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Report: Samantha Power Made 260 Requests Last Year To “Unmask” Americans In Intel Reports
Hotair ^
| 09/21/2017
| AllahPundit
Posted on 09/21/2017 4:26:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
That’s … a lotta unmasking. The fact that Samantha Power is at the heart of the “unmasking” investigation in the House barely qualifies as news at this point, as her name has been floating around in connection with it for months. In fact, Trey Gowdy quizzed John Brennan about a mysterious ambassador and her strange unmasking requests at a House hearing all the way back on May 23. By mid-July the Free Beacon’s sources had identified her as a “central figure” in the probe. Note this quote from that piece:
“Unmasking is not a regular occurrenceabsolutely not a weekly habit. It is rare, even at the National Security Council, and ought to be rarer still for a U.N. ambassador,” according to one former senior U.S. official who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
Well, it wasn’t a weekly habit for Power, if Fox’s sources are to be believed. It was a daily habit:
Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was ‘unmasking’ at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 and even sought information in the days leading up to President Trumps inauguration, multiple sources close to the matter told Fox News.
Two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said the requests to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year. One source indicated this occurred in the final days of the Obama White House.
When asked for comment, Power’s spokesman noted that she wasn’t just the ambassador to the UN, she was a member of the National Security Council. But so what? Note again what the senior official told the Free Beacon — even at the NSC, unmasking is rare. The Council also includes the head of OMB and the head of the National Economic Council, incidentally. Should Mick Mulvaney and Gary Cohn be unmasking American citizens in intelligence reports at will just because they’re members?
Here’s an easy way to gauge whether Power’s practices were appropriate: How did her volume of unmasking requests stack up to Susan Rice’s and John Brennan’s? Rice was national security advisor, Brennan was head of the CIA. If anyone in the Obama administration had reason to be unmasking U.S. citizens for valid intelligence purposes, it was them. You’d certainly expect Brennan to have made more unmasking requests than someone more peripheral to the intelligence process, like Power. So let’s know the numbers. How many unmasking requests per week on average were Rice and Brennan filing compared to her?
Another question: How many of Power’s requests were actually granted? An official can ask to have the redacted name of an American in an intelligence report revealed but it’s up to the FBI and NSA to grant that request. And they don’t do it lightly, as Fox notes:
“We [the NSA] apply two criteria in response to their request: number one, you must make the request in writing. Number two, the request must be made on the basis of your official duties, not the fact that you just find this report really interesting and you’re just curious, [Mike Rogers] said in June. It has to tie to your job and finally, I said two but there’s a third criteria, and is the basis of the request must be that you need this identity to understand the intelligence you’re reading.”
What was a UN ambassador doing in her “official duties” that required her to know the identities of so many Americans who turned up in intelligence reports? If it turns out she did in fact “just find this report really interesting” and was “just curious” and the NSA or FBI *granted* unmasking requests made along those lines then this scandal will blow up far beyond Power herself. A lone official trying to go rogue on intelligence by making a ridiculous number of unmasking requests is one thing. The FBI and NSA abetting her by granting those requests and outing Americans to someone who may have had no legitimate intelligence purpose in knowing who they are is another thing entirely. *If* that’s what happened here, Comey and Rogers will become the center of the probe, not Power. Why were their agencies not more exacting in demanding proper justification for unmasking, investigators will wonder, particularly given the alarming number of requests from Power and the fact that her job didn’t obviously require her to have this information?
One point in Power’s defense, though. What are the odds that she would be allowed to go on making hundreds of improper unmasking requests without it leaking and with no one stopping her? If the FBI and NSA were rejecting her applications daily, you would think someone would have stepped in at some point and either told her to cool it or whispered to the papers that she was abusing the process. And if the FBI and NSA were granting most of her applications, it’s hard to believe they were so systematically crooked that they would risk their institutional reputations and a major scandal to rubber-stamp requests made by a figure as tangential to the natsec process as Power. This wasn’t Brennan or James Clapper demanding the information, it was a diplomat who spent most of her tenure impotently defending Obama’s impotent Syria policy. Would Comey and Rogers gamble their careers by looking the other way at improper applications made by her for months on end?
