NSA Spied On EVERYONE, Targeted Journalists
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
January 22, 2009 8:39pm CST
According to former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice has now come forward and said the NSA spied on EVERYONE and targeted journalists. Here's part of what he told Countdown's Keith Olbermann on Jan. 21 on MSNBC:
“The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications — faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications,” Tice claimed. “It didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications.”
Here's more from the above article:
Tice first began alleging that there were illegal activities going on at both the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency in December 2005, several months after being fired by the NSA. He also served at that time as a source for the New York Times story which revealed the existence of the NSA’s wireless wiretapping program.
Over the next several months, however, Tice was frustrated in his attempts to testify before Congress, had his credibility attacked by Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, and was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in an apparent attempt at intimidation.
(End of excerpt)
Does anyone else find this as creepy as I do? Let's discuss it.
Annie
4 people like this
9 responses
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
23 Jan 09
WOW. Ya that is scarey. We need to get the partriot act repealed NOW. And we need to DEMAND that this never happens again and the people that did this are held responsible. Everyone should be calling to complain to their elected officials about this. Not just complain but screaming at the top of their lungs.
Anyone a lawyer on here? Could the american public do a class action lawsuit against the federal government for allowing this to happen?
2 people like this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
23 Jan 09
hey annie do you have any links on this? Where do you find this story?
2 people like this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
23 Jan 09
SO what....are you going to take this kind of invasion of your privacy laying down? I do not care who goes down for this....we have to stand up for ourselves.
2 people like this
@baileycows (3665)
• United States
23 Jan 09
I wouldn't doubt it for real, but really everyone there are alot of people in this world. Is it just US or the whole world?
2 people like this
@Aingealicia (1905)
• United States
23 Jan 09
The world, not just the USA, however there are "targeted" words that are used to create the tapping in the first place.
Aingealicia
2 people like this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
24 Jan 09
Obviously they couldn't have spied on "everyone" literally but it wasn't only those who had made or received international calls or had done something "suspicious" as we'd been led to believe. As Ainge said, there are target words and phrases and they would single out calls that only lasted two or three minutes - which is supposedly typical for terrorists' conversations but also could be typical of you or me ordering a pizza!
Annie
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
23 Jan 09
It doesn't suprise me a bit but it definitely creeps me out. Strikes me as being just another knee jerk reaction to 911 and definitely not something that makes us safer.
Funny how as soon as you say Rush Limbaugh has questioned someones's credibility, that person acquires immediate credibility with me. lol
1 person likes this
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
23 Jan 09
Not much suprises me anymore. And everyone wonders why I'm not involved in a mainstream party anymore. Because this is the kind of thing they do. It doesn't matter, Bush, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter. The patriot act, FISA, Northcom civil assistence plan, .s 1959. How much longer untill we have neighbors turning each other in?
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
23 Jan 09
I can see it. With the whole "I will be a servant for Obama" thing. They will see someone not doing what Obama wants or asked for and Bam.....you got the police coming after you. A lot of people have gotten so crazy over the whole thing that it would not surprise me.
@iriscot (1289)
• United States
23 Jan 09
Hi Annie, I doubt that the NSA was able to spy on everyone, how many people in the states have phones and computers, I would guess several million. I don't know what they could have gleaned from persons such as you and I. I have no doubt that Russell Tice was telling the truth and wouldn't you know that the bigot Rush and O'Reilly would jump at the chance to trash Tice. I imagine all kinds of dirty tricks and such will surface now that Cheney and Bush are gone. I'm sure that Tice was telling the truth.
2 people like this
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
23 Jan 09
Are you really surprised? lol I think that the patroit act is such a freakin joke. It is suppose to "protect" us but, really all it did was make us more like Russia or China.
1 person likes this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
23 Jan 09
I will protect you but by the time I get finished you won't feel human enough to care whether you are safe or not. lol
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
23 Jan 09
Girlfriend, if you think this didn't go on before the Bush administration and won't continue after it, you need to take a chill pill, lol. Sorry, but this stuff has happened since the beginning of government. They know who you are and what you're doing and what you're saying. Nothing new under the sun, my friend.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
23 Jan 09
When we were in the airport in Vancouver, I was talking to my husband what precautions they made if there were any bad guys and he said to be quiet, someone would be listening and if I said certain words I would get arrested. Well I figured it was a downside, since the hero in my novel will come back to the States after disappearing someplace unknown and how is he going to get through customs without being arrested?
I do not find it creepy, I suppose if I said "I am writing a story about a federal agent who goes undercover and breaks up a terrorist ring who puts bombs in luggage," or something like that, or if an embassy employee was talking about an article, he would not be arrested.
I do think you are making a bit too much about this. I am sure officials will know when you are a terrorist or if you are not.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
23 Jan 09
The problem of this is it is a violation of the 4th amenment. More over, it is a violation of the sense of privacy and liberty we expect from our country.
"Anyone trading their security fro liberty, deserves neither liberty or security"
~ Ben Franklin.
