NSA whistle-blower: Obama “worsethan Bush”Matthew HarwoodSalon.comMarch 9, 2012

National Security Agency, Thomas Drake

Thomas Drake, the whistle-blower whom the Obama administration tried and failed to prosecutefor leaking information about waste, fraud and abuse at the National Security Agency, now worksat an Apple store in Maryland. In an interview with Salon, Drake laughed about the time heconfronted Attorney General Eric Holder at his store while Holder perused the gadgetry ondisplay with his security detail around him. When Drake started asking Holder questions about hiscase, America’s chief law enforcement officer turned and fled the store.

But the humor drained away quickly from Drake’s thin and tired face as he recounted his ordealsince 2010 when federal prosecutors charged him with violating the Espionage Act for retainingclassified information they believed he would pass on to then Baltimore Sun reporter SiobhanGorman. While Drake never disclosed classified information, he did pass on unclassifiedinformation to Gorman revealing that the NSA had wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars onTrailblazer, a contractor-heavy intelligence software program that failed to find terrorist threatsin the tsunami of digital data the agency was sucking up globally — and sometimesunconstitutionally. While Trailblazer burned through cash, in the process enriching many NSAemployees turned contractors, Drake found that another software program named ThinThreadhad already met the core requirements of a federal acquisition regulation that governed theproposed system at a sliver of the cost, all while protecting American civil liberties at the codelevel. The NSA leadership, however, had already bet their careers on Trailblazer. So Drake blewthe whistle, first to Congress, then to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office, and

finally, and fatefully, to Gorman.

Last June, the government’s case collapsed. On the eveof trial, all 10 counts were dropped. In a Kafkaesqueturn of events, Drake actually helped the governmentfind a misdemeanor to charge him with — exceedingauthorized use of an NSA computer — so federalprosecutors could save face. Once facing 35 yearsbehind bars, Drake pled guilty to the misdemeanorcharge and was sentenced to one year of probation and240 hours of community service, what he sardonicallycalls “his penance.”

But his legal battles haven’t ended. Currently, Drake,along with the four other whistle-blowers he workedwith to expose NSA waste, fraud and abuse, arefighting to get their property back that the FBIconfiscated during its criminal investigations. Once aregistered Republican and now a self-described “free-

speech absolutist,” Drake describes the NSA as a rogue agency that operates in a black box thatthe public cannot penetrate.

Drake, along with his attorney Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, satdown for a three-hour interview with Salon. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.

Matthew Harwood: What happens at a place like the NSA when they don’t trust you anymore?

I blew the whistle literally on Trailblazer during that 2003-2005 time frame. That led to a wholeseries of what I will call the retaliation, reprisal and retribution by a thousand cuts, bureaucraticand administrative, where they slowly take you awayfrom your primary responsibilities. They isolate you soyou increasingly have less and less of a role to play,even though I was a senior executive in the government.

It’s like Milton out of “Office Space.” You’re put in thebasement in a cubicle away from everyone.

You talk about Milton in the basement with his stapler.That’s effectively what happened. You are uninvitedfrom certain kinds of meetings. You end up havingcertain key functions reassigned to even your own staffmembers or informed that the funding that you had beenreceiving, well, you know we don’t need to do thatanymore.

In your opinion, is it in the hope that you resign?

Yeah, part of it is the isolation. A bureaucracy can really

create this artificial desert, but thedesert is real. And in essence, whathappens is that they’re taking awaythe meaning and purpose for whoyou are when at work. Given thatwork for so many people is theiridentity, it attempts to fragmentyour identity. If you fragment thatidentity enough, then the hope isyou’ll just pack up and take yourbag somewhere else. And goodriddance. I remember when theyrealized that I was a threat. Thewhite blood cells were kicking in bigtime.

It sounds like some dystopiancorporate environment but in anabsurd, petty way.

