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Bloomberg News Also Confirmed: Susan Rice "Unmasked" Trump Team
Zero Hedge ^ | 04/03/2017

Posted on 04/03/2017 3:06:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Once again it appears that Trump was right: the conspiracy theory that a close Obama associate worked to "unmask" the Trump team, resulting in the ongoing media spectacle over "collusion" between Trump and the Kremlin, has been confirmed, first by Mike Cernovich, and now by Bloomberg itself.

As noted last night, Journalist and author Mike Cernovich dropped an exclusive bombshell - naming Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice as the official responsible for the 'unmasking' of the incoming Trump team during 'incidental' surveillance. This was apparently discovered after the White House Counsel's office reviewed Rice's document log requests:

The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice’s actions, [National Security Advisor] H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

Cernovich pointed out, as revealed in an article by Circa, that President Obama began loosening the rules regarding "incidental intercepts" starting in 2011 - making it easier for the US Government to spy on individuals who are not the primary target(s) of a surveillance operation.

As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obama’s top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agency’s incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats

And guess who had authorization to unmask individuals who were 'incidentally' surveilled? Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Obama's National Security advisor Susan Rice. Also of note is the claim that New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman has been sitting on the Susan Rice story for at least two days:

This reporter has been informed that Maggie Haberman has had this story about Susan Rice for at least 48 hours, and has chosen to sit on it in an effort to protect the reputation of former President Barack Obama.

Fox News anchor Adam Housley tweeted on Friday that the surveillance that led to the unmasking began before Trump was the GOP nominee, and that the person who did the unmasking is a "very senior" and "very well known" person in the surveillance community - and not someone in the FBI. As ZeroPointNow noted, "this of course begs the question of whether or not President Obama would have ordered Rice to perform the unmasking."

* * *

Until this morning, the Cernovich report was unconfirmed, with many in the "legacy media" accusing Cernovich, who recently was profiled on 60 Minutes for being a prominent member of the "fake news" dissemination team for being - what else - fake news. However, moments ago Bloomberg's Eli Lake confirmed that it was indeed Susan Rice who was responsible for the repeatedly "unmasking" multiple members of the Trump team, in what may be dubbed yet another "conspiracy" to delegitimize the current US president.

From Eli Lake:

White House lawyers last month learned that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

 

The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government's policy on "unmasking" the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like "U.S. Person One."

As Lake adds, the National Security Council's senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting the review, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with Bloomberg View on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice's multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel's office, who reviewed more of Rice's requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.

The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations -- primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials. One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration.

Rice has not yet responded to a Bloomberg email seeking comment on Monday morning. Her role in requesting the identities of Trump transition officials adds an important element to the dueling investigations surrounding the Trump White House since the president's inauguration.

Making matters worse, Rice appears to have lied: while she has not spoken directly on the issue of unmasking, last month when she was asked on the "PBS NewsHour" about reports that Trump transition officials, including Trump himself, were swept up in incidental intelligence collection, Rice said: "I know nothing about this," adding, "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today."

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Ironically, it's the same Susan Rice who two weeks ago tweeted the following:

Susan Rice: When the White House twists the truth, we are all less safe. Why veracity matters to our security. https://t.co/eqkReeBIsG


— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 22, 2017

Lies aside, according to the Bloomberg reports, "Rice's multiple requests to learn the identities of Trump officials discussed in intelligence reports during the transition period does highlight a longstanding concern for civil liberties advocates about U.S. surveillance programs. The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything. This suggests Rice's unmasking requests were likely within the law."

Perhaps, but they also served a key political purpose: to create a media firestorm of controversy involving the Trump team, and to delegitimize Donald Trump as much as possible.

Furthermore, the news about Rice also may explain what Bloomberg dubs the "strange behavior of Nunes in the last two weeks."

It emerged last week that he traveled to the White House last month, the night before he made an explosive allegation about Trump transition officials caught up in incidental surveillance. At the time he said he needed to go to the White House because the reports were only on a database for the executive branch. It now appears that he needed to view computer systems within the National Security Council that would include the logs of Rice's requests to unmask U.S. persons.

 

The ranking Democrat on the committee Nunes chairs, Representative Adam Schiff, viewed these reports on Friday. In comments to the press over the weekend he declined to discuss the contents of these reports, but also said it was highly unusual for the reports to be shown only to Nunes and not himself and other members of the committee.

In a tacit admission by Lake that Rice may have crossed numerous boundaries, the Bloomberg reporter adds "much about this is highly unusual: if not how the surveillance was collected, then certainly how and why it was disseminated."

However the real question goes back to square one: did Obama order the unmasking, and if so, to what political purpose?



