123 Real Change
Friday, July 31st, 2009Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Podcast Show #2
The Boiling Frogs Presents Russ Tice
Russ Tice discusses the latest on NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans and the implications of this program, the US Congress abdicating its oversight role and his experiences in dealing with them, the US mainstream media, his let-down by President Obama, our current speedy move toward a police state, and more.
Here is our guest Russ Tice unplugged!
- Listen to the show.
For those who want to subscribe to the show in “itunes”, here is the subscription URL:
- http://boilingfrogs.justacitizen.com/xml.php?feed_id=1071
Russell Tice is a Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Capabilities Operations Officer Specializing in Offensive Information Warfare (O-IW). During his nearly 20 year career with various US government agencies he conducted intelligence missions related to the Kosovo War, Afghanistan, and the USS Cole Bombing in Yemen. In 2005 Tice helped spark a national controversy over claims that the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional wiretaps on US citizens, and later admitted that he was one of the sources that were used in the NY Times’ reporting on the wiretap activity in December 2005. On July 26, 2006, he was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury regarding violations of federal law.
Posted by Sibel Edmonds at 8:39 PM 14 comments Links to this post 
Labels: Blackmail, Congress, Illegal Wiretap, NSA, Russ Tice, Russell Tice, sibel edmonds, whistleblowers
Update: National Security Whistleblowers Robbed; Again
It’s Way Past Time for Real Change
Okay, the Senate markup is completed. Basically, they took out almost all meaningful provisions on National Security Whistleblowers. As some of my members put it ‘…they screwed us; again.’
We don’t understand what ‘some’ organizations are applauding for. Really! On the other hand, these organizations have been in this ‘business’ for over two decades and have to do this dance and look out for their annual funding. In fact, every year they present several medals to these same congressional representatives we’ve been struggling with…
Anyway, here is National Whistleblower Center’s more realistic analysis. I have to read it one more time and digest it further…
This is why two years ago I stopped the ‘congressional fight’ on this issue. The only chance, the only course of action, the real solution, is to kick most of these spineless sold out elected representatives out of Congress, and replace them with real representatives who have honor, backbone, and dignity…
Posted by Sibel Edmonds at 8:14 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
National Security Whistleblowers Demand Protection
President Obama, We have You on Record, Fulfill Your Promise
We are approaching ‘the day’ with the Senate Committee on the whistleblower protection legislation. The mark up is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 29, 10:00 a.m. EST. The White House seems to have backed off from their previous position. Here is what I just sent to my organization members:
- As you know in the last two years I have not been ‘optimistically’ active in the ongoing congressional related whistleblower protection debate. However, the following campaign by the National Whistleblower Center got my attention. Why? Because our new president appears to be talking from both sides of his mouth. During his campaign, as in many issues, he made a bunch of ‘on-the-record’ promises regarding needed protection for whistleblowers, including the most important ones, those in the national security related agencies. Now he may be royally backing off from those promises. I for one am not surprised; not in the least. On the other hand, I am glad to see that National Whistleblower Center is not willing to let our president off the hook. They have him on the record, and they are planning to remind him loudly and publicly.
Copy-pasted below is their letter to President Obama. They want your backing and support. I just signed it; after all, I am a national security whistleblower and I want to go on record with this ‘needed’ reminder to the president. I hope you do the same. Please send me (by e-mail) your name and title, and let me know if you support this campaign.
Regards,
Sibel Edmonds
And here is the letter from the National Whistleblower Center:
- President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
On May 8, 2007, your presidential campaign promised America’s whistleblowers in writing that you stood behind their need for legal protection and fully supported support federal court access and jury trials for all federal employees. The House of Representatives enacted these protections when it overwhelmingly passed H.R. 985 in a veto-proof, bipartisan manner. In another bipartisan effort, Representatives Van Hollen (D-MD), Waxman (D-CA), Towns (D-NY), Braley (D-IA), and Platts (R-PA) have reintroduced this bill as H.R.1507.
Now we need your help. While the House version of the bill is more inclusive, the Senate version lacks many key protections. The Senate bill currently lacks coverage for the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who participate in the global war on terror and oversee a budget well over $150 billion. Please stand by your promise and ensure that all federal employees receive comprehensive whistleblower protections.
The reason typically cited for denying court access for all federal employees is that it could create a national security risk. As current or former national security whistleblowers, we know this is not true. In an objective and independent review, the General Accounting Office (GAO) saw “no justification for treating employees at [intelligence] agencies differently from employees at other federal agencies except in rare national security cases.” This finding has held since 1996, and yet misinformation about extending full due process protections to national security whistleblowers is still pervasive today.
Moreover, whistleblowers have actually been instrumental in pointing out issues that threaten our nation’s security. Even without full due process protections, courageous employees have pointed out problems including deficiencies in the counterterrorism program that contributed to the success of 9/11, the promotion of faulty intelligence that led to a war, systemic due process violations through misconduct in crime labs, and billions of dollars in waste and illegal contracting. Rather than a national security threat, whistleblowers are a central defense against misconduct.
