James Comey, the chicken hiding in the woods -- American Thinker, Clyde Ward

[bsteadman]

James Comey, the chicken hiding in the woods

American Thinker / Blog
by Clyde Ward
3/22/2017

Excerpt:

Media analysis of the recent testimony by FBI director James Comey before Congress misses the forest for the trees.

Was Trump Tower wiretapped?

Well, who isn't?

That was the revelation of Ed Snowden in 2013, something NSA director James Clapper perjured himself to cover up.

Had Clapper simply refused to answer the question as to the existence of such a pervasive, intrusive, and probably unconstitutional covert surveillance apparatus, he would have given it away.

Covert is, well, "covert" if it's to be of any use at all.

But that brought up the nature of the surveillance, itself. How can anything of that nature be subjected to public oversight? Concerns of this nature were swept away in the bipartisan interest of national security.

But now, the chickens have come to roost.

When every American is under perpetual surveillance and classified information of an obviously very partisan political nature routinely leaks, we have to ask: is there any reason to trust anyone?

The legacy of Obama is "all politics, all the time," with no law at all. It doesn't matter anymore who is right or wrong. When our major institutions have compromised themselves, the only thing that matters is winning.

That's a dangerous situation for any government.

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View the complete article at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...the_woods.html

[bsteadman]

Nunes Confirms There Was "Incidental Surveillance" Of Trump During Obama Administration, "Seems To Be Inappropriate"

ZeroHedge
by Tyler Durden
3/22/2017

Excerpt:

Update: House Intel Chairman Nunes spoke to reporters when he left the briefing at The White House and had some more stunning things to say:

• *NUNES: BRIEFED PRESIDENT ON CONCERNS OVER INCIDENTAL COLLECTION
• *NUNES: `PRESIDENT NEEDS TO KNOW' THESE INTEL REPORTS EXIST
• *NUNES: SOME OF WHAT I'VE SEEN SEEMS TO BE `INAPPROPRIATE'
• *NUNES: TRUMP, OTHERS IN TRANSITION PUT INTO INTELLIGENCE REPORT
• *NUNES: QUESTION IS IF TRUMP SHOULD BE IN THESE `NORMAL' REPORTS

And the punchline: there are "multiple FISA warrants outstanding against Trump" Nunes also told reporters:

As we detailed earlier, it appears Trump may have been right, again.

Two days after FBI director Comey shot down Trump's allegation that Trump was being wiretapped by president Obama before the election, it appears that president Trump may have been on to something because moments ago, the House Intelligence Chairman, Devin Nunes, told reporters that the U.S. intelligence community incidentally collected information on members of President Trump's transition team, possibly including Trump himself, and the information was "widely disseminated" in intelligence reports.

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View the complete article at:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...urveillance-du

[bsteadman]

Nunes: FBI Is Not Cooperating with Our Investigation into Trump Camp Surveillance

‘So far the FBI has not told us whether or not they’re going to respond to our March 15th letter which is now a couple weeks old’

grabien News
3/22/2017

Excerpt:

The FBI is not cooperating with the House of Representatives' investigation into the NSA's surveillance of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, the chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), said today.

During an explosive press conference outside the White House, Nunes told reporters that communications from the Trump team were picked up and disseminated within the government during the 2016 campaign. Nunes said sources within the intelligence community presented him with the information. He spoke to the press after briefing the administration.

"We don’t actually know yet officially what happened to General Flynn," Nunes said of how communications from Gen. Flynn's calls were leaked to the press. "We just know that his name leaked out but we don't know how it was picked up yet. That was one of the things that we asked for in the March 15th letter, was for the NSA, CIA, and FBI to get us all the unmasking that was done."

"And I'll tell you, NSA is being cooperative," Nunes continued, "but so far the FBI has not told us whether or not they’re going to respond to our March 15th letter, which is now a couple of weeks old.”

Nunes also reported that as of now, he "cannot rule out" President Obama ordering the surveillance.

And contrary to earlier media reports, Nunes clarified that the surveillance was not related to the FBI's investigation into possible collusion with Russia. This surveillance, he emphasized to reporters, does not "have anything to do with Russia."

View the complete article including video and links at:

https://news.grabien.com/story-nunes...ump-camp-surve

[bsteadman]

EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia

HEATSTREET
by Louise Mensch
11/7/2017

Excerpt:

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.

Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.