Maybe Power had reason to suspect there were Americans working at the UN, maybe even on her own staff, who were quietly double-dealing with foreign powers in the building? That would be a legitimate intelligence purpose for unmasking, but why the UN ambassador would be left to make those requests instead of Brennan or Rice, I have no idea. American double agents at the UN would be a big deal, worthy of attention from the big cheeses of natsec.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: casssunstein; mikerogers; preemptivestrike; r2p; russia; samanthapower; spyingonusgate; trumpwiretaps; unmasking
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To: Grampa Dave
41
posted on
09/22/2017 9:07:27 AM PDT
by
timestax
To: Grampa Dave
Cong Maxine Waters should be subpoenaed re her knowledge of the Obama admin's illegal acts of spying on us. She was threatening us years ago, revealing that Obama has a database on all of us. Excellent point. Betcha Obumba wasn't too happy to hear blabbermouth spill the beans on him.
And do not forget.....as he exited office (to cover his half/caste ***), Obumba significantly expanded the availability of National Security Agency (NSA) intercepts of American citizens.
Obumba's order spread un-redacted intelligence reports across many government entities, many without a need to know, to have, or share either before, or after, the 2016 presidential election. The reports put in full view the names of innocent American citizens.
This move also validate Maxine Waters claim of Obamas secret database in 2013.
42
posted on
09/22/2017 9:14:11 AM PDT
by
Liz
(Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
To: All
She looks like Delores Taylor-Laughlins’ younger, uglier sister.
To: SeekAndFind
Sunstein and her are fellow travelers with 0bama and his Marxist regime (Valjar, Rice, Brennan etc.).
Imho, they are a clear and present danger to the Republic.
Oh, and oaths are forever.
5.56mm
44
posted on
09/22/2017 9:24:38 AM PDT
by
M Kehoe
To: Grampa Dave
45
posted on
09/22/2017 9:25:23 AM PDT
by
timestax
To: timestax; Liz; Ernest_at_the_Beach
Maybe both of the above: On his orders and Brennan, Clapper, Comey and his female thugs in love with him.
46
posted on
09/22/2017 9:26:23 AM PDT
by
Grampa Dave
(Did voting for Trump for President, make 62+ million of us into Deplorable Racists/Nazis? NO! NADA!)
To: GOPJ; ExTexasRedhead; Jane Long; MinuteGal; jsanders2001; V K Lee; HarleyLady27; ...
Heres an easy way to gauge whether UN Amb Samantha Powers hundreds of unmasking practices were appropriate: How did her stunning daily volume of unmasking requests stack up to Susan Rices and John Brennans requests? <><>Rice was Obama's national security advisor,
<><> Brennan was head of Obama's CIA.
One would certainly expect CIA Brennan to have made more unmasking requests than someone, like Samantha Power, whose job description certainly did not include intelligence-gathering.
So lets have the numbers. How many unmasking requests per week on average were Rice and Brennan filing compared to the UN Ambassador's---said to be as many as 350?
She was a UN diplomat asking for FISA warrants on a daily basis. Clearly, Power spent most of her tenure impotently defending Obamas impotent Syria policy. Would US intel look the other way at Power's seemingly obsessive daily FISA applications, for months on end?
What exactly was she looking for?
47
posted on
09/22/2017 9:37:29 AM PDT
by
Liz
(Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
To: Liz
This traitorous bum should be in prison.
48
posted on
09/22/2017 9:41:23 AM PDT
by
hal ogen
(First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
To: Grampa Dave
Let’s keep in mind......all of this transpired b/c they ere sure Hillary was a shoo-in. Hillary safely ensconced in the Oval office meant “cover-up.” The games could go on.
Paranoia took over as Trump’s inauguration day neared.
