Difference between revisions of "Spygate"

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:''For a detailed presentation, see [[Obamagate timeline]], [[Barack Hussein Obama]], and [[Barack Obama Controversies#Wiretapping the 2016 election]].''
 
:''For a detailed presentation, see [[Obamagate timeline]], [[Barack Hussein Obama]], and [[Barack Obama Controversies#Wiretapping the 2016 election]].''
 
[[File:Susan Rice, BHO, Hillary.JPG|right|250px|thumb]]
 
[[File:Susan Rice, BHO, Hillary.JPG|right|250px|thumb]]
The '''Obamagate''' controversy refers to several scandals during [[President Barack Obama]] tenure, notably the misuse of government agencies, media manipulation, illegal wiretaping, and domestic spying on American citizens to harass political opponents and critics. [[Mark Levin]] brought it to public attention,  spotlighting in his radio broadcast [[mainstream media]] reports which cited the [[Obama administration]]'s use of government agencies to spy on its political opposition — namely [[Donald Trump]], his aides, and then U.S. Senator [[Jeff Sessions]], who is presently the Attorney General of the United States.<ref>[https://spectator.org/investigate-obamagate/ Investigate Obamagate], ''The American Spectator''</ref>
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The '''Obamagate''' controversy refers to several scandals during [[President Barack Obama]] tenure, notably the misuse of government agencies, media manipulation, illegal wiretaping, and domestic spying on American citizens to harass political opponents and critics. By the election year of 2016, Obama officials vastly expanded the use of foreign intelligence gathering apparatus as a weapon against domestic political opponents. In 2013, there were 9,600 FIDA search queries involving 195 Americans. But in 2016, there are 30,355 searches of 5,288 Americans.
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[[Mark Levin]] originally brought it to public attention,  spotlighting in his radio broadcast [[mainstream media]] reports which cited the [[Obama administration]]'s use of government agencies to spy on its political opposition — namely [[Donald Trump]], his aides, and then U.S. Senator [[Jeff Sessions]], who is presently the Attorney General of the United States.<ref>[https://spectator.org/investigate-obamagate/ Investigate Obamagate], ''The American Spectator''</ref>
  
 
==Constitutional significance==
 
==Constitutional significance==

Revision as of 21:21, May 21, 2018

For a detailed presentation, see Obamagate timeline, Barack Hussein Obama, and Barack Obama Controversies#Wiretapping the 2016 election.
Susan Rice, BHO, Hillary.JPG

The Obamagate controversy refers to several scandals during President Barack Obama tenure, notably the misuse of government agencies, media manipulation, illegal wiretaping, and domestic spying on American citizens to harass political opponents and critics. By the election year of 2016, Obama officials vastly expanded the use of foreign intelligence gathering apparatus as a weapon against domestic political opponents. In 2013, there were 9,600 FIDA search queries involving 195 Americans. But in 2016, there are 30,355 searches of 5,288 Americans.

Mark Levin originally brought it to public attention, spotlighting in his radio broadcast mainstream media reports which cited the Obama administration's use of government agencies to spy on its political opposition — namely Donald Trump, his aides, and then U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who is presently the Attorney General of the United States.[1]

Constitutional significance

National security expert Chris Farrell characterized the Obamagate scandal as "a titanic struggle for America's future," and former NSC staffer Michael Doran observes what is at stake is "a core principle of our democracy: that elected representatives control the government, and not vice versa."

Farrell warns if "Communications Intelligence is used as a partisan political weapon without people going to jail, we will have crossed the point of no return for institutional corruption in our government, our intelligence services and law enforcement."

Farrell summarizes the evidence collected by the US House Intelligence Committee chairman which has been confirmed in writing, and to the press, that the Obama Administration conducted the following activities against President-Elect Trump and his team between November 2016 and January 2017 . . .

