Posted on 03/23/2017 4:47:32 AM PDT by Enlightened1
The Washington Post's Bob Woodward warned on Wednesday that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said earlier that he had briefed Trump on new information, unrelated to an investigation into Russian activities, that suggested that several members of Trump's transition team and perhaps Trump himself had their identities "unmasked" after their communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials.
The revelation is notable because identities of Americans are generally supposed to remain "masked" if American communications are swept up during surveillance of foreign individuals.
During an interview on Fox News, Woodward said that if that information about the unmasking is true, "it is a gross violation."
He said it isn't Trump's assertion, without proof, that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower that is of concern, but rather that intelligence officials named the Americans being discussed in intercepted communications.
"You can learn all kinds of things from diplomats gossiping, because that's what occurs. Under the rules, and they are pretty strict, it's called minimization. You don't name the American person who is being discussed," Woodward said.
He noted that there are about 20 people in the intelligence community who, for intelligence reasons, can order this "minimization" be removed.
"But the idea that there was intelligence value here is really thin," Woodward said. "It's, again, down the middle, it is not what Trump said, but this could be criminal on the part of people who decided, oh, let's name these people."
He drove the point home, adding that "under the rules, that name is supposed to be blanked out, and so you've got a real serious problem potentially of people in the Obama administration.."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Drain it !
Its felony Breach of the Espionage Act.
The goal was to destroy the transition and delegitimize President Trump: Sedition.
Comey needs to resign under threat of impeachment.
Jeff Sessions needs to get the necessary evidence from the NSA, and convene a grand jury.The FBI is dirty.
Notice how Obama is in French Polynesia on a private Island for a month without the wookie, beyond the subpoena reach of the House Committee on Intelligence chaired by Nunes. I am sure Trey Gowdy has a few questions for Obama. Unusual.
Any bets that Obama will re-enter the USA?
Trump says Obama wire tapped him. Press says he’s a liar. Feds admit it but say it was an accident. Yeah, right. Comey should be arrested.
The funny thing about using this whole "Russian Hacking thing" against Trump is that he gets to demand that those DNC servers be gone over by real forensic computer specialist not DNC partner ones.
All these FISA warrants Comey said were issued based on "a very reputable firm", NOT AMERICAN intellegence .... Comey did not tell Americans the DNC chose that firm nor did the committee question that and they KNEW(which tells you they are in on it). Oh, the cow manure has not even begun to hit the fan.
Methinks Mr. Woodward is more mercenary in his conduct.
He keeps his finger in the air gauging the wind direction.
Once the winds move firmly toward justice (even if not Obama himself), Woodward will get just in front of the crowd to gloss himself as a “newsbreaker” to ingratiate himself with Trump.
Woodward’s hope is again to write a book on the current administration and he needs a hall pass/Trump pass to do that. Being the lead MSM apparatchik to stick a knife in Comey/Lynch/Brennan/Clapper/etc. might provide that.
But he won’t do that until he’s certain that Sessions is about to make his move.
My 1 1/2 cents!
These kinds of reports are so disingenuous and so typical of the media. On Hannity, a guy named Binney who designed the NSA system, says that ALL data is collected by the NSA. He has corroboration from numerous sources, for example, see John Whitehead’s Rutherford Institute website and click on the surveillance link. https://www.rutherford.org/issues/surveillance
What collecting ALL DATA means is that incidental means ALL. So incidental means normal and the normal collection routine is ALL.
A warrant, therefore, authorizes looking at, interpreting,and analyzing data already collected. Everything can be called incidental to provide cover.
The data base is searched on the basis of names, numbers, keywords, voice prints, etc., to focus on those conversations they want to focus on.
So, which comes first — The search or the warrant? And some are FISA warrants and others are regular warrants, apparently.
Assuming a self-respecting ambassador from Russia has the slightest bit of a brain, then wouldn’t he/she be using an encrypted phone/communication device with a national level of encryption for their business?
Or, do we think they simply talk in the clear?
WHOSE phones/etc. CAN the intel agencies focus on? Which phones do they have the encryption keys for already?
The USA: president, cabinet, officials, etc.
My guess is they were searching on KNOWN names and basically were getting in many instances the other side by virtue of targeting the president or administration. Then they were unmasking them and disseminating that information.
In this case, we have seen in the media starting yesterday a great obfuscation of fact get intensified. “Trump wasn’t right about surveillance...it was just incidental collection.” they are saying.
The real question for us is how many documents with Obama unmasked are there in the files of the intel agencies?
I’m betting the number is extremely low.
Trump is about to start the full court press on the Kenyan IMO!
Even after all this I look at CNN and the breaking headline news there is STILL “Trump associates possibly colluding with Russia” and “Trumps false tweet” blah blah.
I mean here you have a REAL story with REAL evidence and serious felonies committed and the MSM ignoring it, trying to debunk it, bury it, downplay it, justify it, normalize it, turn it around on Trump etc while they continue to speculate, chase fake stories and just make up new stories.
Where is the outrage from the media? Could you imagine if this happened to zer0? And his family?!
The media has always been biased but at least they used to try and uncover, expose corruption and ultimately seek the truth. They dont even try to distort reality to fit their narrative anymore. They create alternate realities altogether that comport with their fantasies. Pure fiction. They are literally making things up.
wow! I just heard Jane Tapper interviewed on WMAL radio from D.C. He is still trying to spin ... AKA lying defined as an attempt to deceive.
The Russia stuff was just a pretext to spy on the political campaign of an opposition candidate. I don’t believe the “surreptitious” monitoring excuse either.
wow! I just heard Jane Tapper interviewed on WMAL radio from D.C. He is still trying to spin ... AKA lying defined as an attempt to deceive.
The risks to liberty clearly outweigh the benefits of this data collection program. Any program that can be abused by people in the government will be abused. Continuing this unconstitutional program is insane.
People can never be secure in their persons or property as long as this program exists.
John Dean is the man who taped the door strike open twice so the security guards became suspicious and the ‘Watergate Burglars’ would be caught.
John Dean’s (eventual) wife also ran a prostitution ring inside the DNC - that’s why he had to have the burglars get caught.
To quite G Gorgon Liddy: “John Dean is a serial perjurer.”
And you wan a John Dean associated with this...
FWIW, intentional or not, Trump is throwing the windows wide open regarding our burgeoning police state.
I hope it’s intentional.
True—Obama will skate.
But still it is ironic that he has now left the country, like a dethrone African autocrat.
Either the Russians were intentionally careless - wanting to get caught - or group exists that wants to pin their crimes on the Russians.>> according to wikileaks the cia can attack a source and make it look like chinese or russia. They pinged the trump server and made it look like russia and got the fisa warrents.
There you go, Vlad. Must be some potent Truth smoke you’re inhaling...
CIA? All 17 US intelligence agencies as well as hundreds of foreign agencies and perhaps tens of thousands of individuals can make themselves appear Russian or anything else online, with varying degrees of sophistication.
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