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FISA Memo Fallout: Fear of our own intelligence agencies has been normalized

FISA Memo Fallout: Fear of our own intelligence agencies has been normalized

And, Carter Page was just the excuse, not the reason, for using a questionable dossier to justify surveillance

https://youtu.be/Tm30OF0C314

I was traveling Friday when the memo about the FISA application to surveil Carter Page, supported by the Fusion GPS-produced Clinton-funded Steele Dossier, was released.

It was one of those days when being mostly off the grid was a good thing. I was only able to follow the Twitter reaction, and take a quick glimpse on my phone at the memo itself. So I mostly sat back and watched the fireworks.

Others have done fine jobs discussing the important details of what was revealed by the memo.

As I have read the various takes on each side, I’m left with three big impressions:

1. Carter Page Was The Excuse, Not The Reason.

That a FISA warrant was issued as to Carter Page was reported last spring. So that wasn’t a surprise, but the surprise is that anyone actually cared about Carter Page. Have you seen the guy on TV? He’s on TV almost as much as Adam Schiff, and they both come across as doofuses. Carter Page was so important the FBI went out on a limb to use a questionable document in court to convince a judge to surveil him? I’m not buying it.

That Carter Page was not the real subject of the surveillance was revealed by the hyperventilated attempts to keep the memo from being released based on claims it would reveal critical sources and methods and damage national security. Now that we’ve seen the memo, we know that those protestations were false.

The surveillance of Carter Page was not about Carter Page. He’s a bit player in a larger drama, and that larger drama is what we need to understand.

2. Fear of Our Own Intelligence Agencies has been Normalized.

I’m struck by how readily Democrats and some Republicans have accepted that we should live in fear of our nation’s own law enforcement and intelligence agencies. That seems baked into every discussion, exemplified by Chuck Schumer’s statement in January 2017 that the intelligence agencies will get back at Trump for his criticisms:

That implicit threat was repeated dramatically by CNN Analyst Phil Mudd, a former FBI and CIA agent:

“The workforce will look at this and say this is an attack on our ability to conduct an investigation with integrity,” he exclaimed during a CNN panel discussion. “There are hundreds of agents and analysts working. This not just Christopher Wray, the FBI director.”

He continued, “So I’m going to tell you the FBI people are ticked. If you think you can push us off this because you can intimidate the director, you’d better think again. You’ve been around for 13 months. We’ve been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We’re going to win.”

3. Media Complicity – How Far Does It Go?

A key part of the memo was that the FBI utilized a Yahoo News report to back up the Steele Dossier. But the Yahoo News report information was fed to it by Fusion GPS. So it was completely circular buttressing, as both documents had the same source.

This raises a bigger question. How much of the media reporting has been fed by Fusion GPS? Has the media’s Russia conspiracy narrative been just another charade orchestrated by Clinton financed operatives? Is it any wonder that so much of the mainstream media argued against releasing the memo; this may be the most blatant example of media lack of curiosity being a telltale sign of a larger problem.

* * * * *

What’s at stake here is not whether the FISA warrant was properly obtained. That’s a detail. What’s at stake is whether, as many suspect, there was something more nefarious going on. That truth, whatever it is, needs to be obtained notwithstanding fear of retribution by our own intelligence services. And we can’t rely on the media to get to that truth.

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Comments

On this vein, there are now stories that Rosenstein threatened to investigate Nunes if he kept pushing.

Also since when is Yahoo considered a reliable news source?

The thing that I am not hearing most about this. Apparently there was a FISA application that was rejected by the judge, before a second one was submitted. What were the differences between the two applications ( other then the dossier ) which made the judge change his mind?

    As far as I can tell from reading the shadows on the wall and grunting, the rejected FISA application included the word ‘Trump’ in it, and the judge (justifiably) had a case of the vapors over using the Obama US Justice Department to electronically surveil the opposition party’s presidential campaign.

    The re-submission was carefully edited to remove that scary ‘T’ word and went through without a hitch.

    Disclaimer: I am not a member of the FISA court, nor do I have a magic crystal ball. I have interviewed three anonymous sources (my goldfish, lamp, and table) just like CNN does to report bombshell news. So there.

      coralbrief in reply to georgfelis. | February 4, 2018 at 7:07 am

      I think this is the key to understanding why they went after Carter Page. Remember that Page was not new to the FBI’s radar. Since at least 2013, they had had concerns about him. Why the sudden new interest that was so significant that it justified getting a FISA warrant?

