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Obama spying on Trump needs investigating
Washington Times ^ | March 15, 2017 | Andrew P. Napolitano

Posted on 03/16/2017 8:20:37 PM PDT by TBP

Mr. Obama would not have needed a warrant to authorize surveillance on Mr. Trump. Mr. Obama was the president and as such enjoyed authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to order surveillance on any person in America, without suspicion, probable cause or a warrant.

Thus, in 2016, when Mr. Trump says the surveillance of him took place, Mr. Obama needed only to ask the NSA for a transcript of Mr. Trump’s telephone conversations to be prepared from the digital versions that the NSA already possessed. Because the NSA has the digital version of every telephone call made to, from and within the U.S. since 2005, if Mr. Obama last year wanted transcripts of Mr. Trump’s calls made at any time, the NSA would have been duty-bound to provide them, just as it would be required to provide transcripts of Mr. Obama’s calls today if Mr. Trump wanted them.

I hope the investigations of Mr. Trump’s allegation discover and reveal the truth — whatever it is. But the lesson here is terribly serious. We face the gravest threat to personal liberty since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 proscribed criticism of the government. We have an unelected, unnamed, unaccountable elite group in the intelligence community manipulating the president at will and possessing intimate, detailed knowledge about all of us that it can reveal. We have statutes that have given the president unconstitutional powers that have apparently been used. And we have judges on secret courts facilitating all this as if the Constitution didn’t exist.

For how much longer will we have freedom?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bugging; deepstate; nsa; obama; obamagate; obamatrump; shadowgovernment; spying; trump; wiretapping
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To: Freedom56v2

Read the first sentence. The President has the authority. Trump can do the same thing. DOH! Pass the popcorn. PDJ has exposed most of the corruption in D.C., with the corrupt press helping him, in exposing how the shadow gov works. I love it!


21 posted on 03/17/2017 12:36:26 AM PDT by DISCO
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To: TBP

I don’t think Napolitano’s characterization of Presidential discretion under FISA wrt “United States persons” is accurate.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/chapter-36/subchapter-I

I am not a lawyer but as I read Section 1802, surveillance ordered by a President w/o a court order only applies to foreign entities and persons.

“United States persons” are specifically excluded.

And in any case, the Attorney-General has to also sign off on any such surveillance - and any FISA court application to wiretap US persons as well.

Which is why, in my view, Loretta Lynch’s deafening silence throughout this whole episode is notable. As is the lack of media interest in getting her on the record. (As Rush says, the drive-bys are scared of the answers, so they avoid the questions).

I’d like any Freepers who are actually lawyers to weigh in on this.


22 posted on 03/17/2017 12:49:51 AM PDT by Reverend Wright (the snowflakes are having a meltdown !)
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To: DISCO

I am not exactly sure what you are talking about, but I am assuming that your seemingly snarky post (DOH! Pass me the popcorn) refers to the first sentence of the thread article...Good stuff except your post is not related to my one word comment addressed to another Freeper.

My “Wow” comment was related to fact that “Amazon holds a $600 million dollar contract with the CIA, and all 16 other intelligence agencies for all of their cloud hosting. This is helping all agencies share information, so breakdowns don’t happen that would potentially allow another 9/11 level event take place.”

That issue/fact has nothing to do with Presidential authority or Trump can do the same thing”

DOH! Pass ME the popcorn.


23 posted on 03/17/2017 12:51:01 AM PDT by Freedom56v2 (Inside Every Liberal is a Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out - D. Horowitz)
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To: RightInEastLansing

They have the digital information involved in your call. If someone wants a transcript if your call it can be prepared from the digital storage records.


24 posted on 03/17/2017 12:54:59 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory.)
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To: Chgogal

“Amazon holds a $600 million dollar contract with the CIA”

That was widely reported last year.

How much did Bezos pay for the Washington Post?

Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the real owner of the Washington Post is the CIA.


25 posted on 03/17/2017 1:47:50 AM PDT by Helicondelta (Deplorable)
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To: RightInEastLansing

I am no expert, but I think they have the DIGITAL information for many/most communications. That digital info can be transcribed into text....

I am open to correction.


26 posted on 03/17/2017 2:53:29 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: SoFloFreeper

Hannity’s guests yesterday assured him that EVERYTHING EVERYTHING is collected. Searched if it is wanted.

Former (?) head of NSA, Binney, quit because could not take the law breaking. Is interviewed regularly.


27 posted on 03/17/2017 3:12:16 AM PDT by PraiseTheLord
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To: lee martell
Pres. Trump has not convinced many people that this actually happened.

"Wiretapping" of then candidate and president-elect Trump was reported by The New York Times and other news outlets. When President Trump found out about it, he called attention to it. It is not up to him to prove or disprove what the media, itself, has reported. But he is the hated outsider -- hated, by the way, not only by the enormous array of Leftists in this country, but by many on the Right as well.

And so the vast insiders club that feeds at our government trough considers President Trump a threat simply because he is a Right-wing outsider wild card, and they will do everything possible to destroy him. They won't speak the truth or investigate fairly or support him in any way. They don't want to be convinced, don't you get it?

28 posted on 03/17/2017 3:20:21 AM PDT by Avalon Memories
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To: TBP; Fred Nerks

No evidence...

“For how much longer will we have freedom?”>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No evidence?

They’ll make sure there is no evidence:

Theory:

Feinstein and Grassly NOW know that Obama broke the sedition law, by arranging Trump surveillance through a foreign nation.

