Karen
01-11-2006, 08:47 PM
NSA Extensively Spied on Baltimore Peace Group
This news on the Bush administration’s domestic spy program – the website RawStory.com has obtained government documents showing the National Security Agency spied on the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group. The documents indicate the group was extensively monitored, with detailed records of their travel movements, driving routes -- and even the helium balloons they used in a protest. On one day, the group’s movements were reported every 15 minutes. And at a protest during "Keep Space for Peace Week”, the NSA planned to conduct aerial surveillance and have a Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team nearby.
NSA Denies Whistleblower’s Demand To Testify Before Congress
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting the National Security Agency has denied the request of whistleblower Russell Tice to testify before Congress. Tice, a former intelligence agent at the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency who has spoken out against the domestic spy program, was told he is not free to testify because staff members on Capitol Hill do not have high enough security clearance to hear the secrets he has to tell. Tice first spoke out on record on Democracy Now last week.
House Democrats To Hold Informal Hearing on Spy Program
And House Democrats have scheduled an informal hearing on the NSA spy program. Michigan Congressmember John Conyers announced Tuesday the hearing will be held on January 20th. Conyers, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said House Republicans had ignored calls for a formal hearing.
Harvard’s Tribe: Bush Administration’s NSA Legal Argument “Poppycock”
In making the announcement, Conyers also released a letter from prominent Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe. Commenting on the Bush administration’s argument its program was legally sound, Tribe writes: "The technical legal term for that, I believe, is poppycock."
This news on the Bush administration’s domestic spy program – the website RawStory.com has obtained government documents showing the National Security Agency spied on the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group. The documents indicate the group was extensively monitored, with detailed records of their travel movements, driving routes -- and even the helium balloons they used in a protest. On one day, the group’s movements were reported every 15 minutes. And at a protest during "Keep Space for Peace Week”, the NSA planned to conduct aerial surveillance and have a Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team nearby.
NSA Denies Whistleblower’s Demand To Testify Before Congress
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting the National Security Agency has denied the request of whistleblower Russell Tice to testify before Congress. Tice, a former intelligence agent at the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency who has spoken out against the domestic spy program, was told he is not free to testify because staff members on Capitol Hill do not have high enough security clearance to hear the secrets he has to tell. Tice first spoke out on record on Democracy Now last week.
House Democrats To Hold Informal Hearing on Spy Program
And House Democrats have scheduled an informal hearing on the NSA spy program. Michigan Congressmember John Conyers announced Tuesday the hearing will be held on January 20th. Conyers, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said House Republicans had ignored calls for a formal hearing.
Harvard’s Tribe: Bush Administration’s NSA Legal Argument “Poppycock”
In making the announcement, Conyers also released a letter from prominent Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe. Commenting on the Bush administration’s argument its program was legally sound, Tribe writes: "The technical legal term for that, I believe, is poppycock."