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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A
former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
Constitutional rights.
Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National
Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about
a "special access" electronic surveillance program that he characterized as
far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by
the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with
Congress.
Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution's protection against
unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information
without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the
congressional intelligence committees - members or their staff - because
they lack high enough clearance.
Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office
is not cleared to hear the information, he said.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Dennis Kucinich,
D-Ohio, said they believe a few members of the Armed Services Committee are
cleared for the information, but they said believe their committee and the
intelligence committees have jurisdiction to hear the allegations.
"Congressman Kucinich wants Congressman Shays to hold a hearing (on the
program)," said Doug Gordon, Kucinich's spokesman. "Obviously it would have
to take place in some kind of a closed hearing. But Congress has a role to
play in oversight. The (Bush) administration does not get to decide what
Congress can and can not hear."
Tice was testifying because he was a National Security Agency intelligence
officer who was stripped of his security clearance after he reported his
suspicions that a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency was a
spy. The matter was dismissed by the DIA, but Tice pressed it later and was
subsequently ordered to take a psychological examination, during which he
was declared paranoid. He is now unemployed.
Tice was one of the New York Times sources for its wiretapping story, but he
told the committee the information he provided was not secret and could have
been provided by an private sector electronic communications professional.
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