Former NSA intelligence analyst Russel Tice has blown the whistle on Bush’s complete, mass surveillance of US citizens. Tice’s involvement in the NSA program was to identify specific groups of interest, such as journalists, based on an analysis of their communications. When Tice realized that he had access to complete, 24/7 intercepts of every communication involving these groups, he determined that such access amounted to total surveillance of large groups of US citizens. Contrary to official claims, these groups certainly had no established terrorist connections, and were in fact “plain citizens.”
From the Interview (transcription is my own):
Tice: An organization that was collected on were US news organizations and reporters and journalists.
Olbermann: To what purpose, I mean is there a file somewhere full of every email sent by all the reporters at the New York Times? Is there a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York? Is it like that?
Tice: If it was involved in the specific avenue of collection, it would be everything. Yes. It would be everything.
Tice makes it clear US journalists are one such group “in the specific avenue of collection,” and that their records have been stored in a database at the NSA. It is chilling to know that this information is now on record, to be analyzed in any manner at any time, possibly decades down the road.
UPDATE 2008-11-29 Seems like there’s a lot of demand for this video right now. I found a new version, and it’s embedded above. The previous one had been pulled. Also, see the comments below – it’s obvious that Eumir Deodato’s version was decades before Phish.
Hey – does anyone want to tell me why the 1973 version of Also Sprach Zarathustra is suddenly so popular? I’m seeing tons of searches for it – enough that I was prompted to find another copy of the video.
His first album in the USA, Prelude, released in 1972, was of a big band Latin jazz style that immediately attracted a wide audience. His funky version of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and went No. 2 in the pop charts in the US and No. 7 in the UK. It was subsequently used to great effect in the 1979 film Being There, starring Peter Sellers and Shirley Maclaine. It was also covered extensively by the rock band Phish in their live performances and included in several of their live releases.
Anyway, enjoy!
UPDATE 2008-11-29 According to a comment by RS:
In case you’re wondering why the sudden interest — it’s a clue in the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle (which is actually delivered on Saturday).
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