We are not going to give up sharing generally hidden information and possible solutions just because it puts a target on our back. We will continue this conversation because we deserve to have this conversation, and the understanding within it. Additionally, we know that people who matter are watching this conversation. So, to answer some questions:
♦ Q: “if you had a direct line to the DNI team, what would you move to accomplish in the first 90 days?”
A: The DNI can assemble material from any silo. Meaning the DNI can reach into any IC silo and extract anything they want.
Under the original authorities given to the DNI, this authority exists. So, let’s spread the wings on this office and do exactly what it is permitted to do, only this time extract for the purpose of showing the President what is happening in every silo.
Almost every day an intelligence community overview assessment is compiled, it’s called the Presidential Daily Briefing or PDB.
The PDB contains content primarily produced by the CIA. However, in the modern era, the PDB is assembled and enhanced by adding information from other intelligence agencies (silos). The Director of National Intelligence assembles it; the position Tulsi Gabbard has recently been nominated for.
The DNI (now Tulsi) compiles the information, then delivers the PDB to the President, the National Security Advisor (now Mike Waltz) and the list of people assigned by the President to review it.
The PDB is the Intelligence Community (IC) telling the Office of the President, this is what’s going on. The PDB frames the worldview of the CIA and other agencies.
However, if the CIA/IC wants to frame policy and action to their agenda – and not to the agenda of the president/administration per se’ – the CIA/IC can shape the PDB information toward their own individual objectives. In the past several decades the CIA manipulation of the PDB became obvious.
Because the PDB was no longer considered to be an “independent” finding of fact, and was/is, instead, more of a CIA tool to shape and control the president, it became increasingly useless.
President Obama saw the traps within the CIA/IC use of the PDB and started to ignore it. Obama gave the PDB to almost two-dozen administration officials daily, essentially saying, “here this is what the CIA say is going on – check it out.” Meanwhile Obama did what he wanted to do in shaping policy, often regardless of the PDB content.
With an incoming President Trump administration, the CIA/IC use of the PDB to manipulate outcomes will be even more on display. With that in mind, here’s one approach that might be worth considering.
Make the CIA/IC (now Ratcliffe/Tulsi) provide a footnote for every assertion of fact within the PDB.
Put the footnotes into a classified appendix that includes sources and methods and give the appendix only to the National Security Advisor, now Mike Waltz. [ie. ‘Review and return’]
Let NSA Mike Waltz then review the attributions of source material in the White House SCIF. Then, if any concerns are noted, Waltz can turn to the National Security Council with a generalized statement describing the concern saying, “check this out.”
The NSC can then dig into the granular details and return with their own independent assessment about the validity of the information.
The National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, can then go question the specific CIA/IC silo about any contradiction that might be at issue.
Do this enough times, and I predict the PDB will quickly change in both tone and content. The originators of the intelligence assessment, the CIA and other agencies, will be on notice that their homework is being checked by the National Security Council.
In essence, the DNI *CAN BE* deployed like a super strong cross-silo inspector general’s office. Force the other IC silos to comply with the demands of the DNI. This has never been done. But the DNI has this unique power.
The DNI can make the FBI, DOJ, DOJ-NSD, DoD, DoS and CIA provide anything and everything they demand. Instead of the other silos using blocks and threats against the office of the President, use the authority of the DNI to get them without confrontation. Then use the DNI to declassify the documents (if requested by potus), instead of the originating silo.
Can you see how the DNI office can be repurposed to be a seriously strong weapon in the toolbox of the President, against the schemes of those inside the various IC silos. The DNI becomes much more important than the CIA Director, NSA Director, FBI Director, Attorney General, etc, because the DNI can just show up and say, “give me this.” That’s the whole functional purpose of the DNI office that has never been exerted; let’s flippin’ use it.
Let’s use the office of the DNI as the central information hub that takes information from inside the corrupt silos, then provides that information to the President who puts sunlight upon it. Each corrupt silo penetrated with disinfectant. This could begin a process to pull down the shadow operations and let the American public see what has been happening inside our IC apparatus.
