Talk:Russ Tice

Irrelevant Mention of Separate Spy
The mention of Katrina Leung is completely irrelevant! Is it there just to add credibility to his suspicion of a former co-worker? "Here's one suspected spy, so this co-worker is suspect too".. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.92.65.32 (talk) 16:16, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Request for Clarification
Can anyone please clarify which University of Maryland campus Mr. Tice graduated from? -James Howard (talk/web) 21:10, 11 January 2006 (UTC)


 * There is no longer any mention of Mr. Tice's academic qualifications, nor lack thereof. --FeralOink (talk) 22:20, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Gotta love that picture of him- -Urbanus

Removed unsource and dubious material about bioweapons
I removed the following
 * It has been speculated that at least one of the programs Tice was referring too is a program involving a coverup of accidental bioweapons releases which occurred in the late 40s and early 50s. Arvin Michaels of the National Coalition for Truth in Government (NCTG) has stated:
 * "One aspect of what Mr. Tice is referring too are programs initiated in the 1970s during the Ford administration involving the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in conjunction with the defense intelligence agency and which seek to coverup and obscure from the American public a disastrous outbreak of tick-borne disabling diseases which were modified in laboratories in the early 1950's and tested in nature at various sites. These infections largely involve 'cocktails' of modified lyme disease spirochetes and altered animal babesias. They are disabling and lead to subacute chronic brain infection. Part of the program is convincing people who have these conditions that they actually are afflicted with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. This program involves leading scientists affiliated with the CDC, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and shockingly enough for people who are familiar with the controversies surrounding lyme disease, scientists who pose as antiestablishment figures."

As I could not find any verification or references. Arvin Michaels seems not to exist, nor does the NCTG, and nor does this quote - at least not on the internet. Herd of Swine (talk) 18:07, 21 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you. --FeralOink (talk) 22:20, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

== "He subsequently learned that these channels were being recorded 24/7. Since this appeared to be a political and not security operation of the NSA, Tice withheld disclosing it until the next administration." ==

I've removed these two sentences. With respect to the second sentence, no citation is provided here and the Olbermann interviews cited previously in this paragraph don't clearly support it either. It also appears to be contradicted by what Tice said in 2013, since in 2013 Tice didn't say he restricted himself to whistleblowing on special access programs/covert ops back in 2005/2006 for political reasons but out of fear for his personal security: ''...I had to be careful what I told Congress because they were trying to hang me too.... Now my way of defeating that was I discussed [just] a couple of the problems that had happened in some black programs... that took the pressure off of me because oh this guy doesn't know anything about [the true magnitude of the conspiracy and corruption] because all he wanted to talk about was some abuses in this black program stuff. But that's not true. I did know about everything else. And I was covering my ass because I knew that they were trying to put a rope around my neck and everything I was saying was going right to the NSA and the Department of Injustice. And at the time I couldn't move without banging into 2 or 3 FBI morons.'' In the Olbermann interview, Tice also says that he used a hand written letter to try to communicate with someone in the Obama campaign not because he was concerned about the political fallout of making allegations but because he believed his computer was bugged, saying he sent "a hand-written letter because I knew all my communications were tapped, my phones, my computer, and I've had the FBI on me like flies on you-know-what". Which brings me to the first sentence. Look at the context in which Tice makes an issue out of "these channels being recorded 24/7" in the Olbermann interview. He says he worked in the satellite surveillance group which meant that he couldn't keep eyes on a particular point on the earth around the clock. Someone in his workplace then said something about 24/7 surveillance and Tice appears to have jumped from whatever was actually said there to something nefarious being implied. How are we supposed to explain the relevance of his talking about how satellites only come around at certain times? The same could potentially apply to the alleged surveillance targets: NSA is tasked to see if foreign agents or criminals can or are trying to blackmail or snoop on Americans by investigating the comms vulnerabilities of those Americans and Tice concludes that these Americans are being targeted not to examine their defences for vulnerabilities but in order to attack them. Aside from the pre-2005 material and the 2013 material, the article takes it at face value that the subject is indeed a whistleblower as opposed to a conspiracy theorist. Both categories should apply so that readers coming from either approach can find this article and draw their own conclusions.--Brian Dell (talk) 17:14, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Category:Conspiracy theorists asks us to only include "articles where the subject is mentioned in their article as actively defending one of the conspiracy theories listed in the articles under Category:Conspiracy theories". After taking a quick look there, in the sub-category "Conspiracy theories in the United States" and at the article, it appears to me that that isn't true of Tice; am I missing something? &mdash; rybec   23:59, 20 January 2014 (UTC)


