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Was Donald Trump wiretapped? Was the transition team under surveillance? There are more questions than answers, especially with the latter question, but one thing is clear: our intelligence community caught the Trump transition team through incidental collection. John Solomon and Sara Carter of Circa News reported that those logs are expected to be turned over to Congress next week, as they investigate possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Yet, they didnt get into the weeds concerning the allegations that have yet to unveil any solid evidence of collusion between Russia and Trumps campaign. Carter and Solomon decided to look into the regulations regarding NSA surveillance, which were changed under Obama that allowed unmasking of American caught through incidental collection topossibly become victim to political games.

Solomon and Carter also added that 16 other executive agencies, not just the FBI and CIA, can now ask for unmasked information after the Obama tweaks to NSA minimization protocols, the process in which the NSA conceals the identity of a citizen who was not subject to the FISA warrant. Its done either through redaction or naming them generically, like American No. 1. Yet, given the rise in lone wolf attacks, those procedures aimed at protecting privacy were reduced:

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The ACLU, an ally of Obama on many issues, issued a statement a few months ago warning that the presidents loosened procedures governing who could request or see unmasked American intercepts by the NSA were grossly inadequate and lacked appropriate safeguards.

Nunes, the House intelligence panel chairman who was not interviewed for this story, alleged in the last week he has received evidence that Obama administration political figures gained access to unmasked American identities through foreign intercepts involving the Trump transition team between November and January.

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as the U.S. intelligence community became more worried over the last decade about its ability to locate lone wolf terrorists, foreign spies and hackers in an increasingly digital world, Bush and Obama began relaxing the rules for minimization and increasing access to NSA collected information on Americans. In short, the Obama administration created a standard set of exceptions to the minimization rules.

One of those relaxations came in 2011 when Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to the FISA court laying out the rules for sharing unmasked intercepts of Americans captured incidentally by the NSA. The court approved the approach.

In 2015, those rules were adapted to determine not only how the FBI got access to unmasked intelligence from NSA or FISA intercepts but also other agencies. One of the requirements, the NSA and FBI had to keep good records of who requested and gained access to the unredacted information.

And in his final days in office, Obama created the largest ever expansion of access to non-minimized NSA intercepts, creating a path for all U.S. intelligence to gain access to unmasked reports by changes encoded in a Reagan-era Executive Order 12333.

The government officials who could request or approve an exception to unmask a U.S. citizens identity has grown substantially. The NSA now has 20 executives who can approve the unmasking of American information inside intercepts, and the FBI has similar numbers.

This isnt new concerning the game of government exploiting new technological features to maximize its power and take advantage of it before the courts can catch up.

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Circa: Obama Intel Changes Could Have Allowed NSA Intercepts Of ... - Townhall

President Trumps long national nightmare the ongoing scandal over Russias meddling into the campaign for the White House may have grown worse last night with the revelation that former National Security Adviser and Gen. Mike Flynn has a story he very much wants to tell, according to his lawyer.

Trump has been facing incoming from all sides ever since the now seemingly ancient high point of his presidency, his speech to a joint session of Congress.

His approval ratings have dipped to an all-time low for first-year presidents, 35 percent, according to Gallup. He was dealt a major legislative blow last week when Republicans failed to pass a replacement plan for Obamacare.

Yesterday, Trump engaged in a Twitter battle against some of his most loyal Republican supporters during the campaign, the House Freedom Caucus members.

And now Flynn, another one of his key campaign backers, has come forward seeking immunity in exchange for his story, though neither Flynn nor his attorney are revealing whether his story will help or hurt the president.

But for Trump, the black cloud of the Russia probe continues to hang over the White House with no signs of breaking anytime soon. There have been no smoking guns, but a lot of unanswered questions that have provided a steady drip of bad news and unwelcome distractions from Trumps agenda for his first 100 days seen as a defining period in any presidency.

The prospect of a once-loyal Trump foot soldier turned rogue if indeed Flynn has information that could damage Trump will dominate 24-hour cable news coverage and overtake everything else happening in Washington.

But Flynns testimony could also turn out to be more bust than bombshell, just like Trumps tax returns unearthed on MSNBC by Rachel Maddow earlier this month. It may simply be a bid by Flynn to save himself.

Trump also has the proven track record of being able to somehow emerge from shocking scandals, including his Access Hollywood tape and controversial comments and tweets during the campaign.

But for now, Flynns eagerness to step forward only ensures there will be more media attention, public intrigue and Washington drama for a president who campaigned on cleaning up Beltway corruption.

See the rest here:
Analysis: Ex-NSA aide's tale a headache for Donald Trump - Boston Herald

Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,

NSA whistleblower William Binney told Tucker Carlson on Friday that the NSA is spying on "all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House."

