Intelligence Community Collected and Shared Information About Trump Transition People
Early information arising from a US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee investigation into possible United States government spying on Donald Trump and people associated with him appears to show that information about individuals associated with Trump and his presidential transition was collected through surveillance by, and was widely distributed in, the US intelligence community.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters Wednesday that “on numerous occasions the intelligence community incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition” and that “details about US persons associated with the incoming administration – details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value – were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.”
Nunez also stated in a press release Wednesday that he has “asked the Directors of the FBI, NSA, and CIA to expeditiously comply with my March 15 letter, and to provide a full account of” related surveillance activities.
Nunes’ discussion of the information being “incidentally collected” and then being widely distributed despite having little or no apparent foreign intelligence value highlights a reason to reject the common claim that people who have done nothing wrong have no reason to worry about mass surveillance. When you allow surveillance to run wild, then information that has nothing to do with the supposed purposes of the surveillance, such as protecting Americans from terrorist attacks, can be easily and frequently swept up and shared.
It is naïve to believe that none of the people who obtain the surveillance-derived information will then use it to their advantage, even if that results in harm to the people “incidentally” surveilled. It is also naïve to assume that surveillance efforts will not be adjusted here and there to make sure that more of the desired, but definable as “incidentally collected,” information is obtained and shared.
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Massie is a member of the Ron Paul Institute.
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ReplyDeleteCan anyone pick out the famous anti-fascist fighter nom de guerra QUIRK in this photo ?
DeleteHint: dressed as woman to foil authorities and avoid arrest
Nother Hint: left side of photo
Final Hint: goofy colored 'parrot' on head
THE ANTI-TRUMP ANARCHISTS
A fascist movement professes its own opposition to “fascism.”
March 23, 2017 Discover The Networks
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266179/anti-trump-anarchists-discover-networks
Desperation Hint:
DeleteBlue 'dress' over blue jeans
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DeleteHardly.
Although that does look like my dick. Or wait, is that a leg? hard to tell.
Anyway, I allergic to flamingos.
Nope, not me.
Although that dick... Naw, not me.
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DeleteAnyway, I am allergic to flamingos.
[Way too early for this.]
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UK: Police raid address where London jihadi rented car, multiple arrests
ReplyDeleteBy Robert Spencer on Mar 23, 2017 12:28 am
UK: Police raid address where London jihadi rented car, multiple arrests
Apparently he was no “lone wolf,” but had considerable support within the community. “Dozens of armed police swoop on address in Birmingham ‘where car used in London terror attacks was rented from’ and ‘take a number of people into custody,'” by Rebecca Taylor, Mailonline, March 23, 2017: Armed police have been involved in a raid […]
Read in browser »
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/03/uk-police-raid-address-where-london-jihadi-rented-car-multiple-arrests
The most powerful man in America:
ReplyDeletehttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cff3a752e9cd2343eff4502a4c1e10e1eac3a68f4596af364fb1982511711f4b.jpg?w=600&h=195
Comey Is Now the Most Powerful Person in Washington
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-22/comey-is-now-the-most-powerful-person-in-washington
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ReplyDeleteNunes’ discussion of the information being “incidentally collected” and then being widely distributed despite having little or no apparent foreign intelligence value highlights a reason to reject the common claim that people who have done nothing wrong have no reason to worry about mass surveillance. When you allow surveillance to run wild, then information that has nothing to do with the supposed purposes of the surveillance, such as protecting Americans from terrorist attacks, can be easily and frequently swept up and shared.
Well, duh.
What do you think all the screaming was about back when Snowden told the world about all this? It's nothing new. We heard all the stories about the guys who would check the files on old girlfriends and such. Surely, there was more than that going on.
The irony?
The members of the intelligence committees from both parties, King, Rogers, Feinstein, et al where the ones defending the intelligence agencies practices and calling Snowden a traitor. Then, they had the chance to change all this when the Patriot Act came up for renewal but they passed. I guess it depends on whose ox is gored.
The only thing defending the American publics rights has been SCOTUS and even they have been reluctant to intrude.
From a political standpoint its easy to blame Obama for making the practice worse by allowing the NSA to share information with the other intelligence agencies. It's a criticism that IMO he deserves; however, remember that the consolidation of the security agencies under Homeland Security was to break down the chimneys between agencies that was at least to some degree responsible for 9/11.
Also, though it is the GOP whining at the moment, let's see when (and if) Trump changes things back to the way they used to be before Obama's change. He can do it with a pen.
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ReplyDeleteNunez also stated in a press release Wednesday that he has “asked the Directors of the FBI, NSA, and CIA to expeditiously comply with my March 15 letter, and to provide a full account of” related surveillance activities.
A press release.
I stated what I thought about Nunes' bullshit move on the last stream.
It will be interesting to see what these 'secret files' contain. There is no way they can be withheld from the entire committee now and you know there will be leaks.
