John Tye (whistleblower)

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John Tye
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Personal details
Born
John Napier Tye

1975or1976(age 47–48) [1]
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education Duke University (BS)
Lincoln College, Oxford (BA)
Yale University (JD)

John Napier Tye (born c. 1976) is a former official of the U.S. State Department who came forward in 2014 as a whistleblower seeking to publicize certain electronic surveillance practices of the U.S. government under Executive Order 12333. He later co-founded a legal organization, Whistleblower Aid, intended to help whistleblowers in multiple sectors forward their concerns without incurring legal liability.

Contents

Biography

John Tye was raised in a suburb of Boston. [2] He attended Duke University, where he earned a B.S. in Adaptive and Intelligent Systems, a major of his own creation. [2] [3] Said Tye of his undergraduate career, "I thought I was going to be a scientist. But when I was graduating, I decided I wanted to do things that have more of an impact on real people." [2]

Tye then attended Lincoln College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. There, he studied philosophy, politics, and economics. [3] After studying at Oxford, he did research on hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. [2] He then earned a J.D. at Yale Law, where he joined a civil liberties litigation clinic. After graduating Yale in 2006, Tye moved to New Orleans, where he worked on housing issues for low-income families. [3] [4] He co-authored a May 2010 study on reform of the U.S. housing finance system, described as "essential reading" by real estate blogger Jonathan Miller, and co-authored the introductory chapter of the 2011 book The American Mortgage System: Crisis and Reform. [5] [6] [7]

In January 2011, Tye was recruited to the State Department by his former Yale instructor Michael Posner, then Assistant Secretary of State. [8] He served in the State Department until April 2014, as section chief for Internet freedom in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where he was cleared to access Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information. [9] In his official role, Tye sometimes traveled abroad and advocated for an open Internet, free of government surveillance. [10] [11]

From 2014 to 2015, Tye was legal director and campaign director of Avaaz, a global civic activist organization. [12] [13]

Whistleblowing

Internal channels

In Fall 2013 and February 2014, Tye attended two classified National Security Agency briefings on Executive Order 12333, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan and amended by President George W. Bush. [2] [8] Tye attended these briefings so that he could help prepare the State Department's response to the high-profile leaks disclosed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. [12] Following a January 17, 2014 speech by President Barack Obama on NSA surveillance reforms that failed to mention changes to activities under E.O. 12333, Tye began to use internal channels at the State Department to press his concerns over the order. [10] Prior to leaving the State Department in April 2014, Tye filed a complaint with the Department's inspector general, asserting that the intelligence collection and retention policies being carried out under E.O. 12333 violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Tye also met with staffers of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, and communicated his complaint to the inspector general of the NSA. [9] [11] The House Intelligence committee responded in a letter to Tye that it "reviewed your allegations and has taken the action it deems appropriate in this matter." [2]

Public disclosure

On July 18, 2014, The Washington Post published an editorial written by Tye highlighting his concerns over U.S. signals intelligence activities performed under E.O. 12333. Comparing this executive order to the much-discussed Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Tye wrote, "I believe that Americans should be even more concerned about the collection and storage of their communications under Executive Order 12333 than under Section 215." [9] E.O. 12333, Tye wrote, allows for the collection of both metadata and communication contents of U.S. persons, so long as the collection takes place outside the U.S. [2] [9] However, Tye argued, many communications between U.S. persons may transit or be stored on servers outside the U.S., making them vulnerable to collection under E.O. 12333. [9] Although U.S. persons cannot be directly "targeted" under the order, their communications can be gathered "incidentally" in the course of investigating a foreign target. [9] Tye argued that under the government's interpretation of Order 12333, "incidental collection" could include the data of every person using popular internet services—including Gmail, Yahoo, and Dropbox—amounting to, in theory, "billions of people". [12]

As an executive order rather than a statute, Tye noted, E.O. 12333 had never been subject to congressional or judicial oversight. Collection under the order does not require a warrant and need not be reported to Congress. The president's Review Group on Intelligence and Communication Technologies had recommended reform to collection policies under Order 12333, yet the White House had indicated it would not enact this recommendation. [2] [9]

