A newly released court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) found the Obama NSA routinely violated American privacy protections as his administration and officials scoured through overseas intercepts and targeted U.S. citizens.
The Obama administration failed to disclose the extent of the unlawful activity until just before the election in 2016. The FISA court ruling states the illegal searches conducted by the NSA under Obama were “widespread” and created a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue.” Video explanation via Judicial Watch:
It is not coincidental the origin of all ‘vast-Russian-conspiracy‘ stories seem to start with a discussion of intelligence gathering beginning in July of 2016. The GOP convention to nominate Donald Trump was July 18-21st of 2016.
Surrounding the nomination that stunned the geo-political world almost every foreign government was trying to figure out who and what Donald J Trump was all about; and more specifically: how would his run for the presidency impact their specific interests.
WASHINGTON NYT — American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.
[Paragraph #5] The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the F.B.I., which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is continuing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election. (link)
The New York Times should win a Pulitzer for undermining their own ‘Russian Conspiracy’ headline narrative within the fifth paragraph. [It’s a current trend] I digress.
Obviously Russia would be asking these questions along with China, France, England, the larger EU and every nation in every continent. It would be silly to claim otherwise.
Today former CIA Director John Brennan testified to congress on the Russian counter-intelligence operation which began in July 2016. Today, John Brennan completely contradicted the March 20th, 2017, testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.
We have previously drawn attention to a particular part of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to congress from March 20th. The issue is when was congressional leadership, specifically the congressional intelligence oversight group called the “Gang-of-Eight”, notified of the Russian investigation (a counter-intelligence operation).
Pay close attention. On March 20th FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about this notification (first three minutes of the video):
Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?
James Comey: …”good question. Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said. Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…
Watch the first 3 minutes of that video. Notice the discomfort etc. We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE– Comey is discussing the recent notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier. Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.
Now, watch the opening statement from former CIA Director John Brennan today:
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump join President Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt) and Saudi King Salman to participate in the inauguration of The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. [two videos below] ‘Hearts and Memes’?
Essentially the center appears to be a Saudi data hub for monitoring multiple media and social media platforms, detecting extremist sentiments and countering the concerning rhetoric with positive social media messaging. In the U.S. we have the NSA cyber command monitoring system, a ‘big brother’ per se’. The Saudi version appears to be a non military enterprise which might be considered ‘Big Allah’.
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Given First Lady Melania’s interests in combating social media bullying, this Saudi enterprise and exhibit was likely interesting.
Darnit, shuddup Dersh, you’re giving away the play. Lefty Alan Dershowitz rightly points out the appointment of a “special counsel” is tantamount to putting cheese on a nothingburger. There is no legal risk to President Trump within any of the moonbat declarations currently gripped like political life-preservers by his opposition.
However, Dershowitz also recognizes the danger to his like-minded colleagues in political office. The only criminal acts factually evidenced so far are the intelligence leaks. Robert Mueller has all the power he needs to investigate the illegal leaking of classified information.
This entire ‘muh Russia’ fiasco could have, and in my estimation‘will have‘, the absolute opposite result the loony left is looking for.
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Donald Trump has a history of this exact strategy. He creates such angst amid his opponents they drive themselves to the furthest extreme in opposition. Once they are in their crazy-space the Donald just laughs; their rabid thrashing and over-the-top displays of condescending anger create such friction they self-immolate.
Long time CTH readers will note we extended well over a year of benefit-of-the-doubt to the motives of former FBI Director James Comey with regard to the severity of his politicized nature and disposition. Throughout the entire Clinton investigation we remained ambivalent to Comey’s motives.
Indeed it wasn’t until after the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack when Comey obtusely noted the FBI had been contacted (prior to the attack) about the sketchy behavior of Omar Mateen by a ‘random concerned citizen’ -and our finding that the actual ‘citizen’ was the far more substantive St Lucie county sheriff Ken Mascara– that we recognized how far Comey was willing to go to save his political face.