You talk about the dark side ofDilbert; they were literally manufacturing incidents that never occurred. That’s the level at whichthey excel. The distrust within this dystopia of each other: people come into work looking tomake someone else’s life bad and they’re deriving great pleasure from the psychological painthey’re inflicting bureaucratically on one another. What does that tell you?

Did you lose your pension?

I was within five-and-a-half years of retirement based on a combination of my military andgovernment time, both CIA and NSA. That’s not there. I have what’s called a thrift savings plan,but I had to take half of that money out. You talk about the price you pay. Most people don’tknow it’s significant. I spent close to $100,000 on attorney fees plus expenses. I have literallygiven up hundreds of thousands of dollars and agovernment pension that would have been worth close toa million dollars.

Would you still blow the whistle if you knew what youknow now?

Yes. There are a few things I would have donedifferently, though. I would not have spoken to the FBI. Iknew that in speaking with them that something could beused against me. I was read my Miranda rights, but Iwaved them to cooperate, but to report crimes:misdemeanors, illegalities, management malfeasance,program fraud, waste and abuse. I would haveimmediately had an attorney, but that’s in hindsight.

Another regret: I would have gone public beforeindictment. Remember, once they indict you’realready in a severely negative place. But the lastplace I would have shared any information with isWikiLeaks, and yet it is a viable internationallybased alternative for getting the truth out. This ispartly why [Bradley] Manning is in the hot waterbecause he’s not going through, allegedly, anAmerican citizen; he’s going somewhere else. Andit’s not the enemy, let’s get that straight right off thebat, but he’s going to an organization that’s non-U.S.-based, non-U.S. citizen.

And I never would have gone to NSA as a seniorexecutive. I would have stayed a contractor. Iwould have just made money. But, see, it’s easy tosay that. And there are no regrets because I have tolive with the integrity of who I am. I recognize that

it’s a very lonely space as a whistle-blower, how incredibly isolating it is. And how you keep whatyou know because of the risks that are involved, recognizing you’re in a much bigger system. Youend up keeping the truth from those who you think you could share it with. That includes closefamily members because you don’t want them implicated. You don’t want them to be viewed asan accessory. My spouse, because she works as an NSA contractor, was interrogated/interviewedby the FBI for a couple of hours. She had no knowledge of any of the specifics of the cooperationI had with DoD. Or the fact that I had contact with a reporter. They were betting that in terms ofsitting one pillow next to another that you would share.

In your opinion, is Bradley Manning a whistle-blower?

There is also a lot of what I call false flag arguments with Manning. It took incredible courage,incredible risk. He ended up listening to his conscience. All the other stuff you hear about is a redherring. All the other stuff is personal andit’s misdirection. Remember, the governmentuses the court of public opinion, just asmuch if not more so than whistle-blowers.The advantage they had, in my case,remember, I was way behind the 8-ball. Inessence they already made like six moves inchess, before I could make a move at all.They already had the upper hand. They hadthe narrative. They had the charges. Theyhad painted me as a traitor. That I hadviolated my oath. That I had betrayed mycountry.

The only defense you have then is the truth.

But what if it’s not sufficient? Thetruth was always on my side. Iknew the truth. It’s one of theadvantages of the truth; you don’thave to make up a story. You justtell the truth. I never had to thinkabout what to say, I just said it.

You talk regularly about how afeeding frenzy occurredthroughout the U.S. securityestablishment and its defensecontractors after Congress startingwriting blank checks in an effort toprevent another 9/11. A decadelater, are we at a place now thenwhere they have to manufacturethreats to keep the money flowing?

You have to persist the threat. You have to find another existential reason why this is indefinite.The only way to do that is the boogeyman. You have to paint that.

Whether that’s Iran or homegrown terrorists or China?

Doesn’t matter, and especially when you have less understanding about it. Radically differentcultures. Radically different environments. We don’t learn very well, except where it’s reflexivelyus. We have a tendency to project ourselves onto others. So yes, you have to manufacture ifyou’re making that kind of money. The national security state became a growth industry — hugeredistribution of wealth. I had people coming to me: “Tom, you have to get out. The money isunbelievable. You can be a millionaire.”

