Posted on 04/01/2017 11:43:28 AM PDT by Starman417
He didn't come out and say exactly that, but it's what he didn't say that matters.
Devin Nunes has been brushing off all the personal attacks on him as he continues his investigation into the Trump surveillance scandal. I watched the bombshell go off yesterday on Fox News:
The U.S. intelligence official who “unmasked,” or exposed, the names of multiple private citizens affiliated with the Trump team is someone “very well known, very high up, very senior in the intelligence world,” a source told Fox News on Friday.The spying began before Trump was the nominee. Here is a series of Tweets from Adam Housley, courtesy of The Right Scoop:Intelligence and House sources with direct knowledge of the disclosure of classified names told Fox News that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., now knows who is responsible -- and that person is not in the FBI.
For a private citizen to be “unmasked,” or named, in an intelligence report is extremely rare. Typically, the American is a suspect in a crime, is in danger or has to be named to explain the context of the report.
“The main issue in this case, is not only the unmasking of these names of private citizens, but the spreading of these names for political purposes that have nothing to do with national security or an investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election,” a congressional source close to the investigation told Fox News.
And the worst part:
In addition, citizens affiliated with Trump’s team who were unmasked were not associated with any intelligence about Russia or other foreign intelligence, sources confirmed. The initial unmasking led to other surveillance, which led to other private citizens being wrongly unmasked, sources said.Now for some very interesting coincidences. There is a fascinating nexus in these events. First, we have Evelyn Farkas, who admitted collecting data on Trump:"Unmasking is not unprecedented, but unmasking for political purposes ... specifically of Trump transition team members ... is highly suspect and questionable,” an intelligence source told Fox News. “Opposition by some in the intelligence agencies who were very connected to the Obama and Clinton teams was strong. After Trump was elected, they decided they were going to ruin his presidency by picking them off one by one."
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Epic story by Adam Housley.
“What I don’t understand is why Nunes doesn’t come out and say who the person is that unmasked the names. As far as I can see, for him to name the senior intelligence official who did this is not a crime. “
There could be any number of reasons; I can only guess.
One thing is that this admin is probably quite tired of the “breaking the law has no consequences” theme and variations of the prior admin. Especially as they see it has been working entirely against them. They know damn well they have GOT to get this leakage thing under control and rooted out and the only way they are going to be able to do that is to get some VERY severe prosecutions going, and to do that, they are going to have to follow procedure and handle evidence with the utmost care and precision. They know the other side has literally every force available to deflect, equivocate, and ambiguitize (if that is a word) and if the accusations (which is all they can be unless and until a Grand Jury is authorized) are going to be mooshed up by the media and the estimated 70% of corrupt judges who would make rulings foiling any advance into Grand Juryland. I just think they are being ultra super careful. The winners here are NOT going to be the ones who get the latest gossip out first. That’s not the way it works with prosecutions and they have GOT to achieve prosecutions, not these stupid playground dirtbomb throwing contests that go nowhere.
Also, strategically, it’s probably quite undesirable to release that name EVEN IF Nunes has it, because it could jeopardize a successful prosecution. I imagine that the “king unmasker/leaker” could be one of several people in a smallish group and they may not know which of say a half dozen people are responsible. This is the classic Darrel Issa approach which is blazingly ineffective. Glom onto something just a bit too early and then start asking questions that produce bifurcated answers. “Well, it could be that A happened, or it could be that B happened” and the next thing you know, the result is “we have to have [yet] ANOTHER investigation. See ya in another 7 months.
I think the people around Trump are or already have realized that the early release of information tends to work against them, in the sense that it generates the wall of feigned outrage over some imagined faux pas; then they have to fight the wall of outrage AND do whatever they were planning to do. It may be that Donald Trump can get away with spurious tweets, but the underlings are IMO drawing the conclusion that they had better be well founded.
Patience. I think this is turning around, possibly dramatically. The Farkas i’view on MSNBC was IMO simply breathtaking and shall not be inconsquential. You can take that to the bank.
The Feds collect ALL our information all the time. Phone conversations, emails, banking records, travel (border crossings), and who knows what else. Getting a FISA warrant doesn't mean the Feds will do anything further to collect data on a suspect... it simply gives the investigator permission to go to the NSA/CIA and "pull up" everything on the individual.
Virtually every piece of surveillance data is "incidental" since it's collected all the time, even before someone is a suspect of anything. This is why Nunes keeps reinforcing the idea that this Trump stuff was "incidental". It's ALL incidental.
Virtually no one in government wants to openly admit that we're doing this sort of thing. It's been talked about for years, and people like Snowden have confirmed as much... but government still doesn't want to openly admit they're doing it. Congress doesn't want to admit it because over the years they've allowed this monster to grow.
