Democracy Now / /Thomad Tamm

[HillbillyBob]

Source: Justice Dept. Whistleblower Defends Decision to Leak Bush Domestic Surveillance Program & Calls for

We speak with Thomas Tamm, the man who blew the whistle on the Bush administration’s secret domestic surveillance program. Tamm worked as an attorney at the Justice Department when he leaked the story to the New York Times in 2004. In 2007, the FBI raided his home and seized three computers and personal files. He still faces possible arrest for disclosing classified secrets.

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/16/justice_dept_whistleblower_responds_to_latest

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On now

[No Elephants]

1. Very interesting interview. So, Congress blew off this guy

before he went to the NYT? Imagine that.


"THOMAS TAMM: Well, it actually was a fairly long process. In the criminal division, I had been over at the CIA, and I read cables that talked about extraordinary rendition and implicitly understood that people were being sent there for torture. And then I realized that the government was saying that we didn’t do that, and so I knew that my government was lying.


When I started working at—in front of the FISA court, there was this separate track of cases that—it just didn’t make any sense why they were treated differently than a normal FISA application. And I also started thinking about, well, how come the deputy attorney general, the second in command, was not able to hear those FISA applications or sign those FISA applications?


And finally, I talked to a senior person and asked if they knew what this separate track was, and she said, “I just assume it’s illegal.” And I have been in law enforcement my entire life. My family was in law enforcement. And I didn’t want to be participating in something that might be illegal. So I actually went up to the Hill to see if Congress—to try and find out whether Congress knew about what was going on. And when I was told and warned that it’s very dangerous to be a whistleblower and they would not confirm that Congress had been briefed is when I decided to call the New York Times."

And, as of April 16, 2009

"It’s stunning to me, I mean, that we’re still—our government is still violating the law. And, you know, we have a legal procedure in place through the FISA court to permit legalized wiretapping of US persons that go overseas. You have to be able to show probable cause that they maybe are tied with terrorism, but that is not a very heavy burden for the government to make. And I’m convinced, and I think that this article just reaffirms my conviction, is that a lot of more Americans have been illegally wiretapped than we know."

And, his assertion that others knew or assumed that they were involved in something illegal is very interesting. And then did not even rely on the opinion of an attorney that what they were doing was just fine.

Thanks for this thread, HillbillyBob, and welcome.