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NSA Collected Americans' Phone Records Despite Law Change, Says Report (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. National Security Agency collected more than 151 million records of Americans' phone calls last year, even after Congress limited its ability to collect bulk phone records, according to an annual report issued on Tuesday by the top U.S. intelligence officer. The report from the office of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was the first measure of the effects of the 2015 USA Freedom Act, which limited the NSA to collecting phone records and contacts of people U.S. and allied intelligence agencies suspect may have ties to terrorism. It found that the NSA collected the 151 million records even though it had warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court to spy on only 42 terrorism suspects in 2016, in addition to a handful identified the previous year. The report came as Congress faced a decision on whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits the NSA to collect foreign intelligence information on non-U.S. persons outside the United States, and is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
Despite the mounting evidence that the phone surveillance was in full force even last year, most of the news media will still pretend that those 151 million phone records couldn't possibly include Donald Trump or his associates. Obama allowed and expanded the surveillance despite promisingâ during his campaign to abolish it. It should be clearer than ever that Obama was indeed responsible for monitoring the phones of Trump and his associates.
Trump's allegation was that he was specifically wiretapped at the orders of Obama. Not that his conversations were swept up in a dragnet. Not that expect him to actually stand by what he says, because he's Donald Trump and changes positions daily. But the rest of us can at least be clear.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
There was an undisclosed meeting in Trump tower in December. This was the one Kushner was questioned about. They were watching a known Russian FSB agent, Sergey Gorkov. This was one of the leaks to the press that upset Trump.
NSA spied on one Sergey Gorkov. He's head of a Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, and it was caught running spy rings in New York in early 2015. As a result spies were arrested, prosecuted the ones with diplomatic immunity were expelled.
This was not blanket surveillance, Russia was under sanctions, Sergey Gorkov is a trained FSB agent, a close ally of Putin's. FBI ran some stings on people he employed to find out what he was up to, they were offering lots of money for casino property deals in exchange for help getting sanction lifted. TRUMP WAS LIKELY ONE OF THESE, since a Casino deal in Russia was a long time wish. This project started in 2012, long before he ran for President BTW.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russian-spies-charges-idUSKBN0KZ29X20150126
"Monday's charges are linked to Buryakov's alleged covert work on behalf of Russia's foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, according to a criminal complaint....Buryakov, 39, masked this work by posing as a banker for Russia's Vnesheconombank..."
"...Prosecutors said the case was built on physical and electronic surveillance of dozens of meetings, including several in which Buryakov met with an FBI agent posing as a wealthy investor who hoped to develop casinos in Russia."
And of course the whiney sack of shit is involved and was likely involved:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russian-spies-charges-idUSKBN0KZ29X20150126
Sergey Gorkov visited Trump towers in December for a meeting. Jared Jushner says it was a meeting about Trump-Putin diplomacy. Sergey Gorkov says it was a business meeting about property loans (!).
You know, when you have a known spy and he's trying to do property deals for lifting sanctions, and he's smuggled into Trump towers and there's a company Chicago Unit Acquisition LLC, and it lends money tens/hundreds of millions $$$ to Trump, yet it claims no assets (not even the loan to Trump), and no income (not even interest payments), and no details of its loans can be found....Then you have a money laundering conduit that needs investigating.
It's not blanket surveillance to go look at that, its basic prudance.
So, you're going to blame Trump for everything his administration does, but the one true Obama only takes credit for what his department does, no blame for what his underlings did.
Obama is responsible for everything his cabinet appointees did and approved. He was the head of the executive branch, it's his responsibility. Trump is responsible now for everything his cabinet appointees do. He's responsible for everything the executive branch does. Yup, it's a big responsibility, but you gotta put on your big boy britches when you ask for the job.
/. (or another "news" site) had a recent post about N.S.A. technicians having low morale and there being high turnover there
Well no wonder, when they're being told to do fucking blatantly illegal things for their job.
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