On July 23, 2014, Tye spoke at a public meeting of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the executive branch tasked with advising the president on matters of privacy and civil liberties. [11]

In November 2014, Tye spoke about his experience at the TEDx Charlottesville conference. [14]

Tye maintains that he has not, and will not, release any classified information. Prior to publication, he submitted his Post editorial for approval by the State Department and the NSA, which both deemed that no changes were necessary. [2] [9] [12] In addition, Tye has insisted on having a third party present when speaking to reporters to counter any later claim that he revealed classified information. [10]

Reactions

On August 19, Alexander Joel, Civil Liberties Protection Officer of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, responded directly to Tye's Post editorial. [15] Joel emphasized that Americans cannot be directly targeted under Executive Order 12333, and that use and retention of the collected data is limited by policies approved by the U.S. Attorney General. Notably, under these policies, data cannot be retained for more than five years. [12] Tye responded that arguments about targeting and limits on use ignored more important questions of whose data is actually collected, and how that data is retained.

In responding to Tye's allegations, NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said, "Whether NSA's activities are conducted under EO 12333 or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons in the collection, retention, and use of foreign intelligence." [10]

Ben Wizner, lead attorney for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, called Tye's actions "entirely admirable," noting that not every whistleblower could be expected to take on the personal risks that Snowden did by revealing classified information. [12] [16] Tye's own attorney, Mark Zaid, a critic of Snowden, acknowledged that Snowden's disclosures had likely made it easier for Tye to come forward with his own revelation. [10]

Legal experts debated the potential impact of Tye's disclosure on the possibility of reform of practices under E.O. 12333, with Indiana University law professor Fred Cate arguing that such a disclosure within the rules of the government's classification system may not have the impact of a leak of classified documents. Mark Jaycox of the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that Tye's disclosure would help to push forward the reform process. [12]

Tye was named one of 2014's "National Security Law Heroes" by Steve Vladeck of the blog Just Security. [17]

Whistleblower Aid

In September 2017, Tye and lawyer Mark Zaid founded Whistleblower Aid, a legal organization intended to help whistleblowers across multiple sectors safely disclose wrongdoing. Initially focused on employees and contractors of the U.S. federal government, Whistleblower Aid emphasizes it is different from WikiLeaks: "No one should ever send classified information to Whistleblower Aid," the firm states. "Whistleblower Aid will never assist clients or prospective clients with leaking classified information." Instead, would-be whistleblowers with classified information will be directed to investigators with security clearances to help expose wrongdoing without breaking the law or incurring criminal liability. [18] [19] "We are trying to hold the U.S. government accountable," Zaid explained, "and provide free legal services to whistleblowers so they don't ruin their careers in the process or be prosecuted." [20] Clients will not be charged. To cover expenses, the firm solicits donations from foundations and crowdsourced funding. [18] In 2021, Tye and Whistleblower Aid represented Frances Haugen for her whistleblower activities against Facebook. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive Order 12333</span> Order officially creating the U.S. Intelligence Community

Executive Order 12333, signed on December 4, 1981 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was an executive order intended to extend powers and responsibilities of U.S. intelligence agencies and direct the leaders of U.S. federal agencies to co-operate fully with CIA requests for information. This executive order was titled United States Intelligence Activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–2007)</span> Part of Terrorist Surveillance Program

NSA warrantless surveillance — also commonly referred to as "warrantless-wiretapping" or "-wiretaps" — was the surveillance of persons within the United States, including U.S. citizens, during the collection of notionally foreign intelligence by the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. In late 2001, the NSA was authorized to monitor, without obtaining a FISA warrant, phone calls, Internet activities, text messages and other forms of communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lays within the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Data Center</span> NSA data storage facility

The Utah Data Center (UDC), also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store data estimated to be on the order of exabytes or larger. Its purpose is to support the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), though its precise mission is classified. The National Security Agency (NSA) leads operations at the facility as the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence. It is located at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake and was completed in May 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PRISM</span> Mass surveillance program run by the NSA

PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD US-984XN. PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC and Apple under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Snowden</span> American whistleblower and former NSA contractor (born 1983)

