Posted on 12/16/2008 1:32:20 PM PST by Signalman
Thomas M. Tamm was entrusted with some of the government's most important secrets. He had a Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, a level above Top Secret. Government agents had probed Tamm's background, his friends and associates, and determined him trustworthy.
It's easy to see why: he comes from a family of high-ranking FBI officials. During his childhood, he played under the desk of J. Edgar Hoover, and as an adult, he enjoyed a long and successful career as a prosecutor. Now gray-haired, 56 and fighting a paunch, Tamm prides himself on his personal rectitude. He has what his 23-year-old son, Terry, calls a "passion for justice." For that reason, there was one secret he says he felt duty-bound to reveal.
In the spring of 2004, Tamm had just finished a yearlong stint at a Justice Department unit handling wiretaps of suspected terrorists and spies—a unit so sensitive that employees are required to put their hands through a biometric scanner to check their fingerprints upon entering. While there, Tamm stumbled upon the existence of a highly classified National Security Agency program that seemed to be eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. The unit had special rules that appeared to be hiding the NSA activities from a panel of federal judges who are required to approve such surveillance. When Tamm started asking questions, his supervisors told him to drop the subject. He says one volunteered that "the program" (as it was commonly called within the office) was "probably illegal."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
“Also from the article, it doesn’t look like he got any kind of payment or even protection. Barring info otherwise, I’m willing to presume that he did what he thought best after trying the other options. Finding out that sort of thing is what trials are for, after all”
Yes, in a perfect world.
No, he may not have gotten any payments now, but he SURE AS HELL will make a bundle off the book he will write, crucifying every conservative he has ever met as a neo-nazi with an IQ of 15.
Remember those hundreds of missing FBI files on Congressional Republicans that surprisingly showed up in the hands of a schmuck at the White House? We couldn’t even get to the truth of who HIRED him, let alone WHY the SECRET FILES were there. Yeah, there is someone doing HARD time for that one!
I have a long memory of LOTS of cases that were just as, if not MORE outrageous than what this traitorous piece of scum did that were never brought to trial because of political reasons. Prosecutors who just let stuff slide because it was better for their careers than irritate the Washingtonian elite and buddies in the media.
Talking about the current situation with prosecutions and political influence, Mr. Fitzpatrick, the same guy who KNEW at the outset of the Palme investigation EXACTLY WHO told Robert Novak she was a CIA employee AND STILL LOOKED TO HANG IT ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, now says that Blago is the only fish he is after! He is EXPOSING the ENTIRE investigation BEFORE it is complete because he wants to give Mr. Obama time to choose those of his circle he will throw under the bus to keep his name clear.
We do not have a “justice system”, we have a corrupt “LEGAL SYSTEM”.
You talk about the “free press” that we have. Our big time media did EVERYTHING it could to win this last election for Barak Obama and it worked. We now have as President Elect a person who has DIRECT TIES with known terrorist murderers (Ayers) and anti-Semitic lunatics (Rev. Wright & Louis Farrakhan). The same media that branded anyone who DARED use his middle name as a racist will now SMILE WITH APPROVAL as now he will make a POINT of using the SAME name to be sworn into office.
You want to give this guy a medal for leaking a story to the press about how the US was snooping on possible terrorists who were making calls INTO the US, feel free. You want to nominate this guy for the “hero of justice” hall of fame? Go ahead.
He makes me want to puke and I would not waste a tear if he stopped breathing this very instant.
“You want to give this guy a medal for leaking a story to the press about how the US was snooping on possible terrorists who were making calls INTO the US, feel free. You want to nominate this guy for the “hero of justice” hall of fame? Go ahead.
He makes me want to puke and I would not waste a tear if he stopped breathing this very instant.”
You need to go back on antidepressants, apparently. I didn’t suggest giving him a medal, or nominating him for any sort of hall of fame. I suggested, and still do, that you wanting to have him shot without a trial was at least as bad as what he did. It is. Quite possibly worse, since you should know better.
Feel free to puke, if you need to. Feel free not to shed a tear if he stops breathing naturally. No problem there. Murdering someone because you do not agree with what they did is just as bad as killing people who leave your religion for another, as just one example of evil.
If you are suggesting that I go back to anti-depressants, then I will suggest you awake from your marijuana or cough syrup induced stupor and look at the world around you, before you give the benefit of the doubt to all the thugs who inhabit this world. The A.C.L.U. just LOVES Americans with your kind of attitude.
You think “I suggested, and still do, that you wanting to have him shot without a trial was at least as bad as what he did. It is. Quite possibly worse, since you should know better.”