Samantha stepped up her FISA requests. They were desperate to find SOMETHING.
49
posted on
09/22/2017 9:44:08 AM PDT
by
Liz
(Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
To: Grampa Dave
MSM is making a big deal about FISA. They say no one will ever see the records, warrants, applications, etc...Clapper, Rice and others keep changing their stories with regard to the FISA matters.
(Smirk) Just add it all up.....the MSM making a big deal about FISA underlines that we’re on the right track. Obama, Rice, Power, Clapper keep prevaricating b/c they are scared stiff.
We are onto them bigtime.
The MSM says “no one will ever see the records, warrants, applications, etc.” ROTFLOL.....that’s a riot. Man, they’re really paranoid.
They underestimate Trump at their own peril.
So if they won’t let us see the reasons they “said” they needed the FISA warrants, here’s what we will do: We will plaster the globe w/ the reasons THEY DID NOT USE TO GET A FISA. B/C it is a felony to withhold data from a FISA court.
Keep in mind they did all this thinking Hillary was a shoo-in.....w/ Hillary safely ensconced in the Oval Office, all of this would be buried....never, ever to see the light of day.
As the old saying goes.....man proposes....God disposes.
50
posted on
09/22/2017 9:48:44 AM PDT
by
Liz
(Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
To: Wally_Kalbacken
I agree. I feel like just from everything we have found out so far, like Powers unmasking, there was way too much criminal activity on record to keep hidden unless Clinton won. Once she didn’t everything became a hail Mary pass to somehow nullify the Trump administration from revealing and prosecuting some very high level crooks.
I think the evidence is waiting there, maybe already found and it’s just a matter of Trump deciding when to time it’s release and take steps to prosecute. Sessions not withstanding. He might be a wuss but I can’t see Trump letting this slide. Especially as more revelations like Powers come out.
51
posted on
09/22/2017 9:57:02 AM PDT
by
bluescape
(Mainstream Media-The guard dog that holds you down while the attacker has his way.)
To: Liz
52
posted on
09/22/2017 10:38:47 AM PDT
by
stylin19a
(Lynch & Clinton - Snakes on a Plane)
To: All
It would really, really, really be a shame if she were to be Doxxed into oblivion.
To: stylin19a
.....we are pretty lax in removing security clearance.People long gone still have it..... An important issue to be dealt with in and of itself, to be sure.
The point here is S/P's full-time job was being UN Amb.....not intelligence-gathering.
54
posted on
09/22/2017 11:54:50 AM PDT
by
Liz
(Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
To: Grampa Dave
Spyingonusgate makes Watergate look like a kindergarden play activity. Following George Webb, Jason Goodman and Farmer Jones,....I agree.
See Goodman's latest video...for the crap going on,...Big Black eye for the Washington Post and their Reporter on the details of the Congress Spy Ring.
To: Liz; SunkenCiv
I’m so glad that people haven’t given up going after DNC corruption. God bless you for your perseverence!
I wish I were three people; then I’d be right there with you every day.
56
posted on
09/23/2017 5:19:31 AM PDT
by
Arthur Wildfire! March
(Ever since Civil War, DNC = terrorists: KKK, black panthers; muslim refugees, BLM ...)
To: Liz
Obama’s need to answer a lot of questions asap.
57
posted on
09/23/2017 8:34:41 AM PDT
by
Vaduz
(women and children to be impacted the most.)
To: Arthur Wildfire! March; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks Arthur Wildfire! March.
58
posted on
09/23/2017 10:09:03 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
To: SunkenCiv
Samantha Power might be going to prison...
59
posted on
09/23/2017 12:06:35 PM PDT
by
GOPJ
("$3 Million Dollars 'PER DAY' is spent to incarcerate criminal illegals.That's $1.2 Billion a year.")
To: GOPJ
It's probably more likely that she'll develop a bad case of Arkancide.
60
posted on
09/23/2017 10:47:32 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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