Archive for the ‘NSA’ Category

Ex-NSA analyst: Intel sources say White House ‘targeting journalists’ with ‘help from Russian intel’ – Raw Story

CNN's Jim Acosta confronts Donald Trump at a White House press conference (screen grab)

Former NSA analyst John Schindler, who now is a national security columnist for the Observer, reported on Tuesday that his sources in the intelligence community believe that President Donald Trumps White House is colluding with Russian intelligence to target journalists.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Schindler revealed: Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists.

Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists. Rough road ahead. Get ready, peeps

John Schindler (@20committee) March 7, 2017

Although Schindler provided no additional details, its no secret that Trump has all but declared war on the media during his first 45 days in office. However, the president has embraced conservative media sources like Fox News, Breitbart and various right-wing blogs.

In one case, the White House tried to punish Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt by planting a false story accusing him of laughing at the death of a Navy SEAL. Trump has called the media fake news and an enemy of the people.

The fake news doesnt tell the truth, Trump told a group of conservatives last month. It doesnt represent the people, it doesnt and never will represent the people, and were going to do something about it.

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Ex-NSA analyst: Intel sources say White House 'targeting journalists' with 'help from Russian intel' - Raw Story

Tucker, Jim Himes Spar Over Alleged NSA Surveillance [VIDEO … – Daily Caller

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Rep.Jim Himes stopped by Fox News Monday broadcast ofTucker Carlson Tonight todiscuss surveillance of Trump Tower, which President Trump claimedwas carriedout by the Obama administration during the 2016 election.

Only minutes into the interview, the Connecticut Democrataccused Carlson of mis-categorizing anysurveillanceperformed on private citizensas spying, when its really law enforcement. (VIDEO: Josh Earnest Wont Deny Trump Tower Was Surveilled By Obama Administration)

WATCH:

You used the word spying, and I dont know what that means, Himes, who sits on the House Intelligence Community, told Carlson. Is that what police do when theyre listening in on drug dealers and child molesters?

Yes, and sometimes its justified, and sometimes it isnt, Carlson responded. But lets call it what it is.

No, spying is when we go to Russia andtry to recruit Russiangenerals into giving us Russiansecrets, Himes countered. When law enforcement is listening to anybody, its law enforcement.

You can watch the entire interview below.

WATCH:

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Tucker, Jim Himes Spar Over Alleged NSA Surveillance [VIDEO ... - Daily Caller

Ex-NSA analyst: Intel community thinks Trump’s wiretapping paranoia about Obama is a ‘kooky fantasy’ – Raw Story

A former NSA intelligence analyst poured cold water on President Donald Trumps statements that former President Barack Obama has his phone lined taped, saying the intelligence community considers Trumps charges to be a kooky fantasy.

Writing for the Observer, ex-analyst John Schindler said that there are already enough questions about the Trump administrations ties to the Russians to warrant a full investigation, but that the presidents foray into a massive conspiracy involving Obama and the highest levels of the intel community is absurd.

Calling Trumps allegations against Obama on Twitter, the most bizarre public statements from any American president, Schindler took up what little specifics Trump provided and spoke with his contacts at the NSA who unanimously dismissed them as a presidential fantasy.

Lets be perfectly clear here: The scenario painted by President Trump of his predecessor tasking the IC with wiretapping Trump Tower simply could not have happened without a far-reaching and highly illegal conspiracy involving the White House and several of our spy agencies, above all the National Security Agency, Schindler wrote. My friends still at NSA, where I served as the technical director of the Agencys biggest operational division, have told me without exception that Trumps accusation is wholly false, a kooky fantasy.

Schindler, who has an extensive background in domestic surveillance, explained how improbable Trumps allegations were.

In the first place, the White House doesnt ask for such wiretaps, ever; such requests come directly from NSA, the FBI, or the Justice Department. Involvement of any White House in such highly classified requests would immediately set off enormous red flags in the IC and DoJ due to their glaringly politicaland therefore illegalaim, he explained.

Having worked with a lot of FISA collection during my time in the spy business, I can state without reservation that President Trumps accusations are so inherently implausible as to render them an absurdity Schindler continued. He needs to offer hard evidence for such incendiary claims or back down publicly, preferably with an apology to his predecessor, whom he has maligned without cause.

The former analyst did leave the door open to the notion that there might be wiretaps at Trump Tower just not ones aimed specifically at Trump and none involving Obama.

