There may be some progress in identifying the source of the leak of classified NSA secrets. If suspicions being raised today play out, a harmonic convergence of anti—Bush leftists may be exposed.

Bill Gertz is reporting that a former NSA employee has asked to testify before Congress about the NSA wiretapping:

A former National Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year, stated in letters to the House and Senate intelligence committees that he is prepared to testify about highly classified Special Access Programs, or SAPs, that were improperly carried out by both the NSA and the DIA.

I expect the story will get a lot of play before the facts catch up with Mr. Tice, and in an effort  to beat the lies out of the box, here they are: Mr. Tice has a long history as a thorn in the side of the NSA and seems a most peculiar man:

The National Security Agency fired a high level intelligence official just days after he publicly urged Congress to pass stronger protections for federal whistleblowers facing retaliation.

Russ Tice, 43, who was once nominated for an award by the agency for his intelligence work on Iraq, was informed Tuesday that his security clearances had been permanently revoked and that he could no longer work at the secretive intelligence agency known for its eavesdropping and code—breaking capabilities.

Tice has been at the odds with the agency since he reported suspicions that a female co—worker at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was a spy for the People's Republic of China.

Tice, a 20—year veteran of the federal intelligence agencies, worked at DIA until 2002. He made his initial report about the suspected spy at DIA after noticing that a co—worker voiced sympathies for China, traveled extensively abroad and displayed affluence beyond her means." [snip]

"The Defense Department psychologist concluded that Tice suffered from psychotic paranoia, according to Tice. "He did this even though he admitted that I did not show any of the normal indications of someone suffering from paranoia," Tice wrote in a statement to the inspector general. [snip]
 
"In the summer of 2003, Tice told the NSA that he was considering talking to his congressional representatives about waste and abuse at NSA security. He was told that he would face retaliation if he did so, Tice wrote in his statement to the inspector general.

A few weeks after contacting Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D—Md., the retaliation intensified, he said. The NSA even sent an agent to his home to "threaten me in person with unspecified actions if I went to the press," Tice said.

In August 2004, the agency suspended Tice's clearance. They sent him to the "motor pool' for eight months where he was assigned to fill up NSA vehicles with gas, check fluids and drive around "the bigwigs," on occasion, Tice said in an interview.

He was then put on administrative leave for 14 months. Last month he was re—assigned to the NSA's warehouse where he was ordered to unload furniture from trucks.

"I reported my suspicion and got blown off," Tice said. "I pushed the issue and that ticked them off, the fact that I questioned their almighty wisdom.

More about his personal warfare against NSA is documented here.

More significantly, Tice is a member of a group formed in August 2004 called National Security Whistleblowers. Here's their website.

But if you look at the NSW group you may notice that the founder, director and chief spokesperson of the group is Sibel Edmunds. She has faced a real uphill battle in her struggle with the FBI,  which dismissed her. And her story about why she was fired from the FBI has a number of variations, although she, like Wilson/Plame, numbers among the darlings of the Bushitler crowd.

Then look at the group's list of members. Along with more familiar names like Daniel Ellsburg, you'll see Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer on the list. You'll also find Ray McGovern and Larry Johnson. These are members of VIPS, the group that encouraged intelligence agents to leak, shopped Wilson and his story (Johnson was in the agency with Plame and is close to her.) As I noted earlier here, they seem to have been behind much of the Plame/Wilson story. 
 
I smell the same public relations/media campaign .The same phony claims of maltreated government employees.
 
If Tice was a source for Risen, and it's not clear he was, the reporter was certainly casting a broad net. For as Mr. Gertz notes in his article:

"Mr. Tice said yesterday that he was not part of the intercept program."

The only significant difference between the original Plame/Wilson scandal and  the revival at NSA is that the same folks who moaned about a major intelligence breach that had to be punished when Valerie Wilson's desk job at the CIA hit print are now openly supporting a leaker and claiming he is entitled to protections — even though he hasn't gone through the channels established by law.
 
Clarice Feldman   1 05 06

UPDATES: Our contributor Rick Moran is also on the story at his site Rightwing Nuthouse.

We thank Rush Limbaugh for mentioning this piece today on his show.

Doug Hanson writes: