Earlier this week on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst Russell Tice revealed that the agency had “monitored all communications” of Americans — specifically targeting journalists. To discuss this development, Olbermann yesterday hosted Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen, who famously angered the Bush administration by revealing the government’s domestic wiretapping program and its secret snooping on the financial records of thousands of Americans allegedly linked to terrorists.
Since that time, the Bush Justice Department had been trying to identify Risen’s sources for his book on the nation’s spy agencies, called State of War. In April, the New York Times reported that former government officials had been called before a grand jury and confronted with phone records documenting their calls with Risen. Neither Risen nor the New York Times had received a subpoena for those records.
Risen told Olbermann that in light of Tice’s revelations, he believes he may have been a target of the NSA’s journalist-spying program:
OLBERMANN: Do you believe you have been a target of this NSA wiretap program?
RISEN: What I know for a fact is that the Bush administration got my phone records. Whether that was obtained by the FBI or the NSA, my lawyers and I have been trying to investigate that. We’re not sure. But we know for a fact that they showed my phone records to other people in the federal grand jury. And we have asked the court to investigate that.
Risen added that he believes the purpose of the NSA’s efforts was to “have a chilling effect on potential whistle blowers in the government, to make them realize that there is a big brother out there that will get them if they step out of line.” Watch it:
Transcript:
OLBERMANN: The NSA had access to all Americans’ communications, may still have, with certain groups monitored, quote, 24/7, 365 days a year, happening all the time, according to our previous guest, Russell Tice, and also credit card records. One of many targeted groups were journalists.
So, in our number two story, do any of these journalist targets know they were targets? Let’s turn to New York Times investigative reporter James Risen. He and a colleague at the time won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for their disclosure of the Bush administration program of warrant less wiretapping. A federal grand jury has been trying to get him to divulge confidential sources for State of War, the book he wrote on the CIA.
Thanks for your time, sir.
JAMES RISEN, AUTHOR, STATE OF WAR : Thanks for having me.
OLBERMANN: Do you believe you have been a target of this NSA wiretap program?
RISEN: What I know for a fact is that the Bush administration got my phone records. Whether that was obtained by the FBI or the NSA, my lawyers and I have been trying to investigate that. We’re not sure. But we know for a fact that they showed my phone records to other people in the federal grand jury. And we have asked the court to investigate that.
OLBERMANN: So your overall reaction to what Mr. Tice said tonight, what he said yesterday about the targeting of all journalists would be what?
RISEN: It’s — I don’t know. I can’t confirm what he said. But it’s really worth pursuing, and it’s worth investigating.
Here’s what I do know, is that the NSA has far greater capability than has ever been made public. All you have to do is look back at what we reported on about the eavesdropping program, and to remember that the famous hospital scene, where this was this big Constitutional crisis between Bush and the Justice Department lawyers, who were battling him over whether the program was legal. What they eventually disclosed was that they were arguing over a part of the program that nobody even today knows the specifics of.
So there is a large amount of operations and capabilities that the NSA has that most people don’t know of its existence, including me. So that’s, you know, one of the things I think is interesting about what he said.
OLBERMANN: Yes. I know exactly what you mean by that. Obviously, we have to — since we have such limited information, there’s a lot of theory going into this. What do you make of this one? The government, if Mr. Tice is correct, wiretaps or wiretapped journalists 24/7, then focuses in on any investigative reporter who is divulging or getting near information it considers too valuable or too much in some way?
RISEN: Yes. That’s clearly the great fear and the threat that — of the kind of capability that he is talking about. Is it possible that all they have to do is turn a few switches and knobs and suddenly narrow the field of what they’re looking at. He made the point, and I thought it was interesting — and I don’t know if it is true or not — that his job was to minimize the collection on journalist, but he said that it is quite possible that they could be reverse engineering that to actually gain that, collect that information.
That’s the great threat and the fear that I thought was interesting and something really worth pursuing.
OLBERMANN: It almost suggests a kind of NSA equivalent of Google for anyone of us out here, you, me or the viewer.
RISEN: Right.
OLBERMANN: Not to miss the obvious. Is the desired ultimate result, having been on both the investigative end of this and the recipient end of this, do you think that the ultimate result is suppression of reporting, either through direct coercion, or a chilling effect, that this could have every time somebody could contemplates pursuing, publishing, broadcasting a risky story?
RISEN: Yes. That is certainly part of it. I think the more direct part is to frighten people in the government from talking. It is to have a chilling effect on potential whistle blowers in the government, to make them realize that there is a big brother out there that will get them if they step out of line. I think that’s the more direct chilling effect on the source, rather than on the reporter so much.
