Safe to say it’s been a rough couple of weeks for the NSA, and the latest information that has leaked certainly won’t help. This whistleblower isn't new, he has actually been around since the Bush days, but his claims are getting a closer look now that we know the scope of the NSA snooping scandal.
His comments are chilling and include claims that a Supreme Court justice has been closely monitored for quite some time. Could a justice have been compromised?
Russ Tice, a former intelligence analyst and Bush-era NSA whistleblower, claimed Wednesday that the intelligence community has ordered surveillance on a wide range of groups and individuals, including high-ranking military officials, lawmakers and diplomats.
“He's been blowing whistles for a while,” Pat said. “This guy has been talking about the Bush administration spying for a long time, and he was with the ONI, the DIA, the NSA, the NCAA. I mean, he's been everywhere. And so now, now his latest deal, he's been saying this about Bush since I think 2005 and then he said that they retaliated against him but then he was speaking out in more specifics yesterday.”
Yesterday, Tice dropped this bomb:
[The Bush administration] went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things – they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial.
But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of – heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House–their own people.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop the presses. What year did John Roberts go in [to the Supreme Court],” Glenn asked.
It might seem far-fetched to think that the NSA surveillance could somehow extend to political intimidation, but Glenn provided this not-so-hypothetical example:
Let's just say that John Roberts is the example, but you could use anybody… Let's say the evil Karl Rove gets into office. He's the next president, President Karl Rove. And he has this ability, which is no longer hypothetical, and we know is happening. And beyond that, we know that everything that he and his family have done, said, written, where they have been hasn't necessarily been looked at but has been stored. And the evil Karl Rove says, "[Sonia Sotomayor], take her down. I need her not to vote that way." Are you telling me that with all of the information stored on a sweet, sweet Latina who's never done a thing wrong in her life… She was just so sweet and gracious and just a wonderful woman.
So we have her on there. Let's say she is everything that everybody says she is, but maybe her daughter or her son or her grandchildren have done something stupid. Are you telling me that there aren't unscrupulous people that will come to you or to Kagan or to Roberts are or anybody else. Why do you expect them to be different than you? How many people do you know that say, "You know what? I'm with you guys, but I just, because of my business, because of my business I can't speak out. Because if I speak out, I'll lose my job. Because if I speak out, they will boycott my business. Because of that, my kids will be bullied. So I have to sit it out. I have to be quiet, but you keep going. I'm a silent supporter of yours. You keep going.”
How many people do you know that are already like that? Are you telling me that the ability for the United States government to know all of your healthcare records, just that, just that, your kids are really struggling through depression, your kid is ‑‑ has made just a horrible mistake and is, you know, is, you know, on drugs, or whatever it is, is just depressed, your kid, your family is going through some sort of an issue and you've got to go to the doctor, and all those doctors, all those, every bit of those records, if they're electronic, are with the IRS, just for safekeeping. They're in the federal data bank. All of them. Are you telling me that you really think that all of the people that you know that are just good, decent people and, "Don't worry about it because I haven't done anything wrong," are you telling me there's nothing in their life ever, there's nothing in their children's lives or their grandchildren's lives? How many times, how many times, have you said as a parent, Lord, just take this away from them, give it to me. Give it to me, I'll take it. Whether it's an illness or a problem or whatever it is, take it from them. Give it to me. We all have.
Now, somebody comes to you and says, "I think, justice Roberts, that you're going to go the other way because your child has their whole life in front of them, and my, oh my, this just doesn't look bad. Do you know that they were buying drugs? Did you know that they've smoked marijuana cigarettes?" "Yeah, but that happens..." "Yeah, but you know what? I see that your kid was at a party and I've got the GPS tracking. He was at a party with another guy, and that other kid, he does more. That kid is related right to this crime family, this drug cartel. Looks to me, I mean, certainly could make a case that your child is wrapped up in some sort of drug crime. Because it's not just that party. There seems to be another tracking. It shows that these kids have met before, maybe three times."
"There's a whole pattern. And, we haven't even started looking into it, of course, but boy, oh boy. Now, you can make any decision you want. But I just want you to know, man, a man would sure hate to have his child's lives destroyed over a simple mistake."
“Can you even imagine the power that this government would have over you? It's already here,” Glenn said. “They've already admitted to storing it all. Now we're finding out that they are already admitting that they have used it, and we're finding out more; they've used it against congressmen and judges. No wonder the world doesn't make any sense… Who were they listening to? And why is no one demanding? I'll tell you why: Because the George Bush administration was just as guilty as this one is. Just as guilty.”
