Data mining, the NSA, DOJ corruption and impeachment

In all the controversy over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony, no-one has noticed a key fact: The latest stories about data mining -- stories based, it is said, on administration leaks intended to aid the embattled Gonzales -- confirm the report of an unfairly tarnished NSA whistleblower.

Remember Russell Tice?

He was a source for the original New York Times reportage on the FISA-free wiretapping program. When he first indicated that he disagreed with the administration's scheme to spy on Americans, the vengeance squads targeted him. First, he was subjected to a bogus psychiatric examination. (This is a familiar tactic in the intelligence community; I have heard of an example going back to the early 60s.) Then he was demoted to the most humiliating jobs in the NSA heirarchy. In essence, he was "axed" to leave.

As soon as the public learned that the the NYT had used Tice as a source, the attack dogs -- Rush, O'Reilly and other feral stalkers of the night -- howled and growled and bared their fangs. I cite this example only because it was written by a hack with the delicious name of Moran.

In an earlier post, I cited this article:

Tice is a 20-year veteran of the United States intelligence network, having worked for Naval Intelligence, the Department of Defense and, most recently, the National Security Agency, where he held the position of intelligence analyst and capabilities officer. He has intimate knowledge of the innermost workings of the intelligence community, and wants to tell Congress about an NSA program that, he says, is unconstitutional and possibly criminal.

“What [the American people] know about is Hiroshima,” he says. “What I’m going to tell you about is Nagasaki. I’m going to tell you about three Nagasakis.” He is gagged, however, by the non-disclosure agreement he signed before becoming privy to top-secret government activities.

(Emphasis added.)What might this refer to? Data mining.

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

Tice describes the NSA's activities in vague and "hypothetical" terms here. To put matters simply: The NSA scoops up everything -- all telephone communications, all email, everything -- without a warrant. Data mining programs are used to winnow the information down to manageable size. If you want more technical details, start here.

(Incidentally, this program is at the heart of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Brown is, of course, notorious for making up what he is pleased to call his "facts." However, he does claim to have had the assistance of NSA insiders in the writing of that work, which seems rather more convincing than do his other fictions.)

But who does the winnowing? Who chooses the targets? According to Tice,

...when a problem arose and I raised concerns, the total lack of concern that anyone could be held accountable for any illegality involved. And then these things are so deep black, the extremely sensitive programs that I was a specialist in, these things are so deep black that only a minute few people are cleared for these things. So even if you have a concern, it's things in many cases your own supervisor isn't cleared for.

And:

Fear rules the day right now. For the most part, people know, NSA employees know, that this is wrong, that this is illegal. In many cases they feel betrayed by their own leadership, by [former NSA Director Gen. Michael] Hayden, [NSA Director Lt. Gen. Keith] Alexander, and by [Deputy Director] Bill Black.

Here's what Tice told Amy Goodman about data mining:

But it's basically a way of searching all of the data that exists, and that’s things like credit card records and driver's license, anything that you can get your hands on and try to associate it with some activity. I think if we were doing that overseas with known information, it would be a good thing if we’re pinning them down. But ultimately, when we're using that on -- if we’re using that with U.S. databases, then ultimately, once again, the American people are -- their civil rights are being violated.

Just last year, the Republican attack machine attempted to make people believe that these were the ravings of a "certified kook." Now we have this story, planted (some say) by the administration itself:

A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.

It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues.

Confirmation! The administration was using the NSA's data mining capabilities to compile information about certain Americans, and it did so without a warrant. The lack of a warrant tells us that these Americans were not suspected of involvement with criminal activity.

This illegal spying led to threats of resignation at the DOJ -- and it led to that bizarre race-to-the-hospital involving acting AG James Comey. (Michael Collins does the best job of describing the outrageous nature of that incident.)

Two important points:

1. As Josh Marshall has noted, an NYT editorial offhandedly revealed that Cheney himself set the "hospital race" into motion. Data mining was of top concern to the Bush White House.

2. The incident occurred in an election year.

At no point does Tice claim that Bush and Cheney were gathering information on political opponents. But what else could have made this matter so dire in 2004? If the Bushies had foiled a terror plot, they would have bragged about it.

Remember: At this same time, Bush's ultra-politicized Department of Justice was pressuring U.S. Attorneys to prosecute ginned-up "voter registration fraud" cases designed to suppress the Democratic vote.

he political use of NSA data mining falls under the heading of "What We Believe but Cannot Prove." The evidence may not yet be conclusive, but it all points in one direction. I further believe that the Democratic leadership knows that data mining has been used for political purposes.

Such a charge, if proven, could bring about not just impeachment but removal from office. Even the staunchest conservatives in the Senate would not have the belly for such activities.

Thus, I believe that John Conyers should call Russell Tice as a witness.