We have a large organization that will support us. In my case, in my leak investigation, Simon and Schuster has been supporting me for my book. But, you know, the whistle blowers don’t have that.
OLBERMANN: As Mr. Tice well knows right now. James Risen, of the New York Times and author of State of War, with a unique perspective on this. And we thank you for sharing it.
RISEN: Thank you.
These people responsible for this MUST be indicted or, despite the fact we elected Obama, we will not be able to stop the slide into a police state.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pmThe plot thickens… Only a few days removed from office and here all these people who wanted to speak up but were afraid to. I say in the weeks ahead a lot more light will be shed on the previous war criminal’s administration.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 pmThere are laws–let’s sue for their enforcement? If the Attorney General won’t prosecute, civil suits should be initiated.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pmI watched Mr. Tice and Risen last night. Both domestic spying reports were disturbing. I take it Mr. Obama’s new man in Justice will investigate the system and recommend his boss dismantle it.
President Obama nominated David Kris, a former critic of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, to lead the Justice Department’s national security division. In late 2005, “Mr. Kris wrote a 23-page legal analysis that described as ‘weak’ and likely unsupportable some of the Bush administration’s key legal arguments in justifying the program.”
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pmWe continue to see evidence that Bush treated Americans rights as arbitrary to his whims All of this done with little or no thought to the rule of law. The fact is that a large number of his actions make laws impossible to enforce Witness the detainees Who are the worst of the worst but there isn’t enough evidence to convict them All of this points to machinations of a mad man
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm1. scytherius Says: These people responsible for this MUST be indicted or, despite the fact we elected Obama, we will not be able to stop the slide into a police state.
3. Doc Rock Says: There are laws–let’s sue for their enforcement? If the Attorney General won’t prosecute, civil suits should be initiated.
Unfortunately, as I’ve carped about numerous times, there will be no indictments over this because of telecom immunity…voted on by Obama and the dems. Look over at Glenn Greenwald’s blog for a breakdown and repercussions of the legislation at the time it went through (July-August-ish)
Why d’you think I was/am so pissed off about it?
More revelations will come to the surface, more egregious and more illegal…but the telecoms and bush are arguably exempt. Not a good start to prosecuting bush…
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:44 pmRisen believes he may have been spied upon? May have been?
By Bush & Cheney? He may have been spied upon?
As soon as he began writing that story, “Big Time” Dick Cheney ordered the wiretaps and the email reading and the surveillance. “Big Time” wanted to know who the leak was, and he found out, no doubt about it.
May have been? Which planet does this guy come from, anyway?
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm…there will be no indictments over this because of telecom immunity…voted on by Obama and the dems.
hanshiro…if the Congress passed a law giving them immunity, they can always PASS ANOTHER ONE…retroactive immunity does not exist in this case. If you commit a crime, and a legislative act grants immunity, that’s different than committing a crime while the crime was LEGAL and being prosecuted when the law is passed LATER, something prohibited in the Constitution.
Besides, there are SO MANY CRIMES to investigate. I’ve said it for the last seven years: The biggest crimes Bush & CO committed are the ones we haven’t even heard about yet. The only reason we ever heard about the ones we have is: They wanted us to know. It was a power play. And it almost worked.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:51 pmhanshiro Says:
Obama voted for more oversight on spying on citizens. bush broke the law and that is an inescapable fact.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:55 pmHear, hear, Daddy-O
The Big Dick was really pissed when Risen’s NYT article came out.
This isn’t about Telcom immunity. It’s about Big Dick trying to blackmail journalists, etc. with data garnished via illegal wiretapping.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pmBig Dick must pay for his crimes.
I would not be surprised if the Feds found out about Eliot Spitzer visiting a prostitute because they were illegally spying on his communications and financial transactions. Tice even stated that spying on financial transactions was part of the expanded program.
Spitzer was never even charged with a crime.
I was a bit torn on whether to go after former Bush officials for their clearly illegal activities, but now I think we MUST go forward with investigations and charges.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm.
R E M E M B E R:
Congress stood down when it was time to stand up!
.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pmI believe how it was stated is that we ALL were VICTIMS of this.
Just another one of the hundreds of Bush crimes.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:08 pmI’m amazed at this suddenly important media now loudly proclaiming their indignation with the past administration while finding fault with everything that Mr. Obama has done in his first four days as president.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:09 pmThe question isn’t if they spied on Americans in their day-to-day lives, it’s when it started. Because I believe the whole “war on terror” was a cover for activities that began very early on in the last administration.
