What kind of relationship allows people in government
agencies to freely speak with journalists about classified national security
matters? While Edward Snowden’s
father is imploring readers of various press reports to consider his son’s
motivation, we might do better to look back a few years, and wonder why he gets
so much notoriety for what he did.
Thomas Tamm, before he called the New York Times, went to
his boss in the Justice Department, and a friend on the Hill, to try to get
someone interested in looking at NSA spying on U.S. citizens’ telephone
conversations. That was five years
before anyone ever heard of Edward Snowden. If you think Tamm was doing something terrible, you might also
wonder why the Justice Department dropped charges against him. They destroyed his job and family
security first, but had no hard feelings.
You can see Tamm’s own description of what he was thinking,
and the description of Michael Iskoff,
who wrote his story down in a Newsweek article, The Fed Who Blew the Whistle, one of the most detailed articles I
have read on any subject like this.
[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/12/the-fed-who-blew-the-whistle.html]
Both are interviewed on Democracy Now!, for those who might
be text-challenged. [http://www.democracynow.org/appearances/thomas_tamm]. At least you can hear it in their own
words.
Tamm says he didn’t know the name of the Program but knew
somebody was going around the FISA Court process to get warrants issued. The Chief Judge felt the program was
“probably illegal” and felt the Attorney General might get indicted over
it. The curiosity about this
story is the New York Times told Tamm they would have to check their sources at
NSA to find out what was going on.
This might be true, or it might be cover for another source. Washington is devilishly cleaver when
it comes to this kind of smoke.
The whole episode has come full circle in the appointment of
James Comey to be Director of the FBI. Iskoff claims Comey and the Director, Robert Mueller, were
about to resign over a program that Justice thought was illegal and the Bush
White House was trying to perpetuate.
Iskoff leaves little doubt that he thought it was NSA’s program
monitoring U.S. citizens.
Sitting in Attorney General Ashcrofts’s hospital room, Comey
managed to make his opinions known strongly enough that the White House
representatives that had come to get the program renewed, went back empty
handed. That is real commitment to
your ideals, and usually suicidal in Washington politics. It is nice to know that someone
appreciated what a risk he took, and still rewarded him.
I wonder why Tamm and Thomas Drake at NSA, felt they had no
other avenue. If we look at the
modern Whistleblower, very few have tried to resolve their complaints the right
way, but both of these people did make the effort. When they ran out of options, they thought going to the
press was acceptable.
Organizations need a responsible way to deal with complaints
about perceived wrongs. The longer
they are allowed to fester, the more likely the outlet will be the press. While we look for ways to hang the
guilty, maybe some of those leaders who refuse to listen to their own, might be
lined up by the same gallows.
You can read more about the keeping of secrets in Keeping Secrets, The White House, the
Military and Business Leaks that Threaten our National Security, available
through Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_20?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=dennis+f.+poindexter&sprefix=Dennis+F.+Poindexter,stripbooks,159
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