      The first FISA warrant was rejected (in May or June of 2016, I believe) because it was clearly directed at the Trump campaign and that was too much, even for the FISA court that almost never rejects a FISA warrant application. At the time the FISA warrant was sought on Page, he was no longer associated with the Trump campaign. So that allowed the FBI to seek a FISA warrant on Page without tying him to the Trump campaign. (I’d bet that the warrant application omits any reference to Trump or the campaign.).

      This was a Title I warrant, not a Title VII warrant. It can be directed at anyone, including Americans, who are believed to be spies. It would allow surveillance of pretty much anyone in contact with Page (and, as I understand it, even people up to 2 or 3 steps removed from Page, but I’m not certain about that.). Critically, it allows the FBI to scoop up (from NSA and other sources), all communications—including those in the past, made by the subject. Those the subject communicated with are then also subject to surveillance.

      So, by getting the warrant on Page, the FBI was able to go back in time and get everyone he communicated with in the Trump campaign under surveillance (along with, I believe, anyone 2 or 3 steps removed from him). I think the FBI knew this, and used Page as the window into the Trump campaign that the FISA court had previously denied it.

        Petrushka in reply to coralbrief. | February 4, 2018 at 7:24 am

        Legal nube here. How legal is it to submit a request for wiretapping that lies about the intended target? It would seem that the intention to deceive is pretty transparent.

          Yes. Such an act – especially in the context of the conspiracy we’ve discovered – constitutes several felonies, potentially adding up to a de facto life sentence for offenders.

          The end of a rope is more appropriate. Imagine hillary klinton finally dangling from one?

          The lie was in the justification for surveillance.

        neanderthal in reply to coralbrief. | February 5, 2018 at 5:53 pm

        I wonder if this was used to justify Mueller seizing the emails and documents from the Trump transition team? Remember these are not government documents, since the transition team is considered a private non-profit organization, and the GSA had no authority to release the documents to the Mueller investigation without a warrant. And yet the Mueller investigation was able to get them with nothing more than a request letter.

        So I wonder if they used Carter Page’s slight contact with members of the transition team as justification for seizing the emails.

        My first thought would be that the Mueller investigation is a criminal probe, so can’t rely on a FISA warrant. But the whole Mueller investigation began with a FISA warrant and no actual evidence of a crime, so maybe that line has already been crossed.

      Thank you for making me laugh this morning with your disclaimer!

      At least you goldfish, lamp, and table exist.

    About Yahoo, I don’t blame the courts for viewing Michael Isikoff as a legitimate reporter. He, however, has the good sense to be shocked that the FBI dressed up his report as corroboration of Steele’s dossier when Steele was the source for Isikoff’s Yahoo News story. I didn’t even know news stories were cited for warrants in any court, ever, but then again, I’m not a lawyer.

      Sanddog in reply to JBourque. | February 4, 2018 at 12:35 am

      They used several different media sources (stories) as “proof” of the veracity of the Steele dossier. Of course the FBI didn’t inform the court that Steele was the source behind all of the media stories and that they terminated him as a source because he peddled info from the dossier to the media.

      cucho in reply to JBourque. | February 7, 2018 at 4:22 am

      Michael Isikoff is shocked about being caught spreading Fake News simply because he wants to cash on his not-yet-published new Wolff-style book.

It did reveal their sources and methods. Think about it.

Dragging the FBI through the Mudd …

One has to wonder just how many more FISA requests were made/granted for other political opponents during Obamas regime.

I think that this is just the “tip” of the iceberg. How else to explain the Democrat leadership getting so upset by that memo?

It’s also interesting to consider that perhaps the Democrats thought some other information, other than what was released, would be forthcoming. Their reaction seems all out of proportion to the document, even as dirty as it was.

    OneVoiceInAmerica in reply to C. Lashown. | February 4, 2018 at 2:43 am

    I wondered if they thought information on the Arwan brothers investigation would be tied to all this somehow. So many skeletons in so many closets.

    neanderthal in reply to C. Lashown. | February 5, 2018 at 6:00 pm

    Comey’s response to the memo, by Twitter, was “That’s it?” Which does kinda sound like the sort of thing you would say when you were expecting much worse.