This must be investigated and those who authorized it, or knew about it and said nothing, need to be prosecuted. Time to go after the Mob Bosses, not the minnows who carried out the crimes. If ever there was a case for RICO, that administration would be it.
PEACE
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 pmWhere are all the wingnuts who were telling us ONLY Americans calling al Queda were being wiretapped without warrants? We kept telling them that without warrants we dont KNOW who was being spied on now we KNOW it was BS all along and Bush were wiretapping whoever they felt like spying on. Nothing short of indictments will satisfy me now.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 pmI walk around the house making flatulent noises…drop wads of wet toilet paper into commode Kasplooosh!
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pmThe “Enemies list” resurrected.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:25 pmHaven’t we all been victimized by the Bush Administration? As for Risen, SUE SUE SUE! bring every legal option he can. The only thing that bothers these guys is the size of their bank accounts. Lord knows they have no conscience. For the record, I hope Chaney his shaking in his boots now that Libby wasn’t pardoned. Can we see a tell-all book in the future? I hope so.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 pmWhere is Tracy to tell us this didn’t happen because Bush didn’t lie?
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pmThis “Enemies List” is a little different in that it contains more than 300 million names.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 pmGod I can remember so many thingprogress trolls here having an anyeurism not only over just the fact that this was revealed but that without safeguards and oversight just this kind of garbage would happen.
Thank god the Morono-Fascists were defeated.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:39 pmOf course not. That’s why they enlisted AT&T, Verison, and Bell South to do it for them beginning Feb. 2001, seven months before 9/11.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pmWay back when I was posting that they will be spying on -
Journalist – Reporters – Congresscritters – Senators – opposition – war protesters
and Republicans (to keep them in line)
Geez, how could we have known that that was exactly what would happen?
Go figure.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pmI don’t know windsore, bush was a petty tyrant so you can bet he played the payback game….oh yeah, that has been proven to be true…
just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after me.
Your either with us or with the terrorists winny, what’t it going to be?
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 pmBut, I’m sure they never wiretapped the John Kerry campaign. That would be dishonest.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pmGrand Jury trials just piss me off. How the hell did that stuff get ruled as admissable enough to even ask them about it anyways?
.
Daddy-O Says:
hanshiro…if the Congress passed a law giving them immunity, they can always PASS ANOTHER ONE…retroactive immunity does not exist in this case.
That’s tricky. It’s one thing to pass a law making an act retroactively legal (aka. Amnesty) but it’s unconstitutional to pass something making an act retroactively illegal (aka. Ex Post Facto law). It gets pretty thorny if you’re talking about passing a bill to undo or revoke a previously passsed Amnesty bill which decriminalized a prior act. I doubt if it would be legally supported. De Facto Ex Post Facto?
I think the best thing to do would be to just put a stop to it.
.
BrianFL Says:
I would not be surprised if the Feds found out about Eliot Spitzer visiting a prostitute because they were illegally spying on his communications and financial transactions.
Actually the Irony here is that Spitzer was nailed due to evidence gathered under a law that he wrote, pushed for, and got passed, which allows public officials only to be spied on.
.
windsor Says:
Oh I may have been spied on, this is all becoming a badge of Honor for these nutz. Do they really think that Booosh had the resources and storage capacity to record everything that was transmitted in the last 8 years.
Apparently, You missed this post:
Thanks for playing.
.
shoeless Says:
But, I’m sure they never wiretapped the John Kerry campaign. That would be dishonest.
Kinda like breaking in to the DNC headquarters in the Watergate Hotel? No, Republicans would never do such a thing.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:06 pmwindsor Says:
YOU remind me how stupid the Limborg Hivemind is. You cowards WANT to get rid of our freedom so badly.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 pmSo the whistleblower says they spied on all media types but you think they didn’t spy on Air America folks. You’re a genius.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 pmI’m pretty sure they were spying on Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 pmshoeless, Tracy is too busy trying to blame the unemployed for not having jobs. Like all those at MicroSoft that just got the axe. Slackers. How dare they not have a job.
As for the wiretapping, I usually include a small note to the NSA in my email and phone calls that has to do with doing something anatomically challenging.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:19 pmwindsor Says:
Oh I may have been spied on, this is all becoming a badge of Honor for these nutz.
________
Don’t laugh. The Feds now know about all those “Barnyard Beauties” dvds you ordered over the last few years.
________
Do they really think that Booosh had the resources and storage capacity to record everything that was transmitted in the last 8 years.
