Revealed: The Whistleblower Who Exposed Warrantless Wiretapping

Newsweek:

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.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Comments

[AmeriGus]

01:33 PM on 12/15/2008

How about a link to Tamm's defense fund?

I'd contribute a few dollars for exposing thousands of felony counts of lawbreaking by Bush.

[markusmarkus]

03:50 PM on 12/15/2008

Thomas Tamm Legal Defense Fund
Bank of Georgetown
5236 44th St. NW
Washington, DC 20015

[PhilipTaylor]

02:57 PM on 12/14/2008

Are we up to 74 reasons for impeachment NOW!

[mirza]

12:34 PM on 12/14/2008

Cheny can leak Plame's (a NOC) identity for political purposes but Tamm is punished for seeking to defend the Constitution?????????

[bioluminescence]

10:31 AM on 12/14/2008

There are bound to be other illegal operations still going on in the Bush administration because shutting them down now would look like consciousness of guilt. Give this gentleman an office, a small staff and a budget and let him connect with other principled whistleblowers. After 12 months he can write a report for the senior administration and then retire on a full pension.

[BillMelater]

12:15 PM on 12/14/2008

Not a bad idea. Give him full police powers and let him make arrests. Let him work directly for the AG.

[miles120]

09:33 AM on 12/14/2008

If patriotism is defined as putting your country ahead of your self, then Tamm is a patriot. While he might have broken the law (I'm not qualified to judge), he certainly did the right thing. It would be wrong to persecute this guy without bringing charges against Bush and Ashcroft.

[debrouillard]

09:21 AM on 12/14/2008

This story typifies what America has become.

They dont judge the crime but prosecute the person who reported the crime.

Even after after congress has declared the program unlawful and illegal,people still argue that he was taken the law in to his own hands by reporting an illegal activity.

Can someone please define PATRIOTISM for me?

[RedneckDem]

11:19 AM on 12/14/2008

Agreed, the usual next step for these criminals is to take apart the guy personally. Smoke and mirrors and judging by the editorials I read in my local paper, it's working... sigh...

[InfoWarriorNY]

08:40 AM on 12/14/2008

The spying on american citizens has nothing whatsoever to do with the "global war on terror"

And everything to do with the enormous expansion of the globalists' new world order of tyranny

[Durango]

11:08 AM on 12/14/2008

Here is another point. important point.

All the time money and resources devoted to spying on Americans are being taken away from the real threat.

It is a zero sum game. Resources wasted cannot be used to protect against the real wacko's out there.

So not only is it illegal, unconstitutional. It is a threat to our security as well.

[BillMelater]

07:50 AM on 12/14/2008

I vote hero. With how FISA is set up to allow post incident filings, it is a ludicrous assertion that any wiretap cannot be set up in time. FISA allows them to set it up, do it, and bring it to FISA later. I forget the exact time frame, within 96 hours or something like that.

The only reason to be hiding wiretaps is if they were political in nature and not security in nature.

I.e., I would bet the farm that Bush accomplished what Nixon got caught trying to accomplish. And Bush did it on a much grander scale.

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[Durango]

11:10 AM on 12/14/2008

I have no doubt that if we ever find out the truth, the enemies of America whose calls were being tapped are named Kerry. Clinton, Gore and Edwards.

[InfoWarriorNY]

07:50 AM on 12/14/2008

Here we are given a glimpse of the atmosphere within the shadow gov't that moots the idea that, if operatives had laid EXPLOSIVES IN THE BUILDINGS, we would eventually hear about it

OK? We can dispose of that attempt at debunking. What else you got?

Notice, when MSM alludes to Atta and other patsies, it is called a "plot"?

But suggestions that NORAD standed down are "conspiracy"?

[CheneysACoward]

05:34 AM on 12/14/2008

There is at times a very thin line between The Constitution/Bill of Rights, and working for the Government. That may sound absurd but it really depends on what you do and who you do it for. Make no mistake it does come down to politics. Remember this man is an attorney he knows the law. He saw the law being broken by way of fracturing it. An old saying in law enforcement is after you learn the law you learn how to circumvent it. It would appear he discovered it being broken and made hi decision. I applaud what he did.

[IowaKid]

07:27 AM on 12/14/2008

The sad thing is they are few and far between.

[Carolab]

02:53 AM on 12/14/2008

I read this evening that FISA doesn't provide immunity from criminal investigation/cases. Interesting point in view of people's criticism of Obama for switching his position on whether or not to support it.

[SpaghettyIrish]

02:48 AM on 12/14/2008

If he wasn't a republican, I would hope Obama nominates this man for head of the FBI. Then again, he seems to have had a come to Jesus moment about the criminal syndicate that's run the Exec Branch (As well as Cheney's unnamed 4th branch of gov't) for the last 8 years.

[Stilts9]

02:12 AM on 12/14/2008

Bush and Cheney must despise Mr. Tamm.

[HumeSkeptic]

01:39 AM on 12/14/2008

A true hero!
Americans like Tamm give me hope for our country.

[vtlt8]

02:25 AM on 12/14/2008

Hmmm. I see him as a cowardly two-face. What a country, huh?

[SpaghettyIrish]

02:49 AM on 12/14/2008

I don't think you read the whole article, or if you did, you didn't understand it.

[Carolab]

02:54 AM on 12/14/2008

He stuck his neck out for us.

[IDIOTA]

01:38 AM on 12/14/2008

And the US Supreme Court, in the same year that it reversed the Brown decision, I think, said that whistle blowers could be fired by their employer for blowing the whistle. So it follows that the FBI can harass those who expose the agency. This is Roberts-Alito justice.