Is Tony Blair a Terrorist? NSA Eavesdropped on Britain's Prime Minister

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 12:58 PM on November 24, 2008.

And to think, some of us nervous nellies were concerned that the NSA might abuse its surveillance powers.

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And to think, some of us nervous nellies were concerned that the NSA might abuse its surveillance powers and listen in on communications it shouldn't have.

A former communications intercept operator says U.S. intelligence snooped on the private lives of two of America's most important allies in fighting al Qaeda: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer.

David Murfee Faulk told ABCNews.com he saw and read a file on Blair's "private life" and heard "pillow talk" phone calls of al-Yawer when he worked as an Army Arab linguist assigned to a secret NSA facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia between 2003 and 2007.

Last month, Faulk and another former military intercept operator assigned to the NSA facility triggered calls for an investigation when they revealed U.S. intelligence intercepted the private phone calls of American journalists, aid workers and soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Faulk says his top secret clearance at Ft. Gordon gave him access to an intelligence data base, called "Anchory," where he says he saw the file on then-British prime minister Tony Blair in 2006.

Faulk declined to provide details other than to say it contained information of a personal nature.

Surveillance on foreign heads of state is not especially uncommon, but as Zachary Roth reminds us, "the U.S. and Britain have pledged not to collect information covertly on each other."

What's more, this is the second report in as many months about wiretap abuses -- ABC News also reported in early October that NSA officials had listened in on calls made by U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, American journalists, and American aid workers overseas.

ABC noted today that the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees are already investigating allegations on surveillance abuse. Perhaps it's time to widen the scope of the questions.

