January 11, 2006
Wiretapping
There was a great flurry over illegal wiretapping by the NSA last week. Alito is being questioned by the judiciary committee about the extension of presidential powers in the wiretapping area at this very moment. What's missing in my book is exactly WHO has been wiretapped, WHERE is the investigative reporting on this issue, and WHEN is it going to come out. Folks must be worried about falling down the Rather Trap and they're checking facts obsessively, as well they should -- I guess we shouldn't count on the New York Times, though.
On January 5 there was speculation about CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour as a possible, dare I say, wiretapping victim, after Andrea Mitchell inadvertently, or intentionally, slipped her name into an interview with James Risen, the New York Times reporter whose new book "State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration", initially rolled over the log and exposed this cluster of maggots. But, since then, all's quiet.
Alberto Gonsalves over at the Justice Department has vowed to ferret outthe traitor, but maybe he's been busy with other things. As it happens "The Whistleblower" has come forth voluntarily. Russell Tice, a longtime NSA employee -- or, should I say, no longer a longtime NSA employee -since "The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."
Tice says "As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried. We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."
Sibel Edmonds, the FBI language specialist who was fired after reporting security breaches, cover-up, and blocking of intelligence with national security implications post 9/1, concurs.
Meanwhile, there are those of us, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for extremely accurate information while Rush Limbaugh and the Boys obfiscate the facts with thick layers of gooey lies, anytime they damn well please.
So, as they say in the journalism trade WHO WHERE WHEN already.
Photo note: No, this was not taken outside my house.
Posted by Dakota at January 11, 2006 07:01 AM