    Or like what a criminal might say when he finds out the police DON’T have the evidence he was afraid they might have.

“The surveillance of Carter Page was not about Carter Page. He’s a bit player in a larger drama, and that larger drama is what we need to understand.”
***
The corrupt and evil intent of the Obama DOJ/FBI and likely FISC judges is that they used Title I rather than Title VII authority to go after Trump, using Page as the excuse. The Obama thugs and the judge/s basically said Paige is a paid Russian Spy and engaged in criminal activity. This allowed the gov’t to go after the “spy ring” ie. Trump, et. al. using any and all means possible.

Professor, for the first time in my life (72 years), I’m really afraid of my government. I’ve never felt this way before.

    alaskabob in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 1:51 am

    Isn’t it tyranny when the people fear the government and liberty when government fears the prople?

      Yes, and the good news is that it does look like they are beginning to fear us (or at least fear that the truth will get out to us). Let in the sunlight!

    Matt_SE in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 8:45 am

    The way to solve this is crystal clear: The DoJ needs to prosecute people or at least appoint another special counsel who will.

    Why have we heard nothing out of Sessionszzzz? Are there reporters curious about what he’s doing these days? Is he dead?

      Firewatch in reply to Matt_SE. | February 4, 2018 at 9:51 am

      Generalissimo Fra….Sessions is still alive and well.

      “Why have we heard nothing out of Sessionszzzz? Are there reporters curious about what he’s doing these days? Is he dead?…”

      He’s no more dead than loretta lynch was dead as she protected the most corrupt two rats to ever to infest the US government.

      Sessions needs to be sh-tcanned.

Fear is not the fallout, it’s the desired result. They use fear as part of the control mechanism that keeps everyone in line.

In thinking about this, I am gaining a new respect for J Edgar Hoover. He was criticized for having the dirt, but it was dirt on the power brokers. Maybe he was using it to keep them in line.

For those of us who have rubbed up against the KGB, I do not want to be on the same side of the fence as Schumer or “his” version of the FBI. Fortunately for me the KGB played very soft handed with a gentle reminder (overtly followed) to remind our group of students to not try contacting any Jewish interests in Moscow…again. I am very sure the Professor has more serious stories as he has described in the past.

This specter of an FBI playing for keeps… sounds more like the Federal Bureau of Intimidation. Red Guard academicians, “Seven Days in May”, “The Manchurian Candidate (2008-2016)”… what next..”Fail Safe”?

“What’s at stake is whether, as many suspect, there was something more nefarious going on”

“I’ll have more flexibility after the election.” Obama to Medvedev. So much flexibility that his own government worked in tandem with Clinton to undermine an American election.

    murkyv in reply to herm2416. | February 4, 2018 at 12:37 am

    What part did the Russians play in our 2012 election?

    Probably none, but why can’t we play that game too?

    They knew they had a squishy anti-nuke pacifist President in Obama.

    Romney at least correctly stated that Russia was not our friend.

“Fear of Our Own Intelligence Agencies has been Normalized….”

Communist secret police: NVKD
Nazi secret police: Gestapo
Iranian secret police: SAVAK
Hatian Secret Police: Tonton Macoute
American Secret Police: FBI, IRS, CIA

Welcome to the club. Time to clean the swamp before we have the US military and the American Secret Police shooting at each other.

It is incumbent upon the rank and file of the FBI to abide by their oaths of office and help purge the government of traitors within it.

The stench of Saddam Hussein Obama and Hillary Klinton wafts on.

    That’s what’s going through my mind. Where are the good folks at the FBI? Why aren’t they speaking out? They have to know what’s going on.

      DINORightMarie in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 1:41 am

      Fear of being framed; fear they will be fired/lose their credibility and careers; fear of what always happens to whistleblowers, even though there are many laws to (supposedly) protect them.

      And…then there is the “silence is consent.” Many in DC still are O worshipers; they believe the ends justify the means…when it’s their guy in power.

      But I think most who are in the “rank and file” as Trump said are sickened but feel powerless, afraid, or both.

      OneVoiceInAmerica in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 2:47 am

      I like to imagine they are talking now that a safe venue has been established and eventually their testimony will aid in convictions. Someone told someone that agents were requested to make changes to the 302 interview forms… so hope still lives. 😉

      Granny in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 7:12 am

      After 8 years of Obama, I suspect many of the good people at the FBI have been purged, just as they were from the military.