To accomplish this approach the National Security Advisor to the President (NSA), would be the person who tells the DNI exactly what they are looking for.
How does the NSA know what to look for? Because the National Security Advisor is the head of the National Security Council (NSC).
Now you see why I say put the strategic scruffy people like in a stripped down NSC.
Let the NSC monitor the silos with specific intent, then provide Trump’s NatSec Advisor with details on what appears to be happening and where.
With the approval of the President, the NSA then turns to the DNI and says, “POTUS wants this, go get this.”
Raw, unfiltered, unredacted information. The silo administrators end up in a fight with the ODNI, not the office of President Trump. President Trump then uses the power of his office to support the demands of the DNI.
Under this approach the DNI has a lot more power; yet funnily, it’s power they already have – yet have never utilized.
♦ Q: “Could Tulsi Gabbard actually enforce the rules for FISA? That would reduce spying by 95%.”
A: No. The DNI does not have any authority over how FISA is used. That is exclusively a DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) decision.
♦ Q: “Has FISA ever been brought to the Supreme Court?”
A: No. You cannot bring FISA to the Supreme Court. It is not permitted because SCOTUS has ruled the judicial branch *must* defer all national security definitions to the executive branch. Period. End of Story. Understand this conundrum and you understand why this insufferable system continues without restriction.
♦ Q: “There are some voices here suggesting Gabbard lie her way into confirmation; agree with it all and fight it later. In your opinion, is this realistic, possible, sane, moral etc.?”
A: “In my opinion it is an unrealistic expectation. Whatever Tulsi Gabbard says to the SSCI during confirmation, is what she will be held accountable for. If she later deviates, specifically because of the interests we are discussing here, the Senate (both parties) will impeach her.
Chairman Tom Cotton and Vice-Chair Mark Warner will work together to remove her, if Gabbard flinches or moves one inch outside her senatorial permissions.
♦ Q: “Can Trump, on his own, end this FISA-702 thing? Can anyone answer this question for me please? Thanking you in advance…God bless America.”
A: Eh, sort of. As a confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi can suspend the FISA process simply by not using the FISA Court. It would be a highly controversial thing to do, but President Trump is well within his “plenary” power to not use the FISA Court, and to use a standard Federal Court for Title-1 surveillance warrants; that can, if needed, be filed under seal. However, stopping the fraud and abuse via searches of the NSA database is another matter entirely.
♦ Q: “Add an amendment to 702 reauthorization saying any person who is involving an Illegal violation-spying of 702 is penalized with 3 mos in jail …that should stop abuses of 702 yet still keep program alive.”
A: I absolutely agree with a version of this. I have said so before. Any non-compliant access to the NSA database should immediately result in revocation of any/all classified security clearances, and immediate criminal prosecution should take place. Unfortunately, it will be challenging to do; because as IG Horowitz attested, over 10,000 users currently have access to this database across 1,500 workstations. {GO DEEP}
Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches, what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.” That means more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal and outside the rules.
Additionally, IG Horowitz also admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. {READ MORE}


Note that all the “secret” information on US Citizens fed into that huge NSA database is already known to our enemies, our allies, our telecom companies, our social media companies. They all have it or enough of it to piece together whatever odds and ends they might have missed.
The only people these “secret” databases and “secret” courts are keeping their secrets from is you, the American people.
I agree.
Does this mean Hillary’s 30,000 destroyed emails should be easily recovered from that huge NSA database? If true, let’s roll.
Q: What are the odds that Obama’s stooges, like Mayorkas and Garland…to say nothing of all of Chicago Jesus’ other corrupt, servile, sycophantic ideologues embedded into the IC…did not erase such data out of the NSA database?
And as a follow up….
…..do you think this servile trash is the only garbage inside the 3-letter agencies?
.
Oh, yeah….don’t forget their congressional overlords, either….
I heard that someone had to help nutty Nan down and up from her kneel.
This picture doesn’t include Jerry Nadler who stood for the 9+ minute duration of this stunt. There was no way that he could get down on one knee… come to think of it, there would be no way that Waddles could get up from that position.
They raided Mar-a-Lago to find anything Trump may have un-erased.
