Posted on 02/26/2020 5:39:40 PM PST by bitt
Retired agent says bureaus Obama-era leaders ignored privacy, cost warnings, may have retained program for political espionage
The FBI agent who ran the bureaus warrantless spying program said Wednesday he warned ex-Director James Comey and his deputy, Andrew McCabe that the program was a useless waste of taxpayer money that needlessly infringed Americans civil liberties but his bosses refused to take action.
Retired Special Agent Bassem Youssef ran the FBIs Communications Analysis Unit from late 2004 until his retirement in late 2014. He told Just the News he fears the deeply flawed program, which was started in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, was allowed to keep going to give Americans a false sense of security in the war on terror and possibly to enable inappropriate spying, such as that which targeted President Trumps 2016 campaign.
I have no doubt, or very little doubt, that it was used for political spying or political espionage, Youssef said during a lengthy interview for the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Youssef confirmed that the FBI performed an audit of the highly classified program (also known as the NSA program because it searched call records captured by the National Security Agency) after Edward Snowden leaked its existence.
The audit showed that while the program had generated two moderate leads for counterterrorism cases, it had not helped thwart dozens of terrorism attacks as officials had claimed, despite costing tens of millions of dollars per year.
In fact, the program was generating large numbers of false negatives and positives, Youssef said.
The audit, he added, also showed there was collateral damage in terms of civil liberties of Americans whose phone records were unnecessarily searched or who were falsely identified as connected to terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
boom?
I see a tragic accident in Retired Special Agent Bassem Youssef’s future...
Come on. Isn’t this just a little late?
Where has this guy been since 2014. A real hero now that he sees the wind blowing in the other direction.
Is anyone surprised?
Retired Special Agent Bassem Youssef committed suicide.
He was found in some park somewhere.
It is well known that visiting parks produces depression, often leading to extreme actions.
No,he’s hearing footsteps.
Phillip Haneyed.
Retired now..he’s still a patriot
This is a rehash of a story John Solomon published 2 years ago for The Hill. I suspect Soloman was recycling the story on his podcast because he needs the money and content.
There goes any chance he had of going on CNN or MSNBC.
Maybe Graham can call him a “whistleblower” and put him before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Didn’t they already get a sternly written letter for this?
YAWN. Big Media thinks this will placate us?! He retired in 2014 for FraudCo.
Just some guy trying to hide Mohammad?
Well, rehash and seems a new interview.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
“I have no doubt, or very little doubt, that it was
used for political spying or political espionage,
Youssef said during a lengthy interview for the John
Solomon Reports podcast.” ......................
“Youssef first publicly raised concerns about the
warrantless spying program during a 2018 interview
with me at The Hill. But his comments Wednesday went
much further, prompted by the release of a White
House civil liberties board report that showed the
same problems Youssef flagged in 2014 to Comey and
McCabe persisted for nearly five more years.”
Over two years ago, long before Superheroes Vindman and Ciaramella, this guy was a whistleblower with the courage go public. He was summarily dismissed and ignored by the press, congress, Mueller. Republicans controlled both houses of congress, yet there was no hearing for this Agent. I have complained about the lack of FBI people willing to step up, but I guess they know what happens when you do.
He’s Coptic.
The Republicans act as if they want to run out the Clock.
One side acts urgently - the other cant go any slower.
.
Flimsey has quite the backlog of hearings he has promised, this may not come up until 2025.
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