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No Matter What Happens To Biden’s ‘Disinformation’ Board, The Feds Are Spying On Americans
The Federalist.com ^ | May 23, 2022 | Daniel Turner

Posted on 05/23/2022 8:50:44 AM PDT by Kaslin

A long line of suppressed disclosures has shown that the federal government is indeed spying on Americans, and Congress still hasn’t done anything about it.

Facing an increasing backlash against the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governing Board (DGB), Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised it would not monitor Americans. It was not enough. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was forced to put the DGB on “pause,” and its director, Nina Jankowicz, resigned under public pressure.

Now DHS says it is “reviewing” the board while “continuing” its “critical work…to address disinformation.”

No matter what happens with the board, it is hard to take Mayorkas’s promise not to monitor Americans seriously. Several recent cases of the federal government spying on Americans as well as DHS’s own actions were certain to make people skeptical.

For example, in February of this year, DHS issued a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin, a memo prioritizing “false or misleading narratives” as a top domestic security threat. The bulletin states that “there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19.”

This bulletin clearly referenced Americans inside our borders. Also, unlike with the DGB, DHS made no promise to not monitor Americans’ speech. (My organization, the Center to Advance Security in America, submitted several Freedom of Information Act requests for records regarding the NTAS bulletin and the DGB.)

Don’t forget Carter Page, either. Page was an advisor to the Donald Trump 2016 campaign. In 2016-17 the government investigated him on suspicion of being an intermediary between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A later inspector general’s report identified “at least 17 significant errors or omissions” in the application for a warrant to surveil Page. A Department of Justice attorney was convicted of falsifying a document that led to a Page warrant.

Also recall the James Clapper spying scandal. Clapper, the director of national intelligence under President Obama, responded, “No, sir” and “not wittingly,” when asked at a Senate hearing if the National Security Agency was collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans without a specific warrant. About three months after making that claim, documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed Clapper’s answer was untruthful, as the NSA was in fact collecting in bulk domestic call records, along with various internet communications.

There is also the CIA spying scandal. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who are privy to classified information, have warned about the existence of a secret bulk collection program that the CIA has operated “outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection,” and without oversight by the courts or Congress.

The secret program appears related to bulk data swept up by the CIA in terrorism operations, including information on Americans, according to a heavily blacked-out report from a CIA oversight board that was declassified at the urging of the two senators.

Then there is Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland’s infamous school board memo. The memo directed the FBI to involve itself in local school board meetings under the auspices of anti-terrorism statutes due to supposed threats and violence directed against board members.

However, concerns that the FBI and DOJ were actually targeting the speech of parents were heightened, when, on October 14, 2021, another memo, released by the U.S. attorney in Montana, directed law enforcement to “contact the FBI” if a parent calls a member of a school board simply “with intent to annoy.” He claimed that “may serve as a basis for a prosecution” under federal law.

Garland and the Biden Department of Justice and FBI were forced to disavow the latter memo, since it appeared to directly target simple and non-threatening speech. During testimony, Garland assured Congress the memo would not be used to target parents for policy disagreements. Yet information recently obtained from FBI whistleblowers indicates the FBI had targeted and labeled dozens of investigations into parents with a threat tag, based on their associations and speech, including statements opposing mask and vaccine mandates.

As if to pour fuel on this fire, the woman DHS chose to lead the DGB was proven to be a proud and vocal proponent of censorship. Jankowicz has a history of attaching the “disinformation” label to speech she doesn’t like, regardless of its veracity.

With a record like this, would you trust Mayorkas’s promise that the DGB won’t monitor the speech of the American people? Neither would I.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: New Mexico; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 2020election; 2022election; 2024election; alejandromayorkas; carterpage; cia; dhs; disinfo; disinfoboard; dissent; edwardsnowden; election2016; election2020; election2022; election2024; freespeech; jamesclapper; martinheinrich; merrickgarland; newmexico; oregon; policestate; privacy; ronwyden; spying; surveillance
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1 posted on 05/23/2022 8:50:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

It’s time for a post about nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, assault weapons, and keywords that make the fools in the Deep State have to look at forum posts.


2 posted on 05/23/2022 8:53:53 AM PDT by MercyFlush (☭☭☭ The Soviet Empire is right now doing a dead cat bounce. ☭☭☭)
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To: Kaslin

Amerika looks like the Rise of the Third Reich more and more everyday. My parents have to be spinning in their National Cemetery graves. Both were WWII Greatest Generation veterans.


