Fizzled out whistle blower?

Why isn't the whistleblower getting media attention?

Russell Tice, an ex-NSA (National Security Agency) analyst went public last week in a TV interview with Amy Goodman, director of Democracy Now. In the hour-long interview, Tice confessed he was responsible for the present uproar inside Washington's Beltway and on the public media around the world. Although he said he was unable to discuss specific operating details of the electronic sweep allegedly performed by NSA at President Bush's direction ("because I don't want to walk out of here into an FBI interrogation room"), Tice left no room for doubt that he was the whistleblower.

Tice said he was still waiting for a response from the House and Senate intelligence subcommittee chairman, to whom he faxed a letter stating his willingness to testify before their committees. He said it was probably too early to expect a response, because he had sent the fax during the Christmas holidays. His voluntary testimony, he said, was conditioned on being treated under the provisions of the "Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act."

Tice fingered the past NSA Director (General Hayden, now deputy director of the recently created super-spy bureaucracy headed by diplomat John Negroponte) as well as the present NSA leadership, all of whom he says had to been authorized by President Bush to go around FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) procedures to spy on Americans.

Asked by the TV interviewer whether his termination was connected with his explosive revelations, Tice said he was fired in May 2005, months before he decided to blow his whistle. The actual reason for his firing was, according to him, his dissing the FBI over what he thought was its incompetent handling of a report he pressed his security officer to pass to the FBI for investigation. It seems he reported a fellow NSA worker for engaging in what Tice believed was espionage. Evidently, Tice was dissatisfied at the FBI's handling of the case (that is, dismissal of Tice's allegations).

Asked if his subsequent decision to whistleblow the electronic eavesdropping might be seen by the public as retaliation for his termination from NSA, Tice admitted his timing might be seen in that light. Tice's reason for his revelations? His answer (paraphrased): His self-appointed role in protecting and preserving American Democracy, etc., etc. , ad nauseum.

After hearing Russell Tice's interview last week, I assumed his confession would be instant "big news" that would be picked up within minutes of his live interview. Instead, the reaction has been silence. Which leads one to speculate. Was Tice shown to be a confessor for the personal publicity he anticipated? Or perhaps his further revelations would be severely damaging to intelligence interests? (Maybe, after all, he did walk out of the interview into FBI detention?) Or perhaps congressional authorities, in collaboration with the FBI and his former employer, have decided he's a self-serving fraud?

Amy Goodman and her Democracy Now organization owe a follow-up to her explosive scoop that has so far fizzled.