Trump administration revokes security clearances of 37 current and former government officials

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has ordered the revocation of the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials, including some who worked on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it by name.

A memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was seen by The Associated Press, accuses the targeted individuals of having engaged in the “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” to advance personal or partisan gain.

It’s the latest action of retribution by the Trump administration against national security officials he perceives as having been against him. It comes as his government has launched a sweeping effort to cast doubt on the legitimacy of intelligence community findings that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election.

Yes…it is their execrable action to use the government largesse in the form of the lucrative security clearances (that we pay for!) as not only their own milk cow, but to undermine the workings of the government we elect as they revel in the perfidy of doing so.

It is a three-fer for them. They get to make money. They get to have Americans like you and I pay for it. And they got to weaponize this privilege to use against their foes.

It is rampant and endemic. I wrote this post back in 2018 (I think)

An excerpt from a Tablet Magazine article by Lee Smith in 2018 titled" (LINK) "Robert Mueller's Beltway Cover-up" explains how the Obama Administration was trying to cover its tracks in this. Fascinating stuff to those with an IT background:

"...And now some intelligence and data experts believe that the CIA cloud is how the Obama administration could have minimized its trail after unmasking US persons. “The NSA database, with its large and ongoing collection of electronic communications, can be accessed through the NSA’s cloud,” says one former senior intelligence official. The NSA can audit it and find out if analysts are violating rules. The NSA does not audit the CIA’s cloud, which is audited by the CIA’s IT people and Amazon Web Services employees who are given security clearances. Says the former official: “There are people in the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Council staff who can move information from the NSA cloud into the CIA cloud. That seems the likeliest scenario to explain how Obama officials first unmasked US persons and then shared information without leaving a trail that could be audited independently, or immediately, at every step. Since unmasking, by itself, is authorized for lawful purposes, it’s the processing and sharing, as with Susan Rice’s spreadsheets, that tell us if the information was being misused...”

So, how I see it (my summary of the key part of this...if I am off base, someone will let me know I am sure...:):

1.) The NSA cloud is highly audited, and the ability to audit data is easier for many people, all they need is appropriate permissions and the audit trail is rich and audit tools easy to use.

2.) The CIA data is apparently not highly audited, or at least not to the same degree. AND, the ability to audit requires special skill sets, probably SQL query skills and knowledge of the database structure. FURTHERMORE, because that is probably fewer people, the gateways into the data are more easily guarded by select people whose loyalties are known.

3.) AND HERE IS THE KICKER: There are a very few, select key people in the CIA and NSA who have the ability to move data back and forth between the NSA cloud and the CIA cloud! FROM the cloud that is easily monitored and audited, SO...to get around people knowing who looked at what and when..."trusted" people in the CIA and NSA could be counted on to move needed data to where it could be unmasked and combed through.

Using the "two hop" rule under FISA where you can look at someone like, oh, Carter Page...see EVERY person he phoned or emailed, look at EVERY person THOSE people phoned or emailed, and then look at EVERY person they phoned or emailed. That sounds like a logarithmic rise in the volume of people whose communications could be monitored.

I think it also explains why Michael Rogers (Head of the NSA at the end of Obama's term) showed up at Trump Towers without telling his boss or his team, and within a day or two, word was out (via the usual suspects for information leaks to the press including the New York Times) that both James Clapper and Ash Carter were recommending to then still President Obama that Michael Rogers should be fired for poor performance.

The very next day after that meeting, Trump moved his political campaign center out of Trump Towers which had surveillance equipment installed.

Rogers may have known all along what was going on and realized he had to save what he could of his own skin (He isn't considered to be a conservative, IIRC). Or maybe it was that audit he ran that showed a threefold rise in data searches in the highly auditable NSA cloud from a recent volume of 10,000 searches per year, suddenly jumping up to 30,000 per year. He saw that, maybe he knew more...don't know. But he is apparently the one who told Trump he was being spied on.

I think this is an extremely important aspect of this. We know better, but the left was able to get away with claiming Hillary Clinton was just careless and clueless about security, and bumbled into that stupidity. We know that it was malicious intent to hide official communications regarding the Clinton Foundation. In the same way, this shows clear malicious and sneaky intent to deceive by the CIA, FBI, and Obama Administration.

I think this is the biggest scandal in the history of our country, a largely bloodless coup attempt by the CIA, FBI, Outgoing Administration, and a willing media. We need to get this word out.

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