Edward Joseph Snowden is a United States and naturalized Russian citizen who was a computer intelligence consultant and whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 when he was an employee and subcontractor. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010s global surveillance disclosures</span> Disclosures of NSA and related global espionage

Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which he obtained whilst working for Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the United States. In addition to a trove of U.S. federal documents, Snowden's cache reportedly contains thousands of Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand intelligence files that he had accessed via the exclusive "Five Eyes" network. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published simultaneously by The Washington Post and The Guardian, attracting considerable public attention. The disclosure continued throughout 2013, and a small portion of the estimated full cache of documents was later published by other media outlets worldwide, most notably The New York Times, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Der Spiegel (Germany), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), L'espresso (Italy), NRC Handelsblad, Dagbladet (Norway), El País (Spain), and Sveriges Television (Sweden).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reactions to global surveillance disclosures</span>

The global surveillance disclosure released to media by Edward Snowden has caused tension in the bilateral relations of the United States with several of its allies and economic partners as well as in its relationship with the European Union. In August 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of "a review group on intelligence and communications technologies" that would brief and later report to him. In December, the task force issued 46 recommendations that, if adopted, would subject the National Security Agency (NSA) to additional scrutiny by the courts, Congress, and the president, and would strip the NSA of the authority to infiltrate American computer systems using "backdoors" in hardware or software. Geoffrey R. Stone, a White House panel member, said there was no evidence that the bulk collection of phone data had stopped any terror attacks.

The Fourth Amendment Protection Acts, are a collection of state legislation aimed at withdrawing state support for bulk data (metadata) collection and ban the use of warrant-less data in state courts. They are proposed nullification laws that, if enacted as law, would prohibit the state governments from co-operating with the National Security Agency, whose mass surveillance efforts are seen as unconstitutional by the proposals' proponents. Specific examples include the Kansas Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act and the Arizona Fourth Amendment Protection Act. The original proposals were made in 2013 and 2014 by legislators in the American states of Utah, Washington, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and California. Some of the bills would require a warrant before information could be released, whereas others would forbid state universities from doing NSA research or hosting NSA recruiters, or prevent the provision of services such as water to NSA facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA Freedom Act</span> 2015 U.S. surveillance law

The USA Freedom Act is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015, that restored and modified several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists. The title of the act is a ten-letter backronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upstream collection</span> Term used by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States

Upstream collection is a term used by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States for intercepting telephone and Internet traffic from the Internet backbone, meaning major Internet cables and switches, both domestic and foreign. Besides the Upstream collection, NSA also gathers information from Internet communications through arrangements with Internet companies under the program codenamed PRISM. Both the Upstream programs and PRISM are part of the Special Source Operations (SSO) division, which is responsible for collection in cooperation with corporate partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FISA Improvements Act</span>

The FISA Improvements Act is a proposed act by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Prompted by the disclosure of NSA surveillance by Edward Snowden, it would establish the surveillance program as legal, but impose some limitations on availability of the data. Opponents say the bill would codify warrantless access to many communications of American citizens for use by domestic law enforcement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barack Obama on mass surveillance</span> Overview of the statements of former U.S. president Barack Obama on mass surveillance

Former U.S. President Barack Obama favored some levels of mass surveillance. He has received some widespread criticism from detractors as a result. Due to his support of certain government surveillance, some critics have said his support may have gone beyond acceptable privacy rights. This is of course a debatable conclusion. Many former US presidents have increased the abilities and techniques used for intelligence gathering. President Obama released many statements on mass surveillance.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report on mass surveillance was issued in January 2014 in light of the global surveillance disclosures of 2013, recommending the US end bulk data collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global surveillance and journalism</span>

Global surveillance and journalism is a subject covering journalism or reporting of governmental espionage, which gained worldwide attention after the Global surveillance disclosures of 2013 that resulted from Edward Snowden's leaks. Since 2013, many leaks have emerged from different government departments in the US, which confirm that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on US citizens and foreign enemies alike. Journalists were attacked for publishing the leaks and were regarded in the same light as the whistleblowers who gave them the information. Subsequently, the US government made arrests, raising concerns about the freedom of the press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global surveillance whistleblowers</span>

Global surveillance whistleblowers are whistleblowers who provided public knowledge of global surveillance.