________
Well, I do believe the system Poindexter was hawking for a while was billed as “Total Information Awareness”, was it not?
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:19 pmFreedom is messy and scary. It’s hard to sleep at night with all these free people running around, doing what they want, without someone in charge keeping tabs on them.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:22 pmWhat did the bush administration really use this ability to “mine” information for?
Did Karl Rove use NSA data capabilities to spy on Democrats ? Kerry in 2004 ?
Can you say WATERGATE?
What about Corporate America ? Does anyone doubt bush/cheney mafia did not engage in corporate spying to benefit their cronies?
The criminal possibilities are endless !!!!
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pmHey, Tracy is here to tell us how Bush didn’t lie.
Bush: Program ‘limited’
Asked what he would tell Americans worried that the practice violates their privacy rights, Bush said, “If somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we’d like to know why.
“In the meantime, this program is conscious of people’s civil liberties, as am I. This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited.”
Bush said the calls monitored are limited to those between known al Qaeda members or their affiliates outside the United States and people inside the United States.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm“or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;”
“against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Wow – ten items in the Bill of Rights and they violated 2 in one action.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm8. Daddy-O Says: hanshiro…if the Congress passed a law giving them immunity, they can always PASS ANOTHER ONE…retroactive immunity does not exist in this case.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
From the aforementioned Glenn Greenwald, Feb 8 2008:
I hate to say I told you so. That’s why I was screaming about the dem convention tote bags having the AT&T logo. The dems shepherded one of the most egregious bills through to passage that I’ve ever, ever seen…but I was repeatedly told that somehow it was a necessary consequence to get Obama elected.
Eh?
Now suddenly, everyone else cares about this very topic. Oh well, welcome, belatedly, on board….
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 pmTracy__5 Says:
You got SPANKED. Being stubborn does not equal being right or even rational. Why can you blame anyone for getting tired of trying to beat Q-tips into anvils? Bush LIED. Bush lied about Iraq, Bush lied about the cost of the prescription drug benifits. Bush lied about his onw record when running the first time trying to take credit for a bill he VETOED. Bush is a LIAR. Bush lied when he said he was getting warrants when he wiretapped. Bush is a liar. The fact you are ideologically blinded and cannot accept reality, or facts doesnt CHANGE reality. Bush is a liar that is a simple FACT.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pmTo save everyone the hassle of contending that the House passed a bill stripping immunity, blah..blah.. in March, here is the final bill in July, again via Greenwald:
Follow the hyperlinks, read the information and remember that outrage doesn’t override law, although the ACLU is challenging this legislation.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pmMaybe Mr. Risen has forgotten about how the New York Times cooperated with the Bush Administration is selling the Iraq war, WMDs, the “threat” of Iraqi nuclear weapons, attacking Iran, pushing “Islamofascism”, and supporting subversive Zionism, including having an editorial staff that takes orders from the Knesset.
As I recall, the NYT has pretty mush lost it’s credibility. Unless you’re the Likud Party.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pmAnyone with functioning brain cells knew to be both concerned and enraged about the breadth of this program, when the New York Times revealed its existence.
No wonder “impeachment was off the table” from the get-go. Bushcheney had the info they needed to keep every elected official quiet.
Thus, journalists typically failed to have the cooperation of truth-tellers, who feared not only for their jobs but for their lives.
This is exactly why the FORMER president told Alberto Gonzales, as the plane was arriving in Texas, “Just stay strong.”
Orange will become my favorite color as soon as these evil “leaders” are found guilty.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pmMr. Risen is a very important, brilliant writer. He is what investigative journalism used to be about. Now Woodward and Bernstein are no longer Woodward and Bernstein.
This man is one of a handful that spotlight all the things that the powerful and corrupt don’t want known. He does this without resorting to name calling and ideological bias. He investigates. He probably is wiretapped. Most of the journalists that do their job are wiretapped.
It reminds me of Nixon and the late journalist Jack Anderson. They followed him and wired him. Always hoping to find some dirt. They never did. He went right on writing his stories. Nixon went crazy trying to find out his sources and to prove them wrong. He never did. Nixon brought the whole of his resources down on Anderson. IRS included.
James Risen is an example of what happens when you do your job well.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:08 pmTracy__5 Says:
So how much is he going to get for his book deal?
He’s a writer. I imagine writing books occasionally is part of his job. I couldn’t imagine him not writing about this.
Are you trying to insinuate something? Why not just say it? Let me save you the trouble: the reason you didn’t come out and say “he (lied about)/(got himself) wiretapped just so he could write a book and get rich” because that’s so patently stupid that even you can’t bring yourself to say it.
