Now this is interesting, and surprising.
The controversy over President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm’s desktop computer, two of his children’s laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case told NEWSWEEK the raid was related to a Justice criminal probe into who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media. The raid appears to be the first significant development in the probe since The New York Times reported in December 2005 that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents without court warrants.
And not surprising is the fact that the suspect in this case was a DNC sympathizer: (h/t The Strata-Sphere)
TAMM, THOMAS MARK
POTOMAC, MD 20854
US ATTORNEYS OFFICE/ATTORNEYDNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
09/17/2004 300.00 24991283185
Of course he only leaked the information because he felt so strongly against it right? Nevermind that there is a whistleblower program he could of gone to. No, he leaked it to the papers during the election cycle.
Bloggers such as Newsbusters have found a few comments left by Thomas Mann critical of Bush in addition to the fact that he received an award in 2000 at Justice which would imply that he is a holdover from the previous Administration.
All I’m hoping for is if this Thomas Mann is the one who leaked this program to the world, putting us at greater risk, I hope he hangs.
See author page
There’s so much wrong with this post. A DNC “sympathizer”? And “nevermind” that there’s a whistleblower program? What in god’s name does that mean? Was it related to the sentence before it?
And my god, that post on Newsbusters reads like it was written by a nine-year-old. “A pretend syndrome made up by an idiot caused the FBI to find my enemy!”
Lord, help these people. Please.
And the level of uniformedness about the Justice Department you display in that “holdover” comment is stunning. Really.
All I’m hoping for is if this Thomas Mann is the one who revealed the violations, thereby helping preserve the constitution, and protect our rights, I hope he gets a medal of freedom.
Amen, Jay K.
That is really confusing about this. RWeres hould be just as upset about illegal surveillance as anyone. WTF?
And to conclude your speculative witch hunt – you know absolutely nothing about this guy’s involvement – you say “I hope he hangs.”
God. You have serious problems.
Funny how you forgot to add what came before those words:
But I have problems. Please take your agenda back to the rock you crawled from under.
How come that doesn’t surprise me from a Salon reader.
That means a whistleblower program meant to protect those who blow the whistle. No protection for those who leak to the press.
Are you really this ignorant or are you just playing?
“…that doesn’t surprise me from a Salon reader…”
what does suprise me, and has for some time, is how quickly so-called republicans are willing to throw away their rights. karl and dick really have y’all scared to death of the scary men from the middle east. i’m just glad you weren’t on the green at lexington, or the bridge at concord.
i just noticed your charger restoration though…very nice car.
Before you go hanging anybody, make sure you’ve got the right fella. Thomas Mann was a German novelist, Nobel laureate, & author of Dr. Faustus. The guy you meant to string up was Thomas M. Tamm. But these mistakes happen all the time. Besides, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
What’s up with the trolls on this comment thread? Good post and I agree… IF this guy is the leaker he should be punished severely. Somehow the rules don’t apply to principled politicos in Washington or do they? Punish this leaker and find the others and deal with them. The classified leaking must cease to be acceptable in Washington circles.
Government workers can have opinions but they don’t get to negate elections and administration policies as they see fit when it suits their agendas/worldview.
Rob,
What you say is all well and good but we should start with the administration and the leaker-in-chief. doh…my bad…him and dick just selectively declassify for political purposes and when it suits their agendas/worldview. you are right…hang this guy.
The trolls are from Salon, always happen when they link to me. No worries tho, combined they maybe have two brain cells left.
Seeing as how the article I quoted and the contributor info I posted both say Thomas Tamm I doubt anyone would be confused….well, except you Salon readers.
Hang Karen Hughes!!!!!
I wrote “Mann,” not you. God I hate that guy. Him I’d have let you hang.
Your saying that if he is the one who leaked he should be punished is revealing. Any freedom-loving American thinker should be saying, at the very least, if what he leaked was illegal, he should be rewarded for his act.
Why is there so much following on the RW blogosphere?
Obviously you didn’t read the post then. Not surprising.
And its quite revealing that your kind would award medals to people who reveal perfectly legal wiretaps that enable us to listen in on those who want to bring destruction to this country.
Quite revealing, but I doubt anyone would be shocked.
Go back to KOS little sheepie.
The Duke lacrosse players were guilty of rape-they should have been thrown out of school and tried for rape in a court of law.
Libby didn’t leak classified information, Cheney had Bush insta-declassify Plame’s identity first. Funny they never owned up to that implying rather it was the NIE that Bush insta-declassified. That was good cover. It worked.