The FBI agents who talked to the New York Times, and rubbished the ground-breaking stories of Slate ( Franklin Foer) and Mother Jones (David Corn) may not have known about the FISA warrant, sources say, because the counter-intelligence and criminal sides of the FBI often work independently of each other employing the principle of ‘compartmentalization’.

The FISA warrant was granted in connection with the investigation of suspected activity between the server and two banks, SVB Bank and Alfa Bank. However, it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any ‘US person’ connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men who have either formed part of his campaign or acted as his media surrogates. The warrant was sought, they say, because actionable intelligence on the matter provided by friendly foreign agencies could not properly be examined without a warrant by US intelligence as it involves ‘US Persons’ who come under the remit of the FBI and not the CIA. Should a counter-intelligence investigation lead to criminal prosecutions, sources say, the Justice Department is concerned that the chain of evidence have a basis in a clear warrant.

In June, when the first FISA warrant was denied, the FBI was reportedly alarmed at Carter Page’s trip to Moscow and meetings with Russian officials, one week before the DNC was hacked. Counter intelligence agencies later reported to both Presidential candidates that Russia had carried out this hack; Donald Trump said publicly in the third debate that ‘our country has no idea’ if Russia did the hacking. The discovery of the Trump Tower private Russian server, however, communicating with Alfa Bank, changed matters, sources report.

To further complicate the story, the FISA warrant was allegedly granted in part because of the involvement of Vladimir Putin’s own daughters. One is married to a senior official at Gazprom, where Carter Page and Paul Manafort reportedly have holdings; another to Kirill Shamalov, a banking official.

The fact that the alleged warrant was a FISA warrant is itself significant. The court exists to grant warrants to examine cases concerned with Foreign Intelligence.
Pursuant to FISA, the Court entertains applications submitted by the United States Government for approval of electronic surveillance, physical search, and other investigative actions for foreign intelligence purposes. Most of the Court’s work is conducted ex parte as required by statute, and due to the need to protect classified national security information.

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View the complete article including images and links at:

https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-f...ies-to-russia/

[bsteadman]

Potential 'smoking gun' showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says

FOXNEWS
by James Rosen
3/23/2017

Excerpt:

Republican congressional investigators expect a potential “smoking gun” establishing that the Obama administration spied on the Trump transition team, and possibly the president-elect himself, will be produced to the House Intelligence Committee this week, a source told Fox News.

Classified intelligence showing incidental collection of Trump team communications, purportedly seen by committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and described by him in vague terms at a bombshell Wednesday afternoon news conference, came from multiple sources, Capitol Hill sources told Fox News. The intelligence corroborated information about surveillance of the Trump team that was known to Nunes, sources said, even before President Trump accused his predecessor of having wiretapped him in a series of now-infamous tweets posted on March 4.

The intelligence is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump, according to sources.

The key to that conclusion is the unmasking of selected U.S. persons whose names appeared in the intelligence, the sources said, adding that the paper trail leaves no other plausible purpose for the unmasking other than to damage the incoming Trump administration. --(bold, underline and color emphasis added in preceding 2 paragraphs)

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View the complete article including video at:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...urce-says.html

[bsteadman]

Fox News: NSA to Release Documents on Friday Which Could be Definitive Evidence of Trump Surveillance

WILL TRUMP BE FULLY “VINDICATED?”

The Post & Email
by Sharon Rondeau
3/24/2017

Excerpt:

(Mar. 24, 2017) — On Friday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” co-hosts Pete Hegseth, Ainsley Earhardt, and Clayton Morris spoke with their Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson about a report initiated by Fox News White House correspondent James Rosen on Thursday alleging that a “smoking gun” could soon be released containing evidence of surveillance of the Trump transition team by the Obama regime.

According to this morning’s exchange, the National Security Agency (NSA) is expected to release documentation on Friday believed to show, based on Rosen’s sources, that Trump transition team members’ names as well as Trump’s could have been collected during surveillance activities between November 2016 and January 2017 and “unmasked” by the intelligence community.

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View the complete article including image, links and comments at:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2017/03/...-surveillance/

[bsteadman]

Video: Klayman Discusses NSA/CIA Whistleblower Dennis Montgomery & FBI Investigation of Mass Surveillance


Published on Mar 23, 2017 by 'Freedom Watch'

Klayman Discusses NSA/CIA Whistleblower Dennis Montgomery and the FBI Investigation of Mass Surveillance That Has Apparently Been "Deep Sixed" by FBI Director James Comey

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