James Bamford: Inside the NSA’s Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center + Thomas Drake Prevails in Unprecedented Obama Admin Crackdown

Dandelion Salad

democracynow on Mar 21, 2012

Image by Bebopsmile via Flickr

democracynow.org – A new exposé in Wired Magazine reveals details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program code-named “Stellar Wind.” We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford who says the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. The Utah spy center will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency. This includes the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails — parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases and other digital “pocket litter.” “The NSA has constantly denied that they’re doing things and then it turns out they are doing things,” Bamford says in response to NSA Director General Keith Alexander’s denial yesterday that the U.S. citizens’ phone calls and emails are being intercepted. “A few years ago, President Bush said before a camera that the United States is not eavesdropping on anybody without a warrant. And then it turns out that we had this exposure to all of the warrantless eavesdropping in the New York Times article. You have this constant denial in terms and parsing of words.”

James Bamford: Inside the NSA’s Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center 1 of 2

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James Bamford: Inside the NSA’s Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center 2 of 2

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NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Prevails in Unprecedented Obama Admin Crackdown

democracynow.org – We speak with Thomas Drake, who was targeted after he leaked details about waste management and possible constitutional violations at the National Security Agency, but the case against him later collapsed. Drake was one of several sources for a Baltimore Sun article about a $1.2 billion NSA experimental program called “Trailblazer” to sift through electronic communications for national security threats. He alleged that the program was inefficient compared to a rival program called “Thin Thread” and also violated Americans’ privacy rights. As a result, he faced 35 years in prison for charges under The Espionage Act, but was not ever actually accused of spying. Instead, he was accused of holding on to classified documents in his basement that he says he did not even know were classified. In a major embarrassment for the U.S. Department of Justice, his case ended last year in a misdemeanor plea deal. Now former top spokesman for the Justice Department Matthew Miller seems to be reversing his stance on the prosecution of Drake, saying the case may have been an “ill-considered choice for prosecution.” All of this comes amidst the Obama administration’s unprecedented attack on whisteblowers. We also speak with Drake’s attorney, Jesselyn Radack, a former ethics adviser to the Justice Department and whistleblower. She is currently the director of National Security and Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower organization. Her new book is called, “TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the “American Taliban.”

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Part 2

www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/3/21/part_2_whistleblowers_thomas_drake

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Hank asks NSA director tough questions about wiretaps, e-mail intercepts

RepHankJohnson on Mar 20, 2012

Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) questioned NSA director and CYBERCOM commander General Keith Alexander regarding reports that the NSA is intercepting U.S. citizens’ phone calls and e-mails.

see

Sibel Edmonds: Obama administration charges a record number for espionage + White House Hypocrisy On ‘Aggressive Journalism’

Thomas Drake: These are the hallmarks of tyranny and despotism (must-see)

Sibel Edmonds: The War on Whistleblowers

Inside Obama’s “Orwellian World” Where Whistleblowing Has Become Espionage: The Case of Thomas Drake (must-see)

When It Comes To Whistleblowers, Obama is the Worst President by Sibel Edmonds

James Bamford: The Secrecy of the Obama Administration, interviewed by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds + Thomas Drake sentenced for info leak