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Donald Trump could be forced to leave office overthe investigations into his administrations links with Russia, a former national NationalSecurityAgency (NSA) analysthas warned.

John Schindler, a security expert and former counterintelligence officer, said that if the US President was to face an indictment over allegations hiscampaign team colluded with Russia to disrupt the presidential election, it could put an end to his presidency.

Speaking to CBC radio, Mr Schindler said: If, not just people around him, but the president himself is facing possible indictment down the road, that could be a game changer. He could be removed from office for that, whether he wants to be or not."

Mr Schindler said that with the FBI investigation, actions by Congress and a possible independent inquiry, Mr Trump and his teams alleged ties to Russia would"inevitably" be made public.

The administration isnt getting away from this story, he said.

It comes after FBI director James Comey's confirmed the Bureau was looking into both Russias alleged interference with the 2016 election and also possible links between Moscow and members of Mr Trumps campaign team.

Other congressional committees also are investigating a possible Russian connection mostly behind closed doors.

Republican says there is 'more than circumstantial evidence' of Trump-Russia collusion

But there havealso been suggestionsthe investigation could lead nowhere.

Carl Bernstein, one of the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal, claimed the US President was involved in a cover up to hide connections between members of his campaign team and Russia.

Responding to these concerns, Mr Schindler said it was possible the investigation could come to a dead end and added: Trump, by inclination, doubles down, triples down, quintuples down at every opportunity.

Mr Trumps formerelection campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was accused of once working to further the interests ofRussian President Vladimir Putin,is nowa leading focus of the investigation by American intelligence.

Mr Manafort volunteered to testify as part of the investigation and he is expected to be interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee, the panels chairman has said.

For Mr Schindler, the fact Mr Manafort is willing to testify showshe knows he is facing some very serious federal charges and wants to clear the air.

He said: It tells me that Trump's whole defence is one member of his inner circle away from turning state's evidence and spilling some beans and it starts to be all over. We're not there yet. But I think that day's coming."

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Donald Trump's presidency could be finished by Russia investigations, former NSA analyst says - The Independent

Foreign Policy (blog)

NSA Official Suggests North Korea Was Culprit in Bangladesh Bank Heist Foreign Policy (blog) While the NSA, America's premier spy agency, has far greater insight into North Korean cyber operations than private security firms, Ledgett's remarks studiously avoided any reference to what evidence the agency has collected on the Bangladeshi heist. Top NSA official suggests North Korea behind Bangladesh Bank heistDhaka Tribune US Preparing Cases Linking North Korea to Theft at NY FedWall Street Journal all 29 news articles »

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NSA Official Suggests North Korea Was Culprit in Bangladesh Bank Heist - Foreign Policy (blog)

This report originally appeared on CyberScoop.

The way that U.S. government agencies respond to cyberattacks against the private sector from nation-state or other high-level adversaries is fundamentally flawedand needs to change, outgoing NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett said Tuesday.

Ledgett, the latest additionto a growing list of cybersecurity officials and former officialswho have called for the nations cyber responses to be overhauled, mocked existing response plansat an Aspen Institute luncheon roundtable hosted by former Justice Department senior official John Carlin.

The analogy a colleague of mine uses, Ledgett explained, is if your house catches on fire, you have to call the mayor to see if hell let you call the water department to ask them to turn the water on. And then you call the city council to see if you can get funding for the fire department to send a truck. And by the time thats all happened, your cyber house has burned to the ground.

Ledgett, who announced his upcoming retirement earlier this year, described how, under current law, wheneverthe technical expertise of NSA personnel is is needed outside of the military and intelligence agency networks it normally protects, there is an involved legal process.

Every study weve ever done of governments response in cyber says we need two things: integration and agility, he said. I think you can make a pretty compelling case that the current way we do that has neither of those.

Currently, Ledgett continued, The largest cadre of cybersecurity knowledge in the U.S. government is within the Department of Defense NSA and Cyber Command and its really difficult to apply that to the private sector or to critical infrastructure.

Any solution that doesnt let that happen with some degree of agility while still respecting the appropriate [restrictions on the] role of the intelligence community and the role of the military in my mind is fundamentally flawed.

The process requires a legal document called a request for technical assistance, he said, which has to go up the chain of command in the civilian agency requesting the help normally the Department for Homeland Security and across to[the Department of Defense] and then down to the NSA.

Our adversaries are moving at cyber speed, were moving at policy speed, he said.

Theres lots of time spent moving paper around between lawyers which could be more profitably spent onsite working the intrusions, hesaid. Absent heroic efforts by those involved, that model clearly is not one thats going to be successful going forward and we need something different, he concluded.

Moderating the lively discussion, Carlin who recently left the post of assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department asked whether Britains decision to create what he called a one-stop shop for cyber defense, could be a model.

I think we should look at that model and consider it and learn from our close partners in the U.K., saidPaul Abbate, the head of the FBIs Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. Its something we might want to move towards.

A single voice from the government for the private sector, said Ledgett, helps with the agility of defensive responses.

I think the idea of an entity that has people who can leverage all the different authorities of the different components of the government and can apply those authorities without having to go back to headquarters for a mother-may-I within some kind of constraints has merit, he added.

Carlin, now an attorney in private practice, said he did not think that Ledgett was alone in his critique.

I hear the same thing again and again [from private sector] they dont feel right now the government has the resources to [give them] the help they need, Carlin said.

Read more from the original source:
NSA deputy says US cyberattack responses must improve - FedScoop

Whether the topic is ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn's leaked contacts with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, Trump's unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower or House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' recent pronouncement that some of Trump's communications may have been swept up, to understand the story, one must understand the terms involved.