.
Tracy__5 Says:
Blah….Blah….Blah.
This is the most rational comment I’ve ever seen from you. Please, keep it up.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:21 pmTracy__5 Says:
#43
Blah….Blah….Blah.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Sadly you ignorant twit that is the most cogent argument you have ever made
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:26 pmIOKIYAR, eh? Tracy? Would you want the government to spy on YOU?
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:56 pmGiving immunity to telecommunications companies doesn’t let the administration off the hook. I’d think it would make it easier to find witnesses with inside information.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:41 pm55. wiley Says: Giving immunity to telecommunications companies doesn’t let the administration off the hook.
*sigh*
Yes, it does. Legalizing what bush has done essentially extends an amnesty to his crimes. It not only makes it all but impossible to subpoena the telecoms, but since the illegal is now legal, how ginned-up will congress be to pursue these violations? It will be labeled a witch hunt since “it’s now legal, so what’s the diff?”
Here, watch Turley on Maddow’s show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPxf2xq4IaY
I’d think it would make it easier to find witnesses with inside information.
And, if the telecoms are immune and the corporations issue a gag order, any evidence collected is exempt. QED.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 pmToo late they already did.
Tracy, care to debate the definition of “limited”, or are you still trying to change the definition of “in”?
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pmI’m surprised that that is so little reaction to this blockbuster news item. Earlier it was disclosed by technical people that this was a possibility but this is the first time someone on the inside has confirmed what the technical people said was possible. No wonder Telecom immunity was such a big deal.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 pmThanks, Hanshiro. That stinks. This is an issue I haven’t watched carefully. Just did a little research. It seems that the Bush administration gave telecoms a rewrite on law, the way they did torture (thought they should have known better); and if anything is to be done the executive privilege of keeping its own dirty secrets in the interest of national security needs to be challenged.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 pmOnce again the troll is clueless. Never honest discourse, it just spews bullshit and trys to hide it’s ignorance by wierd kind of Turing test type responses. A true product of Bush’s oxymoron “No Child Left Behind” education.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:16 pmIt’s a shame some trolls look for threads to spew their bullshit after most posters have moved. It must be a sad life for trolls who do this.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:16 pmOlbermann and Risen put a lot of faith in Tice’s allegations and Olbermann insinuates that Tice was demoted due to his whistleblowing. But, Tice was asked to take a psych eval in 2003 after raising concerns about a co-worker being a Chinese spy because she traveled abroad, spoke sympathetically about the Chinese and lived beyond her means. After he wouldn’t let the allegation go, he was demoted. He didn’t bring up the wiretap whistleblowing until Dec of 2005. Two years after his reassignment to the motorpool.
After a failed psych eval and 2 years of washing the agencies cars, is Tice really the most credible source Olbermann could find to prove illegal wiretapping?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tice
January 24th, 2009 at 8:07 pmWell, if Risen thinks he has been dissed or worse, he will have to accept the fact that HE spiked the following information from appearing in the Times….on a number of occasions. It’s not nice to hide treason in wartime!
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id1.html
January 24th, 2009 at 8:26 pmhttp://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id258.html
backup, johnmccarthy, would you please provide links to more ‘neutral’ sites? As an example:
(Both from 2006 but just using as an example)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0516/dailyUpdate.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0216/p01s01-uspo.html
Otherwise, I can post biased links to support the thread:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/122234/whistleblower_levels_shocking_allegations_at_bush%27s_spying_programs/
Thanks
January 24th, 2009 at 8:48 pmTracy, tell us the definition of “limited”. Bush said his wiretaps were “limited” to those suspected of talking to al Qaeda. Now we find that his wiretaps were “limited” to the entire population of the United States.
Unless you can redefine the term “limited”, THEN BUSH LIED!
January 25th, 2009 at 12:53 amshoeless, Tracy will wait until it thinks this thread has gone dormant before replying. It likes to sneak around thinking it is intelligent.
January 25th, 2009 at 1:26 amYes I know. He is still arguing with me on an old thread as he tries to redefine the definition of “in” in an attempt to absolve George W. Bush of his lie that Saddam Hussein didn’t allow the UN inspectors “in” to search for WMD.
It looks like Tracy will have to rewrite the entire dictionary in order to defend Bush from his own lies.
January 25th, 2009 at 11:06 amGood luck shoeless. Tracy is wired incorrectly and will never admit it is wrong. Freud could write volumes on this troll, starting with delusions of grandeur.
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