Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
The federal government has opened a new chapter in its continuing assault on the truth and the people who tell it. On Wednesday, Russell Tice, a former National Security Agency (NSA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst, received a subpoena requesting him to testify before a federal grand jury.
Why? According to a press release issued today by National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), Tice seems to see it simply as an attempt at intimidation.
But another reason lurks just beneath the surface: Tice has knowledge that, if it ever became public, would pose a serious challenge to one of the current administration’s favorite projects — secret and illegal spying on law-abiding American citizens.
Fortunately for Russell Tice, and for all Americans who love the truth and the freedom to express it, he is not alone in this. He’s getting considerable support from NSWBC, an organization founded by Sibel Edmonds to support truth-tellers in government.
We have the press release sent out early today by NSWBC, which explains everything I’ve been saying. We also have an op/ed piece written by Sibel Edmonds, in which she makes a compelling plea for more whistleblowers to come forward. I will post both documents in full below and I encourage you to read them.
But that’s not all we have …
The documents below are very formal. And that’s not inappropriate, given their subject matter. In them, Sibel Edmonds and the others explain things very clearly, in a language that is so refined the reader might not notice the passion in it.
There’s no lack of passion when Sibel Edmonds speaks, though. This nearly frozen blogger was fortunate enough to speak with her — via telephone — for a few minutes this afternoon.
And it was fabulous! She almost thawed me out! Listen:
Suppose you’re walking down the street and you see a rape in progress. What would you do? If you’re a decent, compassionate person, there’s no question what you would do. You’d dial 9-1-1, right? That’s what we would all do, isn’t it? That’s what anyone would do.
But for the people working in the agencies, it’s a different story. If they see evidence of criminal activities, if they see things being done that are not only illegal but also against the best interests of the country, what can they do? Who can they call? We don’t have a 9-1-1 number to call, and the usual channels — the internal methods that whistleblowers used to be able to use — don’t work anymore. So we really have no choice but to call the media.
We have to work doubly hard to encourage whistleblowers. And it’s simple: I mean, who are you protecting? Who are you loyal to? If you work for the government, did you take an oath to protect top-secret classified papers? Or did you take an oath to protect the Constitution, to protect the country? We think you should be loyal to the country, and to the Constitution. After all, this is what is expected of government employees.
So the people we call “whistleblowers” shouldn’t be anything special. This is what all government employees should be doing. And if they did, we wouldn’t call them whistleblowers. We wouldn’t have a name for them. We’d have a name for the other people in government instead.
I should say so!
I can think of a few really good names for those people. And I’ll bet you can too.
But let’s not go there … not now, anyway.
Instead, let’s turn to the documents I promised you. I urge you to read them, and to follow the links, if you care about the future of freedom in this country, or if you want to know more about the government’s newest attack on truth, justice, and what was supposed to be the American way.
This is this morning’s press release:
Wednesday, July 26, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. NSWBC has obtained a copy of the subpoena issued for Mr. Tice’s testimony and is releasing it to the public for the first time. The subpoena directs Mr. Tice to appear before the jury on August 2, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Tice “will be asked to testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law.” [To view the subpoena click here].
In response to the subpoena, Mr. Tice issued the following statement: “This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.†He continued: “To this date I have pursued all the appropriate channels to report unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted [by the government] while I served as an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. It was with my oath as a US intelligence officer to protect and preserve the U.S. Constitution weighing heavy on my mind that I reported acts that I know to be unlawful and unconstitutional. The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state.â€
On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition made public a request by Tice to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts by the government while he was an intelligence officer with NSA and DIA. In a press release, NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Mr. Tice, a responsible veteran intelligence officer, tried to use the so-called appropriate channels, including the United States Congress, to responsibly and lawfully disclose government wrongdoing. [To read the release click here].
“What we are seeing here is a government desperate to cover up its criminal and unconstitutional conduct. They now are going beyond the usual retaliation against whistleblowers who courageously come forward to report cases of government fraud, waste, abuse, and in some cases such as this one, criminal actions. Their old tactics of intimidation, gag orders, and firing, have not stopped an unprecedented number of whistleblowers from coming forward and doing the right thing. Desperate to prevent the public’s right to know, they now are getting engaged in a witch hunt targeting these patriotic truth tellers.†stated Sibel Edmonds, the Director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.