So I am worse than HE because I want to see this traitor summarily executed? You need to read some history and understand what has been sacrificed for you, so that you can act so pious.
“Murdering someone because you do not agree with what they did is just as bad as killing people who leave your religion for another, as just one example of evil.”
May I offer you the case of Khalid Sheik Mohamed. Do you think that the death penalty would be “just as bad” as what this murderer planned and carried out on 11 September, 2001? Do you think that if he had resisted during his capture, that the forces bringing him in would not have had the authority to use “lethal self defense” BECAUSE he had not been tried in a court, military or otherwise? What about Usama Bin Ladin? Think the Marines or other troops approaching his final hide out had better be shouting his “Miranda Rights” before the take him? You seem to think that we should fight this war (AND have no doubt about this, my friend, WE ARE AT WAR with a disciplined, trained and highly motivated enemy force) as Clinton did, by using stern language and lawyers! The enemy will use the Constitution and ALL our laws to the extreme in order to achieve their goals of a dead YOU, ME and all our children as their slaves.
By the way, I hoped you enjoyed your jury duty time while you sat for the first O.J. Simpson trial. Bet that Judge Ito was taller in person, right?
“I’ve seen the IG not working because people were afraid to use it because it whitewashed improper and possibly illegal activities.”
I’m not sure what IG you may be talking about. In the intelligence community the IG has to answer to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Everything they do is an open book for those committees. It would be virtually impossible for them to begin an investigation (and all complaints open an investigation) and not have it be available to congressmen, senators, and their staff. If laws were being broken it is their responsibility to correct it. THe problem with going to the media is that they only tell one side of the story and the other side often can’t be told due to national security.
I spent 24 years in the Air Force. Lots of different bases. Some were better than others, and some were excellent, but some were pretty bad. According to the article, this guy talked to supervisors and others in his organization, and got told to shut up. I've seen that happen in the Air Force, and it always comes back to haunt someone eventually, but that doesn't stop some folks from giving it a try. One of the training bases I went to lost their base commander over an IG complaint that got stonewalled for a couple of years at the local level. Eventually, higher HQ IG wandered through, as they do, and everything fell apart: the commander, and several of his officers and sr. nco’s got taken down. This happened just before I got there, and we suffered the repercussions the whole time I was there.
You are a disgrace to your son's uniform. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!!
If you don't buy that, you ARE the enemy. Get your shit together! Tell me to read history? I've taught that, and government, both. Improve your own reading comprehension, and get your head on tight, and then maybe we'll have something to talk about.
Well, in the rest of the government, particularly in the intelligence community, the IG is not one person but a staff, and they can’t stonewall since complaints are a matter of record, reviewed by multiple people. The IG in these cases have no vested interest in stonewalling any complaints because their charter is to investigate and make findings. They aren’t under the command of any single group and they can’t be pressured by people who have no impact on their careers.
Dear OLD STUDENT,
I see how your articulately handled my arguments, by thumping your chest attempting to insult me through my son.
You are a real class act.
I believe in the rule of law.
I believe in shooting traitorous bastards.
Sounds to me like you do not believe in capital punishment for ANY crime.
To you I say “Merry Christmas” and Alpha Mike Foxtrot, SSGT. Blue Falcon.
You are a real class act.
I believe in the rule of law.
I believe in shooting traitorous bastards.
Sounds to me like you do not believe in capital punishment for ANY crime."
You made an argument? Not so I can see. You made a bunch of loose talk about things you apparently know nothing about.
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
Since he's not been convicted, or even charged, your so-called respect for the rule of law is not exactly evident. You have been ranting and raving, not speaking in a reasoned manner. It's as simple as that. Lib tactics, in fact. Where are your facts? Maybe you know something I don't, but if so, you have not articulated it.
If you think I'm a class act, look in a mirror, if you can stand it. Since you know nothing of my stance on capital punishment, maybe you should keep your mouth shut. Or you could even ask a question, instead of making wild and unsupported statements. Another lib tactic, btw. You seem very practiced at the wild statements without facts to back them. You a troll?
Merry Christmas to you, too.
"Stumbled upon" my *ss. You don't stumble upon things like that.
That is true in the Air Force, as well. There is THE IG, at a particular base, and they have a staff. Then there is the Command IG, as well, and the Air Force IG. People who are old-timers know to go around if necessary, but some folks don't know that. Looks like the guy in this article was one of them.
There is also pressure to address issues at the lowest level. Sometimes that is a good idea, and sometimes not. Especially when the lowest level IS the problem.
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