Meanwhile, the Deep State continues to tell us: “Relax, Gildersleeves, relax.”
Thank you, Sundance!
As always!
I saw a retired general on FOX say that Ukraine captured two North Korean soldiers and had their North Korean passports as proof. Does anyone actually believe that North Korea gives passports to it’s soldiers so they can flee. In fact, I’m not sure that even Western countries give passports to it’s soldiers.
The US has military specific passports for its members.
I rather doubt they are carried in battle.
If the Ukronazis ever produce bodies I would less believe they came from NK than I would Roswell.
Now, now, Maquis there are only space aliens in Roswell, not North Korean aliens!!!!!
“I saw a retired general on FOX say….”
After the lies and betrayals of Gen. “Mad Dog” Mattis, Colin Powell, and others, I will never again trust what any flag rank officer has to say about anything, and I will use all my skills and persuasions to influence everyone I can to do the same.
And all flag rank officers can thank them for it.
Reminder….no matter how many stars on their shoulders….they serve We, the People. That means each of us.
And each of them swore an oath, before God, to do so.
(spit)
An oath with no expiration date…
Let us not forget General John Kelly who as Chief of Staff for the Trump administration minimized First Lady Melania Trump’s concerns over Mira Ricardel.
No military passports that I was aware of in the 70s. We had ID cards and dog tags only. If independent from your unit, you also carried a copy of your orders.
In general, the US military negotiates Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) that delineates how US forces are present in a foreign country. For example:
“Members of the United States armed forces shall be exempt from passport and visa
laws and regulations of the Republic of Korea. Members of the United States armed forces,
the civilian component, and their dependents shall be exempt from laws and regulations of the Republic of Korea on the registration and control of aliens, but shall not be considered as acquiring any right to permanent residence or domicile in the territory of the Republic of Korea.”
In cases where military travel requires movement outside of SOFA limits, they are issued government (red) passports.
The DNI can make the FBI, DOJ, DOJ-NSD, DoD, DoS and CIA provide anything and everything they demand. Instead of the other silos using blocks and threats against the office of the President, use the authority of the DNI to get them without confrontation. Then use the DNI to declassify the documents (if requested by potus), instead of the originating silo.
Q: “if you had a direct line to the DNI team, what would you move to accomplish in the first 90 days?”
A: The DNI can assemble material from any silo. Meaning the DNI can reach into any IC silo and extract anything they want.
Q: “Add an amendment to 702 reauthorization saying any person who is involving an Illegal violation-spying of 702 is penalized with 3 mos in jail …that should stop abuses of 702 yet still keep program alive.”
A: I absolutely agree with a version of this. I have said so before. Any non-compliant access to the NSA database should immediately result in revocation of any/all classified security clearances, and immediate criminal prosecution should take place. Unfortunately, it will be challenging to do; because as IG Horowitz attested, over 10,000 users currently have access to this database across 1,500 workstations. {GO DEEP}
Please excuse me if I don’t raise my expectations too high. As I have previously posted, this mess will take more than four years from which to extricate ourselves and as you wrote, the Supreme Court will do us no favors.
All this aside, repeal of the “Patriot Act” is top priority.
CalCon: I agree.
Given the now-proven fallacy of the “War on Terror”, and specifically the lies of Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction”….
…which a retardedly moronic idiot clown named Bush assured and promised the nation the vaunted and so-called “intelligence community” claimed was true….
…I think is more than enough proof and evidence to substantiate repeal of the so-called “Patriot Act”…
…which, like so many other risibly named pieces (of 💩) legislation, actually does nothing to serve “We, the People” and instead only screws us over.
What am I missing?
Amen.
“Congress shall pass no act . . . ”
from which members of Congress are exempt!
Anyone else notice that Sundance really likes the word “granular”?
It is actually quite a wise phrase of verbiage.
Knowledge is much like a beach on the ocean. Some truths are huge, like giant boulders. Others are much smaller, and take discernment and much study and/or experience.
”Granular” truth is like grains of sand on the beach. Anyone can easily see and understand the boulders and rocks, but it takes deep knowledge and experience to see and understand the individuals grains.
