Meet the Real Enemies

As the New York Times, the ACLU, and ABC’s World News Tonight have so amply reported in recent days, former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Russell Tice has stepped forward with allegations that the Agency’s intercepts of overseas telephone communications are illegal. He also claims that millions of Americans may have been unknowingly “spied on.”

Last year, Tice had his security clearance revoked, and was subsequently fired from NSA, after officials questioned his mental health. Now he has become a lightning rod for both sides of the “Freedom at All Costs” vs. “Security of our Nation” camps. Tice, a self-described “whistle-blower,” has asked to appear before Congress so he can tell all the details about his former job, including all the juicy details about Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and his twisted opinions about how its use allegedly violates the law.

I have two huge problems with this.

First, telling Congress secrets of this magnitude (for which many members are not cleared, believe it or not) would be like standing in the editorial office of every major newspaper with a bullhorn and announcing our invasion plans for the next war. As we’ve learned, anything that is said to Congress could be splattered all over the front page the next day. Capitol Hill has enough trouble keeping its leaks plugged with the little stuff, much less the details of critical NSA operations.

“But we MUST know what’s going on there!” the Liberals scream. The government could be SPYING on us. They could be violating our privacy! Bush is a liar!” (I threw that last one in there because they always end their rants with that phrase… Sorry.)

It’s my contention that the real danger in this case is that our national security, for which thousands of unsung warriors have already paid a huge price in the last 60+ years, will now be weakened and compromised.

I must state the following in the strongest terms: High-level intelligence techniques and practices must not be divulged (even to Congress!) or their effectiveness is destroyed. This is a lesson our nation has learned, and re-learned, over and over. Each time this happens, it gets more difficult to develop intel methods -- and maintain the secrecy of these methods -- that contribute to our nation’s overall well-being and safety. When will we learn this lesson for good?

Second, this whole thing is a non-issue. It’s an exaggeration of facts created by the enemies of the current Administration (i.e. the New York Times, the Democratic Party, et al.) in an effort to weaken our country and in so doing, further hurt the President, for whom they have nothing but vile, unspeakable disdain. And apparently, they have the same disdain for the country as a whole.

The interception of telephone calls is a non-issue because the NSA’s intercept program, Echelon, has been widely known about, and written about, since at least 1996.

Note to Liberals: Just because you, personally, didn’t know that your international phone calls might be monitored for key phrases and words like “bomb,” “jihad,” “Al Qaeda,” and “nuclear device” does not mean that you have a right to be outraged by it. Do your homework before becoming outraged, for God’s sake. Read James Bamford’s book, “The Puzzle Palace,” which was available at your local bookstore all through the 1980s and 1990s, or his follow-up book, “Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency,” published in 2002. Both detail all sorts of facts (and purported facts) about NSA. Why is everyone suddenly discovering the NSA? Why are some people suggesting that none of this information was known before the New York Times’ recent “scoop?” It definitely was.

Listen up. If you associate with Al Qaeda, or if you build bombs in your basement, or if you conspire with terrorists, you have every right to fear the NSA (and the FBI, and every other security, intelligence, and law enforcement agency). If you are a normal, law-abiding American citizen, you have zero to worry about. You can continue to live your life the way you currently do, and no one is going to haul you off to jail just because you used the phrase “overthrow the government” in a sentence while talking to your cousin Norm on the phone. It ain’t like that.

The NSA is comprised of some of the most brilliant, patriotic, good-intentioned people our country has to offer. They work damned hard, day and night, watching over us in ways you’ll never know about, and they do it without any public adulation or even recognition. From time to time, they get second-guessed and slandered, yet they continue to serve. They do it because they love this country and because they have very unique skills. Despite what the newspapers would have you believe, they are not a bunch of spies run amok who watch you type your e-mails and listen to you gargle your mouthwash in the morning.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) contains very specific “minimization” procedures that dictate how information must be handled in cases where ordinary Americans’ phone calls are intercepted in the course of chasing a lead on a terrorist, or monitoring overseas or diplomatic calls. As far as I’ve seen in the media, there is no evidence that NSA violated FISA -- just that they monitored calls, just like they’ve always done. And this is big news? Am I missing something?

I know I’m flag-waving a bit, but damn it, this whole situation stinks and I want everyone out there to know that they’re being duped by the media, the ACLU, and others. These groups all know just which buttons to press to get people to react emotionally. All they have to do is start talking about the Bill of Rights, secret FISA Courts, and violations of privacy, and a certain percentage of the populace will get outraged. They just love it when that happens. As an indicator of who this non-story appeals to, do a Google search for Russell Tice's name and you'll find nothing but Liberal's blogs and doomsday articles from tin-foil hat wearing "media outlets."

In this case, everyone’s getting outraged for utterly nothing, and it pains me to watch. Freedom is expensive, and if you aren’t willing to pay the price, you are free to leave.