Boehner went on FOX and blabbed about a classified FISA court decision for partisan gain; to blame the democrats -the white house has yet to claim they declassified the info. Shoudn’t Boehner get a trial?
This attorney whose home was searched, if he leaked information revealing illegal government conduct it’s a whole new ballgame. The problem with Bush theory that Presidents can break the law at will in wartime is that it’s not true.
Now granted, I get alot of comments from Salon readers so much of it is quite ignorant but that has to be one of the top 10 in most ignorant comments I’ve seen in at least the last six months. Loosen the strap on that tinhat fella, your gonna hurt yourself.
Which law would that be?
Bush authorized warantless wiretapping of US Citizens in 2001, a program which did not comply with FISA, which operated outside the law, while claiming it was justified by the President’s inherent authority during wartime; re: under the war authorization. The admnistration has since backed off that claim.
Currently, The Bush administration is asking Congress to give the telecoms retroactive immunity from criminal and civil liability. If they weren’t guilty of breaking the law, they wouldn’t need immunity.
I won’t sit here and call you ignorant nor claim that by reading some other website such as FOX NEWS or Drudge has comprimised your command of the facts, your judgments thereon, or the materials used to make your hat, Curt.
Oh, but I will call you ignorant Neil for reading KOS and DummiesU and believing you know what your talking about.
He did NOT violate the constitution by bypassing FISA seeing how the program spied on foreign agents, which is well within his power. Five former FISA judges agree:
Is it your position that Clinton violated the Constitution with Carnivore? Was Carter violating the Constitution when he ordered wiretaps without a court order?
Or Clinton’s us of his powers here?:
Finally John Hinderaker put up a great analysis of the program:
Bush has not backed off his claim of that Constitutional power, that my friend is called ignorance. He, unlike the Democrats and you lefties, believe the best course of action is to come to an agreement with the Democrats. But to think he backed off that claim is just pure stupidity.
Curt
I read the post. I replaced “Tamm” with “Mann.” It was an error. (My six years of middle and high school German coming back to haunt me maybe.) Can we stick to the subject?
By what authority do you deem the wiretaps “perfectly legal”? I at least have a federal ruling, which called them unconstitutional, on my side. That case was dismissed, yes, but not on its merits, but on the grounds that the plaintiffs couldn’t prove they had been injured (gosh, I wonder why?).
One of the best gems in all this was former NSA director Michael Hayden saying, on national TV, in defense of the program, that the 4th Amendment carries no “probable cause” clause. Hayden was, of course, one of the directors of the program – and he didn’t know we have a “probable cause” clause in our constitution?!? And you defend this still?
Ad why did they lie about “congressional support” of the wiretaps?
And you probably know that a FISC court judge resigned in protest of the program.
Y’now, when it’s all said and done, maybe the leaker should go to jail. He or she probably knew that he risked that. But extenuating circumstances should have big play in the sentence given, and in how Americans regard him.
Oh come on, my mistake of using Mann is also in the post. The commenter said:
Which means he was pointing to me seeing as how I said he should hang. In fact I left that typo in the post just for you but you still don’t get it.
And now we are to stay on subject? With your vitriol and venom spewing comments we should now stay on topic. Ok.
Read the comment that I left above yours at 8:34am and then get back to me. It answers all of your questions.
Curt – wtf? Why would I pretend that I didn’t know you had written “Mann”? I had, and I naturally thought the commenter had seen my comment and was making a joke about it. I missed yours. (Why are we talking about this?)
Hey – vitriol and venom can at least be on subject. And your comment answers none of my quesions. For just one part – you have no knowledge that allows you to claim that it spied only on “foreign agents.” That is not close to being established, It is you, again, simply taking the president’s word, something I will never understand about the RW blogosphere. And it is a dodge anyway. You say “foreign agents” when the question revolves around “foreign soil,” or more importantly, domestic soil and Americans, who have the right to a warrant.
“I had,” as in – I han written Mann. I honestly hadn’t noticed that you had. But seeing it now, it wasn’t German class that prompted my mistake – I must have seem yours and not even noticed.
Classic lefty argument. “How do we really know they spied on foreign calls only”. Remember that members of the House intelligence committee were all briefed. If it came out that it was a domestic spying program only believe me, we would of heard about it. As it is, you have nothing but the fact you don’t believe the President. That’s it in a nutshell.
Good luck with that.
Gee and just think it was only such a short time ago that the world liked right wing views
Guess that 3% approval rating has gone to your head huh?