Anybody see this yet?

[ProSense]

Report: Whistle-blower to Testify Against NSA
Former Employee Alleges Illegal Intelligence Programs Were Conducted

Jan. 5, 2006 — - A whistle-blower who was fired from the National Security Agency last year says he wants to testify about electronic intelligence programs that he claims the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency conducted illegally, The Washington Times reported.

In Dec. 16 letters to the House and Senate intelligence committees, which would investigate the activities, Russ Tice said he would testify about top-secret Special Access Programs that were wrongly carried out by the agencies. Copies of the letters were obtained by the newspaper.

"I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Tice stated.

Tice told the newspaper that he was not part of the intercept program. He said in the letter that he would provide his testimony under the shield of the 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act.


'Highly Sensitive Intelligence'
Tice alleges that the activities involved the NSA director, the NSA deputies chief of staff for air and space operations, and the secretary of defense, The Washington Times reported.

"These ... acts were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs," Tice said.

Tice sent the letters to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich. Roberts chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Hoekstra chairs the House intelligence committee.

Spokesmen for the NSA and the Senate intelligence committee declined comment to The Washington Times. Spokesmen for the House intelligence committee and the DIA said they were aware of the letters but had not seen formal copies of them, the paper reported.

The letters coincided with a report in The New York Times that the NSA used a clandestine eavesdropping program that bypassed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, which issues orders for such surveillance by the government.

Though critics contend the program might have been illegal without approval under FISA, President Bush has steadfastly defended the practice, saying Sunday that the NSA spying is "a necessary program" used to find international terrorists by tracking phone numbers linked to al Qaeda, The Washington Times reported. The Justice Department has said the program is legal under presidential powers guidelines approved by Congress.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1474571&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[babylonsister]

1. He was on Democracy Now a few days ago; he's willing

and eager to tell his story.
Tice also said he knows he's been followed, and thinks he's being monitored. I hope this big guy watches his back!