The future of our nation depends on your support for this critical oversight and accountability issue. Taxpayers put forward billions in government spending, and they deserve accurate information and a guarantee of accountability. Please safeguard our nation against future terrorist attacks by removing the gag order from the brave men and women who are charged with ensuring our safety.
The past ten years have demonstrated the invaluable contributions of whistleblowers. We have made countless preventable mistakes, including the failure to search Moussaoui, abuses in Abu Ghraib, and lies to Congress about secret CIA programs. The need to fully protect national security whistleblowers is indisputable. They are vital to our country’s safety, and their future is in your hands.
And here is Mr. President on record during his campaign:
Come on Mr. President; be a man of your word. Show us what kind of a man you are.
Let’s watch this together, and let’s demand the deserved protection for whistleblowers…
Posted by Sibel Edmonds at 6:26 PM 5 comments Links to this post
Labels: Congress, Legislation, national security whistleblowers, nswbc, Obama
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tidbits Round Up-July 27
Russ Tice Interview, The True Face of Facebook?, Outlaw Rabbis Busted & More
This Thursday I’ll post our second ‘Boiling Frogs’ Podcast interview, with Russ Tice, Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Capabilities Operations Officer Specializing in Offensive Information Warfare (O-IW). You may want to check out the post I had on Tice last month. It’s a full hour show with Tice unplugged on the latest NSA related developments, US Congress, his Kafkaesque journey as a whistleblower, and more.
Our list of upcoming Boiling Frogs guests includes Peter Lance, Phil Giraldi, Sandalio Gonzalez, and Stephen Kohn. Stay Tuned!
Here are a few interesting stories from last week:
Here is a very interesting developing story about a gang of rabbis arrested in New Jersey:
- “Several rabbis were arrested as part of a public corruption and international money-laundering investigation in New Jersey. According to reports, among the 44 people arrested Thursday morning by the FBI along with the rabbis were the mayors of three New Jersey towns, a deputy mayor and a state assemblyman. They were to appear in federal court in Newark later in the day. The money-laundering suspects were accused of moving “at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey,” according to a release by acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra.”
…
The story goes beyond money laundering and reaches the shadowy world of illicit organ trade:
- “Even by New Jersey standards, Thursday’s roundup of three mayors, five rabbis and 36 others on charges of money laundering and public corruption was big. But what put this FBI dragnet head and shoulders above the rest are the charges of trafficking in human body parts.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed in district court in New Jersey, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn conspired to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant. The cost was $160,000 to the recipient of the transplant, of which the donor got $10,000. According to the complaint, Mr. Rosenbaum said he had brokered such sales many times over the past 10 years.”
Here is the Youtube Clip:
As you can see these rabbis were not dealing in peanuts. Their money-laundering deals involved moving “at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey.” I recommend that you put this story on your radar, since the case may end up mysteriously dropped once AIPAC and JINSA make their congressional rounds and poke their men inside various executive branch agencies. Remember the Franklin, AIPAC, and Asher Karni cases? Okay, so that you know what I’m talking about here is a sample of what will be coming and will be done so very typically shrewdly and effectively:
- “Anti-Semitism was behind the highly publicized arrests last week of rabbis, including three from the Aleppo-Syrian Jewish community in New York and New Jersey, according to Yitzhak Kakun, editor-in-chief of the Shas weekly Yom Le’Yom.
“There is a feeling here that the FBI purposely attempted to arrest as many rabbis as possible at once in an attempt to humiliate them,” Kakun said in a telephone interview Sunday.
“Regardless of the details of the case – I am not familiar with the precise charges and the evidence – you would never see the FBI and police behaving that way with Muslim sheikhs or Christian priests. It is so obvious that the whole thing is motivated by anti-Semitism,” he said. Kakun added that he planned on devoting the editorial of his paper to an attack on the Obama administration for attempting to whip up anti-Semitic feelings against the Orthodox Jewish community in the US.”
…
What has this guy been smoking?! “…you would never see the FBI and police behaving that way with Muslim sheikhs…”! Can someone send him the known list of Guantanamo inmates held there for eight years with no charges? Or maybe the secret list of those kidnapped and tortured around the world by our government? Did the Brooklyn mobs ever use this line; you know, the fact that the FBI was targeting devote churchgoing Catholics?! Okay I’ll leave it here because I am sick of this tactic, used over and over in cases ranging from espionage to plain ole criminal!
Is Facebook joining AT&T, Verizon and others who are willing to act as the extension of US Government policing practices? It may be. Check out this recent article, and let me know what you think:
- “The operators of the internet site Facebook have recently removed a webpage dedicated to fans of Hamas’ prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, the London-based Al-Hayat reported Sunday. The webpage, called ‘Commander Ismail Haniyeh’, had attracted more than 10,000 Facebook users by the time it was removed from the internet.
One such user told the Arab daily that the site’s operators had not provided an explanation for their action. He warned that similar action may be taken against other Hamas-affiliated Facebook webpages, including that of Hamas’ politburo chief, Khaled Mashaal, which has already accumulated 17,000 ‘friends’.”
…
This story is worth putting on our radar…Is this the true face of Facebook? Where is the outrage? Where are the riots?!
