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Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice has revealed that the NSA monitored journalists around the clock.  The agency, he said, “had access to all Americans’ communications - faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications.”  The Bush administration was especially interested in news organizations, reporters, and journalists.

Tice has been on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann twice this week to blow the whistle on the program.  The warrentless wiretapping program, he says, was more widespread then was ever reported.  

This builds on earlier reports that the NSA was intercepting international phone calls from journalists, military personnel, and civilian aid workers.  Details on this are covered in James Bamford’s newest book - The Shadow Factory.

Tice also revealed that the NSA combines information from phone wiretaps with data mining of credit cards and other financial information.  According to Tice, information on tens of thousands of Americans is stored in NSA databases - “This [information] could sit there for ten years and then potentially it marries up with something else and ten years from now they get put on a no-fly list and they, of course, won’t have a clue why.”  

However, most of the people targeted have no evident link to terrorism to justify data mining in the first place.  This seems to imply the idea of “pre-crime” and that all citizens are guilty until proved innocent.   A chilling thought indeed.  One of the reasons Tice sees for the program is “to have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers in the government to make them realize that there’s a Big Brother out there that will get them if they step out of line.”

Hopefully we will learn more about these allegations, but it doesn’t seem the mainstream media cares.  I was not able to find one major newspaper that has covered the story.  Perhaps we have just accepted that we are no longer afforded the luxury of privacy, or…maybe their intimidation program works.  

Sources: Wired Blog - NSA Whistleblower: Wiretaps were combined with credit card records of U.S. citizens January 23, 2009

Civil Liberties Examiner - NSA Spied on american journalists for Bush administration January 22, 2009

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