And speaking of leaks, I have to wonder if Nunes will investigate the so far unidentified sources that 'leaked' the information to him. I wouldn't count on it.
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"Surveilled" or "wiretapped" is the difference between six and half a dozen.
ReplyDeleteWho is going to investigate this? US media, the DNC, the Deep State professionals in US intelligence agencies, Slick Jimmy Comey?
I stated from the beginning of this charade, my belief that the internal surveillance claims made by Trump were true. I gave the simple unvarnished reason why the technicians do it: Because they can.
The underlying deeper truth is because the establishment hates and fears Trump.
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DeleteTHIS FROM NY TIMES:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican who is chairman of a House panel investigating Russian interference in the presidential election, may have dealt his own inquiry a fatal blow on Wednesday.
Armed with intelligence that some Republicans said bolstered President Trump’s widely disputed claim of being wiretapped by the Obama administration, Mr. Nunes bypassed Democrats and went directly to the White House. The new information, Mr. Nunes said, showed that American intelligence agencies monitoring foreign officials may have “incidentally” picked up communications of Trump transition team members.
The move angered Democrats who said that Mr. Nunes’s attempt to buttress Mr. Trump’s accusation raised questions about his ability to conduct an impartial bipartisan investigation.
The NY Times is concerned about credibility.
ReplyDeleteThis is ostensibly about Russian interference in US elections. What an absurd joke.
ReplyDeleteRadio Free Europe was started in 1946. last year it spent $110 million. It's only reason to exist was to influence political events in Eastern Europe and Russia. It is and has been controlled by the Neocons since before they were called Neocons.
The Russians, if they did anything, exposed the words and corruption of Podesta and Clinton and the chicanery of the DNC and on how the Clintons desecrated the basic concepts of fair dealing in an election to screw Bernie Sanders.
ReplyDeleteA person has been detained in Antwerp, Belgium, after attempting to drive his car into a busy shopping street at high speed, according to police.
ReplyDeleteThe man is from Antwerp but is of North African descent, De Standaard reported. The man is believed to be a radicalized Muslim, according to the media.
"At about 11 a.m. this morning a vehicle entered De Meir at high speed due to which pedestrians had to jump away," a police spokesman told a news conference.
A perimeter has been set up around the area and a bomb squad has been deployed. It remains unknown whether any weapons or other suspicious materials were found in the man's car.
Additional officers and military personnel have been deployed throughout the city, according to Antwerp police.
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ReplyDelete"Surveilled" or "wiretapped" is the difference between six and half a dozen.
:o)
For anyone who really thinks Trump, after reading the Breitbart article, was actually thinking of 'wiretapped' as a more generalized 'surveillance' when he put out his idiotic tweet about Obama, I would like to offer a chance to buy some primo oceanfront property in northern Kansas.
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DeleteThe underlying deeper truth is because the establishment hates and fears Trump.
I would be careful with this one. Trump is the establishment right now.
There are three levels of the bureaucracy...
c. Cabinet level appointees.
b. The apparatchiks put in place to assure that the policies of those at the top.
a. Career civil servants.
In the 'c' level, the FBI and DOJ have been purged of all Obama appointees with the exception of Comey.
And while Doug insists that the reason Trump doesn't have all his people in place is because the Dems are holding up the approval process, that's just wrong. The fact is the biggest problem right now is that the Trump administration hasn't even nominated people for most of these posts.
Examples: DOJ where Trump dumped the entire contingent of US attorneys with no nominees in place to replace the.
State where he has two of his nominees in place including Tillerson. The other seven (nine?) top political posts are empty with no one even nominated.
Some have argued this is by design to reduce the bureaucracy and help centralize authority in the executive.
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"And while Doug insists that the reason Trump doesn't have all his people in place is because the Dems are holding up the approval process, that's just wrong."
Delete===
Example of "Doug's Insistence" ?
DeleteI did say that 97% of political contributors from the DOJ were for Hillary.
Quite by chance, Quirk was mentally tuned into the very frequency of Trump's brain at the time Donald pictured a Very Sick Obama, armed with wire and lineman's dykes, sneaking in the back door of Trump Tower.
Delete.
DeleteI can see where a guy of your age might have short term memory problems, Doug. Don't worry about it. The matter is too trivial to scroll through past blog streams to find it.
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Bob Woodward: Obama officials possibly facing criminal charges for unmasking scheme
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/woodward-obama-officials-possibly-facing-criminal-charges/article/2618185
DeleteThe 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 passing around this highly classified gossip."
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DeleteThe 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.
Well, duh.
Of course, 'leaking' classified information is against the law and leaves the leaker subject of prosecution.
We have to wonder if Mr. Nunes will be pushing to prosecute the 'unidentified sources' who 'leaked' the latest information to him. I am kind of doubtful as Mr. Nunes has already assumed the standard 'protect our sources and methods' meme.
Going even further, should Mr.Nunes be subject to prosecution for 'leaking' this information in a press release?
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