Raw Story

Former analyst at the National Security Agency, Russell Tice, exclusively reveals to Countdown’s Keith Olbermann that American journalists where specifically targeted by the Bush administration for surveillance. Tice feared revealing this information while George Bush occupied the Oval office.

Do you think journalists and news organizations KNEW they were being targeted by the illegal wiretapping 24/7, 365 days a year? Did that have an effect on their reporting?

Was the purpose to intimidate? To control? To manage the message? (“1984“..)

What other groups? Members of Congress? The Senate? The Department of Justice? Where the fuck did they stop?

Was illegal wiretapping on ALL Americans just unethical? Or was it ILLEGAL?? This should scare the holy shit out of every single American. These are not the practices of the America I know and love. This secret practice has no place in a democracy—by the people, for the people. Is it still ongoing? Or will it stop with President Obama? Will he take measures to make sure it cannot happen again? Does that mean those breaking the laws by allowing this practice will be held to account?

Again, I am SO happy and grateful Bush/Cheney are finally GONE!! Now, we must be diligent, and make sure this practice ends. This isn’t about ‘protecting’ the American people, it never has been. This was ONLY about controlling the American people. The word ‘protecting’ was certainly thrown around a lot, but that was only used to instill fear, to make people think about being afraid and feel insecure, and then look to the government to ‘keep them safe’. As I read in a book this last weekend – this line: “all encompassing terror is an absolute necessity in order to keep a dictatorship in power”. That line seriously resonated after the last eight years.. It may not have technically been a ‘dictatorship’, but it sure felt like it was shaping up to be one.

Thank God it is FINALLY over.

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Keith will be interviewing Russell Tice in a ‘part 2’ follow-up segment tomorrow night.