      Matt_SE in reply to JoAnne. | February 4, 2018 at 8:48 am

      I don’t think that’s necessarily true.
      I imagine that the conspirators kept a very tight lid on their activities, and no rank-and-file FBI members have any knowledge of it. They know that something’s rotten on the 7th floor, but they don’t know any more details than we do.

The last Mudd to plot against a president spent time imprisoned at Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. And is responsible for the saying “Your name is Mudd”. Wonder if the FBI Mudd now threatening POTUS with being overthrown by the FBI is a descendant…

    Milhouse in reply to gospace. | February 4, 2018 at 7:46 am

    Um, no. As with all such stories beloved by folk etymology, it’s bullsh*t. “His name is mud” was in circulation at least 50 years before Lincoln’s assassination, and was recorded by 1823.

      alaskabob in reply to Milhouse. | February 4, 2018 at 1:10 pm

      But the play on words Mudd and mud made a mark after assassination. Miss did make a name for himself testing patients in a later epidemic.

      Full disclosure….I helped treat a top Black Muslim operative after attempt on his life in Riverside,Ca…. so what does that make me?

        “I helped treat a top Black Muslim operative after attempt on his life in Riverside,Ca…. so what does that make me?…”

        Mudd?

        In any event, you can be sure your efforts were unappreciated.

Dr. Mudd’s only “crime” was setting Booth’s broken ankle and at the time NOT knowing Booth was Lincoln’s assassin. Some things stick when history gets it wrong.

    Ragspierre in reply to alaskabob. | February 4, 2018 at 8:45 am

    Well, not so much…

    Mudd knew Booth prior to the assassination, and likely dallied with the plot to kidnap Lincoln. After Booth came to him for repairs, he learned about the Ford’s Theater thingy, and did not report what he knew about Booth. So he was a criminal.

      alaskabob in reply to Ragspierre. | February 4, 2018 at 1:02 pm

      Yes, Mudd knew Booth…. But I never read he was peripherally in the plot…. considering that everyone else was hanged. So did Mudd know Booth’s whereabouts after he left Mudd? Sympathy for versus conspiracy with…. I put this into the same frame as an early example of Reconstruction revenge that Lincoln opposed prior to assassination.

I really did regard them as Boy Scouts with Laser Rifles.

But it’s not the 10% bad apples, every organization has them. Its the 90% that look the other way. People dont seem to get that.

I now have no compunction about taking out an FBI agent, they are just members of yet another gang.

Three points:
First, Carter Page was known to the FBI since 2013 when they interviewed him and saw him as a nobody. They never interviewed him again or thought he was important until he became a minor (extremely minor volunteer) in the Trump Campaign. Suddenly he became of such significance that he required investigation and a wire tap.
.
Second. George Popodopoulus was also a relative nobody. In Washington, little people form big ego and after a night of drinking with an Australian diplomat, the Australian reported some things Popodopoulus. Today the FBI is claiming that this was of sufficient import that it justified a FISA investigation. The FBI, however, never started any sort of internal inquiry into Popodopoulus until six months later and even then that turned out to be a nothing. Once again, why did they wait so long to investigate if it was of such importance?
>
Third, there are several reports confirming each other that Rosenstein threatened various people associated with the Nunes memo. The intelligence agencies were weaponized under Obama as was the IRS, EPA and so many other organizations. The FBI would not be fighting back this hard if something bad was not there. Everyone would do well to remember that this is still early in the first inning of a far longer game and much much more will come to light over the next year or two and none of it will look good to the FBI, Clinton’s and deep state.

Watch for the rhetorical tools used by the swamp:

1) They will call this an attack on the FBI. We are attacking CORRUPTION — the behavior not the institution. We are attempting to restore the institution.

2) “No agency is perfect” dismissal. The standard is not perfection — it is basic honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior (not the Machiavellian ethics of the swamp where the standard is “This is how it is done.”)

Comey is using both of these indirectly. Some are using them directly.

There will be more methods.

Fear of our intelligence services confirms belief in their misconduct.

Christopher B | February 4, 2018 at 7:38 am

Re the first FISA warrant application

I doubt it mentioned Trump. My suspicion is they went after Carter Page but they used information from 2013 and the judge thought it was stale. Possibly they named Manafort since he’d been on their radar too but as head of Trump’s campaign the request was too obviously political.

