Whistleblower: NSA Targeted Journalists, Snooped on All U.S. Communications (Wired.com)

Just one day after George W. Bush left office, an NSA whistleblower has revealed that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program targeted U.S. journalists, and vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic.

Russell Tice, a former NSA analyst, spoke on Wednesday to MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. Tice has acknowledged in the past being one of the anonymous sources that spoke with The New York Times for its 2005 story on the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

After that story was published, President Bush said in a statement that only people in the United States who were talking with terrorists overseas would have been targeted for surveillance.

But Tice says, in truth, the spying involved a dragnet of all communications, confirming what critics have long assumed.

"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications," he said. "Faxes, phone calls and their computer communications. ... They monitored all communications."

This is powerful testimony from an NSA insider that Bush lied about the extent and purpose of domestic spying being used upon Americans and this report reveals that journalists and media were specifically targeted. All this from a credible source, a former NSA analyst who had first hand knowledge and experience.

The mark of tyrannical governments is paranoia, particularly spying on the press as well as their own citizens.

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