Its very plausible that NSA and other spy agencies intercepted Kremlin communications which might have incidentally involved associates of our current president, he explained. But neither Donald Trump nor his surrogates were being spied on as themselves. If they didnt realize their shady Russian friends might be considered foreign intelligence targets by NSA and other Western intelligence services, thats on them.

According to Schindler, if Trump hoped that his wild allegations about Obama will make the Russian contact with administration officials scandal go away, he couldnt have been more wrong.

Whats certain is that KremlinGate isnt going away, and the presidents bizarre efforts to make his links to Moscow a non-story have only made it a bigger one he concluded. Now the media is more curious than ever about Trumps Russian connections, and no amount of chanting fake news will alter that. Neither will Team Trumps obsession with the alleged deep state save them from awkward questions.

You can read the whole piece here at the Observer.

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Ex-NSA analyst: Intel community thinks Trump's wiretapping paranoia about Obama is a 'kooky fantasy' - Raw Story

CIA, DOJ sued over leaks of classified info about former NSA Flynn – Fox News

The CIA and Departments of Justice and Treasury are being sued by a prominent legal organization for their role in leaking highly classified material as part of an effort to undermine the credibility of former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to an announcement.

Judicial Watch, known for its role in exposing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, announced on Monday that it has sued several federal agencies for information related to Flynn's discussions with Russian officials before he officially entered the White House.

Flynn was forced to resign from the White House for apparently misleading President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about the substance of these conversations.

However, theWashington Free Beaconand multiple other news outlets havereportedon a campaign by former Obama administration officials and loyalists to spread highly classified information in a bid to handicap the Trump administration.

In addition to Flynn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House adviser SebastianGorkahave been the subject of multiple leaks aimed at jeopardizing their positions in the administration.

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.

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CIA, DOJ sued over leaks of classified info about former NSA Flynn - Fox News

Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance – Techdirt

Considering the new administration has stepped up its ousting of immigrants, expressed its disinterest in pursuing civil rights investigations of the nation's law enforcement agencies, applauded asset forfeiture, and declared war on leakers, it comes as no surprise the White House supports a clean reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance.

The Trump administration does not want to reform an internet surveillance law to address privacy concerns, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying it is needed to protect national security.

The announcement could put President Donald Trump on a collision course with Congress, where some Republicans and Democrats have advocated curtailing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, parts of which are due to expire at the end of the year.

Section 702 has dodged reform efforts, thanks in part to the intelligence community's unwillingness to discuss anything about it. Repeated requests by representatives for the NSA to come up with an estimate of how many US persons' communications are swept up "inadvertently" have been met with shrugs and stalling. Five years after he was first asked, James Clapper promised to have something put together "soon." We're still waiting.

Not helping the matter is the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's evaluation of the program. After finding the Section 215 phone metadata program both useless and illegal, it had very little to say about the NSA's internet backbone dragnet. The best it could offer was that it was likely legal and any collection of US persons' communications was probably "inadvertent." It agreed the massive collection program ran right up against the edges of the Fourth Amendment, but didn't cross it -- at least as far as it was willing to examine.

Unfortunately, there will be no follow-up arriving before the reauthorization period closes. The PCLOB is mostly dead and unlikely to be revived by an administration looking for a no-questions-asked rubber stamping of Section 702's five-year renewal. Given that the unanswered questions about domestic surveillance weren't answered in time for the 2012 renewal debate, it's highly probable the Director of National Intelligence's office won't be providing these numbers to Congressional representatives ahead of the December deadline.

Hopefully, there will be a more organized push back against a clean reauthorization. Thanks to multiple leaks, Congressional representatives should actually have some idea how much domestic surveillance occurs under this statute. It's more critical than ever that the program receive a detailed examination before the vote, considering the outgoing president gave more than a dozen federal agencies access to unminimized data/communications collected by the NSA.

And Trump himself has seen no reason to roll that sharing back, despite his antipathy towards much of Obama's orders and legislation. Ironically, his Saturday morning tweetstorm griping about the Trump Tower being "wire tapped" by Obama ahead of the November election. Once again, Trump has offered no proof of this claim, but even if taken at face value, it would be the byproduct of the Section 702 program he has stated he wants renewed with no changes. Communications with foreign persons is fair game under Section 702, even if the communications originate in the US. The FBI's acquisition of these communications (if that's what has happened) is specifically approved by the recent data-sharing program. Perhaps Trump might want to take a closer look at the program before attempting to shove it past inquistive legislators.

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Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance - Techdirt