For example, aviation is much like this. It takes years and years for a true pro…like an airline captain….to learn the granular truths, rules, regulations, in’s and out’s of aviation in order to be effectively safe, competent, and efficient. Someone people can legitimately trust with the lives of their loved ones.
Granular knowledge of politics, which is what Sundance deals with, is much the same.
Btw…did you know? Pew Research determined that 75% of US adults….or 3 out of 4….could NOT even name the three branches of federal govt.
And yet almost everyone has a political opinion.
So when Sundance talks about “granular knowledge”, he is talking about knowledge of which the vast majority of people have no understanding, much less any awareness of it’s existence.
“No. The DNI does not have any authority over how FISA is used. That is exclusively a DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) decision.”
Didn’t Obama create the NSD. Isn’t that where John Carlin, Mary McCord and her pals worked to wreak havoc on the rule of law and spent 8 years using lawfare to destroy President Trump?
They are a screaming cancer. Use them to your advantage like Obama or excise them, President Trump.
Surgery, Chemo, Radiation.
I believe there are appropriate military analogues for those treatments.
Furthermore, I consider that the Derp State MUST be destroyed!!
5 minute thoughts…
Q: “Has FISA ever been brought to the Supreme Court?”
A: No. You cannot bring FISA to the Supreme Court. It is not permitted because SCOTUS has ruled the judicial branch *must* defer all national security definitions to the executive branch. Period. End of Story.
Of course this is a cop-out by SCOTUS, but there is a potential way around it. POTUS (THE executive branch) issues an EO which states that no national security issues do or can ever rise to a level that can override the Constitution, as doing so is in and of itself a national security and Constitutional crisis (use his stated power to DEFINE it). Have it further state that as a result FISA 702 is to be shut down due to it being in violation of the Constitution and that all future investigations of U.S. citizens must be accomplished via the standard review and warrant processes in courts which are compliant with and adhere to the Constitution. If he has his legal team draw up the formal legal framework supporting the position, it then either shuts down the use of 702 or forces SCOTUS to review it’s constitutionality.
.
.
Gabbard – “If she later deviates, specifically because of the interests we are discussing here, the Senate (both parties) will impeach her.”
The House must first decide to impeach her – the Senate can do nothing on their own other than berate her. Further, changing one’s mind after obtaining more information and have further discussions – or in light of her boss’s orders – can change her mind and formulating a new viewpoint/opinion based upon new knowledge would not be something that reaches the level of impeachment (yes, I know they can say anything). If they try, then the very act exposes them and causes their game great harm IMO.
NSA database searches – “stopping the fraud and abuse via searches of the NSA database is another matter entirely.”
The NSA is a part of the executive branch, as are those doing queries. Via EO the President could decree that ALL potential searches involving US citizens must have written justification and said search REQUEST and justification must be reviewed and approved by a select subgroup of the NSC after review and certification by the DNI. Process change – something Dopey and others did a lot.
Prosecution of abuse – as part of the restructuring and organization of “The System”, the number of users is reduced to no more than 10 per silo via at most 2 dedicated SCIFs per silo. (let them howl – it’s the President’s decision, implemented by EO and necessary to implement the previously defined approval and control process to prevent illegal and/or unconstitutional actions).
Is it possible to repeal the Patriot Act?
Anything is possible.
The question you really mean to ask is….is it probable?
Which leads to…
How often does Congress repeal legislation it has passed?
The answer to your question lies in another question.
When will We, the People, become INFORMED enough to join together and FORCE congress to do so?
Btw….the use of the term “force” here does not equate with “use of arms”, but rather…
….”do this or you will only have one term in office, and no political career thereafter”.
One of the greatest and unfortunately nearly unknown movies – IMHO – “The Conversation” (1974) directed by Francis Coppola, staring Gene Hackman.
“The Conversation” – Sundance’s title for this post – reminded me of that movie and if anyone can watch it for the first time or perhaps an additional time and take it as an analogy to the surveillance state that we are talking about today, that confronts all of us today.
