I am ashamed to admit this but I don’t clearly understand what “unmasked” means in this case.
The word, I DO understand, means removing a mask.
Should I understand that somehow all this stuff going on with Flynn was covered up but a whole bunch of people wanted him revealed so he could be found guilty of something?
Wish I could grasp all this deep state stuff.
Flynns call was leaked to the Washington Post in January. That is a felony.
We certainly listen to foreign conversations. If the foreign conversation includes an American, any American, his identity is masked. It’s illegal to surveil Americans without a warrant.
So from what I understand, if a transcript of the call is made, the American identity is hidden, or masked.
It requires a FISA warrant or a specific national security request to unmask the American.
It should be exceedingly rare. In the Obama administration, we’re about ready to find out just how common it was. I think we’re also going to find out that they magically only had reason to unmask Republicans and political enemies.
But of course, there’s not a hint of scandal
I think generally it means revealing or publishing names and/or docs of gov’t operatives that are supposed to be classified or secret for security/safety purposes.
Every overseas phone call is recorded by NSA. If FBI or CIA suspects nefarious activity, they can request calls of FOREIGN suspects. UNMASK refers to identifying the American who spoke to the FOREIGN contact.
Unmasking means revealing.
Don’t be ashamed! Asking questions is a sign of a strong intellect!
In general, because of US privacy law, if a US intelligence professional is reporting something he/she has seen or heard, they will avoid naming US persons (e.g., US citizens and lawful permanent resident aliens). Instead, they would refer to the individual as US PERSON. Only a small number of senior officials are allowed to “unmask” the report and be told the identity of the US PERSON. For example, a finished intelligence report might read:
FROM American Embassy Bogota to American Embassy Nassau:
1. On May 1, 1982 Pablo Escobar met with a US PERSON in Cartagena to discuss a possible arms shipment to The Bahamas. The US PERSON agreed to transport the shipment.
Or something like that. Hope this helps.
What happened is that Flynn was doing HIS JOB, talking to a foreign official from Ukraine.
Obama, Biden and company were misusing their FISA privileges to conduct political spying. They were listening to phone calls, tracking locations, and so on. They shouldn’t be able to abuse governmental advantages like that, to gain an edge in a political campaign.
What they all did is both wrong and also illegal.