Bill Conroy of NarcoNews reports on how former a DEA agent’s lawsuit exposes CIA fraud, and on the litigation’s claim that the spook agency engages in wholesale spying on other federal agencies:
- “The secretive government agency is now coping with the embarrassing exposure of its deceit in a lawsuit filed by Horn, who previously served as the DEA’s country attaché in Burma (now officially known as the Union of Myanmar) from June 1992 to September 1993. In addition, the events that prompted the CIA’s lie appear to point to serious dysfunction within the agency that potentially poses a threat to the very U.S. national security it is charged with protecting.”
…
“After Tenant filed his declaration with the court invoking state secrets privilege, Judge Lamberth discovered that several CIA attorneys were likely aware as early as 2002 that Brown was no longer officially deemed to be undercover, yet those attorneys and Brown failed to inform the court. That deception resulted in a ruling by Lamberth, and subsequently a U.S. Appeals Court, that hamstrung Horn’s case under national security restrictions and led to Brown being dismissed as a defendant in the case.”
…
“Narco News has previously reported at length on the Horn case in a 2004 story that was based on leaked court pleadings. That story can be found at this link.
Horn’s lawsuit was filed in 1994 against Brown and State Department Chief of Mission in Burma Franklin Huddle Jr., who also was stationed in Burma at the same time Horn served as DEA’s country attaché. In the litigation, both Brown and Huddle are accused of violating Horn’s constitutional rights by conspiring to plant an eavesdropping bug in his government-leased quarters in Burma. Horn also alleges in the lawsuit that the eavesdropping was part of a larger effort by Brown and Horn to undermine DEA’s anti-narcotics mission in Burma.”
…
I strongly encourage you to read the entire piece, including the link provided by Conroy to Horn’s original leaked story. We have covered the CIA-Narc ties and history, and of course the MSM chronic agenda-driven blackout of similar cases.
Here is the latest by Jeremy Scahill published in Nation on Blackwater, now ‘Xe,’ titled ‘Blackwater Seeks to Gag Iraqi Victims & Their Lawyers’:
- “Now, Blackwater (which recently renamed itself "Xe") is attempting to use other means to silence its victims. On July 20, the company’s high-powered lawyers from Mayer Brown, which boasts that it represents eighty-nine of the Fortune 100 companies and thirty-five of the fifty largest US banks, filed a motion in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to impose a gag order on Iraqi civilians suing the company. The motion also seeks to silence the lawyers representing the families of Iraqis allegedly killed or injured by Blackwater in a series of violent incidents spanning several years. Four cases in the Washington, DC, area were recently consolidated before Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia for pretrial motions.”
“At the same time, according to a court filing, Blackwater is also asking Judge Ellis to seal evidence that Blackwater claims is confidential or could impact national security. The company argues that if its contracts with the State Department and its "Tactical Standard Operating Procedure" guide are publicly revealed, it "could give valuable information to those who wish to plan more effective attacks against diplomatic personnel stationed in Iraq." Susan Burke, the lead attorney on the civil lawsuits against Blackwater, is not contesting Blackwater’s request to seal these specific documents–primarily because they will still remain evidence. But, it does mean that the public will not be able to view them. "Blackwater is basically trying to keep from public view all of the evidence that shows their criminality," says Burke. "They are trying to ensure that we cannot apprise the public of the progress of the lawsuit."”
…
I wonder how long before intelligence related firms and mercenary government contractors will feel bold enough to invoke their own ‘State Secrets Privilege’ or other classification and gag orders. It may seem farfetched, but so many other cases we’ve been witness to in the past eight years or so…
And finally,
The Center for Public Integrity ran an interesting story about how the US government retroactively classifies information when they get stuck and engage in CYA. This is especially prevalent when they deal with whistleblowers. One of the stories is about Robert MacLean, US Air Marshal, who is also a member of my organization:
- “The elements are all there for another thrilling episode of the TV program “24.” The backdrop: A U.S. agency of armed government agents who fly anonymously as passengers on airlines to stop terrorist hijackings. In the summer of 2006, British authorities subvert a plot to blow up transatlantic flights to the U.S. and Canada. But then, eight days later, sensitive information about a cutback on agent deployments on flights over the United Kingdom spills onto the public pages of an online forum. The U.S. agency, while monitoring websites where its employees post, rapidly mounts an inquiry into who posted the information.”
…
“In 2003, federal air marshal Robert MacLean blew the whistle to the press about an attempt by his agency to cut air marshal coverage of flights during a period of heightened threat warnings. His disclosure led to a congressional outcry that the Federal Air Marshal Service was putting security at risk, leading the decision to be reversed. Though the information was not marked “sensitive security information” when MacLean received it, it was retroactively determined to be sensitive after he was fired on the basis of disclosing SSI.”
“MacLean’s case illustrates the complex dynamic between secrecy and security. TSA argues that his disclosures weakened security, were in violation of agency regulations, and that MacLean should have known the information was SSI whether it was marked or not. MacLean, several members of Congress, and others say he prevented a policy that would have left airlines more vulnerable to attacks, improving security. And the way the TSA utilized the “sensitive security information” label retroactively to fire him could create a chilling effect, preventing future potential whistleblowers…”
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