spying On – and Blackmailing – Top Government Officials and Military Officers

  1. You see…it doesn’t matter who’s in ‘the house’, it’s not about ‘right’ or ‘left’. It’s about being a ‘team’ player. And if not, well… ‘they’ know what happens. They are JFK’d.

  2. It will continue until the Evil Elitist Hoard controlling the Federal Reserve/Central Bank are exposed & prosecuted for their high crimes of treason…..Fight on for Freedom & Liberty

    1. Right……. a lot of people are putting 2+2 together on this one. To spare himself some embarrassment and perhaps even stepping down, Roberts sells out his principles and the whole country with them.

  3. It’s just like the late great Bill HIcks (they took him out) said. Once you win the presidential election, the “big boys” sit you in a small theater and show you a film of the Kennedy assassination from a view you’ve never seen before and when the film is done they ask, “Any questions?”

  4. This is how they get what they want, from their victims.
    Either their cooperation, or their removal.
    Has one noticed how many politicians who’ve been
    staunch supporters of an ideology, suddenly change
    their positions ?
    Or decide not to run again, and retire.
    Or even the changing of the guard, so to speak, with
    our military leaders. Sudden deaths or change of orders..
    Breitbart, Shwartzkopf, Hastings, and a long line of others.
    were taken down for their unwillingness to play along.
    They had standards that didn’t include marxism.
    It’s SOOO obvious.
    Marxist cretans play hardball, for they’ve too much to lose.
    But what they fail to notice is, their days are numbered.
    Both in this realm, and the next.
    God Bless The Republic, Death To The NWO, We Shall
    Prevail, We’re On The March, They’re On The Run,
    Both Day And Night !

    1. The Zionists have turned the NSA into their own “private eye” to “dig up dirt” on anyone. Even someone beyond reproach would be drugged and taken to “the gay bath house” for blackmail purposes. If you don’t play ball, they will destroy or kill you.

  5. The over powering and ruling FED RESERVE is most of the problem but our gov. is not incontrol look at what the people voted for..Listen the system has to fall to make any changes we are all just slaves to all this..We the people have that right read up and understand about your Rights and keep them too the end..Stand and fight for the RIGHT for if the RIGHT falls all falls..R.C. you got it mosty but it more corrupt than that ..We must keep GOD first as our whole country was swornen into at the very begining..We are all under GOD first …

    1. I believe you are right Norse Wolf, this is not only a fight in the “material world” but in the “Spiritual Realm” as well.

      1. This is a fight in the material world, and the spiritual world, but where it must be won is in the genetic world. We must learn to recognize genetic psychopaths, and then at least prevent them from ever having positions of authority. Better still, prevent them from breeding.

        1. Tom read the bible the answers are in there the LORD will take care of this ..George Washington made us the only second nation swornen under GOD to be protect as long we keep GOD first in our thoughts and lives..Thats why we must keep this oath or else ..

  6. I think some of these Whistleblower groups could be fronts for special interests. This Jesselyn Radack who was defending the 3 NSA whistleblowers recently, works for the Govt. Accountability Project. This Project receives funds from an organization founded & run by Soros (Open Society Foundation). It also receives funds from the Rockefeller Family Fund. Glenn Greenwald wrote the forward to Radack’s book. Sibel Edmonds founded “National Security Whistleblower Coalition” and among her top staff is a lawyer named Kohn who previously worked for the Govt. Accountability Project. Don’t know what it all means, but it is curious.

    1. I’m still waiting for “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. I believe there are millions out there that know shit ain’t “kosher” in Washington but just don’t know how to resolve it. Here’s a possible solution. Every government employee should be charged with treason and should be judged by a jury of their peers as to their willingness to support these treasonous activities such as the “Patriot Act” or the NDAA. Read the Bill of Rights, read the constitution, all of these laws are treasonous. We would have to set up our own courts as everyone knows the current lot are all bought off. In fact, they would be “defendants”.

  7. Nothing new about this. Back in 1997 Bill Clinton told Monica that a foreign nation taps his phone. You don’t need too many guesses to know which nation he was referring to.

  8. how many understand the word defacto and what it all applays too..and the ture empty house seats when the south left them befor the civil war was started..all this is why we are today in this problem and the corp. runs it all..so keep your rights never give them up..

  9. I my fathers all where in wars for over 400 years in SWEDEN ..We fought them all in the 30 years war and more ..Thats why SWEDEN has not been in any war for over one hundred years..We understand what not too run from ..We need whisle blowers or more like Hamilton ..If you do not use your rights you will lose them..

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