Posted on 03/05/2017 7:37:56 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
This is becoming funnier by the minute. Yesterday morning, Trumps assertion that he and his campaign had been the subject of a wiretap ordered by the Obama administration was being laughed at. By midday the story was a denial that Obama himself had ordered an wiretap on Trumps personal phone. By afternoon a consensus had developed that Trump was, in fact, the target, directly or indirectly, of surveillance. This morning on the talk shows the existence of the wiretap is treated as of course it happened. And now were at the stage where Trump did a very bad thing by talking about it. Via ABC News With tweetstorm, Trump may have exercised exclusive declassification authority.
If through his tweets Trump revealed secret government information about surveillance, he exercised an exclusive privilege afforded only to the president as the ultimate declassification authority.
If any other government employee had single-handedly made such revelations they could see prison time for potentially damaging U.S. national security, a former official with intimate knowledge of the government secrecy policies told ABC News.
Its an extremely serious offense, ABC News Contributor Matt Olsen, who is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a former FBI counsel, explained.
Anyone who would reveal the existence of a wiretap would violate federal law, he said. It is against federal law to disclose the existence of a wiretap, whether that wiretap is for criminal purposes or intelligence purposes.
Right now the only people in the world denying that electronic surveillance took place of either Trump, himself, or his campaign are Republicans who hate Trump. And James Clapper. But this is James Clapper were talking about.
It is sort of touching to see a news agency that has trafficked in all manner of leaked classified information that would get the leaker a long prison term suddenly concerned about national security. But it is hard to take it very seriously. The real point of this is to try to make Trumps mention of the wiretap an issue. Up until now the Obama people have had the best of both worlds. They were able to leak about Trump and felt very safe that their own vulnerabilities would remain hidden behind security classification. If Trump wants to know how this movie ends he need look no further than Bush refusing to declassify information about the existence of Iraqi chemical weapons and the fact that US troops had been injured by them while allowing the media and Democrats to continue to falsely claim that there were no chemical weapons in Iraq.
In fact, the only reason this whole Trump-Putin-Russia thing has metastasized is because the evidence and even the allegations are surrounded in secrecy. If Trump wants this to go away hes eventually going to have to present the intelligence community with an ultimatum: either you make the evidence public, or I do. Because, as the article accurately states, Trump holds the authority to declassify anything that he wishes to declassify.
I doubt it.
I think “Deep Black” was first I read about it. It came out in 1988.
Loaned my copy out, never came back. hee hee hee
Might have been something about it in the Puzzle Palace too.
“Anyone who would reveal the existence of a wiretap would violate federal law, he said. It is against federal law to disclose the existence of a wiretap, whether that wiretap is for criminal purposes or intelligence purposes.”
But Hillary tweeted about wiretap of Trump last October...
bttt
bttt
Didn’t LBJ expose the Blackbird?
I didnt’ realize that was the kind of counsulting work Rudy was doing. Good.
I guess FReepers are just going to have to decide whether they believe the media narrative about Trump being an uncontrolled, impulsive buffoon who shoots from the hip and gives no thought to consequences - or whether he’s a pretty shrewd character who has surrounded himself some some of the best and most brilliant and accomplished loyal conservative minds on the planet for a reason.
When you know you’re up against the media, the traditional Democrat party, a goodly chunk of the Republican party, 99.99% of the media, most of academia, the Chamber of Commerce and their open borders enablers, half of the Senate a little less than half of the House of Representatives, much of the federal bureaucracy, your immediate predecessor and his minions and don’t know who you can trust other than family and very close advisors- you would be very deliberate about what you way and the precise words you choose. And you would try very hard to think three steps ahead, applying a great deal of strategic thought to every move, especially when your enemies are so easy to troll and will believe almost anything that fits into their preconceived ideas and goal of opposing and ending your Presidency.
Your opinion is shared by all of us. Hanging around waiting to hit back is is a hard task.
Martha Raddatz this morining:
IF IF IF IF
Unglued
Re “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered..” Who are these “Computer scientists” who were illegally “hacking” the Trump organization, whatever that is?
Do I see any subpoena for Jake Sullivan by Congress, and if not, WHY NOT?
Two can play this game.
Yes, Marc Levin Leif it all out on Fox, using the various media reports. It was very good. The surveillance was disclosed before Trump tweeted.
He has requested congress to include possible Obama over-reach and illegal surveillance l in their investigation on the Russian issue. Congress agreed. It will all be public now! Isn’t that wonderful?
You have definitely led an interesting life, 2nd. Would like to meet you in person some day.
Does anyone know how much time JFK had to serve after he put those highly classified aerial intel photos of cuban missiles on TV? Anyone?
A long day in Dallas?
That’s when you say “It would be illegal for me to confirm that”.
Carter cancelled the B-1 because he knew the existence of the F-117.
He never disclosed any information about the F-117.
He just said the B-1 was too expensive and it was cancelled.
Of course Zero didn't order it! Everyone knows that's it the FISA judge who issues the order, not the president.
The president simply nods to the AG, who sends her folks before the judge with a carefully crafted set of non-facts. The judge writes the order, and the FBI or the NSA does the work.
That makes sense.
Lao Tzu said, "Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know."
If a reporter (or a foreign agent) who doesn't know beyond what has already leaked can get someone who does know to talk, there is a good chance he will be able to worm something new and interesting out of that one who does know.
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