Former NSA Analyst: Obama Was Wiretapped in 2004

U.S. President Barack Obama. (photo: Samrang Pring/Reuters)

By Alex Walsh, All Alabama

21 June 13

ormer National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice says Barack Obama - at the time a candidate for U.S. Senate - was targeted by domestic surveillance operations run by the NSA in 2004.

Tice, who is said to have contributed to a 2005 New York Times story revealing details about domestic surveillance practices, recently spoke to the "Boiling Frogs Post," an online news site run by Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds is a former FBI translator, and was herself part of a 2005 media feature about whistle blowing, this one composed by Vanity Fair.

Appearing on Edmonds' show, Tice strongly hinted at the notion that he was asked to tap several phone lines used frequently by then-candidate Obama.

"This was in summer of 2004, one of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a 40-something-year-old wannabe senator for Illinois," Tice said. "You wouldn't happen to know where that guy lives right now would you? It's a big white house in Washington, D.C."

Tice also spoke to The Guardian - which broke the news of Edward Snowden's decision to leak sensitive surveillance documents - earlier this month about the breadth of American domestic surveillance.

"What is going on is much larger and more systemic than anything anyone has ever suspected or imagined," he said.