Literally the idea is after 9/11, you couldretire, exit the door, and then walk back in aweek later as a contractor making way moremoney.

That’s correct. Some people did. We’retalking lots of money. The revolving door isan understatement. The number ofmillionaires made at NSA, one of these opendark secrets, is phenomenal. I had verysenior defense contractors attempting tocompromise me, co-opt me. “Tom, you haveall this access now. Sheesh. We could bringyou over. You could lead our NSA businessoffice.”

Advanced software, like what Palantir sells, boasts that it can establish connections betweenindividuals that a human investigator oranalyst would find impossible. Can’t that bereverse engineered to track down whistle-blowers?

Yes, by the very means by which you candetect patterns. What is true abouttechnology like ThinThread or PalantirGovernment is the real potential forirresponsible abuse in secret and targetingthose who are deemed as trouble, dissentersin government or industry – using the verytechnology designed for intelligenceindications and warning about real threats,and then using it against internal threats likewhistle-blowing and profiling their activitiesfor identification and punishment.

They certainly did it with me using similarkinds of monitoring technology. I recognizethat I was a template. I was profiled. Therewas no question. And part of the profiling is

what was the activity set that identifies whistle-blowers. But remember, part of this requirespersistent surveillance electronically. I was electronically surveilled 15 ways to Sunday. And I wasphysically surveilled. My car was searched, interms of patterns, far more frequently than Iwould have expected. And I realized what washappening but I couldn’t say anything. Theymade no bones about that fact and part of it isintimidation. It’s sending the message: “Weknow what you’re up to.”

Jesselyn Radack: Which brings us back to thedark ages. Pay in cash. Meet in person inobscure locations. You adopt drug dealertactics. You adopt the tactics of high-levelcriminals.

But by doing that, guess what you establish:you’re suspicious. And see isn’t that a Catch-22.But there is a defense to this. Forget all thefurtiveness. Forget all of this stuff about whatcriminal enterprises do to hide their criminalactivity, which is what the government is doingthemselves. They’re hiding their own activity.

The answer is openness and transparency,period. Right now with my colleagues,we’re not encrypting with each otherwhen we’re communicating on the civillawsuit. We’re wide open. We’re in theopen. If they’re monitoring us, then so beit.

In the New Yorker article, Jane Mayerquotes you as saying, “I actually hadhopes for Obama.” What’s your opinionon the Obama administration’s statedsupport for whistle-blowers and, moregenerally, his counterterrorism record?

Worse than Bush. I have to say that. Iactually voted for Obama. It’s all rhetoric

for me now. As Americans we were hoodwinked. He’s expanding the secrecy regime far beyondwhat the Bush even intended, interestingly enough. I think Bush is probably like, “Whoa.”

ALL MOVIES BELOW A MUST WATCH IF YOU WANT KNOW WHO THE ELITEARE WATCH THESE MOVIES

The Obama Deceptionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw

Fall of the Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU

EndGame Blue Print to Global Enslavement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-CrNlilZho&ob=av3e

Invisible Empire A New World Order Definedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO24XmP1c5E&ob=av3e

The American Dream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU

America: Freedom to Fascismhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUpZhhbKUBo

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve (HQ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLYL_NVU1bg

Unexplained explosion caught live onPhoenix news broadcast Eric PfeifferThe SideshowMarch 9, 2012

Phoenix’s FOX 10 reporter AndreaRobinson was in the middle of anon-air report when an unexplained,bright white explosion appeared inthe distance behind her.

The strange blast was caught ontape and aired live duringRobinson’s report. At first, newsstation employees thought theexplosion was a transformer. Butwhen FOX 10 checked with local utility providers APS and Salt River Project, they were told notransformers had blown in the area.