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: rice; riceobamagate; riceunmaskstrump; surveillance; susanrice; trump; trumptowergate; trumpwiretaps; unmasking
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1 posted on 04/03/2017 3:06:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
so, IOW, she committed a felony?
2 posted on 04/03/2017 3:08:18 PM PDT by RC one (The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
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To: SeekAndFind

Uh oh, if the liberals have lost Bloomberg.....

I think orange is a wonderful Spring/Summer fashion color for Susan. She’ll look smashing in it.


3 posted on 04/03/2017 3:08:29 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for ... some have unwittingly entertained angels)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is treason.

Rice must be treated as a doe,stic terrorist and sent to Gitmo to await trial


4 posted on 04/03/2017 3:09:44 PM PDT by WashingtonFire (President Trump - it's like having your dad as President !)
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To: SeekAndFind
"this of course begs the question of whether or not President Obama would have ordered Rice to perform the unmaskin>

Of course he did. But nobody in the establishment is going to go after the first (half) black President.

5 posted on 04/03/2017 3:09:44 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: SeekAndFind

Figured it was her when she went on her little twitter Trump tirade last week..she knew the goods on her was about to come out


6 posted on 04/03/2017 3:10:43 PM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: SeekAndFind

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/susan-rice-when-the-white-house-twists-the-truth-we-are-all-less-safe/2017/03/21/f7cdef86-0e45-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html?utm_term=.9ab7665c6708

” On Monday, FBI Director James B. Comey testified plainly that “I have no information that supports” President Trump’s accusations that his predecessor ordered the “wires tapped” at Trump Tower. These false statements from the White House are part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that poses real and potentially profound dangers to U.S. national security.

The foundation of the United States’ unrivaled global leadership rests only in part on our military might, the strength of our economy and the power of our ideals. It is also grounded in the perception that the United States is steady, rational and fact-based. To lead effectively, the United States must maintain respect and trust. So, when a White House deliberately dissembles and serially contorts the facts, its actions pose a serious risk to America’s global leadership, among friends and adversaries alike...”

Susan Rice- 10 days ago - trying to debunk President Trumps assertions that he was “wiretapped” (aka spied on)


7 posted on 04/03/2017 3:13:23 PM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: DouglasKC

“Order her?” HAHAHAHA....she likely responded to his coded “what if” question...


8 posted on 04/03/2017 3:15:13 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Say hello to President Trump)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, last month Susan Rice did go on one of the media outlets and claimed no knowledge of such actions.


9 posted on 04/03/2017 3:18:23 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: SeekAndFind

Felon


10 posted on 04/03/2017 3:20:57 PM PDT by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
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To: RC one
The Bloomberg article makes a point of saying that the unmasking was legal.

But we don't know all the details (neither does Bloomberg), so that conclusion is premature. Plus, it is a narrow conclusion, referring only to unmasking.

11 posted on 04/03/2017 3:21:28 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: SeekAndFind

So Rice was right there to take another one for her boy king Obama?

Lock the ugly, stupid bitch up.


12 posted on 04/03/2017 3:22:23 PM PDT by Bullish (May as well just rename Hollywood---> Hypocrite city)
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To: SeekAndFind

Fox News headline: UNMASKER UNMASKED
Susan Rice named as intel boss who exposed Team Trump surveillance

CNN: not a word, zip

MSNBC: nothing

CBS: Susan Rice asked for “unmasking” for national security, source says

ABC: nothing


13 posted on 04/03/2017 3:26:11 PM PDT by conservative98
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To: Cboldt

Was listening to Coultner...heard the words...all legal....


14 posted on 04/03/2017 3:26:33 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: SeekAndFind
I didn't know SUsan Rice was on that show "What's Happenin" in the 70s...


15 posted on 04/03/2017 3:27:11 PM PDT by Blue Highway (Q)
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To: SeekAndFind

When will she be hauled off to jail? That’s what I want to know.


16 posted on 04/03/2017 3:27:47 PM PDT by Blue Highway (Q)
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To: Cboldt

The unmasking might have been legal...but the surveillance was not.


17 posted on 04/03/2017 3:29:00 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: silverleaf

Lock up Croney for treason as well. He needs to do HARD time.


18 posted on 04/03/2017 3:29:01 PM PDT by Blue Highway (Q)
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To: Blue Highway

Give Susan Rice an afro and she IS Haywood Nelson!


19 posted on 04/03/2017 3:30:14 PM PDT by Blue Highway (Q)
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To: All

Is this not a felony? Sessions? Hello.. hello. Didn’t Comey tell the comitee this didn’t happen? Pretty sure every network thought that was a big story.


20 posted on 04/03/2017 3:33:05 PM PDT by gibsonguy
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