The National Security Agency, or NSA, is a US intelligence organization primarily tasked with the collection and analysis of foreign signals intelligence -- communications, generally through electronic means, be it a phone call, an email or something else entirely. This can also include metadata -- the information about the communications themselves -- like when, where and to whom a message is sent or received.

The NSA's mandate is to deal with foreign intelligence targets, like militants overseas or members of another government.

It is headquartered in Maryland, but its presence is felt globally, scooping up and processing information from people located virtually anywhere.

Its activities are covert, wide-ranging and linked to any number of US security efforts.

NSA has wide discretion to conduct surveillance on people outside of the US, but there are supposed to be legal barriers to snooping on US citizens. If the NSA picks up communications from a US citizen in the course of monitoring a foreign national, it is practice to "mask" the identity of the US person. Additionally, the identification of a US citizen mentioned in discussions between two foreign nationals is supposed to be masked.

But if the NSA or another agency with which NSA is sharing the information, like the FBI, wants to identify the person, it can do so if it believes it's necessary in the course of investigations or have probable cause to indicate there may be criminal conduct involved. Rogers said the number of people who have unmasking authority was limited in the NSA to about 20 people, while FBI Director James Comey said there were necessarily many more in the FBI who could do so because the agency's work involves domestic affairs.

Nunes said Trump's communications and those of people involved in his campaign may have been collected by the government through "incidental collection."

That means that in the course of monitoring for foreign intelligence purposes, the government may have caught the private communications of then President-elect Trump. But as noted later Wednesday by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, incidental collection could refer simply to the mention of a US citizen, not that their communications were collected.

"If we are listening to two foreign spies, for example, talking to each other on foreign soil or two representatives of a foreign government, and they mention a US person -- that is incidental collection," Schiff said.

Passed alongside nine other amendments together known as the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment is meant to curtail "unreasonable" searches from the government and require warrants based on probable cause for searches.

It is the main constitutional right that the US surveillance state butts against.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), a secretive court that can approve or disapprove spying requests. Its authority grew following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents in 2013 exposing US surveillance activities and techniques, leading to the passage of the USA Freedom Act in 2015. The law implemented a set of reforms to FISC, which as of 2016 had rarely turned down requests from the government.

Additionally, FISA is often used not just to refer to the law itself but authorized surveillance under it. Similarly, the terms FISA orders, FISA warrants, etc. are used regularly.

In order to invade a US citizen's privacy for a search or seizure, law enforcement is legally required to have a warrant.

Laws passed following the revelation have attempted to narrow the scope of warrantless wiretaps.

Section 702 of FISA is set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress votes to renew it and Trump signs that renewal into law.

It was one of the changes to FISA introduced in 2008 and establishes rules for the Justice Department and the director of national intelligence together target people located outside the US.

Government Communications Headquarters is essentially the equivalent to the NSA in the United Kingdom.

The United States has an intelligence alliance with four other English-speaking nations: The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The five nations share intimate intelligence as part of what they call the "Five Eyes" agreement.

In his appearance before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, Rogers said asking GCHQ to wiretap Trump would be at odds with the Five Eyes agreement.

Continue reading here:
'Unmasking,' FISA and other terms to help you understand the wiretapping story - CNN

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers joined Republican lawmakers in blasting unacceptable leaks of sensitive information, during testimony Monday before the House Intelligence Committee.

Adm. Rogers spoke alongside FBI Director James Comey, both holdovers from the Obama administration, in a hearing addressing claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election and other controversies.

Comey confirmed at the hearing that the bureau is investigating Russias meddling as well as any potential ties to the Trump campaign. But both officials also decried intelligence leaks, which GOP lawmakers describe as a major security threat some of those leaks have fueled recent reports about the status of the FBIs Russia probe.

Rogers said he is greatly concerned about leaks of classified information.

Comey echoed Rogers, stressing how seriously we take leaks of classified information. He also said hes seen a lot of conversations about classified matters showing up in the press, and a lot of it is dead wrong.

As the officials lamented leaks, Republicans sought to press the witnesses for details on who might be responsible. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked Comey to confirm what former Obama administration officials could have had access to unmasked names or American citizens incidentally recorded in conversations with surveillance targets.

The term unmasked refers to what happens when the inadvertent subject of government surveillance is named and documented, as was reportedly done with former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in conversations with Russias ambassador, leading to his resignation.

When asked specifically if he briefed former President Barack Obama on any calls involving Flynn, Comey said he couldnt get into the particular case or any conversations he had with the president.

Gowdy also read off a list of names, asking about former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Comey would not confirm specifics, but agreed those positions could have access to unmasked names.

Though they may have access to the names, that doesnt meant they were in a position to do the unmasking.

When Rogers was asked how Flynns identity could have been revealed, he said, Im not going to discuss hypotheticals about individuals. Rogers said he and 19 other people at the NSA have the authority to unmask the identity of Americans.

Rogers said he couldnt provide the number of Americans who have been unmasked since June 2016 until more research is completed, but did acknowledge that when U.S. citizens are unmasked, it hurts national security.

Rogers has served in the Navy for the past three decades and graduated from the National War College. He was appointed by Obama as the director of the NSA, taking office in April of 2014 in the wake of massive leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Last fall, he drew criticism when he met with President Trump in New York, reportedly angering senior members of the Obama administration by failing to clear the visit with his superiors. It was reported at the time that Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called for Rogers to be fired -- not because of his meeting with Trump, but because of security breaches at the NSA and questions over his leadership.

When asked for a response to calls for his dismissal in November, Rogers said "I'm not going to go down that road," telling a reporter, I'm accountable for my actions."

Rogers also said Monday there was no evidence to support the claim that the Obama administration instructed British intelligence organization GCHQ to spy on the Trump team during the campaign.

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NSA chief, GOP lawmakers rip 'unacceptable' leaks - Fox News