If the people on the frontline of today’s surveillance might experience a profound crisis of conscience as they consider the ramifications of what they are doing, what they are making possible, that is my prayer . . . that these people who have to be super-intelligent and methodical, following the schematics, the flow chart . . . become paranoid, more so than the system itself and your own paranoia feeds into the paranoia of the machine, like compost, like mulch, degrading your own self to feed the machine and helping to make it stronger . . . or instead, choose to become free of it by helping the rest of us to get free of it.
“If the people on the frontline of today’s surveillance might experience a profound crisis of conscience”
Sadly, this is wishful, unrealistic thinking, at best!
Anything is theoretically possible. But…
Ask James O’Keefe, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden about the probabilities (vs., and not to be construed w/ possibilities) of this ever happening.
I need to correct myself, should have written “Francis Ford Coppola” (not “Francis Coppola”) – I realized belatedly.
It IS my hopeful prayer that a singular individual and perhaps more than one such person will make this not wishful, unrealistic thinking . . . and the example especially of Edward Snowden to infuriate people like Mike Pompeo warms my heart and keeps that hope alive!
The people that thwarted all kinds of threats to our nation, to us, over the generations . . . I do have hope and the hope is strong!
Another relevant/scary movie about government surveillance is Enemy of the State (1998), also starring Gene Hackman, and Jon Voight.
Wow.
Miscellaneous questions for clarity:
“Let NSA Mike Waltz then review the attributions of source material in the White House SCIF.” What is SCIF?
How is it that as Horowicz attested “over 10,000 users currently have access to this database across 1,500 workstations.”? Are there limited fixed physical workstations that are used by appointment/reservation by 7 times as many users?
SCIF Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility
Yes, there are machines that are used by many, particularly in a SCIF. Access is generally tightly tracked and controlled.
And again solidifying why ALL of us should be outraged that our Elected Republican’s would sign on to that FISA 702.
I believe in keeping things simple and it seems to me that the intelligence community is anything but simple. The question is whether it is unnecessarily so, or is this layers upon layers of needless bureaucracy. I have no direct experience or knowledge but my gut tells me that this complexity has come about because of bureaucrats building and protecting their kingdoms.
There are a minimum 15 different entities doing intelligence. How many are duplicating efforts to capture valuable information. They may all have different purposes and uses for that information once they get it, but it seems to me that, at the very least, information gathering could be consolidated into one group. This is the type of thing that DOGE should be working on but I suspect that they have been told to keep their hands off of the intelligence community.
Sundance, you are probably figuring out how to work the existing system, which is far more practical, I am sure. I would like for someone to take a look at the entire apparatus, however, and apply “KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID”.
Not sure you want things so consolidated as it creates a single point of failure. Competition can be good.
Thank you.
Why not rather split our agencies into smaller competing groups? Have each group report on the same topics, those that perform accurately get funding and personnel, those that do not lose funding and their personnel get to be latrine attendants at the DOJ or Ft Bragg. Do this at every national security agency and law enforcement agency. The CIA is a bad joke. I will not mention how inept the FBI is, the Keystone cops are the Prussian Guard in comparison. I’d wager my mom could have produced better analysis than the CIA based on her trips to Poland and E. Germany back in the 70s. As for our military, I’ve rarely seen such a bunch of ass kissers once you get above the rank of colonel. Our military is like the old French or Italian military an admiral for each ship and a general for each corporal. When have we actually won a war against a real live opponent? Not some mighty army like Iraq. No troops should be committed without a declaration of war or at best for more than 30 days with no option to renew.
But our executive agencies are a joke the actual horror is our judicial system which regards itself as Gods. These cretins need to be term limited, trained to administer the law and then castrated when they attempt to write laws from the bench. Remember when the SCOTUS said capital punishment was illegal or homosexuality was legal. This kind of rationale needs to be dealt with as a non treatable for of cancer.
Democrats say what they have to in order to get confirmed all the time. Can she really be impeached for saying ‘yeah I support FISA’ and then, changes her mind once in office? How can you be impeached for supporting a policy change?
So in other words…nothing is really going to change in the next four years, good to know.