Timing –

It sounds like they tried first after Trump was nominated, and when rejected kind of sat back assuming he would self-destruct. Then three things happened.

Hillary imitates the WTC on 9/11, raising at least the possibility she might be incapacitated in the final critical days of the campaign.

The NY Feds find an unknown stash of Hillary’s emails on Weiner’s lovebox laptop, and Comey knows he’s going to have to report this eventually.

Trump has weathered Hillary’s attacks, fired Manafort, and Kelly Anne Conway has her hands on the wheel heading Trump’s campaign in the right direction.

The need for actionable intelligence from Trump’s campaign is acute, especially for something that can be spun into a claim that Trump is receiving intelligence from the supposedly Russian hack of the DNC and HRC campaign (projection is the sincerest form of flattery given how deeply we now know HRC was colluding with the Russians and using the FBI to bug Trump).

So they put as much lipstick and mascara on Steele’s dossier as they could, got lucky with a similarly anti-Trump judge who gave them the warrant, and after Trump’s improbable win they continued building their ‘insurance policy’ with the hopes they could at least make him ineffective.

All good points. I’m less afraid than I am angry. I’m angry that people who get paid by we the people (i.e., the taxpayers) have opted to pursue their own agendas rather than what is best for the people who pay their salaries.

And I’m angry that they are allowed to hide behind absurd secrecy rules. I was at a conference a few weeks back and I heard the term shadow state. We all know what the deep state is (sorta), but the shadow state is arguably more nefarious. The shadow state comprises all of those governmental agencies who hide behind secrecy rules of their own making. The shadow state can even extend to local school boards.

The worse thing, I think, about the stupid “memo” is all of the garbage about how it is classified, blah, blah, blah. In my view, if we her on the side of transparency, then the American people will 100% support toe govmnt folks who are trying to protect us. But because of all of this self-serving and unnecessary secrecy, we’ve all lost TRUST in the FBI and other agencies. As the level of corruption throughout government is uncovered, more and more people will distrust the government. And if you can’t trust YOUR government to protect you and look out for YOUR interests, than who can you trust?

“We’ve been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We’re going to win.”

They think they’re at war with Trump, when he’s just acting as the representative of his voters. They’re really at war with the voters, and no, they aren’t going to win that battle.

“How much of the media reporting has been fed by Fusion GPS? Has the media’s Russia conspiracy narrative been just another charade orchestrated by Clinton financed operatives?”

You know who else this reminds me of? Ben Rhodes and his “echo chamber.”

I find it interesting that the FBI claimed it had to stop investigating Omar Mateen and the Tsarnev brothers because that had lack of probable cause, but could investigate Carter Page based on a Dossier that has only three confirmable facts: 1) Russia is a country. 2) A person exists with the name Carter Page. 3) Carter Page travelled to Russia.

legalizehazing | February 4, 2018 at 8:55 am

There is the coming IG report. Which has rumors of salaciousness. Allegedly 302s being edited, the interview notes

    For readers who don’t know, “302” is the following:

    FBI Agent Form FD-302″ :

    A FD-302 form is used by FBI agents to “report or summarize the interviews that they conduct”[3][4] and contains information from the notes taken during the interview by the non-primary agent
    It consists of information taken from the subject, rather than details about the subject themselves.

    A forms list from an internal FBI Website lists the FD-302 as Form for Reporting Information That May Become Testimony.

    Criticism:
    The use of the FD-302 has been criticized as a form of institutionalized perjury due to FBI guidelines that prohibit recordings of interviews. Prominent defense lawyers and former FBI agents have stated that they believe that the method of interviewing by the FBI is designed to expose interviewees to potential perjury or false statement criminal charges when the interviewee is deposed in a grand jury and has to contradict the official record presented by the FBI. They have also stated that perjury by FBI agents allows the FBI to use the leverage of a potential criminal charge to turn an innocent witness into an informant.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FBI_forms

    THE CORRUPTION HAS FILTERED DOWN FROM THE RANK AND FILE LONG AGO SINCE CLINTON, AND FINALLY, FROM OBAMA.

I think former FBI and CIA agent, now CNN Analyst Phil Mudd is exactly wrong, and he knows it.

The “work force” was promised a workplace without “columns” right after Trump was elected. There is no way in hell that the Americans who understand law enforcement ethics approve of this nonsense.

