Is NY Times NSA Spy Source a Psychotic Paranoid?
Jim Kouri, CPP
February 18, 2006
A former National Security Agency analyst testified before a congressional committee that there is another top-secret surveillance program that may be violating millions of Americans' Constitutional rights.
Whistleblower Russell Tice, told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations that he's concerned over a "special access" electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrantless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is prohibited from discussing the program with Congress.
He did not mention if he was referring to President Bill Clinton's "Echelon" spy program which was uncovered in 2000.
Tice states that he believes the program violates the constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizures but he has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees -- members or their staff -- because they lack the required high-security clearance.
Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is not cleared to hear the information, he claimed. The NSA has not commented on Tice's information and one source told this writer that Tice has a tendency to exaggerate his importance and his knowledge of intelligence. In other words, he boasts of being privy to information way above his own government pay-grade.
Tice was testifying because he was a National Security Agency intelligence officer who was stripped of his security clearance after he reported his suspicions that a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency was a spy. The matter was dismissed by the DIA, but Tice obsessively kept pushing and was subsequently ordered to take a psychological examination during which he was diagnosed as paranoid.
But there is more to the story: Tice was diagnosed by the Defense Department with "psychotic" paranoia and fired for apparently violating his security clearance by taking unauthorized peeks into the background of a female Asian employee he thought was a Chinese spy. In fact, Tice was allegedly involved in high-tech stalking of the woman.
Another fact, conveniently overlooked by the mainstream news media, is that Russell Tice was a China Analyst for the NSA, which brings up the question of how he knows so much about terrorism in the Middle East. The NSA surveillance program was a counterterrorism program with nothing to do with the communist Chinese.
Tice was one of the New York Times sources for its wiretapping story, but he told the committee the information he provided was not secret and could have been provided by a private sector electronic communications professional. Using his logic, he would have you believe that he possessed a super-secret security clearance that few possess. One source told me that part of his "fantasy" is his belief he's a super-spy -- America's own James Bond.
Tice is correct in his assertion that what he's been spouting lately is not secret. However, he left us without the secret use of the program. And he did it because he was playing armchair lawyer. His opinion on the constitutionality of the NSA surveillance program is as worthless as NY Times reporter James Risen's.
There are many questions that should be answered by Russell Tice. For instance, he claims to have been an "insider" in the National Security Agency for 20 years. Why didn't he blow the whistle on President Bill Clinton's Echelon program? Even when CBS News' 60 Minutes did a story on Echelon, Tice was nowhere to be found.
And why was he harassing a Defense Intelligence Agency officer? Why did he believe she was a Chinese spy? Was she a Chinese spy spying for the Chinese or a Chinese spy spying for the United States?
Is Mr. Tice currently in therapy and/or on medication or did he ignore the diagnosis of "psychotic paranoia?"
Whistleblower Russell Tice, told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations that he's concerned over a "special access" electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrantless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is prohibited from discussing the program with Congress.
He did not mention if he was referring to President Bill Clinton's "Echelon" spy program which was uncovered in 2000.
Tice states that he believes the program violates the constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizures but he has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees -- members or their staff -- because they lack the required high-security clearance.
Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is not cleared to hear the information, he claimed. The NSA has not commented on Tice's information and one source told this writer that Tice has a tendency to exaggerate his importance and his knowledge of intelligence. In other words, he boasts of being privy to information way above his own government pay-grade.
Tice was testifying because he was a National Security Agency intelligence officer who was stripped of his security clearance after he reported his suspicions that a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency was a spy. The matter was dismissed by the DIA, but Tice obsessively kept pushing and was subsequently ordered to take a psychological examination during which he was diagnosed as paranoid.
But there is more to the story: Tice was diagnosed by the Defense Department with "psychotic" paranoia and fired for apparently violating his security clearance by taking unauthorized peeks into the background of a female Asian employee he thought was a Chinese spy. In fact, Tice was allegedly involved in high-tech stalking of the woman.
Another fact, conveniently overlooked by the mainstream news media, is that Russell Tice was a China Analyst for the NSA, which brings up the question of how he knows so much about terrorism in the Middle East. The NSA surveillance program was a counterterrorism program with nothing to do with the communist Chinese.
Tice was one of the New York Times sources for its wiretapping story, but he told the committee the information he provided was not secret and could have been provided by a private sector electronic communications professional. Using his logic, he would have you believe that he possessed a super-secret security clearance that few possess. One source told me that part of his "fantasy" is his belief he's a super-spy -- America's own James Bond.
Tice is correct in his assertion that what he's been spouting lately is not secret. However, he left us without the secret use of the program. And he did it because he was playing armchair lawyer. His opinion on the constitutionality of the NSA surveillance program is as worthless as NY Times reporter James Risen's.
There are many questions that should be answered by Russell Tice. For instance, he claims to have been an "insider" in the National Security Agency for 20 years. Why didn't he blow the whistle on President Bill Clinton's Echelon program? Even when CBS News' 60 Minutes did a story on Echelon, Tice was nowhere to be found.
And why was he harassing a Defense Intelligence Agency officer? Why did he believe she was a Chinese spy? Was she a Chinese spy spying for the Chinese or a Chinese spy spying for the United States?
Is Mr. Tice currently in therapy and/or on medication or did he ignore the diagnosis of "psychotic paranoia?"
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