PHOENIX LIGHTS: Mysterious Light Flashes During Traffic in Phoenix?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSDpF4JgbE

While the source of the explosion remains a mystery, it comes just before the 15th anniversary ofone of the most-famous UFO sightings in recent history. On March 13, 1997, a cluster ofglowing orbs moving in a V-shaped formation was spotted in the skies above Phoenix. Thatincident was also caught on film. The origin of the light formation has since been endlesslyanalyzed and debated.

Read more

Maryland Cops To Be Trained On USConstitution After Illegally ArrestingProtesters

Steve WatsonInfowars.comMarch 9, 2012

Pro-life demonstrators,including teenage girls, werestrip searched, shackled byofficers who said they could“rot” in cells

State police in Maryland havebeen ordered to undergotraining on the First and FourthAmendments following a 2008incident during which 18 pro-life protesters were arrested,shackled and strip searched.

The incident occured whenmembers of the group DefendLife peacefully demonstratedon public property in Hartford

County in August, 2008, as part of their “Face the Truth” campaign.

Around a dozen State officers arrived on the scene and told the protesters that they did not have apermit and would be arrested unless they packed up and left.

When asked what specific ordinance said the demonstrators needed a permit to protest, oneofficer responded “I’m not getting into it at five o’clock at night… I’m a State police officer, Iknow the law – THAT’S IT.”

Part of the incident was captured on film.

DEFEND LIFE HARFORD COUNTY MD-August 1, 2008http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmgMKHNxBp8

Attorneys with the anti-arbortion groups theAlliance Defense Fund (ADF), the Thomas MoreSociety of Chicago, and the American CatholicLawyers Association revealed that after their arrest,the protesters, including women and young girls,

one as young as 14, were put into leg shackles and strip searched twice, while being denied theright to make phone calls, and make contact with lawyers. The protesters were kept in jailovernight.

Reports indicate that the first strip search took place in the police station parking lot in full viewof male officers. The second strip search was conducted at the Harford County Detention Center.

Life Site News reports that The Maryland Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to settle thelawsuit that has been ongoing ever since. As part of the settlement in the case, the state ofMaryland will also pay $385,000 to the protesters to cover legal fees.

When the county confirmed that there is no requirement for a “permit” as the protesters had beentold, they were instead charged with loitering, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a lawfulorder. All the charges were dropped after one week.

Attorney Tom Brejcha revealed that the real reason for the arrests stemmed from a classic case of“heckler’s veto,” a violation of the First Amendment.

“we netted a harvest of police phone and radio call transcripts, which showed the reason for thearrests were complaints from the public, members of whom were upset about the content of the[pro-life protesters'] signs.” said Brejcha.

Brejcha also revealed that following the arrests, one police officer stated over the radio that as faras she was concerned the protesters could “sit in a cell for an hour… or three or four and rot.”

“There was a lot of hard feelings and animus against the pro-life position on the part of many ofthese arresting officers, including at the supervisory level.” Brejcha said.

Brejcha added that the case had taken four years to settle as it was “vigorously defended by themunicipalities and the state police.”

The town of Bel Air and Hartford county agreed to settlements with the protesters last year.

The ADF has issued a statement noting “Under the terms of the settlement, Maryland State Policecannot issue countywide dispersal orders against peaceful pro-life speakers, cannot illegally arrestpro-life speakers who are exercising their constitutionally protected free speech and assemblyrights, must provide acceptable reasons for asking any speakers to move, must provide speakerswith the opportunity to move before threatening anyone with arrest, cannot censorconstitutionally protected messages and images on signs, and must participate in training on rightsprotected by the First and Fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution,”.

The Thomas More Society issued a press release that stated “While we applaud the settlement,we remain appalled by the illegal behavior of the Maryland State Police. We sincerely believe thatwith a better understanding of the First Amendment and a newfound respect for citizen protests,the Maryland State Police will strive hereafter to protect all the rights bestowed on individuals bythe U.S. Constitution,”