In addition, the timing of the subpoena appears to be more than a little suspect. On July 25, 2006, Judge Matthew Kennelly upheld the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege in Terkel v. AT&T. The crucial issue in the case was whether or not the government’s program of surveillance had been publicly acknowledged, and Kennelly wrote “the focus should be on information that bears persuasive indication of reliability.” If there were reliable public reports of the program then the fact of the program’s existence could not be a state secret. Kennelly found that there were no reliable sources of public information about the contested program’s existence sufficient to thwart the government’s need for secrecy. In other words, the existence of the program had not been conclusively established, and the government therefore had a right to prevent probing into the matter. This stops a case that represented a serious threat to the Bush administration.
Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, stated: “Russ Tice is the only publicly identified NSA employee connected to the New York Times in its December 2005 story publicizing warrantless Bush-ordered surveillance. Tice is also publicly perceived as someone who could authoritatively establish the existence of the program at issue in Terkel; Tice could remedy the defect in the plaintiff’s case cited by Kennelly that allowed the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege to be successful. Later, on the same day Kennelly’s opinion was filed, the Department of Justice sent out Tice’s subpoena. The date on the subpoena is July 20th, before Kennelly’s decision was filed, but the issue in the Terkel case was so pregnant that it would be easy for the government to anticipate the ruling and only issue the subpoena to Tice if necessary. It has now become necessary, and the government seems to be moving to put pressure on Tice not to reveal information that would confirm the electronic surveillance program at issue in Terkel by threatening him with investigation and possible indictment.â€
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org
# # # #
© Copyright 2006, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Information in this release may be freely distributed and published provided that all such distributions make appropriate attribution to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.
# # # #
And now, the Op/Ed piece witten by Sibel Edmonds and William Weaver:
Without whistleblowers the public would never know of the many abuses of constitutional rights by the government. Whistleblowers, Truth Tellers, are responsible for the disclosure that President George W. Bush ordered unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. These constitutional lifeguards take their patriotic oaths to heart and soul: Rather than complying with classification and secrecy orders designed to protect officials engaging in criminal conduct, whistleblowers chose to risk their livelihoods and the wrath of their agencies to get the truth out. But will they be listened to by those who are charged with accountability?
The Whistleblowers Law of Congressional Hearings holds that the higher ranking the official who testifies the less the likelihood that the truth will be revealed. With this in mind, it is impossible to proceed to the viscera of what happened to whom and when without asking those who are charged with putting policy decisions into the actual stream of practice. High officials have perverse incentives to hide what is done in their orders by the employees below them. It is indispensable that Congress reach deep inside the National Security Agency and other agencies, seeking out employees at the operational level to determine how the President’s illegal order was carried into action. To assure that this occurs, we need for people with information from the agencies involved to come forward and ask to be interviewed by Congress. The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition calls on people with knowledge of unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens to contact NSWBC and let us know that they are willing to provide congress with information and testimony. Anonymity, if desired, will be scrupulously honored. NSWBC will provide contact information to Congress and investigative authorities, and will follow up to ensure that these witnesses were in fact interviewed in good faith by congressional staff and committees and allowed to participate in the hearing process. NSWBC will be the conduit between agents and Congress for those like Russ Tice, a former intelligence agent at the National Security Agency, who announced his willingness to disclose to Congress illegal acts by officials at his former employer. At NSWBC we know what we are asking people to do: Our organization is made up exclusively of veteran intelligence and law enforcement officers, agents and analysts.
Now is the time to come forward, not to reveal legitimately classified information, but to make yourselves available as witnesses and to serve the true supervisor of us all: the Constitution. Ordinarily one would expect the congress to be the guardian of our freedom by living up to its storied role as a check and balance to the President and the Executive Branch. But for four years, members of our Congress in supposed oversight committees were aware of illegal spying on American citizens. Co-opted by an unscrupulous commitment to secrecy and the state, intelligence oversight committees in Congress must step out of the way for a People’s hearing on the matter of presidentially ordered illegal surveillance. Congress must engage in a broad, public hearing of these matters.
