OH GOODY!!! NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’ CongressDaily reports that former NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Tice will tell Congress that former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden, Bush’s nominee to be the next CIA director, oversaw more illegal activity that has yet to be disclosed: A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. … [Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.” … Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. “It’s an angle that you haven’t heard about yet,” he said. … He would not discuss with a reporter the details of his allegations, saying doing so would compromise classified information and put him at risk of going to jail. He said he “will not confirm or deny” if his allegations involve the illegal use of space systems and satellites. Tice has a history for blowing the whistle on serious misconduct. He was one of the sources that revealed the administration’s warrantless domestic spying program to the New York Times. http://www.thinkprogress.org/
Well we knew this was coming. Didn't realize it'd be so fast. ----- Verizon Sued for Giving NSA Phone Records By BETH DeFALCO TRENTON, N.J. - Two New Jersey public interest lawyers sued Verizon Communications Inc. for $5 billion Friday, claiming the phone carrier violated privacy laws by turning over phone records to the National Security Agency for a secret government surveillance program. Attorneys Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer filed the lawsuit Friday afternoon in federal district court in Manhattan, where Verizon is headquartered. The lawsuit asks the court to stop Verizon from turning over any more records to the NSA without a warrant or consent of the subscriber. "This is the largest and most vast intrusion of civil liberties we've ever seen in the United States," Afran said of the NSA program. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060512/ap_on_bi_ge/nsa_records_verizon
I am in the middle of talking to Verizon right now to see if there is a way to get out of my contract for my wife and I. If not, we will be ending our service with them, and switching to Qwest ASAP.
Talking to Verizon was interesting. The customer service rep initially didn't know what we were talking about when we told her about Verizon giving away our information. Then after we told her it was in every news paper, news magazine, and television news show, she said you shouldn't always believe what you hear. We then asked if we should disbelieve every news outlet in the country, but should then turn around and believe a Verizon customer service rep who hadn't heard of the story initially. Finally someone must have clued her in, and she stated that it just wasn't true. We since have e-mailed Verizon to please send us in writing that it wasn't true. The good news is that Qwest not only does Wireless phone service, but VOIP as well. Goodbye AT&T and goodbye Verizon.
Dude you're a hero. You really gave that college student answering the phone at Verizon a piece of your mind. You really showed her!!! Boy, if that doesn't give Verizon pause, I don't know what will. And to top it off, you followed up with an EMAIL? Huge, brah. huge.
I didn't actually yell or get into a fight. I was more laughing at the tactics the customer service folks were using. The E-Mail wasn't to give anyone a piece of mine, just to get them to actually state in writing that none of their customers information was given to the NSA. What are you doing about protecting your freedoms?
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/t-mobile-says-they-did-not-participate.html BAD GUYS - Verizon land-line: "We have been in full compliance with the law and we are committed to our customers' privacy." - AT&T land-line: "Our customers expect, deserve and receive nothing less than our fullest commitment to their privacy. We also have an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare, whether it be an individual or the security interests of the entire nation." - BellSouth land-line: "We have not provided any information we would need a subpoena for." GOOD GUYS(supposedly) - Qwest - Verizon Wireless: "Verizon Wireless is not involved in this situation." - T-Mobile: "T-Mobile is not a participant in any NSA program for warrant-less surveillance and acquisition of call records. T-Mobile has not provided any such access to communications or customer records." UNCLEAR - Comcast: "It is not company policy to provide the federal government access to customer records or the ability to monitor customer communications in the absence of valid legal process."
Not giving info is a really shrewd business tactic. I figure a significant number may jump ship just because of this. I remember when SBC announced that they would refuse to allow the government to access internet records in order to search for DMCA (piracy) violations. Quite a few people switched after that announcement. Anyway, nice job for not selling out Qwest and smart business move as well.
So Verizon wireless didn't give out info, but their landline operation did? That's weird. Looks like I'll be moving one, and possibly two providers. One hopes that it's still a free country. (insert "roll-eyes" here) Keep D&D Civil.
I've been thinking about this poll that came out yesterday, the day after the USA Today article broke. Anyone else surprised at how fast this poll was done? I mean, we hear about this possibly illegal program then the next day this poll is released? Could someone really have done a poll that fast, analyzed the data and released the poll all in 24 hours? Never mind the fact that people didn't even have time to digest the information and then form an opinion. Now we know that the administration has in the past created bogus news stories and paid papers and reporters to print them as real news. It doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility that that is what has happened here.
ah..now I get it... The headline blazing across the Washinton Post this morning reads: "Poll: Most Americans Support NSA’s Efforts." It was written by Richard Morin, and we’ve been down this road before. Just days after the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal broke, before people had become wise to what was going on (and long before Clinton’s popularity soared during the congressional hearings), Morin was polling on impeachment with carefully worded questions. He got the results he was looking for, and long after public opinion had turned they existed as a bulwark against any change in conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill. This, however, was Morin’s response not long ago in a Washington Post online chat: So before the phone records story even breaks, Morin — who knows absolutely what he is doing — starts polling people who have no idea what he’s talking about and giving it his best shot, tying it to the War on Terra. It works. Today it’s plastered across the front page of the washingtonpost.com like Carol Doda’s bright red lightbulb t*** flashing at the Condor Club. As eRiposte has noted, in a CBS/NYT poll earlier this year this was one of the questions posed: At that time 70% responded "no." A rather strong indication that a lot has to do with how these particular questions are worded. But just like clockwork, the chattering class picked up the ball and ran with Morin’s meme. Said JWR here in the comments this morning, "Surprise! Juan Williams just cited that WaPo poll in asserting that the American people are A-Ok with illegal domestic spying." And Howie Klein writes from the road, "I’m sitting in a hotel room in NYC and CNN has repeated those numbers every 20 minutes since I woke up. Every one of the talking heads they bring on to comment, cites it. I can only imagine what Fox must be making of it." This was a carefully run PR campaign that depended on the full cooperation of the cocktail weenie set. They’re run it before, they’ll run it again, and long after people have started listening to Joe Scarborough and Jack Cafferty and deciding they feel quite uneasy about this, the poll will still be quoted. And it might have its desired effect: make Democrats fearful of going on the attack. Amazing that could happen with a President at 29%, but they’ve managed to bully key Democrats into the crouch position with regard to impeachment, it just might work here too. But I have bad news for the GOP. I also woke up to this in the comments section, written by John Casper: People are getting wise to how the ground game is being run. That awareness is becoming part of the zeitgeist, around which conventional wisdom is also being formed. The chattering class might be as clueless as ever, but the listening class is getting wise. http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/05/12/bush-league/
Thanks for posting this. This puts the liberals' outrage in perspective. If you were to only read this board, you might actually think the liberals' side on this issue were popular. Just more of the liberals blindly throwing **** and hoping something sticks.
In this administration, the "liberals' outrage" has been an incredibly good predictor of future US opinion on everything from the Iraq War to Medicare coverage to Bush's approval ratings. Certainly far better than your tradesports "USC futures indicator" that you so desperately rely on. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/12/bush.clinton.poll/index.html Substantial majorities now believe Clinton outperformed Bush on economic policy, tax policy, dealing with every day problems, foreign affairs, national disasters, and being a "uniter, not divider". Smaller majorities believe Clinton to be more honest than Bush and that he handled national security better than Bush. "Liberal outrage" seems to be more accurately described as "American outrage" for future reference.