Strange reactions of Feinstein and Grassly:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3535471/posts

And their job is now to make sure that any evidence of Obama’s crime disaappears.

Trump will likely point the investigation to the British Security Service, and Feinstein and Grassly are likley refusing to let the Senate Investigation Committee go there.
Feinstein and Grassly already know that Obama broke the law, and now they are covering it up, with the likely help of a couple of RINO Republicans.

Meanwhile Obama is all alone in Bora Bora, all by himself, without the wookie. Passingly strange.Looks like he is ready to bolt as a fugitive.


29 posted on 03/17/2017 3:53:20 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: TBP

30 posted on 03/17/2017 4:41:52 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: TBP

Now the Judge backpedals. “I hope the investigations of Mr. Trump’s allegation discover and reveal the truth — whatever it is” -— A few days ago, he said his sources said it did happen. Now, he has no clue what happened. I doubt we will ever have “proof” of anything.


31 posted on 03/17/2017 4:58:18 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: TBP

The NSA has an address.


32 posted on 03/17/2017 5:16:07 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (The Washington Post is Jeff Bezos' Fake News unregulated SuperPAC.)
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To: sargon; TBP
:: the NSA has the digital version of every telephone call made to, from and within the U.S. since 2005 ::
Let me help with that...

the NSA has the digital version of every international telephone call made to, from and within the U.S. since 2005.

33 posted on 03/17/2017 5:31:23 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic, Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: RightInEastLansing

That was what jumped out at me as well.

Really? If true, that has other implications.


34 posted on 03/17/2017 5:34:07 AM PDT by rlmorel (President Donald J. Trump ... Making Liberal Heads Explode, 140 Characters at a Time)
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To: Bogey78O
"...any data crossing the border is being collected wholesale..."

I think it is more than that, if what he says is true: "...the digital version of every telephone call made to, from and within the U.S. since 2005.."

35 posted on 03/17/2017 5:36:13 AM PDT by rlmorel (President Donald J. Trump ... Making Liberal Heads Explode, 140 Characters at a Time)
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To: RightInEastLansing

That’s what got me.

The government has transcript of all the calls we have made for the last 11 years?

How is this not a violation of the Fourth Amendment or is that just words?


36 posted on 03/17/2017 5:36:48 AM PDT by Crucial
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To: Bryan24

“Everything is recorded and saved. Not everything is uncompressed and decoded”..............

If this be so, then odumbo’s head can, and should be on the chopping block. That snake NEEDS killin!


37 posted on 03/17/2017 5:39:35 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Travis McGee

Jeezo. I just don’t get this.

It is pretty apparent that there was surveillance going on. THAT is undeniable.

Makes no difference if they tapped into an analog phone line, sucked the data from an IP stream, inserted microphones somewhere, or whatever. The fact that conversations were monitored shouldn’t be in question, but there are still people out there saying it didn’t really happen.

I just don’t get that from some posters here, I thought that was pretty plain.

The question is by whom, and to what end.


38 posted on 03/17/2017 5:41:58 AM PDT by rlmorel (President Donald J. Trump ... Making Liberal Heads Explode, 140 Characters at a Time)
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To: Crucial

That is not good.

It sounds like East German Stasi at the federal level.


39 posted on 03/17/2017 5:44:21 AM PDT by rlmorel (President Donald J. Trump ... Making Liberal Heads Explode, 140 Characters at a Time)
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To: TBP

First of two parts and maybe more on the 7+ decades long history of the UK’s spying on our people and us spying on their people.

UKUSA Agreement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The UKUSA Community: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States

The United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement (UKUSA, /;/ew-koo-sah)[1][2] is a multilateral agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The alliance of intelligence operations is also known as the Five Eyes.[3][4][5][6][7]

In classification markings this is abbreviated as FVEY, with the individual countries being abbreviated as AUS, CAN, NZL, GBR, and USA, respectively.[8]

Emerging from an informal agreement related to the 1941 Atlantic Charter, the secret treaty was renewed with the passage of the 1943 BRUSA Agreement, before being officially enacted on 5 March 1946 by the United Kingdom and the United States. In the following years, it was extended to encompass Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries, known as “third parties”, such as West Germany, the Philippines, and several Nordic countries also joined the UKUSA community.[9][10]

Much of the sharing of information is performed via the ultra-sensitive STONEGHOST network, which has been claimed to contain “some of the Western world’s most closely guarded secrets”.[11]

Besides laying down rules for intelligence sharing, the agreement formalized and cemented the “Special Relationship” between the UK and the USA.[12][13]

Due to its status as a secret treaty, its existence was not known to the Prime Minister of Australia until 1973,[14] and it was not disclosed to the public until 2005.

[13] On 25 June 2010, for the first time in history, the full text of the agreement was publicly released by the United Kingdom and the United States, and can now be viewed online.[9][15] Shortly after its release, the seven-page UKUSA Agreement was recognized by Time magazine as one of the Cold War’s most important documents, with immense historical significance.[13]
The global surveillance disclosure by Edward Snowden has shown that the intelligence-sharing activities between the First World allies of the Cold War are rapidly shifting into the digital realm of the Internet.[16][17][18]

Due to its status as a secret treaty, its existence was not known to the Prime Minister of Australia until 1973,[14] and it was not disclosed to the public until 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement#Origins_.281940s.E2.80.931950s.29


40 posted on 03/17/2017 6:07:20 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Remember during Trump Tower Spygate, there were No American fingerprints; just Obama's...!!!!:))
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