U.S. Spy Net on Israel Snares Congress

The Wall Street Journal ^ | December 29th, 2015 | By Adam Entous and Danny Yadron

[Mariner]

President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill.

The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.

White House officials believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign. They also recognized that asking for it was politically risky. So, wary of a paper trail stemming from a request, the White House let the NSA decide what to share and what to withhold, officials said. “We didn’t say, ‘Do it,’ ” a senior U.S. official said. “We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.’ ”

[Mariner]

Nothing like this in US History has ever occurred before.

[Southack]

The NSA is a criminal organization.

[Mariner]

Oh, and the fact we know about it is comparable to the Pentagon Papers event.

[darkwing104]

This may be bigger than we think...

[Fungi]

“two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state.” He also said you could keep your doctor. When will the dinosaur media take this feckless fool for what he is—an unmitagated disaster for this country and a pathological liar?

[teletech]

Words fail me.

[faithhopecharity]

spying on our Congress-critters
spying on our allies (Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Israel, and who else?)

while aiding and abetting our sworn enemies

(and enabling them to build a nuclear bomb ICBM strike force threatening American cities)

the enemy has burrowed deep into our country’s government and defenses

and the enemy is using our resources against us (both in arming our foreign Muslim IslamoNazi enemies and in importing them into USA on a mass scale)

[fhayek]

I think that we should never stop gaining intelligence on other nations, even those that are friendly to us. But what Obama does here is beneath contempt (that should be his motto). I mean he comes out so all high and mighty about spying on 'friends', then he spies on Israel. But he doesn't chose to spy on Israel because it is in the nation's interest. He spies on Israel for his own personal, political interest. He probably stopped spying on Iran, too. Beneath contempt.

[Zathras]

I am positive it is bigger.
I suspect this is the sword Obama is holding over the GOP-e

[cripplecreek]

I think that we should never stop gaining intelligence on other nations, even those that are friendly to us. But what Obama does here is beneath contempt.

Agreed, its not outside the norm for the USA and Israel to spy on each other but for our own government to spy on congress is wildly illegal but may explain a few things about Congress in recent years.

[Mariner]

"I think that we should never stop gaining intelligence on other nations, even those that are friendly to us. "

But here we see an abuse of power.

The White House wanted the content of those calls.

For a surveillance state, the idea that the spy masters would forward ANY information not directly related and pertinent to National Security for political use and purposes, is crossing the Rubicon.

All of the information gathered by NSA here was gathered without warrant.

I believe the American people would tolerate a Security Apparatus that filters to only legitimate National Security issues for appropriate interdiction and enforcement.

But the American people will not tolerate wholesale collection of very, very private matters for political purposes.

And, I don't believe they will tolerate the use of acquired information for routine law enforcement when it's obtained without warrant. Meaning, LEO can never have direct access.

[Cementjungle]

I've been saying for years that the only thing that can explain the behavior of "republicans" in Congress would be the WH house blackmailing them with the help of the IRS and the NSA. I think it's likely that the same thing happened to the Supreme Court and many lower court judges.

So, this doesn't surprise me in the least.

[mrsmith]

From March, Obama using the info:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/24/israeli-spying-iran-talks-members-congress-unmoved

[mountainlion]

So, this doesn't surprise me in the least.

Bill Klinton was a piker with 1400 FBI files on the government. Obama has everything on everybody.

[mrsmith]

“He spies on Israel *and the congressmen* for his own personal, political interest. “
I wouldn’t even care about spying on the Congress- IF it was done for the national interest (which would be a rare case I hope!).

[Billyv]

Now we know why the GOP is the “Non-opposition Party”

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3377830/posts

[golux]

Please advise on content or clips for non WSJ subscribers.

Thanks for posting!

[Alberta's Child]

The NSA would not need a warrant to record phone calls outside the country, even if the calls involved one participant inside the U.S.

The more disturbing aspect of this is that members of Congress were apparently "conducting business" with a foreign government this way in the first place. If the NSA could record these conversations, then there are at least several dozen other countries whose intelligence services could have done the same thing.

[faithhopecharity]

Yes. But the GOP-e was kissing up and enabling the Illegal Immigrant In Chief — from day 1. So,those behind O must have already had the goods on the GOP - e