Hmmmm…I haven’t seen or heard Alan Dershowitz weigh in on this topic. Is it just me or is that quite telling about how bad this is?

    murkyv in reply to Mudcat. | February 4, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    He has an opinion piece at FOX news.

    Alan Dershowitz: The Nunes FISA memo deserves more investigation. Time for a nonpartisan commission</B

    (for some reason I can't copy and paste the link)

      murkyv in reply to murkyv. | February 4, 2018 at 1:28 pm

      The memo made public by House Republicans on Friday accusing the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers in investigating a former Trump campaign adviser constitutes probable cause for further investigation.

      The memo purports to describe what is in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application that resulted in wiretap warrants being issued against Republican operatives. It is, of course, a secondhand, hearsay, account of what is actually in the application.

      Democratic members of Congress have been quick to point out that they see matters differently and that the Republican memo leaves out salient information.

      So let the Democrats present their version, which will also be secondhand and hearsay. It will help to level the playing field, but it will not provide the American public with a firsthand look at what was presented to the FISA court.

      Subject to real needs of national security, the American public should see a redacted version of the actual FISA application so that we can judge for ourselves whether it unfairly omitted important facts, including the source of the so-called Steele Dossier, which made allegations of misconduct against the Trump campaign, and the credibility of its author, a former British spy.
      The Republican memo standing alone raises some serious questions about the process by which the warrants were obtained from the FISA court. The Democratic memo, if it is forthcoming, may purport to answer some of those questions. But it will never be able to answer them definitely without an objective assessment of the actual FISA application itself.

      This episode strengthens the view – expressed by me from day one of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election – that the entire enterprise of appointing a special counsel was misguided. Instead, Congress should have created a nonpartisan commission of objective experts to investigate the entire issue of Russian involvement in the election and other claims made by either party about any unfairness surrounding it.

      Nor are congressional committees an adequate substitute for a nonpartisan commission. Congressional committees by their very nature are highly partisan, as evidenced by the dueling accounts of the FISA application.

      It’s not too late for Congress to create such a commission, because the American public has lost faith in the objectivity of congressional committees. Many Americans, though certainly not all, have also lost faith in the investigation currently being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

      Mueller himself continues to be held in high regard by most Americans, but many of his underlings are widely regarded as partisan.

      Mueller did the right thing by reassigning FBI agent Peter Strozk after his anti-Trump communications with his girlfriend were revealed. But Strozk should have recused himself from the Clinton investigation based on his own knowledge of his bias against Trump.

      When a president or a presidential candidate is being investigated, everyone involved in the investigation must be “Caesar’s wife” – above reproach. Several of Mueller’s appointees do not pass that test.

      The Republican memo just released should not be considered the last word on the issue. It is the opening salvo by Republicans. The Democrats are responding in kind. Both sides have partisan agendas. Now it is time for the American people to have their interests considered.

      As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once put it: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” The corollary is that over-classification keeps the infection spreading. Let the FISA application be de-classified, with appropriate redactions, and let the public interest in the integrity of our law enforcement agencies be served.

Circle jerks were so stupid that they created their own circular firing squad !

casualobserver | February 4, 2018 at 10:12 am

Media complicity has never been more pronounced in the most general sense. The way they are nearly in lock step with the Dems and others who despise Trump and his voters is now perfectly glaring.

To find that it was just as strong in the early days of the past presidential election is hardly a surprise for me. And, in fact, if you look back to the time of Romney’s campaign the outward signs were growing. Anyone remember how we were pounded about a notebook of women, for example? Candy Crowley’s “correction”?

“We’ve been around since 1908. Hail Hydra!”

FIFY

We need a look at those warrants, declassify them, whatever. No doubt there is an effort to alter them in favor of the lefties. And yes, it was not about Carter Page. Sessions is taking a long nap so no point in bothering him and now Gowdy is Flake 2.0 and has joined the noise generators. Sad state of affairs.

regulus arcturus | February 4, 2018 at 12:30 pm

Page was likely not the only one surveiled.

In order to effectively spy on Trump without targeting him directly, they spied on several advisors to obtain the full picture.

What should, but doesn’t amaze me anymore is the media spin. I mostly read that they are not outright calling it lies, they are merely trying to downplay it as a Republican “pelican brief” if you will. The memo is actually a summary of what is known, corroborated information, it’s not a thesis or republican wet dreaming. The media and the democrat supporters are trying to call it a partisan attack when bin reality it is partisan spin to keep the truth from being know.