Congress has fooled themselves into believing that this vast power would never be abused for political purposes, and that the investigative/counter-terrorism/counterintelligence value outweighs the risks. They convinced themselves that no president would stoop so low as to abuse this power.
Congress is now in a bind. It has happened... Obama was of such low character that he DID abuse this power. He did it to journalists, members of Congress, foreign leaders, judges and finally in an effort to interfere in our own elections.
What's Congress to do? How do they punish Obama and his co-conspirators and discourage future abusers without admitting they screwed things up by allowing this to happen in the first place? They can't.
All Congress (and our Intel agencies) can do now is try and figure out a way to make this all go away. They'll make deals among themselves, and come up with some "acceptable" story to explain it all away. They'll agree among themselves that Obama was just a one-off and this sort of abuse won't happen again and they can control this monster they've created. They certainly don't want the US to have to give up our capabilities, so that option is off the table.
Congress will probably wind up allowing this whole story remain in the realm of "conspiracy theory", pretty much like the Obama birth certificate issue. They probably know the truth on that too, but they didn't want it to ever become hard fact... now it's all still just tabloid fodder, and both "sides" of the debate think they're right.
By now the Intel agencies have probably convinced Trump himself that allowing knowledge of our spying capabilities become verified fact (which would happen if we were to prosecute people) is dangerous in terms of our counter-intelligence advantage and world opinion. If the US were to openly admit to this stuff, it would be a huge international story. Right now it's still just political "he said she said" noise.
All that remains is the deal-making. Who's going to take the fall, and how will that happen quietly.
Maybe because it’s classified info. He hasn’t got the authority to declassify it.
You are correct about all of us being subject to collection, but there is a HUGE difference between collection and no dissemination and transcribing and unmasking for political purposes.
This is illegal.
Did you see the picture of Schiff going to see the info with that overcoat that made him look like David Byrne if the Talking Heads?
It is entertaining but when the truth and all the gory details come out the Dims will be decimated and shamed to the core with no plausible cover story. They keep digging a deeper whole and when it caves in the MSM won’t be able to save them.
I agree, but to have a trial for people violating the law on the latter would open up discussion on the former. No one in Congress wants to answer to their constituents about how this could happen in the first place. Congress has assured us repeatedly that they have put in place all the necessary controls to prevent this sort of abuse from ever happening.
If it gets out that Obama abused our surveillance capabilities it's everyone in Congress who would wind up with egg on their faces. That's especially true for those in the Intelligence Committees who are supposed to be providing oversight of our intelligence agencies.
is this some of the same info that Pres. Trump believes was leaked to NBC ?
Nonsense. AG Sessions is going to be all over this, and he is not recused form this aspect of the investigation, which has nothing to do with the Russian angle. Even if he did step aside for this aspect, there are others in the Justice Department who can do their jobs.
What is it with the incessant negativity?
This information is only just coming out; if you don't think the President wants to nail these bastards to the wall, you're not paying attention.
Heads are going to roll...
They're going to look like (even bigger) fools, and the party will suffer further loss of esteem in the eyes of the American People.
The Justice Department should prosecute all criminality to the fullest extent of the law...
I'm just being realistic. Americans, especially liberals, don't like the idea of our government spying on Americans.
The only reason there wasn't a complete revolt when Snowden revealed the extent of it was because Obama had control of the capabilities at the time, and liberals were ok with him using it for political dirty tricks.
If it NOW gets confirmed that this sort of abuse happens, and can in theory continue to happen... voters would become very upset.... and Congress would take the brunt of their anger for allowing it to happen.
Therefore, this will never get out of the Intel Committees.
Hole ooops
When all this ridiculous nonsense finally get outed as compete and utter rubbish, the MSM will bury it into a black hole to protect the dems from looking beyond stupid.
Hopefully Trump will Twitter every single day racking them over the coals..
The DAD can empanel a grand jury which can bring charges against those responsible. Possible but highly unlikely.
If they prosecute the leaker(s) and those who unmasked U.S. citizens without legal basis the system will work as intended. If they do not the intelligence community will be even more damaged and this kind of behavior will continue.
Could be, not sure to be honest. My best guess would be yes.
Let me to put it in simpler terms. If Congress allows this to get to the point of anyone being prosecuted... it would be proof that Congress failed to provide proper oversight over the vast intelligence capabilities we have. They promised to provide this oversight, and failed.
Why do you think no one was prosecuted for Obama spying on foreign leaders, or on journalists... or even on Congress itself? Congress doesn't want to take the blame for failing to do their job... which is exactly what they've done... several times.
Lol no! I refuse to watch tv coverage of this stuff. Got a link of it from YouTube by chance?
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