[Intelforum] Bush's Warrantless Wiretaps

[LevinMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/21/2005 9:31:03 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
prosano at insight.rr.com writes:


George W. Maschke wrote:

I think that the whistleblowers who revealed this illegal domestic 

surveillance program to the press are to be commended, not condemned.





I believe that neither Mr. Maschke nor Mr. Prosano, who answered with  an 
extended legal analysis of the intelligence tasking under discussion, have  
gotten to the issue of damage to the national security.
The person who revealed the existence of this program to the press was not  a 
whistleblower. A whistleblower is a person who reveals unclassified  
information concerning official wrongdoing, waste, fraud or abuse. This type of  
revelation is legal; it is in fact protected by law. Often whistleblowers are  
proud to provide their identification.
In the case at point, an individual with access to classified national  
security information leaked information to the press. This action was a criminal  
violation of the law. Anyone who further disclosed this information publicly  
should be considered an accessory after the fact.
Note that in this case the leaker hides under a cloak of anonymity.
Now, to the issue of damage to the national security. The surveillance  
program involved one of the intelligence community's most sensitive and fragile  
sources; signals intelligence. History has shown us that each time the press has 
 a field day, such as the current one, on SIGINT operations, ---target  
individuals, groups, or, countries will review their communications security and  
make necessary changes. Often the changes made may eliminate a critical  
intelligence source and blind us to an incoming attack.
So, if anyone wants to encourage their Congressmen or Senators to review  the 
legality of the subject program, fine. But please do it quietly and insist  
that the review be done in closed session.
 
Mike Levin
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists101.his.com/pipermail/intelforum/attachments/20051225/98b4a4f8/attachment.html