Democracy Now has the NSA Whistleblower’s First Interview
You may not know that a worker for the National Security Agency (NSA) has come forward as a whistleblower with regard to an unprecedented domestic spying facility being built in the middle of nowhere in Utah. You may not know this because our news sources choose not to tell us about these things. But, like my favorite program of all-time Frontline on PBS, DemocracyNow with Amy Goodman does some damn fine work. I find these things interesting and frankly, quite scary.
In his first television interview since he resigned from the National Security Agency over its domestic surveillance program, William Binney discusses the NSA’s massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI raided his home after he became a whistleblower. Binney was a key source for investigative journalist James Bamford’s recent exposé in Wired Magazine about how the NSA is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah. The Utah spy center will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency, including private emails, cell phone calls, Google searches and other personal data.
Binney served in the NSA for over 30 years, including a time as technical director of the NSA’s World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group. Since retiring from the NSA in 2001, he has warned that the NSA’s data-mining program has become so vast that it could “create an Orwellian state.” Today marks the first time Binney has spoken on national television about NSA surveillance. This interview is part of a 4-part special. Click here to see segment 2, 3, and 4. [includes rush transcript]