Tagged as: bush, iraq, nsa, spying, tony blair, britain, ghazi al-yawer

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Well he did just convert to [Report this comment] Posted by: weathered on Nov 24, 2008 3:24 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Catholicism. But what's really eating at Tony he can't say because heads will roll. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] the warning [Report this comment] Posted by: Lauren on Nov 24, 2008 5:26 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Somebody please tell my husband I wasn't crazy. Video, the warning I miss my family so much. I never wanted to make him so mad, he just wanted me to go along with what everyone else said and I knew they were wrong. That was all there was to it and I lost all my family over it. I lost all my family because I could see we should be very worried about the Bush administration and they didn't. He wanted me to go along to get along, Not to speak out, not to believe in myself and especially in my super special ability to find real solutions. I knew better. I really do think 'they' coordinated a message for him in order to destroy me. He has really lost touch with reality. I really miss the wonderful friendship we used to have before all of this abuse was started by the police and Kaiser and his family and the judgmental people at work. Why couldn't all these people just be OK with me? My weird brilliance? Why would they want to stop me so badly they turn him against me? It doesn't make any sense. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Once again, absolute power corrupts absolutely [Report this comment] Posted by: PaulC on Nov 24, 2008 8:28 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Giving these guys the authority to snoop on anyone they dislike is tantamount to a police state. Why is that so hard to comprehend? The repeated lame line that they can police themselves has been shown again and again, all through their history, to be an absurd farce. Naomi Klein has said someone is harassing her now, hacking into her computer accounts, her bank account, her credit cards, her automated payments, as I recall. And we have the repeated abuses all during the Bush reign of terror of FBI and city police infiltrating, bugging, monitoring peace activists with the aim of rendering their organizing ineffective. Indeed, there are entire dossiers on citizen activists and leaders as far back as there was an FBI. A civil trial, for example, awarded damages to two enviro activists whose car was bombed by the federal government, which turned around and told the media that the activists were transporting bombs they made themselves which blew up accidentally. Then we have the inconvenient fact that every major leader of the left since 1963 was killed or died in a plane crash. Why the hell would anyone trust the spy agencies? If we can't know anything about them how do we know who they are working for? peace, Paul [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] "Wakey, wakey, hands off snakey" [Report this comment] Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Nov 25, 2008 8:49 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Consider: 1. Tony Blair is no Fcking saint. He managed to Ffck up privacy rights in the UK beyond all recognition. I recommend *"Taking Liberties"* - its time well spent. Then consider that Tony Blair is a perpetual favourite to become the 'new & improved" EU President. Ponder on that, if you will, then think, "Downing Street Memo" 2. Spying on foreign dignitaries is a time-honoured tradition - Think about it 3. The problem with SPYING is that the US is making it a PRIVATIZED INDUSTRY, rather like Blackwater. Hell, Blackwater is HELPING them. Meaning MONEY is running your gov't, not the People for the Peoples' interests. Isn't the point of gov't to protect people from money & power? 4. the US is demanding other nations promote DOMESTIC SPYING on their own citizenry & cough up the details to the US CIA, FBI & other agencies. BIOMETRIC CATALOGUING ALREADY GOES ON. & the FBI is enforcing exo-national compliance to cough up these BIOMETRIC CATALOGUES to the FBI... Apparently, if Americans don't give a fck about their Rights, why should any other nation on Earth have rights?? Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked "going on up to the 'Server in the Sky'" - our hopes for democracy? 4. The next problem? is that the US is beginning to RESTRICT TRAVEL for their own citizens. I seriously* recommend listening to the 2nd hour interview on last night's (24.Nov.08) Jeff Farias Show*... seriously. listen to it, its about 25 minutes you WANT to hear about LEGISLATIVE CHANGES that will change the way you travel & the way you think about yourself, cultures, respect & privacy* 5. IN A SOCIETY WITHOUT THE WILL TO PRIVACY, but a near pathological interest in criminalizing VICE, the United States effectively OUTLAWS PERSONAL CHOICE while LEGALIZING DOMESTIC ESPIONAGE on their OWN CITIZENRY If you think THAT leads to democratic representation, then you're a fckwit who doesn't realize that if you BAN ALL PERSONAL CHOICE, how exactly do you expect to have a public representative in any GOVERNMENT POSITION TO PROTECT YOU FROM THE MONEY & POWER THAT CAN AFFORD SPYING?? nobody is above every vice; but apparently, vice isn't above being criminalized & enforced 'by any means necessary'. Think about Eliott Spitzer & ask yourself 'wouldn't we have been better off WITH Eliott Spitzer?" gee, maybe that's why he was removed from PROVIDING JUSTICE TO THE PEOPLE? Maybe you should ask yourself: do Americans* define 'what is American' or do non-Americans define 'Americanism' based on WHAT THEY OBSERVE HAPPENNING TO THE REST OF THE GLOBE IN YOUR NAME?? When a nation drugs non-Americans on flights to 'make them more compliant' (Washington Post, '08) what does that say about how the US respects other nationals & their UN-declared UNIVERSAL rights? Rights are for EVERYONE, not just Americans. BlueBerry Pick'n ThisCanadian "We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid. "Violence can only be concealed by a Lie, & the Lie can only be maintained by Violence." ... "Any man, who has once proclaimed Violence as his Method, is inevitably forced to take the Lie as his Principle" – A. Solzhenitsyn Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Reality [Report this comment] Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Nov 25, 2008 11:01 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] "Officials say the Border Crossing Information system, disclosed last month by the Department of Homeland Security in a Federal Register notice, is part of a broader effort to guard against terrorist threats." The TRUTH is that they use it to guard against freedom. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Rousseau already knew [Report this comment] Posted by: yolanda on Nov 27, 2008 8:57 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Well, even in "free" Switzerland we are spied upon. In the eighties we had a big uproar and scandal when it was discovered, that the Government spied on its citizen, mostly on the left of course. We had to apply to get insight in our files and relevant information was blacked out. The poeple who started the whole thing pardoned themselves and promised never ever to do it again. A few weeks ago a new scandal broke after it was discovered that elected members in Government had their phones listen into and been under obsevation for ages. There is no subjugation so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom, for in that way one captures volition itself. Jean Jaques Rousseau 1712-1778 [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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