Accountability, in the end, always comes down to the public’s right to know, the right to have the most basic knowledge about what its servants are doing with its money and its authority. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, when asked what he thought about the public’s right to know of what the government is doing on its behalf, infamously responded the he did not “believe in that as a general rule.†Fortunately, that is not a general rule that comports with our system of government. Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts. Public servants should not be forced to choose between career and conscience, between commitment to oath and commitment to colleagues, and if we live by our words, laws, and principles they will not have to. Protecting all employees of the People are that:
- Their higher loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law;
- Information may never be classified as secret merely because it is embarrassing or incriminating, or to cover up criminal and unlawful conduct;
- There is no agreement that public servants may sign that will require them lie to the Congress or courts;
- The United States’ Code of Ethics for Government Service explains carefully and clearly in an assured voice that “Any person in government service should put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to the Country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department.”
Sibel Edmonds, NSWBC Founder & President, sedmonds@nswbc.org
Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI language specialist, was terminated from the bureau after reporting security breaches, cover-up, and blocking of intelligence with national security implications. Since that time, court proceedings in her whistleblower case have been blocked by the imposition of “State Secret Privilege,†and Congress has been prevented from discussion of her case through retroactive reclassification by the Department of Justice. Edmonds, fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani; holds an MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.
Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, wweaver@nswbc.org
Bill Weaver served in U.S. Army signals intelligence for eight years in Berlin and Augsburg, Germany, in the late 1970s and 1980s. He holds a law degree and Ph.D. in politics from the University of Virginia. He currently is an associate professor and associate director of faculty for the Institute for Policy and Economic Development and an Associate in the Center for Law and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. He specializes in executive branch secrecy policy, governmental abuse, and law and bureaucracy.
About National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org
Contact info:
You can reach Sibel Edmonds of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition here: sedmonds@nswbc.org
The NSWBC website is here.
Click here to see this press release in its original context.
Thanks for posting this most important article. This government of ours is nothing but a bunch of criminals. Executive, congressional, and judiciary! I am so ashamed of all this. Russell Tice, Sibel Edmonds, and ALL whistleblowers are the heros of this whole sorry nightmare we find ourselves living in. I wish there was some way I could help. It just seems so hopeless. Do you think this will get any media coverage? I doubt it, So WP thanks again.
Thank you for posting this story. You can bet your ass it will not be honestly covered by the MSM. We can only hope that the call to action will be answered by many rather than the few. Time is running short.
I’ll add my thanks, WP. This is a very important story and we have to back whistleblowers with everything we’ve got. They are on the front line between the Constitution and a police state. And I mean the front line.
“Kennelly wrote “the focus should be on information that bears persuasive indication of reliability…
Kennelly found that there were no reliable sources of public information about the contested program’s existence sufficient to thwart the government’s need for secrecy. In other words, the existence of the program had not been conclusively established, and the government therefore had a right to prevent probing into the matter.
This is really one of those, “Do you laugh or cry?” things. Well, fucking establish something! Do you give a fuck about the law or not? (Excuse my language, but I’m kinda at the end of my rope today regarding stupidity. Nobody, including judges or other morans :-), are going to entice me into a police state.)
Sibyl Edmonds says it all very clearly and would thaw me (were I frozen), too.
I’m gonna go out on a limb, here, and say, let’s try to be optimistic for a few minutes, not bet our asses against the press release and Op/Ed pieces getting good coverage until we’ve given the media a day to get on it. THEN, if no peep is heard, we take our asses to the local newspapers, television stations, radio stations, and email everyone on earth and in heaven, about it. The whistleblowers are standing up for US, taking the heat for US, we could get off our fannies for THEM!
To be grammatically correct, “Nobody, including judges or other morans 🙂 , is going to entice me into a police state.
What the hell, I’m a peasant.
It’s only the courage of Mr. Tice and Whistle Blowers like Sybil Edmunds which push the door back open just a crack to expose the wicked truth about this Bushit neo-con regime. We must support these reals who like the good people at Bradblog are standing up for what’s right in the land of diminishing rights and priviledge.
These fckers in power will sell and perpetuate their war on terror and global takeover agenda out into the distant future until the earth is completely destroyed be it from the atmosphere throwing up a catastrophic climate change or their Bushit oil war of aggression. On behalf of all Americans, i extend words of admiration and gratitude for exposing the truth of these un-American operations. This Bushit administration would either create a smoke screen or avoid discussion all together while peddling their lies to the public with their mass media propaganda machine.
These greedy lying criminal rusters propose bills which screw the same people who actually voted for them. Uninformed, under informed, or just plain stupid give Dub – ya a positive approval rating. In the neo-con quest to plunder and control all aspect of the #1 super power in the world, this commander in chief illegally rewrited laws he signs so his Bushit administration cannot be held accountable.