As with most things done, by the Obama Administration, what you heard wasn’t necessarily the truth, and what you see isn’t necessarily what you get. I believe Obama thoroughly corrupted every facet of the Federal Bureaucracy, but that should stop when he leaves. Now, he’s found a way to continue it, by embedding people into the different agencies, then the Democrats support all of this. Now, I expect that from Democrats, they can’t be trusted to do what’s best for the people anyway. The only surprise in this is the press. After the wiretapping of AP and James Rosen, you’d think the press would be a little more diligent. Not our press though, they’re still the media wing of the Democratic Party.

Surveilling Carter Page, a minor Trump campaign volunteer foreign policy expert on Russia, was the entering wedge, the pretext under which the Obama/Clinton/FBI/DOJ’s anti-Trump conspiracy was able to spy on the entire Trump campaign, transition team and, perhaps, the Administration.

The extremely important distinction that needs to be pointed out and highlighted here is that, according to reports, the FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page that the FBI sought was for not the more usual, much more limited, and less intrusive surveillance permitted under Title VII, but was the totally and globally intrusive surveillance permitted under Title I; enabling them to ransack his entire life, and the lives of everyone Page might come into contact with.

Title I surveillance, which is much more intrusive than surveillance under title VII, supposedly requires a much higher level of proof than a Title VII warrant and, to quote a recent analysis, required that the highest officials at the FBI had to prove and sign off on the assertion that Carter Page was an “agent of a foreign power” ie. a spy for a foreign country, and that he ”knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence gathering for a foreign power.”

So far as I can see in public reporting there was really no such evidence, other than that Page had made trips to Russia, and had talked to some Russian businessmen and/or officials, as one might expect a foreign policy expert on Russia to routinely do.

Once the FISA court OK’d this Title I warrant, it cleared the way for the FBI and who knows who else to spy on every aspect of Carter Page’s life, communications, associations, travel, contacts—past and present, and to spy to the same global extent on anyone he came into contact with i.e. in practical terms that mean potentially on anyone in the entire Trump campaign, transition team, and Administration.

One has to ask just how diligent the FISA court judge or judges were in reviewing the FBI’s supposed “evidence” before they granted this extraordinary level of totally intrusive surveillance that they had to realize was the entre to allow spying on the entire Trump campaign, transition team, and perhaps on the Administration itself?

A recent story reported that more than 99 plus percent of all FISA warrant requests are granted. This looks like the success record in one of the elections in the old U.S.S.R.

Are these supposedly talented and above reproach FISA court judges just functionaries in possession of an OK stamp that they just smash down on whatever paperwork the FBI hands them, without asking any pesky questions about their content and assertions? It sure looks like it.

And, by the way, just how many other FISA warrants were granted by FISA judges over the years—and especially the last several years—based on the same kinds of phony “evidence”?

“FBI people are ticked…we’re going to win.” Clarify ‘win. Who exactly do you plan to beat?
The FBI has a mission, it’s not clear that “winning” is in it.

the real question is what was the first Trump Campaign staffer FISA’d by the FBI/DoJ.

the Steele Dossier was given/used by the FBI/DoJ well before Carter Page.

btw unless something precluded / restricted the FISA warrant it allows unlimited access to any / all searches of Carter Page communications through NSC collected communications. which means over ALL recorded time. and everyone who communicated with Carter Page.

I found the McCabe “dirty tricks” with Reince Priebus particularly disturbing because these weren’t really stabs in the back … this was full frontal.

The FBI and DOJ has long used dossiers on Americans. I’m sure politicians are on the top of the list. The FBI/DOJ needs to come completely clean and destroy all files after an investigation if no charges are filed. A leak by the FBI or DOJ can be devastating to anyone but especially public officials.

Adam Schiff sent his staff to try and collect ‘classified materials for the FBI’ after Russian pranksters told him Putin has NAKED blackmail pictures of Trump.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5355713/Adam-Schiff-spoofed-Russian-claim-nude-Trump-pic.html

Shouldn’t that be enough to get a FISC warrant for Sidney Blumenthal ?

I commented today that I thought the Russians were engaged in a massive PNW3D of the US Intelligence as idiots like Shitff are out cherry picking for the information they need to impeach Trump.