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Whistleblowers Claim US Eavesdropping on Americans

By possum

An ABC News account today tells the tale of US monitoring of calls made by Americans.

hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

According to the informants

American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and "collected on" as they called their offices or homes in the United States.

The two whistleblowers never met but still tell the same tale.  No other independent corroboration has yet come to light.

In testimony before Congress, then-NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden, now director of the CIA, said private conversations of Americans are not intercepted.

And as we all have known for a long time the administration spokespersons are not to be trusted.  We have been misled and lied to again and again.

Michael Goldfarb, spokesman for Doctors Without Borders said

The abuse of humanitarian action through intelligence gathering for military or political objectives, threatens the ability to assist populations and undermines the safety of humanitarian aid workers.

The director of the NSA, Lt. General Keith B. Alexander, declined to directly answer any of the allegations made by the whistleblowers.

Lt. General Keith Alexander declined to comment about the allegations.  In a written statement, Gen. Alexander said

We have been entrusted to protect and defend the nation with integrity, accountability, and respect for the law. As Americans, we take this obligation seriously. Our employees work tirelessly for the good of the nation, and serve this country proudly.

How seriously may we take those words when so many actions taken by the government have been illegal?

The Bush administration and its programs of warrantless wiretapping have extended the range of surveillance far beyond the bounds of reason.  One person described the current efforts as seeking a needle in an ever enlarging haystack.  The more data one collects the less likely actionable information is to be found.  

The nation must reconsider its security procedures.  By giving up our individual freedom of speech and protections from unreasonable search and seizure we are much less secure today than at any time in the past.

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on October 10, 2008 (boomark / email).