 * There is a discussion of possible BLP violations here   petrarchan47  t  c   00:05, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * My view is that advocates of conspiracy theories should be categorized as conspiracy theorists, with the test being whether what is being advocated is a conspiracy theory or not. If the test is rather whether the conspiracy theory is on a pre-approved list of conspiracy theories or not, well I don't agree with that simply because I don't see the policy reason for restricting to such a list.  If someone can provide a policy reason, I'd be interested in it.  If conspiracy theories must have some minimum number of adherents, that's a bit odd because if something is very widely believed, it's generally called conventional thinking, not belief in a conspiracy theory.  The subject here has contended, more than once, that the budget sequester is suspicious, and suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies are have turned the tables on their civilian masters with respect to their funding levels by means of illegal and immoral "leverage" that includes spying on the family of Congress members, and indeed spying on all "three branches of government."  Sounds like conspiracy to me.--Brian Dell (talk) 00:28, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * thanks for answering. Relevant policy may be found at Biographies of living persons. It appears that UPI and the American Broadcasting Co., as well as sources which may be questionable, have called Tice a whistle-blower. I'll remove the "conspiracy theorists" category for now; if reliable sources have referred to him as a conspiracy theorist or have used the term "conspiracy theory" to characterise his statements, then re-adding it should be okay. &mdash; rybec   01:40, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't believe your test is entirely appropriate. An article that appeared in the The Open Chemical Physics Journal in 2009 and alleged that the Towers were brought down by a controlled demolition on 9/11 had nine authors.  "World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories" appears on the approved list you referred me to.  If seven of those authors happen to be described as "conspiracy theorists" in other sources and two are not, it strikes me as quite arbitrary to declare that seven of the nine are conspiracy theorists and two are not when they all alleged the exact same thing.  As Wikipedians I don't believe we are have to be so mechanical and unthinking in our approach.  Also, what reliable sources generally do is simply not carry stories sourced to conspiracy theorists as opposed to reporting the story and then calling it a conspiracy theory.  The dates of the sources, and evidence (or not) that the sources are aware of the breadth and history of Tice's claims through to his most eyebrow raising claims which were made last year, also matters.--Brian Dell (talk) 02:37, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I wasn't aware of the "conspiracy theorists" category or the list of approved conspiracy theories until I noticed your edits. The term is pejorative; the biographies of living persons policy asks us to be especially careful with these articles, so if there are no sources for it, it should be left out--just out of basic fairness. If there are no reports about Tice's ideas, how are we to learn about them? &mdash; rybec   07:09, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * What I don't understand is how the facts suddenly become less important depending on just who is being accused of something unflattering. Russ Tice accuses his co-worker of being a spy, FBI counterintelligence of incompetence for failing to aggressively prosecute this co-worker, a Defense Department psychologist of lying, the NSA of wiretapping Barack Obama and the Red Cross, the intelligence services generally of blackmailing all "three branches of government", and this is all supposed to get broadcast on Wikipedia without so much as a hint that perhaps not all of these allegations have been entirely established as beyond doubt.  Because even a "category" hint in the footer of the article would be, as you say, "pejorative".  You want to extend Mr Tice some courtesies.  I understand that, but what I don't understand is why the NSA gets no such courtesies.  Change the subject of the article and your sense of "basic fairness" suddenly goes out the window; the need to be "careful" no longer applies as much.  You evidently think that inaccuracies and unsubstantiated allegations about the NSA or some corporation/government entity is relatively more tolerable, given your call for double standards.  I happen to think that the issue of primary concern is the facts, such that if there is indeed any need to prioritize due diligence, the highest priority should go to those article subjects that are the most likely to be the objects of unsubstantiated allegations.  On that count, I note that as soon as you've got some sort of organization that both operates in secrecy and is close to a power centre there's fertile ground for conspiracy.  Now maybe my priorities are confused because I believe we are writing an encyclopaedia when what we should really be doing is sending the subjects of BLPs a copy of Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley.  Because not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings is the #1 priority for any encyclopaedia writer, right?--Brian Dell (talk) 16:20, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Tice is considered a Reliable Source
Tice is constantly asked to give commentary about the recent NSA leaks. This article, due to recent changes made with regard to the end of Tice's NSA career, is not reflective of RS, and with this story featured first in the article, it is not in keeping with proper BLP's. It is asked that Wiki editors stick to how things are portrayed in RS, and it is entirely beyond our scope to argue that a person has been discredited unless this fact is evident in RS. The opposite is true, and if no one can get around to fixing this article, I can do so in the future. More sources and discussion are at the BLP noticeboard here.


