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Under Bush, the NSA Snooped on 'All Americans,' Says Former Agent
Remember those pesky little warrant-less wiretaps George W. Bush defended back in the day? Remember how he said that only those guilty of talking to terrorists would be targeted by surveillance? Well, it turns out -- surprise, surprise -- that wasn't exactly the whole truth.
In an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann last week, Russell Tice, a former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst, admitted that the NSA had monitored all forms of communication. Did you get that? All forms. Tice elaborated, saying, "The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications. Faxes, phone calls and their computer communications. They monitored all communications."
An especially dark aspect of this story is the manner in which journalists were singled out by the NSA. According to Tice, he was instructed to concentrate on certain groups so that they could be assessed as potential terror suspects. Those groups were journalists and news agencies. The problem is that these citizens of the United States were never eliminated from any list -- they were just monitored 24/7. Selected journalists were under government surveillance at all times. Really? Journalists? That's so Joseph McCarthy.
Wake up, America. If you don't feel violated, you haven't been paying attention (or you don't care). Either way, now seems like a pretty good time to start. We can't make up for a collectively apathetic past, but we can make sure it never happens again. [From: Wired.com]
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Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsNHAnimatorJan 27th 2009 1:11PM
Sheesh. If the NSA had a force of 1 million, it would still have to monitor everything that 300 million were doing. I don't know about you, but I can't monitor what 300 other people are doing every hour of the day.
This story is clearly written by a disgruntled journalist begging to change the landscape. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. I really don't think NSA agents are sitting around the water cooler laughing about an e-mail I wrote to my wife. I really think that they are searching for the bad guys. Unfortunately, that means sampling everything they can. It's hard work and it saves lives.
If my "normal" neighbor is surfing for bomb-making plans, I'm more than happy to have the gov't step in and stop him BEFORE he accomplishes his goal.
faustuscmJan 27th 2009 4:53PM
"If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear" WOW so people really do say this? *boggle*
DarkLightJan 28th 2009 12:59AM
O RLY?
Ever heard of keyword-based filtering?
Ever heard of neural network simulators?
Ever heard of liquid-cooled supercomputer underground farms?
If they have the above stuff (wich they absolutely can, and if an old documentary from the Discovery Channel is to be believed, they _have_), then there's no way in hell they are unable to monitor every way of communication from every citizen in the U.S. (and even outside, with the possible exception of very well done gov't internal communication systems)
"If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear."
Yeah, except they make the law, and if they say you're doing something wrong, it does not matter what are you actually doing, they will own you like an object.
And this is a reality in Mexico: The law here is made to protect the criminals (because the criminals pay the goverment to do it). Such a good thing that the Mexican gov't is not smart/powerful enough to keep everyone under their eyes (like the U.S. is) :-)
larryJan 28th 2009 11:16AM
At a time of war it may have been necessarry to snoop.
The problem I have with the whole thing is the war was not necessary and it was a big ploy designed by big oil and Halaberton etc. and to defend their actions they did whatever they wanted to do to justrify their mistakes.
It was all crimes agains humanity and it should be settled by an international tribunal.
EarlJan 27th 2009 2:41PM
Anyone willing to give up liberty for security deserves neighter.
Ben Franklin
JeanMarieJan 27th 2009 3:15PM
I wouldn't believe ANYTHING put out on Keith Dobermann's show! He's a first class liar.
frankJan 27th 2009 3:23PM
The NSA needs to be stopped. There is WAY too much info in goverment databases, from how much you paid for your house, to how much you paid for medical bills, to what conditions you had. There is no reason for it to be identified as YOU. Somebody else will get it, and really do harm to you good name or credit. Try fixing that or getting off the no fly list, or telling somebody you didn't make that thousand dollar purchase in Peru for a dinner. Or the cell phone bill.
They not only broke the law, they are wasting way too much time on just garbage. And the real terrorists go free because they're sloppy and illegal.
Matthew MaceJan 27th 2009 10:06PM
Hey guys hate to burst ur bouble but Obama also supports warrantless wiretapping. AND I AGREE with both of them. Its critical for National security its not like he's wiretapping to see if he's trying to see if your cheating on ur wifes' guys their trying to avoid threats on NATIONAL SECURITY.
xo0mJan 28th 2009 12:55AM
makes me wanna kick the ever living s*** out of bush's fax machine. you tap my advanced electronics, I DROP KICK YOURS...OFFICE SPACE STYLE BIIIIAAATT*****HHHHH