All their BUSHIT must be exposed before it’s to late. You guys are my heroes.
Thank you for this important piece, WP. More attention should be paid and more support given to those honest souls who are placing their lives and careers in jeopardy by standing up for us and our Constitution.
99 is right; if the MSM fails to report and discuss this adequately and honestly, which I don’t doubt will be the case, we 6 or 7 need to make so much noise the headquarters of all major networks and news agencies rattle and their windows start to crack!
And those Republicans out there claiming this is a “partisan” issue and that us “Libs” should just accept what this administration is doing should note this.
Russell Tice is a Republican.
Sibel Edmonds’ husband was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article as being a Republican.
It has been noted in recent articles that a majority of NSWBC members are also Republicans.
Folks this is NOT a partisan issue! I think that this is a bipartisan issue speaks loudly for that these issues that we ALL as Americans need to look to support these folks in their efforts to help us keep our constitutional government intact.
Grizz #6
excerpt from the song Money
by Pink Floyd, sung by David Gilmour
Your post calls it to mind.
Link to Listen
#4 AGENT99
Should I assume you are refering to my ass. If you would read my post again I stated “honestly covered”. In the recent past the MSM has covered this and other Whistleblower stories almost exclusively from the angle of the legality of the disclosure. As to myself “getting off our asses” and taking some kind of overt action you seem to be taking it for granted that I need your snark for motivation. Unless you are reading my mail, tapping my phone etc how would you know what I do or don’t do in my spare time. Who the hell are you to make that assumption and lecture.
MEP
My sincerest apologies if you took that as a snark! I didn’t mean it that way at all. I was trying to express that I want to feel optimistic for a little while. PLEASE rest assured I meant no offense to you, nor felt any negativity toward your post.
P.S. And I meant by “our fannies” ALL fannies in the United States.
Here’s another Brave whistleblower, Theresa Chambers, Trying to protect our National Parks and getting fired for her efforts. Link: http://www.honestchief.com/nj/
WP makes jokes about his frozen state, but we should remember what Tom Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
Winter Patriot is an inspired and meaningful handle — WP, if you don’t mind me taking the liberty to remind folks…
…and so relevant to the current thread…
Agent 99 #11
No apology necessary. I should have explained my drift a bit better. I share your need for optimistic feelings, I send emails to my esteemed senators, Arlen and Little Ricky. Yes a thankless task but I did manage to twist Ricky’s tail enough to get a really lame letter from one of his staffers. How do I know it was from a staffer you ask? Well it’s easy, the person referenced my rather confrontational email and forgot to threaten me with GOD’S wrath. Ricky would have never omitted GOD from any reply. I read you guys often but rarely post. Last year during Katrina I vowed to make a difference no matter how small. I took Katrina really personal. I’m a transplanted Cajun and damn proud of it. My course of action has been to make damn sure I am as well informed on the issues as I can make myself. That is a daily job but worth it cause there is nothing better that to confront a Repub/Conservative and walk away from them with the knowledge that I may not convert all of them but I have given several pause for thought. We of like minds and passions will at times disagree. Afterward we must plot and pull together with whatever methods we have at our disposal and hopefully return this country to sanity.
Well, I am very thankful for the NSWBC, and I just know there have to be hundreds, or even thousands, of people now who are desperate to come out with the truth, to help bring down this criminal administration. I’m hoping my butt off that this includes the rank and file in the media, and that enough of them are brave enough to risk their jobs to stop the Constitution shredding, the almost-certainly witting levels of administrative incompetence, and, above all, WAR CRIMES.
Hundreds of thousands of people are DEAD and DYING and SUFFERING GREAT MISERY AND TORTURE because we have not brought down this criminal regime. It really is a matter of life and death. I keep hopping up and down about how we can only keep our republic, our democracy, if each of us is not only willing to give up our comfort, but our very lives, when absolutely necessary, to protect it.
Edmonds and Tice, and quite a few others are risking everything, and there IS safety in numbers. So, please, please, please, in the name of everything that is good and just, let mobs of whistleblowers rise up now to protect these heroes, and to stop the carnage. These are just a cabal of bad men. They have no power when the People have turned against them… no matter what shifty little laws they try to sneak in.
Does anyone know whether Tice has a defence fund? I think he might be in need of some financial assistance soon. If one does not currently exist how would one go about establishing such a thing?
