Story first appeared in therealnews.com:
Russell Tice is a Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Capabilities Operations Officer Specializing in Offensive Information Warfare (O-IW), for Black World operations and programs. His areas of expertise are Satellite & Missile Systems technology, and Worldwide Geo/political intelligence.
During his nearly 20 year career with various US government agencies he provided technical and geo-political analysis and conducted intelligence missions related to the Kosovo conflict, Afghanistan, the USS Cole Bombing in Yemen, Iraq, East Asia, and other overseas operations still classified. In 2005 Tice helped spark a national controversy over claims that the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional intelligence collection on US citizens, and later admitted that he was one of the sources that were used in the NY Times’ reporting on the wiretap activity in December 2005.
On July 26, 2006, he was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury investigating the leaking of NSA’s illegal warrantless mass domestic wiretapping under the false auspices of violations of the federal espionage act.
Russell Tice: I specialized in special black world programs, which are even above the things that, like, Mr. Snowden would have had access to. So in that world I was a tentacle specialist and a geopolitical analyst. But my main specialty is dealing with our capabilities in space and missile systems, anything having to do with–if it went through space, I was involved with it.
We started seeing that the targeting was a lot wider, especially with domestic communications. It was the Supreme Court. At was Justice Alito when he was being considered for the Supreme Court. It was members of the FISA court. It was congressmen and senators, especially those involved with the Armed Services Committee, the intelligence committees, and the judiciary committees, and the senior leadership in Congress. And it was a lot of lawyers and law firms, mainly lawyers and law firms, from what I saw. I mean, hundreds of lawyers’ and law firms’ phone numbers were tapped. It was the Red Cross, so–you know, of all things, and some of those organizations that go overseas to do, you know, charity work and that sort of thing.
First, those people in charge need to be tried, and if found guilty of violating our constitutional liberties, they need to be put in jail. We need to clean house at NSA. The place–basically we need to kill NSA and from the ashes, you know, build another agency that’s dedicated to the true mission, ’cause they have a valid mission. NSA–and believe me, I love the place. I love working there. I was a workaholic. I would be there early in the morning. I’d be there, you know, till six or seven. I’d be the guy closing the office. And I’d work through lunch most every day. I loved my job. I loved what I did there. And I felt that I was serving the American people.
Then I come to find out, you know, what has happened and the NSA is violating their own regulations, the laws, the Constitution. It was a brick to the head.
And so basically NSA has become a gorgon, a Medusa. And the Medusa has to die, the Medusa cannot live, because what’s going to happen with this capability, even if you believe our president now is the most benevolent president that we’ll ever have, maybe, what about the next president? What about the one after that? What about the one after that? You’ve given that individual the capability to basically turn this country into a dystopian police state.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=11634
Member Of Intelligence Review Group says the NSA should never, ever be trusted:
Geoffrey Stone was a member of the Presidential panel tasked with reviewing the NSA’s surveillance efforts — the one that urged significant changes to the program, some of which may actually happen. He was one of the more outspoken members of the panel concerning the importance of civil liberties, and after the panel’s report came out he was vocal about how “shocked” he was that the NSA’s phone record collection program was basically useless.
Apparently he was recently asked to go speak to NSA staffers at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade about the work he did for the panel, and he’s released his entire speech. It’s an interesting read. It opens with him explaining his long-standing and strong commitment to civil liberties, noting his connection to the ACLU and that he’s been a long-term skeptic of the NSA. He then goes on for most of the speech to talk about how the investigation by the review panel opened his eyes to recognizing that the NSA actually had done some really amazing and important work in stopping terrorists, and similarly that it really did seem committed to protecting Americans — including their civil liberties.
“To be clear, I am not saying that citizens should trust the NSA. They should not. Distrust is essential to effective democratic governance. The NSA should be subject to constant and rigorous review, oversight, scrutiny, and checks and balances. The work it does, however important to the safety of the nation, necessarily poses grave dangers to fundamental American values, particularly if its work is abused by persons in positions of authority. If anything, oversight of the NSA — especially by Congress — should be strengthened. The future of our nation depends not only on the NSA doing its job, but also on the existence of clear, definitive, and carefully enforced rules and restrictions governing its activities Geoffrey Stone said.”
This is a really good point in many ways. One can argue over the various efforts and authorities, and whether or not they’re legal. But, the issue is definitely targeted at the top — and that includes not just the White House but the leadership of the NSA, as well as the FISA Courts and Congress. However, in following this debate since it began (even before that), I’ve seen little evidence that the public has been demonizing everyday NSA employees. Of course, some of the leaks suggest something that appears to be less than professional behavior by NSA folks, but nearly all of the criticism I’ve seen has been directed at those actually responsible at the top of the chain — not the day to day staffers.
Either way, Stone’s final point is a good one. Even if the NSA employed the most morally upstanding people ever alive, we should not trust them. An agency like the NSA should never be merely trusted, not because anyone questions the morals of the people who work there, but because a democracy cannot function when an organization like that is allowed to function solely on trust. It needs real,vigorous and comprehensive oversight. At this time, it’s not clear it has any of that.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140401/17575126774/member-intelligence-review-group-tells-nsa-you-guys-have-done-amazing-work-protecting-america-should-never-ever-be-trusted.shtml
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2014/04/russell-tice-why-i-decided-to-blow.html