Binney, who served the NSA for 30 years before blowing the whistle on domestic spying in 2001, told Tucker he firmly believes that Trump was spied on.

"They're taking in fundamentally the entire fiber network inside the United States and collecting all that data and storing it, in a program they call Stellar Wind," Binney said.

"That's the domestic collection of data on US citizens, US citizens to other US citizens," he said. "Everything we're doing, phone calls, emails and then financial transactions, credit cards, things like that, all of it."

"Inside NSA there are a set of people who are -- and we got this from another NSA whistleblower who witnessed some of this -- they're inside there, they are targeting and looking at all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House," Binney said.

"And all this data is inside the NSA in a small group where they're looking at it. The idea is to see what people in power over you are going to -- what they think, what they think you should be doing or planning to do to you, your budget, or whatever so you can try to counteract before it actually happens," he said.

"I mean, that's just East German," Tucker responded.

Rather than help prevent terrorist attacks, Binney said collecting so much information actually makes stopping attacks more difficult.

"This bulk acquisition is inhibiting their ability to detect terrorist threats in advance so they can't stop them so people get killed as a result," he said.

"Which means, you know, they pick up the pieces and blood after the attack. That's what's been going on. I mean they've consistently failed. When Alexander said they'd stop 54 attacks and he was challenged to produce the evidence to prove that he failed on every count."

Binney concludes ominously indicating the origin of the deep state...

"They are like the praetorian guard, they determine what the emperor does and who the emperor is..."

Who's going to stop them?

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"They're Like The Praetorian Guard" - Whistleblower Confirms ...

(CIRCA) As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obamas top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agencys incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats, Circa has learned.

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 Obamas national security adviser Susan Rice, his CIA Director John Brennan and then-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.

See the rest here:
Obama let NSA intercepts get into political hands - WND.com

Republicans charged Tuesday that Democrats are blocking the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russia from moving forward by refusing to sign a letter that would officially invite FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers back before the committee for closed-door testimony.

Republicans have made clear they want that testimony before hearing from others, and say it will allow the committee to be as informed as possible when interviewing future witnesses.

Committee member Rep. Peter King, R-NY, verified the information about the letter that was described to the Washington Examiner by a source close to the committee who requested anonymity.

"My understanding is that Devin [Nunes] or the general counsel for the Republican side prepared a letter to Director Comey and Director Rogers asking them to testify at a closed session, and that thus far, the Democrats have not signed it," King said.

"The purpose of the closed session is to start getting answers to many of the questions that Director Comey could not answer at the public hearing because of the ongoing investigation. To me, if Democrats want answers to their questions, this is one way to get them. So I'm surprised they're not agreeing to this right away," King added.

A Democratic committee aide replied by accusing Republicans of trying to eliminate the open hearing entirely.

"Republicans wanted to do the closed hearing in lieu of the open hearing they were hoping to schedule it at the exact same time as the open hearing, even though all the witnesses [Brennan, Clapper and Yates] were prepared to testify," the aide said. "We would welcome hearing from Directors Comey and Rogers again just not instead of the open hearing."

The delay in setting up the closed hearing also means that the testimony volunteered by four persons related to Trump campaign Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Roger Stone, and son-in-law Jared Kushner is on hold indefinitely, as the committee wants to have the closed session first.

Comey and Rogers have already given their open testimony to the committee. But just two days later, Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., made his bombshell revelations in which he claimed to have reviewed raw intelligence documents that allegedly show members of the Trump transition team being caught up and named in legal surveillance of foreign nationals. Nunes also briefed the White House on his findings, a move which was controversial enough at the time, but has grown even more so in recent days.

Also from the Washington Examiner

At least three former Trump administration officials have reportedly said they never signed the president's ethics pledge.

03/29/17 5:49 PM

Last Friday, Nunes announced the committee was cancelling the already-planned second open hearing which would have included former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former acting US Attorney General Sally Yates. "We are asking Mr. Comey and Mr. Rogers to come back in. And until we can get them in in a closed session, it's not going to be worth it to have the open session," he said.

Democrats blasted the decision at the time. "What's really involved here is the cancellation of this open hearing and the rest is designed to distract," said ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Democrats said they were skeptical that Nunes' revelations might have been coordinated by the White House. That speculation intensified this week after CNN reported Nunes had been on the White House grounds to meet the source for the documents behind his claims.

Nunes explained the episode in an interview with CNN by saying his White House visit was a fairly common happening, and that the information he needed to view could only be done so at places with the correct computer security and clearances, which was available at the White House.

Numerous Democrats have called for Nunes to step away from the investigation, but thus far he has refused to do so.

Also from the Washington Examiner

The first lady was also present and insisted on her husband's attendance, he quipped during his remarks.

03/29/17 5:16 PM

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GOP accuses Democrats of blocking closed FBI, NSA testimony on Russia - Washington Examiner