#9
#9
#9
Royy-t i was a pretty big Floyd fan back in the day. What’s sort of funny when i saw yer post was i use to have the 8 track of Darkside. I didn’t like “money” because i always felt like it dragged a little. With the 8 track player, u could press fast forward and play at the same time and so i use to always like to play this amped up double time version of “money” sung by the smurfs with these extra frenetic bass lines which stood out more. The guitar solo was more fun to listen too.
Years later i was mastering a demo at Capital records with the main guy there named Wally who had mastered the Beatles stuff etc. He told me a story about when he was mastering the album Dark Side of the Moon that he was a bit excited because he could tell the music was so good. Then the clocks came in so loud in the beginning of “TIME” that they blew out their million dollar monitor speakers. How funny is that?
Speak truth to power,.. and be prepared to suffer grave repercussions,..
Hear the drum beats coming from the distance,..
Freedom,.. – FASCISM IS ON THE MARCH.===================
When Ricky Santorum communicates I was not aware
he sent out e-mails. I thought he pointed with his index finger and let loose a hot blue bolt/flash of lightning,.. from the heavens,.. God like.
What a Christo-Fascist Jesus-Freak,.. Bless Him.
Grizz #9 + 9 = 18
Gilmour, always such a beautiful singing voice, makes a point of speaking that one word, BULL…SHIT, in that song, and that’s what wafted up off yer post to my “ear”. I was hearing you like I notice that word in that song. The administration is doing it for money. It’s a crime. It’s bullshit. And maybe it was your familiarity with Pink Floyd that rang that bell.
We do seem to be converging a lot on this blog lately. I think Peg knows whereof she speaks. 🙂
#19
OLDTURK
The comunication I recieved from Little Ricky was actually a snail mail. Even though it was not in agreement with my sentiments it does prove that at least one person on his staff can read and write even though I doubt that those skills are a requirement for employment. You take one look at Little Ricky and you just know he was the sister’s favorite Hall Monitor. You remember the type. The cute little kid that would rat anyone out for a pat on the head. I always knew that those kids would grow up into something vile.
MEP
I’ve been bumming about you having to live with those two senators all night. Mad as I get about DiFi and even Boxer sometimes, it can’t be half as mortifying here as there. Sorry.
The Bush Administration is expanding its area of retribution. That territory goes beyond whistle-blowers. It includes “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
AP reports the Congressional consideration of a law that would allow imprisonment of people suspected of links to “terrorist” organizations indefinitely and withour legal recourse or representation–presumably incommunicado. Congress. Actually considering. As AmericaBlog put it: that begs the question of what might happen to the 5000 persons who had their phone records illegally obtained by Bush when he authorized warrantless wiretapping and dodged FISA oversight.
And, perhaps some of you remember an under the radar report of spending on government owned land which included a healthy some for what appear to be detention facilities on military bases. It was alleged to be about illegal immigrants. Gulag America—a work in progress.
These are not tea-leaves we’re reading folks. We’re supposed to be part of the reality based community.
Banality never looked so evil.
RUSSELL TICE… 20 YEAR EMPLOYEE OF THE NSA……. GOD BLESS YOU.
THE TRUTH WILL SET US ALL FREE FROM THE MONSTER IN THE WHITE HOUSE. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE.. ALL YOU HAVE TOLD .. ALL YOU DO. MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ARE OUT HERE THANKING YOU. YOU ARE THE HERO.. YOU ARE THE TRUE AMERICAN. BUSH IS A CREEP. HE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE WORST OF THE WORST PRESIDENTS OF THE
It just occurred to me that the troll named “Ricky” who used to post here and Rick Santorum might be one and the same.
Has anyone ever seen them together?
Whistleblowers of all sorts are being threatened:
(link here, bold added).
Another whistleblower threatened:
(link here, bold added).
We’ll know we’re heading towards safety when the true heroes of the nation are honored instead of traitors like Hannity, (who always disappears from the show when somebody intelligent comes on), or O’reily, (who was discredited beyond reapproach by Al Franken years ago)!
Somebody ought to make a list of whistleblowers from the start of Bush’s “presidency”, including Paul O’neil, (O’ who?). The list is astounding. Nothing about the Nixon era comes close to comparing with this.
Thank you Russell Tice! You and others like you will be held in the highest of esteem, and these worthless talk show hosts will be on a wall of shame!