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.
p
Americans and their government are now adversaries. The wisdom of our founding fathers is again proven: human beings cannot be entrusted with power over other human beings. Ever.
Technototalitarinism and old fashioned totalitarianism are here in the United States.
I wish I could elaborate. But I can say the one encounter was cordial and even somewhat humorous.
“Amerika looks like the Rise of the Third Reich more and more everyday.”
Hmm... I was told that getting rid of Orange Man Bad would stop all that fascism.
There was never any doubt that our government intends to step up the monitoring of citizens to identify those who don’t repeat the official party propaganda.
They spent a lot of our money to create the DGB and to pay the salaries of its employees. They deliberately and intentionally, with full knowledge and awareness, broke their vow to uphold the Constitution of the USA.
There is no way they will stop trying to reach their goal. They will shift more of the task to the social media, most of whom are already under their control. Other agencies will take on some of the burden. Government spying agencies, which already inspect emails and listen to phone conversations, will be given more money, with no announcement, so they can find people who object to using made-up pronouns.
Do not underestimate the determination of these people.
The American people are a threat to these traitors. They hate us and the feeling is mutual.
And apparently a “record number of people” wanted all that, according to,the left who claim Biden won by a landslide
I remember Chertoff well.
What is equally as chilling is the fact that the gop is darn near silent about it
When is the last time they busted a bunch of M-16 killers...and Crips, Bloods???
They would rather spy on fair and logical tax paying people.........
Biden bragged about the unprecedented scope of the coming election fraud, said it was a machine inherited from Obama, the Left loved just the thought of a steal.
Fighting for open borders and permanent legal status for millions of unvetted foreign nationals sort of diminishes his reputation as a "domestic security first" guy in my opinion.
“the gop is darn near silent about it”
Complict is more like it
He was not the only one who left the border wide open, and you know it. Get over your hatred of President George W. Bush. You are sick. Do you remember Oklahoma City, btw?
it was so brazen and overtly obvious because the left knew that the right wouldn’t be able to challenge it seriously because the courts and msm were in on the steal- (courts kept saying “No Standing” in order to avoid hearing the cases- )-
and Barack Hussein 0bama did not?
Sure he did. Is saying Bush and Obama had the same immigration policy somehow a good look for Bush?
Hi.
Hi FBI Counter Terrorism department. What’s up?
Is the NSA monitoring FR too? Hi guys and gals.
How y’all doing? Are you bored, or checking the wonderful data bases that has all the info on your targets? Can find anyone, with a little work.
I’ve used them too. Can be on Your doorstep in 48 ours.
Y’all know where I live and how to contact me. So...
Go and reproduce asexually.
5.56mm
Hours.
Sheesh.
5.56mm
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