NEWSWEEK Cover: The Fed Who Blew The Whistle Thomas M. Tamm, Former Justice Employee who Exposed Bush Administration's Warrentless-Wiretapping Program, Tells Story Publicly For First Time Published on Dec 14, 2008 - 11:31:17 AM
NEW YORK, Dec. 14 2008 - Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff writes about Thomas M. Tamm, a former lawyer with the Justice Department who leaked information about the Bush administration's warrantless-wiretapping program. After growing up in a family of FBI officials, Tamm seems an unlikely candidate for an informant. But in 2004 he used a Washington, D.C., pay phone to give a vague tip to The New York Times about what they would eventually discover as the existence of a vast classified domestic intelligence-gathering operation. "The story of Tamm's phone call is an untold chapter in the history of the secret wars inside the Bush administration," Isikoff writes in the December 22 cover, "The Fed Who Blew The Whistle" (on newsstands Monday, December 15). "That one call began a series of events that would engulf Washington -- and upend Tamm's life." Also in the cover package, Managing Editor Daniel Klaidman reveals the truth about the fabled 2004 Justice Department revolt against the White House.
Tamm's phone call played the key role in tipping off the paper to the events happening in Washington. "Eighteen months after he first disclosed what he knew, the Times reported that President George W. Bush had secretly authorized the [National Security Agency] to intercept phone calls and e-mails of individuals inside the United States without judicial warrants," Isikoff writes. "The drama followed a quiet, separate rebellion within the highest ranks of the Justice Department concerning the same program... President Bush condemned the leak to the Times as a 'shameful act.' Federal agents launched a criminal investigation to determine the identity of the culprit."
Tamm has been relentlessly pursued by the FBI. Agents have raided his house, hauled away personal possessions and grilled his family and friends about nearly every aspect of his life. He has resisted pressure to plead to a felony for divulging classified information, but lives under a pall, never sure if or when federal agents might arrest him. "Tamm's story is in part a cautionary tale about the perils that can face all whistleblowers, especially those involved in national-security programs," Isikoff writes. "Some Americans will view him as a hero who (like Daniel Ellsberg and perhaps Mark Felt, the FBI official since identified as Deep Throat) risked his career and livelihood to expose wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. Others -- including some of his former colleagues -- will deride Tamm as a renegade who took the law into his own hands and violated solemn obligations to protect the nation's secrets." Tamm, against the advice of his lawyers, told Newsweek, "If somebody were to say, who am I to do that? I would say, 'I had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.' It's stunning that somebody higher up the chain of command didn't speak up."
Though some will see his conduct as "treasonous," Tamm says he has few regrets. If he hadn't made his phone call to the Times, he believes, it's possible the public would never have learned about the Bush administration's secret wiretapping program. However, he has also faced personal ramifications of his choice, telling Newsweek, "I didn't think through what this could do to my family." In the meantime, he could be charged with violating two laws, one concerning the disclosure of information harmful to "the national defense," the other involving "communications intelligence." Tamm will continue to live in a state of limbo, until after the Obama administration takes office. "The case could present a dilemma for the new leadership at Justice," Isikoff writes. During the presidential campaign, Obama condemned the warrantless-wiretapping program, as did Eric Holder, his choice to become attorney general. "In judging Tamm's actions--his decision to reveal what little he knew about a secret domestic spying program that still isn't completely known--it can be hard to decipher right from wrong. Sometimes the thinnest of lines separates the criminal from the hero," Isikoff writes.
In his exclusive, Managing Editor Daniel Klaidman explains the events that motivated the fabled 2004 Justice Department revolt against the White House. Two knowledgeable sources tell Newsweek that the clash erupted over part of Bush's espionage program "that had nothing to do with the wiretapping of individual suspects. Rather, [a number of Justice lawyers] threatened to resign because of the vast and indiscriminate collection of communications data."
"These sources, who asked not to be named discussing intelligence matters, describe a system in which the National Security Agency, with cooperation from some of the country's largest telecommunications companies, was able to vacuum up the records of calls and e-mails of tens of millions of average Americans between September 2001 and March 2004," Klaidman writes. "They collected the telephone numbers of callers and recipients in the United States, and the time and duration of the calls. They also collected and stored the subject lines of e-mails, the times they were sent, and the addresses of both senders and recipients ... All this metadata was then sifted by the NSA, using complex algorithms to detect patterns and links that might indicate terrorist activity."
(Read cover package at www.Newsweek.com)
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