The Fed Who Blew the Whistle

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "lynn" <lynn () ecgincc com>
Date: December 31, 2008 1:24:11 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: The Fed Who Blew the Whistle

http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601/output/print

The Fed Who Blew the Whistle

Is he a hero or a criminal?
Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Dec 22, 2008

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."

Tamm agonized over what to do. He tried to raise the issue with a former
colleague working for the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the friend,  
wary
of discussing what sounded like government secrets, shut down their
conversation. For weeks, Tamm couldn't sleep. The idea of lawlessness at
the Justice Department angered him. Finally, one day during his lunch
hour, Tamm ducked into a subway station near the U.S. District  
Courthouse
on Pennsylvania Avenue. He headed for a pair of adjoining pay phones
partially concealed by large, illuminated Metro maps. Tamm had been  
eyeing
the phone booths on his way to work in the morning. Now, as he slipped
through the parade of midday subway riders, his heart was pounding, his
body trembling. Tamm felt like a spy. After looking around to make sure
nobody was watching, he picked up a phone and called The New York Times.

That one call began a series of events that would engulf Washington—and
upend Tamm's life. Eighteen months after he first disclosed what he  
knew,
the Times reported that President George W. Bush had secretly authorized
the NSA to intercept phone calls and e-mails of individuals inside the
United States without judicial warrants. The drama followed a quiet,
separate rebellion within the highest ranks of the Justice Department
concerning the same program. (James Comey, then the deputy attorney
general, together with FBI head Robert Mueller and several other senior
Justice officials, threatened to resign.) President Bush condemned the
leak to the Times as a "shameful act." Federal agents launched a  
criminal
investigation to determine the identity of the culprit.

snip





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