Jan 11 2006

Tice Spilled Beans To Congress On NSA

Published by at 7:31 pm under All General Discussions,FISA-NSA

FoxNews is reporting on Brit Hume’s Special Report by Carl Cameron (right before the midpoint) that Russell Tice did tell someone in Congress about the NSA program. My guess – Sen Rockerfeller.

Carl is also reporting Tice did not work on the program which Risen and the NY Times leaked – so therefore it is highly unlikely he knew enough about it to know whether it was legal or not. Sounds like a disgruntled employee making wild accusations lapped up by conspiracy driven liberals in the news media.

And this is why we have lost some of our edge in protecting ourselves from terrorists???

Were Rockefeller and Risen and Judge Robertson suckered by a disgruntled employee?

UPDATE:

Reader MerryJ1 has word that Tice spoke to Barbara Miluslky, Dem Senator from MD (which makes sense since the NSA is in MD). From what I saw on CNN, seems Tice is distancing himself from the NSA-FISA story now.

16 responses so far

16 Responses to “Tice Spilled Beans To Congress On NSA”

  1. MerryJ1 says:

    The ABC News Tice interview includes a link to a PDF copy of a letter to Tice from NSA, dated January 9, 2006.

    http://abcnews.go.com/images/Nightline/NSAletter.pdf

    Looks as though Tice announced his whistleblowing “intent” to everyone except the proper party(s). Also looks as though NSA and DoD learned of Tice’s complaints from MSM coverage.

  2. MerryJ1 says:

    The congressional person or staff Tice claims to have consulted was Barbara Miculsky or Mikulsky (or something like that).

  3. mary mapes says:

    MerryJ1

    Not sure of the spelling, but she is a Maryland Democrat, that I am sure of.

  4. Larwyn says:

    Just have to share 2 great catches by AmericanFuture.

    The Ayatollah uses the NSA monitoring to dis America.

    The French. who may be caught, surrender and praise America?

    Read both short captures.

    Word Gets Around

    January 11th, 2006 Among other things, “Leader of the Islamic Revolution” Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said this in his annual message to the pilgrims making hajj in Mecca on Tuesday:

    The U.S. and British governments, which consider it permissible to torture or even kill suspects in the streets, and even allow themselves to eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of citizens with no court order, have no right to introduce themselves as the supporters of civil rights. [emphasis added]

    From illegal leaks to the pages of the New York Times to the mouth of Iran’s Supreme Leader to the eyes and ears of a couple of million devout Muslims.
    Posted in Iran | No Comments »

    It’s true! From Le Figaro:

    The release of French hostage Bernard Planche yesterday earned the Americans warm thanks from Paris. This reflects the rapprochement between the partners on Iraq as well as on other matters in the Middle East. Expressing his thanks to “all those who mobilized” to help the French hostage regain his freedom, Jacques Chirac “thanked the coalition forces that permitted this release”. Dominque de Villepin was more explicit. Thanking “the diplomatic services and intelligence services”, the prime minister also thanked “the US authorities that lent their assistance to this release”.

    Here’s an interesting part of the story:

    [ . . . ] other reasons than simple diplomatic courtesy may have caused the French authorities to be sweet to the Americans. “In this kind of affair, they are able, thanks to their system of wiretapping and intelligence, to obtain a lot of information that can sometimes be embarrassing. It is better not to incite them to make it public,” said one source who has followed closely the kidnapping of Westerners in Iraq. [emphasis added]
    Posted in Iraq, France | No Comments »

    http://americanfuture.net/

    Click here: AMERICAN FUTURE

  5. tzuzelo1 says:

    Did you see the new poll that just came out? I’m sorry I forget who conducted it, that said a majority of Americans oppose spying on suspected al Qaeda terrorists without a warrant. That is just ridiculous.

  6. mary mapes says:

    AJ — fyi “Mikulski”

    from Gertzs’ article

    “… After several months of red-badge status, Mr. Tice sought administrative help from NSA Deputy Director William Black, the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, and several other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight. ”

    NSA fires whistleblower
    By REBECCA CARR
    Cox News Service
    Thursday, May 05, 2005

    “…In the summer of 2003, Tice told the NSA that he was considering talking to his congressional representatives about waste and abuse at NSA security. He was told that he would face retaliation if he did so, Tice wrote in his statement to the inspector general.

    A few weeks after contacting Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., the retaliation intensified, he said. The NSA even sent an agent to his home to “threaten me in person with unspecified actions if I went to the press,” Tice said.