Commentary on Edward Snowden's disclosure is part of the reactions to global surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MYSTIC</span> Secret intelligence program used by NSA (2009–2014)

MYSTIC is a former secret program used since 2009 by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to collect the metadata as well as the content of phone calls from several countries. The program was first revealed in March 2014, based upon documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

<i>Citizenfour</i> 2014 film

Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, at the BFI London Film Festival. The film features Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, and was co-produced by Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky, with Steven Soderbergh and others serving as executive producers. Citizenfour received critical acclaim upon release, and was the recipient of numerous accolades, including Best Documentary Feature at the 87th Academy Awards. This film is the third part to a 9/11 trilogy following My Country, My Country (2006) and The Oath (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICREACH</span>

ICREACH is an alleged top-secret surveillance-related search engine created by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) after the September 11 attacks.

Ben Wizner is an American lawyer, writer, and civil liberties advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union. Since July 2013, he has been the lead attorney of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

References

  1. ↑ Reagan-Era Order on Surveillance Violates Rights, Says Departing Aide
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Savage, Charlie (May 31, 2014). "Reagan-Era Order on Surveillance Violates Rights, Says Departing Aide". The New York Times . Archived from the original on February 12, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Directors' Biographies" (PDF). Friends of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (USA), Inc. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-07-22.
  4. ↑ "Class of 2007 Offsets Graduation Travel with Carbon Neutral Commencement". Yale Law School. May 28, 2007. Archived from the original on July 2, 2007.
  5. ↑ Ellen, Ingrid Gould; Tye, John Napier; Willis, Mark A. (May 2010). "Improving U.S. Housing Finance through Reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Assessing the Options" (PDF). Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-11-07.
  6. ↑ Miller, Jonathan (June 15, 2010). "[The Housing Helix Podcast] Mark Willis, Research Fellow, NYU Furman Center". Matrix Blog. Miller Samuel Inc. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014.
  7. ↑ Ellen, Ingrid Gould; Tye, John Napier; Willis, Mark A. (May 2011). "Chapter 1: The Secondary Market for Housing Finance in the United States: A Brief Overview". The American Mortgage System: Crisis and Reform. University of Pennsylvania Press: 7–25. doi:10.9783/9780812204308.7. ISBN   978-0-8122-4351-2. JSTOR   j.ctt3fhm1n.
  8. 1 2 Ackerman, Spencer (July 23, 2014). "US warned: surveillance reform hinges on change to Reagan executive order". The Guardian . Archived from the original on August 21, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tye, John Napier (July 18, 2014). "Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on September 21, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Leopold, Jason (July 18, 2014). "Meet John Napier Tye, the US Government's Ideal New Whistleblower". Vice . Archived from the original on August 26, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Livingston, Lynne (July 23, 2014). "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board – Public Meeting" (PDF). Henderson Legal Services, Inc. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 26, 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Farivar, Cyrus (Aug 20, 2014). "Meet John Tye: the kinder, gentler, and by-the-book whistleblower". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 2015-04-24.
  13. ↑ Tye, John. "John Tye". Linkedin. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Tye, John. "Why I Spoke Out Against the NSA". TEDx Charlottesville. Archived from the original on 2015-11-07.
  15. ↑ Wheeler, Marcy (August 21, 2014). ""Checks and balances" thrown in the garbage: A new out-of-control spying loophole". Salon . Archived from the original on August 22, 2014.
  16. ↑ Hill, Kashmir (March 10, 2014). "How ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner Became Snowden's Lawyer". Forbes. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  17. ↑ Vladeck, Steve (December 31, 2014). "14 National Security Law Heroes in 2014". Just Security . Archived from the original on February 3, 2015.
  18. 1 2 Morello, Carol (September 18, 2017). "Former whistleblower starts legal aid group to guide would-be tipsters". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on September 20, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Former whistleblower starts legal aid group to guide would-be tipsters". Whistleblower Aid. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Want to leak on Trump? A D.C. lawyer will represent you for free". The Outline. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  21. ↑ Mac, Ryan; Kang, Cecilia (October 5, 2021). "Whistle-Blower Says Facebook 'Chooses Profits Over Safety'". The New York Times . Retrieved 5 October 2021.
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