  • On numerous occasions, the Intelligence Community “incidentally” collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.
  • Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming Trump administration—details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value—were widely disseminated throughout the government, and apparently leaked to Obama administration allies in the media. Those leaks are felonies.
  • Names of Trump transition team members were “unmasked” – their identities revealed and circulated – again, more felonies.
  • None of this surveillance was related to Russia or any investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team.

"This is illegal domestic political espionage on a scale never before imagined. It is, however, totally consistent with the Obama Administration’s weaponizing of the IRS, as well as other unlawful manipulations of government programs to fund the operations of political allies and non-governmental organizations," such as ACORN, Farrell concludes.[2]

Unmasking

“Unmasking” is the process of identifying individuals whose communications were caught in the dragnet of intelligence gathering. While conducting investigations into terrorism and other related crimes, intelligence analysts incidentally capture conversations about parties not subject to the search warrant. The identities of individuals who are not under investigation are kept confidential, for legal and moral reasons.[3]

During the months of November and December 2016, and January 2017, members of the Trump campaign and transition team had their identities unmasked in surveillance transcripts on foreign dignitaries and information was gathered and disseminated within the government by the Obama administration under the guise of foreign intelligence surveillance, then selectively leaked to the media to give an unsubstantiated impression that a political opponent was illegitimate.

Dozens of times in 2016, those intelligence reports identified Americans who were directly intercepted talking to foreign sources or were the subject of conversations between two or more monitored foreign figures. Sometimes the Americans’ names were officially unmasked; other times they were so specifically described in the reports that their identities were readily discernible. Among those cleared to request and consume unmasked NSA-based intelligence reports about U.S. citizens were Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, his CIA Director John Brennan and his Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Some intercepted communications from November to January involved Trump transition figures or foreign figures' perceptions of the incoming president and his administration. Intercepts involving congressional figures also have been unmasked occasionally for some time.[4]

The unmasking and public disclosure of an American citizen's identity which was acquired during surveillance of a foreign diplomat is a criminal act punishable by ten years in prison. Only 20 persons in the Intelligence Community have the ability to unmask a US citizen's identity in transcripts of conversations gathered in a surveillance on a foreign diplomat.[5] One person whose privacy and civil rights were violated was Michael Flynn, a private citizen at the time of the wiretapping. However, Flynn was National Security Advisor to the President of the United States at the time his name was feloniously leaked to the press and public by Obama appointees.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have exonerated Flynn of any wrongdoing,[6][7] however the leaking of his name coupled with fake news stories reported by the Washington Post and New York is strong evidence Flynn was the target of an illegal domestic spying operation intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.[8]

In Obamagate, a marked pattern has emerged in using the foreign intelligence apparatus of the United States to harass domestic opponents. This has occurred under the guise of US foreign policy - showing favoritism to China while impugning advocates for peace with Russia. Beginning with the Chinagate scandal and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Progressives have slowly taken control of the Military-industrial complex now centered in Silicon Valley. Russophobia is the focus of their demonizing efforts because of Russia's stand against gay marriage and the homosexual agenda.

Wiretaping

Obama wiretapping poster.jpg

Liza Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice explains the legal avenues under which the Obama administration pursued wiretaps on American citizens:[9]

  • If the government has probable cause to believe that the American is involved in criminal activity, the government can obtain a traditional warrant for electronic surveillance (generally called a “Title III order”) from a magistrate judge.
  • If, instead, the government has probable cause to believe that an American—or any non-citizen who is located inside the United States—is an agent of a foreign power, it can obtain an order from the so-called “FISA Court” (known as a “Title I FISA order”) to conduct surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes.
  • Americans’ communications may also be acquired indirectly. Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”), if the target of surveillance is a foreigner overseas, the government, acting inside the United States, can acquire all of the target’s communications, including all of his communications with Americans, without any individualized court order. The FISA Court must approve the broad contours of the program, but it does not sign off on targeting decisions. There are even fewer constraints on foreign intelligence surveillance conducted overseas under Executive Order 12333.[10]
  • Under both Section 702 and Executive Order 12333, various rules require the government to redact or delete any information about Americans (minimization procedures or masking) “incidentally” acquired during the warrantless surveillance. However, there are several exceptions. For instance, information about Americans that is necessary to understand foreign intelligence or that is evidence of a crime may be kept and shared. Moreover, once the government has collected the communications, it may search them for information about Americans, which (in the case of information obtained under Section 702) can be used in ordinary criminal cases as well as national security investigations.