    In August 2004, the agency suspended Tice’s clearance…”

    Link

    So he was shopping IN THE SUMMER OF 2003, what else was happening in the summer of 2003? Oh, the Plame game.

  7. mary mapes says:

    oh sorry AJ…over zealous cut and paste…so sorry, feel free to delete the goofy part. yikes, I am hopeless.

  8. mary mapes says:

    one more stab – read italics and bold together

    “…In the summer of 2003, Tice told the NSA that he was considering talking to his congressional representatives about waste and abuse at NSA security. He was told that he would face retaliation if he did so, Tice wrote in his statement to the inspector general.
    A few weeks after contacting Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., ”

    ““… After several months of red-badge status, Mr. Tice sought administrative help from NSA Deputy Director William Black, the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, and several other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight. ”

  9. Larwyn says:

    tzuzelo1
    Poll I saw mentioned tonight said that over 60% wanted all
    calls that involved terrorists monitored.

    And

    48% wanted the U.S. to be MORE AGRESSIVE!
    This was higher than those that wanted less, a few % points
    must not have had opinion.

    TZUZELO, perhaps you saw a French poll – see the post from
    American Future From Le Figaro. Then again – it could have
    been Iranian or the Democrats.

  10. mary mapes says:

    okay this is brutal (and I am feeling so stupid) but I just wanted to highlight this admission

    Mr. Tice —the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, and several other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight. ”

    Well, there aren’t that many other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight…WHO? Mr Tice.

    Senator Rockefeller was busy in the summer of 2003 with Joe Wilson…what’s that? He wrote a letter to himself about NSA and put in a vault on JULY 17, 2003 (3 days after Ms. Plame was outed?)?

    And Tice was let go in August ’03 after he started breaking the law?

    A whole lot of coincidences .

  11. Larwyn says:

    It was WaPo/ABC Poll’

    This from Rich Moran:

    “As it is, Americans believe by a huge margin – 65% to 32% – that it is more important for the government to investigate terrorist threats even if it intrudes on personal privacy. And on more specific questions such as whether or not the program is justified, a plurality of 49% to 46% support the Administration’s efforts.

    In short, it appears that the New York Times outed a top secret program vital to national security for nothing. If they did it because they believe it is the people’s “right” to know, citizens evidently don’t agree with them. And if they did it to undermine the Bush Administration, they have failed miserably.”

  12. MerryJ1 says:

    Thank you, Mary Mapes. That was the item I was thinking of, but didn’t recall the exact source (I should’ve back-tracked myself and included a link – thanks for making my error ‘harmless’).

    Your post on Rockefeller-Tice-Wilson-Plame Summer of 2003 timeline looks like some interesting dot connecting. Perhaps I hope for too much, but I’d sure like to see some of those dots connect with DOJ indictments.

  13. NSA – “Wild and Crazy Tice” Update

    So as Brit would say, “What about Barbara?”

  14. mary mapes says:

    MerryJ1
    thanks for making my error ‘harmless’).

    Your error was harmless…me on the otherhand? It only took me 45 comment tries to get it right!

    I hope someone notices the somewhat buried (and therefore never followed up on)…

    “Mr. Tice (went to)—the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, and several other members of Congress involved in intelligence oversight. ”

    Like some intrepid reporter willing to ask other members involved in intelligence oversight if Mr. Tice contacted them and if so when? If that doesn’t happen, I hope DOJ read it.

    Thanks AJ for giving me my dignity back by cleaning up my 5000 word comment !

  15. axiom says:

    Tice says that he was one of Risen’s sources for his NY Times piece and his book.

    I just watched Tice tell Chris Matthews that he would not break the law and reveal classified information.

    My question then is what kind of information did Tice provide to Risen?

    Did Tice merely confirm reports that Risen was hearing from other sources?

    Why did Tice go to the Inspector General after he went to the press?

    Obviously his story stinks. The timeline fits right into Plamegate in terms of the VIPS chorus reciting the same tune on television and in print.

    Clearly, Tice didn’t matter one ounce until the Risen story appeared in the Times. Tice was in and out of the press in just a few weeks in March 2005. When did Tice talk to Risen?

    This would tell us more about Tice, but it would also tell us more about the estimations on the timing of publishing by the NY Times.

  16. Snapple says:

    Mary Mapes–

    I am sorry, I don’t really see how Tice links to Plame.

    I see some coincidences of time, but that might not mean anything.

    Maybe I am missing something. I am a little under the weather because I got conked in the head with a metal pole. Maybe I am missing something.