3 posted on 05/23/2022 8:55:36 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Don't blame me, I voted for President Trump.)
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To: Kaslin

4 posted on 05/23/2022 8:55:40 AM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper)
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To: Kaslin

Paging Mr Obvious


5 posted on 05/23/2022 8:56:36 AM PDT by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos.)
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To: Kaslin

Spying on us, lying to us, telling us what “truths” are acceptable and what “values” are valuable ... again, from people who lie to us and who on a fundamental level hold us in contempt as deplorables.


6 posted on 05/23/2022 8:57:37 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: MercyFlush

I think we can all agree that this disinformation governing board is nothing more than a tool to silence dissent......and just the fact that they would attempt to implement such a thing in this country is chilling.

It’s something right out of nazi Germany IMO.


7 posted on 05/23/2022 9:00:14 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave)
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To: Kaslin

The entire fed gov has been weaponized against American Citizens especially White one! (Our Borders!!!)

Anything else outside of this is pure BS Disinformation!!!


8 posted on 05/23/2022 9:00:25 AM PDT by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US:-))
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To: Kaslin

What, exactly, does NSA do?????

Does it have a disinformation panel?

Communicate with DHS?


9 posted on 05/23/2022 9:00:29 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Kaslin

Scary Poppins worked for a NATO group dishing out disinfo.


10 posted on 05/23/2022 9:03:03 AM PDT by Pollard (If there's a question mark in the headline, the answer should always be No.)
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To: V_TWIN

“It’s something right out of nazi Germany IMO.”

More like something out of the Soviet Union. As bad as the Nazis were they never reached the levels of paranoid repression that the Soviets got into.


11 posted on 05/23/2022 9:03:23 AM PDT by MercyFlush (☭☭☭ The Soviet Empire is right now doing a dead cat bounce. ☭☭☭)
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To: Kaslin

George W. Bush and Bush League Republican built a police state with the Patriot Act and turned the keys over to an America hating ineligible usurper.


12 posted on 05/23/2022 9:09:31 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Paladin2
This will tell you. See here
13 posted on 05/23/2022 9:10:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: MercyFlush

There is no reason it won’t be worse, much worse.


14 posted on 05/23/2022 9:10:59 AM PDT by Born in 1950 (Anti left, nothing else.)
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To: Kaslin

They’ve been doing so for decades. We knew ages before cell phones and laptops. We knew this tech invaded our privacy, we know more now, but we give up our privacy for convenience. Every App on your laptop computer and phone provides more data, but we do it anyway, we click the button. We can blame others, but this is the repercussions of laziness. To the younger generations, this will be the norm, they’ll be taught to trust it. We only have ourselves to blame.


15 posted on 05/23/2022 9:12:36 AM PDT by M_Continuum
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To: Lurkinanloomin

You should know why it was created. If it had not been we would have been who knows how many times attacked. Obviously you are that ignorant, as you don’t realize that.


16 posted on 05/23/2022 9:16:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Born in 1950

“There is no reason it won’t be worse, much worse.”

It already is.

I have two friends who separately decided to ‘go dark’. They cancelled their social media, their cell phone accounts, their landlines, and their internet accounts. They both went completely offline.

And both were subsequently visited by the FBI who wanted to know why they went dark.

One of them says to the Feeb, “Because I thought you people were spying on me and here you are.”

To his credit the Feeb shrugged, smiled, and wished him a good day.

My other friend had a less pleasant interaction.


17 posted on 05/23/2022 9:17:35 AM PDT by MercyFlush (☭☭☭ The Soviet Empire is right now doing a dead cat bounce. ☭☭☭)
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To: griswold3
Mr Obvious?

The last time I checked I was a she, so if you don't mind call me Mrs Obvious, will you?

18 posted on 05/23/2022 9:19:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The fact that W left the border wide open after 9/11 belies caring if we were attacked again.
The Patriot Act was aimed at patriots and the Kenyanesian Usurper used it as intended.


19 posted on 05/23/2022 9:22:51 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: MercyFlush

My other friend had a less pleasant interaction.
\—————————————
curious as what that was.


20 posted on 05/23/2022 9:24:34 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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