More Shoes Will Be Dropping Against Bush Next Week
by Steve
Shooter drifts off to slumber land once again as Bush discusses Iraq today
Open mouth, insert foot, Soto. Just as I was downplaying the potential damage to the Administration from the NSA data mining operation, now comes word that not Newt Gingrich and other Republicans say it cannot be defended, but NSA whistleblower Russell Tice says he will blow the lid off things next week when he testifies at John Warner's Armed Services Committee, which despite Warner's pathetic ass-covering for the administration, will at least allow Carl Levin a chance to draw out important information more effectively than Jay Rockefeller, Joe Biden, or Pat Leahy would do if this were scheduled in front of the Intelligence, Foreign Relations, or Judiciary committees respectively.
According to ThinkProgress from CongressDaily (subscription required):
A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. …
[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.” …
Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. “It’s an angle that you haven’t heard about yet,” he said. … He would not discuss with a reporter the details of his allegations, saying doing so would compromise classified information and put him at risk of going to jail. He said he “will not confirm or deny” if his allegations involve the illegal use of space systems and satellites.
Get the popcorn, folks. I hope Tice doesn’t fly in any small planes between now and his testimony. Fifty members of Congress have now made a futile call that Bush appoint a Special Counsel to look into the NSA’s activities, which Bush will never do.
And in developments that will get worse for the telecoms, Qwest came out today and confirmed that they rebuffed the Bush Administration’s “request” for data mining because they thought the activities involved would be illegal. And to illustrate the dangers of caving in to the Bush cabal on this, Verizon got nailed today by what will probably be the first of many lawsuits against them for cooperating with the feds on this. I hope the stockholders of that company will hold the CEO and board accountable for the deluge that is about to befall that company, as well as AT&T and BellSouth.
And it doesn’t look like Tony Snow is having a good time yet as the new Press Secretary, and neither is the media. I don’t have a problem with Snow pointing out the discrepancies in the media’s coverage of the White House, as long as he gets as good as he gives. But I bet that Snow is still having a better Friday than Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former Number 3 at the Agency, who got served with search warrants today for his home and office.
Update: Brian Ross at ABC News has been told by federal officials that criminal charges are "likely" against Foggo.
I hope Tony Snow enjoys his new job.