According to the Department of Defense the purpose of a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) counterintelligence collection is to detect espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and related hostile intelligence activities to “deter, [to] neutralize, or [to] exploit them.”
What we know.
1. Someone or some government agency wiretapped conversations between General Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
2. Then President Obama instructed Attorney General Lynch to “share” National Security Agency surveillance information between intelligence agencies, thereby causing leaks like the Titanic.
3. The United States wiretapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel between 2010 and 2013, and then President Obama apologized and assured her that she wasn’t currently being monitored.
4. The United States wiretapped conversations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and congressional members.
5. Conversations between President-elect Trump or his acolytes and foreign leaders were monitored and released to the press.
6. The Obama Administration ordered the wiretap of Fox News reporter James Rosen.
The New York Times and Washington Post both ran articles which claimed that Trump was under surveillance. This is village idiot common sense stuff; you can’t leak the content of a telephonic chat unless you have heard the conversation! These leakers weren’t Carnac the Magnificent!
A FISA warrant program wasn’t designed for political eavesdropping. Of course spokesmen for Obama claim the former president never ordered eavesdropping of President Trump and knew nothing about any such initiative. Since Obama has been caught in more than one “bald face” lie, it certainly isn’t a giant leap to discount any denial he or his spokesman would offer with regard to authorizing a wiretap of Trump’s telephones. Certainly Obama wouldn’t have picked up a White House phone and ordered the wiretap. But it is altogether reasonable to believe that Obama could have suggested to a White House staffer that “it would be nice if” (with a wink and a nod) and then the staffer relayed the wish on to Loretta Lynch. Since Lynch saw no problem with chatting with former President Clinton while his wife, and possibly he was under investigation, why would she hesitate to order a wiretap of Trump.
The British Broadcast Company (BBC) reported that Obama’s Justice Department requested a FISA warrant in June, 2016, which was denied. They went on to assert the request was refiled in July, 2016, and again denied. The BBC further alleged that the third request in October, 2016, was approved. The presumed logic for the requests for the FISA warrants was to intercept communications from two Russian banks suspected of facilitating donations to the Trump campaign. The issuance of a FISA warrant has yet to be confirmed.
Something about all this has a foul odor. The Justice Department needs to release the documentation which prompted the FISA warrant(s) requests. Then they need to release the content of whatever information they obtained or admit they wasted time and energy and found nothing illegal on the part of the Trump campaign. But it should be noted that illegal foreign contributions, presuming they exist, do not a link to terrorism make!
It is early to make a determination as to whether Obama’s administration ordered, suggested, or approved a wiretap of Trump’s headquarters. But if Obama can read a newspaper, he can’t truthfully deny knowledge of what was going on! No one will ever find Obama’s fingerprints on any surveillance order!
One thing is for sure, the smoke surrounding Attorney General Sessions will clear shortly and he will be able to get to work; part of that work will be to order the overturning of every rock that some slime ball may be hiding under. Once they are discovered and squeezed with a threat of, or immunity from prosecution they will probably talk; no one wants to be a boy toy in a federal prison.
It should be noted that the days of the justice department looking the other way is a thing of the past. All this will come out and probably sooner rather than later.
Have a good week. Bill Shuey is a freelance writer currently in South Texas.
I agree with 99% of this except for the boy toy remark Reflecting back over the past 8yrs I’m sure there are a few that would relish the chance to be one
Are there others who have wondered the opinions of the founders if they were told our country would have secret courts, secret warrants, sneak and peek home invasions, no knock raids with grenades tossed into homes follow by heavily armed government agents bursting into the room with guns pointed at men woman and children?
I’d mention the other abuses but, except the above would be more than enough to garner an interesting response.
Average Joe