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NSA Expert Jim Bamford on Domestic Wiretapping: The Bush
Administration Has "Decided Simply to Violate the Law"
Former NSA Head Gen. Hayden Grilled by Journalists on NSA
Eavesdropping on U.S. Citizens
Asst. Labor Secretary Dye Walks Out of Mine Safety Hearing
As West Virgnia Mine Deaths Reach 14
NSA Expert Jim Bamford on Domestic Wiretapping: The
Bush Administration Has "Decided Simply to Violate the
Law"
The Bush administration has launched a public-relations
offensive to defend the National Security Agency's eavesdropping
on U.S. citizens without court warrants. We speak with James
Bamford, author of several books on intelligence, including
the first book ever written about the NSA. Bamford is also
a plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit that charges the spying program
violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under
the first and fourth amendments of the Constitution. [includes
rush
transcript]
We look at domestic surveillance and the National Security
Agency:
- Enemy of the State, excerpt of 1998 movie.
That was an excerpt of the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster "Enemy
of the State" starring Gene Hackman and Will Smith. The
film portrayed the National Security Agency as a powerful
and sinister government organization. It was the first time
many Americans had ever heard of the NSA. At the time, newly-appointed
NSA director General Michael Hayden took it upon himself to
deal with the fallout. Hayden appeared on talk shows across
the country to counter the negative publicity of the film.
Eight years later, Hayden is back in the public eye - this
time to defend the NSA's eavesdropping of U.S. citizens without
court warrants. President Bush secretly authorized the program
following the Sept. 11 attacks. In a speech and question-and-answer
session at the National Press Club in Washington Monday, Hayden
-- now the deputy director of national intelligence -- defended
the program as "targeted and focused" and said that
it had succeeded in gathering information they would not have
otherwise been able to get.
In a few minutes, we'll play excerpts of the press conference.
But first we speak with NSA expert, author James Bamford.
- James Bamford, author of several books including the
first book ever written about the National Security Agency
called "The Puzzle Palace : Inside America's Most Secret
Intelligence Organization." He is also author of Body
of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security
Agency; and most recently, "A Pretext for War: 9/11,
Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies".
We turn to our interview with former NSA intelligence agent,
Russell Tice. We first spoke to Tice in a Democracy Now exclusive
on January 3rd - one week before he appeared on ABC News.
For the past two decades, Tice has worked in the intelligence
field both inside and outside government, most recently with
the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency.
He was fired in May 2005 after he spoke out as a whistleblower.
In the interview, Tice spoke about the 1978 Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act - or FISA. The statute requires government
agencies to obtain a court order before to conduct domestic
intelligence surveillance.
- Russell Tice, former intelligence agent at the National
Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency. He worked
at the NSA up until May 2005. Interview on Democracy
Now! Jan 3, 2006.
Former NSA Head Gen. Hayden Grilled by Journalists
on NSA Eavesdropping on U.S. Citizens
We turn to a rare news conference held by General Michael
Hayden, deputy director of National Intelligence and former
national director of the National Security Agency, who spoke
to reporters Monday in Washington D.C. at the National Press
Club. The conference was part of a public relations offensive
by the Bush administration to defend the NSA’s eavesdropping
on U.S. citizens without court warrants. [includes rush
transcript]
In a separate speech later in the day, Bush repeated his
argument that he had the legal and constitutional authority
to authorize the program without congressional approval. Meanwhile,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to discuss
the legal justification for the program today. And on Wednesday,
Bush will pay a rare visit to NSA headquarters at Fort Meade
in Maryland. We turn now to excerpts of General Hayden’s
National Press Club news conference, beginning with Hayden
being questioned by a reporter.
Asst. Labor Secretary Dye Walks Out of Mine Safety
Hearing As West Virgnia Mine Deaths Reach 14
Fourteen miners have died in a span of three weeks at mines
in West Virginia. On Capital Hill Monday, David Dye, the Acting
Assistant Labor Secretary For Mine Safety & Health, walked
out of a hearing on mine safety before he could answer further
questioning and hear from other witnesses. We speak with Ellen
Smith, editor of Mine Safety and Health News. [includes rush
transcript]
The bodies of two miners were found Saturday night following
a fire inside a mine in the town of Alma. The Alma mine, which
is owned by a subsidiary of Massey Energy, had been cited
at least 12 times for violations involving fire equipment
since June. The Alma deaths come just weeks after 12 miners
died at West Virginia’s Sago mine. More miners have
already died in the state in 2006 than in any year over the
past decade. In response, on Monday, the West Virginia state
legislature unanimously passed a bill aimed at improving mine
safety. The measure would require miners to be equipped with
wireless devices and additional oxygen tanks in case of an
emergency that would trap them underground.
Meanwhile, on Capital Hill, the Senate Appropriations committee
held a hearing on mine safety on Monday. The committee first
heard from David Dye – Acting Assistant Labor Secretary
For Mine Safety & Health. Under questioning, Dye could
not explain why it took officials with the Mine Safety and
Health Administration (MSHA) two hours to learn of the explosion
at the Sago mine. At the end of his testimony, Dye got into
an exchange with Republican Senator Arlen Specter over Dye’s
announcement he had to leave the hearings early. After Dye
left the hearings, Specter later said he could not recall
ever seeing such a departure. The committee then heard from
Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America.
- Ellen Smith, owner and editor of Mine
Safety and Health News. She has been covering mining-related
issues since 1987 and has won 17 journalism awards for her
reporting, including the Society of Professional Journalists
Sigma Delta Chi Award and the National Press Club Award
for Newsletter Journalism. She is on the line from Mendon,
New York.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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