Tice (NSA Whisteblower) Smearing Begins: NSA Had 'Psychological Concerns'

[sabra]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/11/111448.shtml

NSA Had 'Psychological Concerns' about NY Times Leaker

The National Security Agency had "psychological concerns" about the employee who became the key source for the New York Times story outing President Bush's top secret terrorist surveillance program.

Russell Tice was "a longtime insider" at the NSA, according to ABC News, which describes him as "a whistleblower" whom "the agency would like to keep quiet."

But the network acknowledged that NSA officials were apparently so troubled about Mr. Tice's state of mind that they revoked his security clearance last May - and fired him shortly thereafter.

That's when the disgruntled "black program" operator decided to torpedo one of the agency's most valuable counterterrorism operations, the post-9/11 plan to monitor phone calls between al Qaeda operatives and their agents inside the U.S.


Thanks to Mr. Tice's decision to take his beef with the NSA to the Times, however, terrorists were tipped off to the U.S. surveillance operation. Over the weekend, intelligence sources told Time magazine's Joe Klein that al Qaeda has already adjusted its communications methods to circumvent the program Mr. Tice exposed.

:rofl:

[SeattleRob]

1. obviously...

anyone who would criticize the policies of our dear leader must be insane!

[DBoon]

2. In Soviet Russia

opponents of the regime were insane by definition, and were sent to psychiatric hospitals where they were treated with some very unpleasant techniques.

[napi21]

3. BS! This sounds too much like a damn coverup to me!

Hell, Rove even used that one on McCain during the campaign (that he was mentaly unstable due to the torture he receiven in Nam.

I hope Tice is experienced enough from his employment there that he knows how to smack them down!

[madaboutharry]

4. Straight out of Stalin's playbook.

This is so transparent. It is the same tactic used by Stalin during the darkest days of the Soviet Union. Dissidents were routinely determined to be mentally ill and thrown into mental institutions.

[Supersedeas]

5. Thanks the terrorists have been tipped off--Editorializing the news a bit?

[chat_noir]

6. hmmm...how about the other 11 that blew the whistle on the NSA??

:grr:

[sabra]

8. of course they will all be sent to a mental "hospital" in Siberia?

[cascadiance]

7. How long before the CIA goes after Jeffrey Sterling...

... and then they go after Mike German. Where does this stop! We need to get this coverup stopped NOW!

[jbnow]

9. I have no idea how

the exposure of the program by Mr. Tice could make any difference to terrorists. They knew they would be monitored. Why would they change their communications methods because they learn it is also being done without warrants?

I do believe they had "psychological concerns" about Mr. Tice as well as about anyone else who would say "This is not legal". They want people with psychological make-up that will do whatever they are told to do by the administration.

[HereSince1628]

10. SOP in Rummy's DoD is people who question are considered mentally ill

It should be no surprise if he does it to soldiers who question the legitimacy of torture, he will do it with an NSA employee who questions the legitimacy of doing warrantless surveillance on US citizens.

[Bob3]

11. Remember that the Times sat on this story for a year -

so doesn't that undermine the 'disgruntled employee' idea a bit and instead make it look like the NSA was being childish and hurtful?

And just when did Al Qaeda circumvent the phone taps? I understood that Al Qaeda has been leary of using phones of any sort for years now - relying instead on couriers and written communications. (which explains why Homeland Security has gone into opening people's mail).

And it's reasonable to presume that the Warrentless wiretapping of Americans was done not because the NSA's been getting juicy Al Qaeda intercepts, but rather, because the NSA hasn't been able to get the intercepts they and the president wanted and cast their webs out as far as they could in the hope they might hear something, anything.

During the viet nam war we used multi-million dollar planes to kill water buffalo -why? cause we couldn't find the viet Cong Hq that we KNEW was somewhere in Cambodia or even with bombing the Ho chi min trail every day - enough supplies were getting through to keep the VC and ANV in the field - so we cast our net wider added more legitimate targets to the target list and ended with F-4's blowing up rice fields and gunning down water buffalo to disrupt the enemies infrastructure.

We can't hear al Qeada so we tape our own people.