President Obama is scheduled to address the nation about NSA surveillance on Friday, Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. (Shortly after Obama's remarks, NSA veterans Bill Binney, Russ Tice and Kirk Wiebe will speak at a news conference at 12:30 at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., details on livestreaming forthcoming at @accuracy.)
Binney
and Wiebe -- as well as Thomas Drake -- are among the authors of a USA
Today op-ed published today titled "We Need Real Protection from the NSA," which states:
"On Friday, President Obama is expected to issue new guidelines that
purport to rein in these [NSA] abuses, but leaked details leave little reason
for hope that his proposals will go far enough. What America needs is a U-turn
before we lose our freedom and our country. ...
"The many areas requiring rollback illustrate just how far things have
gone. Real change would start with a confession to the voters by the NSA and
the intelligence committees:
" * They should release the true extent of their data collection before
the Snowden reporters do. Tell us how many Americans are in your files. Reveal
the other categories of government agency and private business records that you
have amassed.
" * Identify any other agencies that copy NSA databases and/or collect
their own.
" * Reveal the secret 'black' budget that funds this intrusion into every
nook and cranny of our lives. ..."
Binney, Drake and Wiebe also co-wrote the recent intelligence memo "NSA Insiders Reveal What Went Wrong," which states:
"It is not difficult to connect NSA’s collect-everything approach with one
principal finding of the Review Group you appointed to look into NSA programs;
namely, that exactly zero terrorist plots have been prevented by NSA’s bulk
trawling for telephone call records. One Review Group member, your former
Chicago law professor colleague, Geoffrey Stone, has confessed to being
'absolutely' surprised at the group’s finding of zero. Clearly, the statements
of top NSA officials left Stone wholly unprepared for the truth.
"Reacting to the Review Group’s report, a member of Congress involved in
intelligence issues told a reporter, 'That was the ballgame ... It flies in the
face of everything they have tossed at us.'"
"While this finding of the Review Group is a further blow to Keith
'54-terrorist-plots-thwarted' Alexander’s credibility, it is no surprise to us.
More important, it goes to the heart of whether NSA’s bulk collection is more
hindrance than help in preventing terrorist attacks." The memo goes on to
highlight the program THINTHREAD, that some of the authors worked on, and
describe as a targeted program that was much more low-cost than the massive surveillance
programs the NSA has been executing.
THOMAS DRAKE, tadrake@earthlink.net, @Thomas_Drake1
Available for a limited number of interviews, Drake was a senior
executive at the NSA, see background.
BILL BINNEY, williambinney0802@comcast.net
Available for a limited number of interviews, Binney was
with the NSA for decades and resigned shortly after 9/11. He was technical
director of World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group and was
co-founder of the SIGINT [Signals intelligence] Automation Research Center. See
recent interview with The Real News.
J. KIRK WIEBE, jkwiebe@comcast.net, @KirkWiebe
Wiebe is former senior analyst, SIGINT Automation Research
Center. He also recently wrote in "NSA’s Preference for Metadata" that "the
distinction between listening in on conversations and 'just' collecting phone
numbers called and the duration of the conversations is a red herring. The
truth is that persistent, bulk collection of metadata in support of analysis is
-- not can be -- more revealing over time than content..." See background
on Binney and Wiebe.
The memo was released in conjunction with Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity. A member of that group is also available for
interviews:
COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan@earthlink.net, @ColeenRowley
Rowley is a former FBI special agent and division counsel whose
May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures and was named one
of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. She wrote a
piece for CNN: "Massive Spying on Americans is Outrageous."
She also wrote the piece "Feinstein’s Phony Excuse for NSA Spying," which
debunks Sen. Feinstein's claims regarding mass surveillance being needed to
prevent another 9/11.
Also on Thursday, Chelsea Manning -- the source for many of WikiLeaks
revelations, including the "Collateral Murder" video -- was named
winner of the 2014 Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence
Award. See comments by Rowley and Drake.