Recent revelations on NSA Leakgate of illegal wiretaps

January 3, 2006 -- Recent revelations that it was then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey who said that Bush's use of NSA to target U.S. persons by going around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was illegal and refused to approve the wiretaps point to a high level Bush administration official or officials being involved with the "leak" of the so-called classified surveillance program.

Comey is an old friend and New York federal prosecutor colleague of Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the illegal leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's name and cover company to the media. It was Comey who recommended Fitzgerald for his special prosecutor job and placed a protective firewall between him and the political leadership of the Justice Department.

There is some speculation about whether Comey was one of the whistleblowers for the NSA surveillance story. If the Bush administration decides to go after Comey that will put them at loggerheads with Fitzgerald, resulting in a showdown within the Justice Department between career prosecutor and political hacks like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Comey is now a Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Lockheed Martin. That would place him in a potentially tenuous position since Lockheed Martin is a top Pentagon and intelligence agency contractor and neocons are rife in both the Defense Department and the intelligence community.

James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald: Bush's ultimate targets in NSA leak probe?

Recent word from NSA is that long time employees of the agency are livid that its signals intelligence has been misused by the neo-cons for political purposes. The bottom line: expect more leaks.

CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor is reporting that the "leak" of the wiretap program is very serious according to his intelligence sources. However, the Bush administration asked the New York Times over a year ago to sit on the story about the surveillance "program," meaning the Bush White House knew there was a leak for at least a year but waited until the publication of the New York Times story to begin a criminal probe. This is an indication that the criminal probe is as much a political misuse of government assets as is the NSA surveillance.

NSA sources report that the head of security for the agency is actively investigating possible leakers at the Fort Meade headquarters, continuing a witch hunt and purge that began prior to 911. The head of NSA security is Kemp Ensor. It is not known if the two Ensors are related.