 * Reuters just interviewed him here.


 * NBC covered Tice's claims about seeing spy orders for Obama, Congress, etc., here.


 * Attorney and member of the Government Accountability Project Jesselyn Radack defends Tice as a whistleblower.


 * Tice is listed in the "National Whistleblowers Center" website.

Missing context that should be added:
 * From ABC news:


 * "The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of [2005] based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."


 * From the archived article that Bdell555 added during the aforementioned recent edits: Is there a connection between his public speech last week and his termination? Sibel Edmonds, the leader of the newly formed National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, believes so. "They try to use the fear factor: Don't go to the Congress. If you do, this is what will happen to you," said Edmonds, who was fired by the FBI in 2002 after reporting suspected espionage and misconduct. "By doing this they send a chilling message to anyone who wants to step forward." Edmonds vowed to help find legal representation for Tice. The Defense Department's Inspector General's Civil Reprisal Investigations unit is also examining his claims of retaliation.... (con't).

It's not Wikipedia's job to determine whether a bio subject is "reliable" or not. It's our job to present the facts neutrally and accurately. re "missing context", I'd say the changes you want there are on the subtle side (e.g. is there really that much difference between Tice rejecting the psych eval and Tice calling it "bunk"?). I find it ironic that "the NSA said it had 'no information to provide'" is presented as if that's supposed to reflect badly on the NSA when the NSA is protecting an individual's privacy here. An absence of information proves nothing in and of itself (see Argument from ignorance). As for Tice's media appearances, I don't think anyone would object to something about Tice frequently making such appearances in the wake of the Snowden story. I reject the allegation that my editing "is not reflective of RS". Be specific in your allegation here and it can be discussed.--Brian Dell (talk) 06:54, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
 * (From same article as above) Shortly after sending the e-mail, an NSA security officer ordered him to report for "a psychological evaluation" even though he had just gone through one nine months earlier. Tice believes James called NSA to ask them "to go after him" on their behalf. When Tice called Mr. James to confront him about calling the NSA security official, he told Tice that "there was reason to be concerned" about his suspicion about his former co-worker. The Defense Department psychologist concluded that Tice suffered from psychotic paranoia, according to Tice. "He did this even though he admitted that I did not show any of the normal indications of someone suffering from paranoia," Tice wrote in a statement to the inspector general.   petrarchan47  t  c   21:20, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Help needed
I am not having much luck editing alongside Bdell555, and would like the community to please consider helping with this biography. This version that Bdell555 insists upon begins the article with "In April 2001, while he was working for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Tice reported his suspicions that an Asian-American woman he was working with was a Chinese spy, saying she had "voiced sympathies for China, traveled extensively abroad and displayed affluence beyond her means".

The prior version begins in a way more like a normal Wikipedia article, though it isn't perfect. This editor begins the article with the story of how Tice was fired, but that story is quite complex, and was handled better in the prior version, with its own section (though it doesn't necessarily need to be placed at the bottom).  petrarchan47  t  c   04:37, 31 January 2014 (UTC)


 * If it "doesn't necessarily need to be placed at the bottom" then just what is the problem with having it appear in its natural chronological order, which means prior to Tice going public? You should title this section "Chronological order" since that is what you object to.  It is flatly untrue that I "insist" upon that reading because I already suggested to you an alternative opening for the "Career" section, namely: "Tice worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) until 2002 and the National Security Agency (NSA) until 2005.  From August 2004 to April 2005 Tice was working in the NSA "motor pool" as his security clearance had been revoked."  However you rejected that as well, even though it made no mention of his psych evaluations, something you've rather consistently tried to minimize or delete.  The mention of the "motor pool" is simply because we've got solid dates for that and we don't for exactly when the security clearance was revoked.  The point is that the security clearance was revoked long before Tice went public and to try and hide that is to try and deny what Slate noted in an otherwise sympathetic piece and that's that "Tice's departure from the agency had nothing to do with the misgivings about domestic eavesdropping that he now professes."  Hence you'd like to open his career with "Tice was fired by the NSA in May 2005, just days after publicly urging Congress..." in order to push the unfounded narrative that Tice's dismissal was caused by his going public with his complaints as opposed to there being antecedents.  In other words, a smear campaign against Tice's former employers.  If that isn't what you want then what do you want?  Perhaps you can help us here with the nature of your objection, absent which we can only speculate what might satisfy you.  By the way, the Washington Times' very first sentence mentions "he suspected a co-worker was a Chinese agent" such that if mentioning this early is an outrage, the Washington Times is also guilty.--Brian Dell (talk) 17:05, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

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