Yesterday, a friend of James Comey by the name of Benjamin Wittes, editor and writer for lawfare blog, now steps out and admits he was one of the primary sources for the New York Times Comey Memo article (Michael Schmidt); and in so doing outlines the severity of the political nature of the former FBI Director:
[…] I called Schmidt Friday morning after reading his earlier story, which ran the previous evening, about Comey’s dinner with President Trump and the President’s demands at that dinner for a vow of loyalty.
President Trump has a long history of action that almost all media and political opposition seem to ignore when trying to attack him. Every effort to “get” Trump fails due to a key flaw in their approach; a flaw they can never overcome.
President Trump approaches his opposition in politics similarly to his opposition in business, with one key and consequential difference. In business opponents challenge goals based on financial ends; in politics opponents challenge based on intent or motive.
The reason no attacks stick to Trump as a candidate, or now to Trump as a president, is because his motives and intents are transparently good. He genuinely wants to see America Great Again. Period. There’s no self-interest, benefit or self-advancement within President Trump’s objective; as a consequence the ‘motive’ or ‘intent’ to attack Trump on the political angle consistently fails.
It’s a weird and disconcerting dynamic for career politicians to face an opponent who is not looking to advance his ‘political career’. However, conversely, understanding this dynamic politician Trump consistently hits at his opposition specifically on the motive and intent angle. (more…)
Always remember the basic rule that has been proven accurate 100% of the time:
When the CIA wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with the Washington Post and ABC. (and vice-versa).
When the State Dept. or FBI/DOJ wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with CNN and the New York Times. (and vice-versa)
This consistent pattern has NEVER been broken.
There is also a particular transparency here with regard to media timing and intent. The Washington Post (yesterday) and New York Times (today) are attempting to frame the anti-Trump narrative right before he goes on his first overseas trip.
Dual benefits for antagonistic media and political opposition:
♦ Trump team is out of country and unable to defend administration on-camera, while frenzy ensues 24/7 in U.S media, and ♦ Trump team becomes relentlessly questioned by traveling press corps abroad on domestic controversy, diminishing Trump international status and pushing the weak/damaged Trump image toward the host nation optic.
Another explosive media story targeted, yet again, specifically to create controversy and lead the evening news cycle.
As to the substance of the matter – WE PREDICTED EXACTLY THIS SCENARIO – Less than a week ago we outlined the specific strategy being utilized to attack President Trump’s credibility in office. (more…)
Fox5 is reporting that a private investigator has turned up tangible evidence that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was in contact with Wikileaks. Which further provides more evidence he was most likely the source of the DNC leaks. The same report points out the FBI have been trying to cover-up the discoveries.
The motive for the leaks was obvious, the collusion within the DNC, specifically with the U.S. media, to eliminate Bernie Sanders as a potential risk to Clinton’s ambitions. If proven accurate this would also further prove “the Russians” had nothing to do with the DNC leaks. That’s the basis for the entire “muh russian conspiracy” narrative.
WASHINGTON DC – […] Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich’s laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.
Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.
Always remember the basic rule that has been proven accurate 100% of the time:
When the CIA wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with the Washington Post and ABC. (and vice-versa).
When the State Dept. or FBI/DOJ wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with CNN and the New York Times. (and vice-versa)
This consistent pattern has NEVER been broken.
Tonight using “unnamed” and the most vague descriptions of “anonymous sources” The Washington Post creates a fake news story specifically timed to release at the 5pm hour to hit President Donald Trump.
Transparent Media Agenda:
First indication is the timing of the Washington Post news release (5:02pm EDT).
Only 3 U.S. Officials actually in the room with first-hand information: National Security Advisor HR McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Senior Adviser for policy, Dina Powell.
Publication motive/intent – The Washington Post never contacted anyone in the White House for questions, nor did they ask McMaster, Tillerson or Powell for comment before publication. All three call the Post article – fake News.
