Via the Washington Post more details on the Grand Jury that is convening to investigate the leaks of the NSA Surviellance program as well as the CIA prison leak.

“A federal grand jury in Alexandria is investigating unauthorized leaks of classified information and has issued a subpoena to a fired National Security Agency officer who has acknowledged talking with journalists about the agency’s warrantless surveillance program, according to documents released yesterday.

The 23-member grand jury is “conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving unauthorized disclosure of classified information” under the Espionage Act and other statutes, according to a document accompanying the subpoena.

The demand for testimony from former NSA officer Russell Tice provides a sign of the Justice Department’s aggressiveness in pursuing the leak investigation, which follows a series of controversial news reports on classified programs. It also marks the latest potential use of the espionage statute to combat such leaks.

In December, Justice opened a criminal investigation after the New York Times disclosed the existence of the eavesdropping program, which allows the NSA to monitor telephone calls to and from the United States without a court order if one party is linked to suspected of links to terrorist groups. The documents released yesterday do not make it clear whether the grand jury is focused on that report or on some other disclosure.

Tice has publicly identified himself as a possible source for the report, saying that he talked to Times reporters before it was published. He also has said he believes he was fired by the NSA last year because he complained of possible Chinese espionage at the agency, and he has since sought to testify before Congress about “probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts” by the NSA director and other senior administration officials.”

Now while we only officially know of Tice’s subpoena, because he’s crying the blues to the media, but according to one source others have also been issued notices to appear as well, and they are not so eager to tell.

Tice is a small time player – a disgruntled ex-employee with a thing for Chinese ‘take off’. He’s not the target, but his servance has sent ripples of fear among those who are targets of investigators and it’s going to be interesting to see how he is twisted to draw them out.

H/t to Captain Ed for picking up on the story. Also Just One Minute.

rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/nsa">nsa