Executive Order 12333

The executive order’s history dates back to President Ronald Reagan. He signed the order into law in 1981, giving the intelligence community the ability to extend their powers and streamlining the ability of federal agencies also investigating intelligence issues, to cooperate with the CIA requests for information.

It gives the NSA almost unlimited authority to access information and intercept overseas communications.

Obama sought to expand those powers and take down the wall during his second term in office. The original executive order only allowed limited personnel - those with the highest levels of security clearances - to view the original raw data.

But the changes came at the end of his presidency. On Jan. 3, then Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed the expansion of the executive order, which had already been signed by DNI James Clapper in mid-December.

For many years the executive order didn’t draw a lot of attention, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed its vast reach.

Snowden, who is being sought by U.S. authorities for leaking classified information and is now in Russia, was the catalyst that exposed the vast authority of the NSA by revealing how the agency is capable of retrieving and storing vast amounts of what Americans considered private communications in their servers."[11]

FISA abuse

The Obama administration asked for and recieved FISA Title I surveillance authority on Carter Page, which then gave the Obama FBI the same surveillance power over anyone Page came in contact with, in the Trump campaign, transition, and administration as "agents of a foreign power". The Obama administration did not tell the FISA court the fraudulent evidence was manufactured and paid for by the Clinton campaign and Democrat party.

During a period of November 2015 through April 18, 2016, Justice Department political insiders and outside political contractors, including FusionGPS, accessed the NSA and FBI database using FISA-702(17) “About Queries”. They gathered information on political opposition of candidate Hillary Clinton, including Donald Trump campaign officials and affiliates. NSA Director Mike Rogers suspected illegal abuse and instructed the NSA compliance officer to conduct a full FISA audit. The NSA began querying DOJ and FBI activity.[12]

NSA Dir. Mike Rogers discovered FISA-702(17) “About Queries” were conducted by the FBI, “contractors” and “individuals”, for reasons that had nothing to do with national security and the FBI did not notify the FISA court for approval. The FISA-702 “About Searches” returned information on Americans. Those results were passed on to people outside government. Those 702 (American Citizen) results were not “minimized” and exposed the private data of the American citizens.

In addition, Dir. Mike Rogers discovered people within the intelligence community were doing “searches” of the NSA and FBI database that were returning information that had nothing to do with “Foreign Individuals”. Rogers requested a full FISA-702 Compliance Review. As an outcome of that review, the DOJ/FBI compliance officer noted FISA violations.

These ‘passed-along’ FISA-702 search results were used by Glenn Simpson, Mary Jacobs, and Nellie Ohr; “unmasked” by Obama administration officials; enhanced by Christopher Steele in the Steele dossier, and returned to the FBI Counterintelligence Deputy Peter Strzok, DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr, and DOJ/FBI lawyer Lisa Page, for an “insurance policy” against the election of Donald Trump.

In October 2016 the DOJ and FBI then took the Steele dossier, full circle, back to the FISA Court to gain the most intrusive FISA Title I surveillance authority and approval upon the Trump Campaign and Donald Trump. Immediately after the DOJ lawyers formatted the information for a valid FISC application, the head of the DOJ National Secirity Division, Asst. Attn. Gen. John P Carlin, left his job. Carlin’s exit came as the DOJ-NSD and NSA Dir. Mike Rogers informed the FISA court that frequent unauthorized FISA-702 searches had been conducted.

All the intelligence information the Obama DOJ and FBI collected via their illegal FISA-702 queries, combined with the intelligence FusionGPS created during their earlier contractor access to FISA-702(17) “about queries”, was the intelligence data delivered to Christopher Steele for use in creating the Steele dossier.

See also

References

External links