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GOP Memo Criticizing FBI Surveillance is Released (washingtonpost.com)
The controversial four-page memo created by Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee alleging abuse of surveillance authority by the Justice Department and FBI has been released Friday after being declassified by the president. The memo is unredacted. (Alternative link for the memo.) The Washington Post: The four-page, newly declassified memo written by the Republican staffers for the House Intelligence Committee said the findings "raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain (Justice Department) and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) calling it "a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process."
The memo accuses former officials who approved the surveillance applications -- a group that includes former FBI Director James B. Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates and current Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein -- of signing off on court surveillance requests that omitted key facts about the political motivations of the person supplying some of the information, Christopher Steele, a former intelligence officer in Britain. The memo says Steele "was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations -- an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI." The FBI Agents Association on Friday said that agents "have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission." The full statement: The men and women of the FBI put their lives on the line every day in the fight against terrorists and criminals because of their dedication to our country and the Constitution. The American people should know that they continue to be well-served by the world's preeminent law enforcement agency. FBI Special Agents have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission.
The memo accuses former officials who approved the surveillance applications -- a group that includes former FBI Director James B. Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates and current Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein -- of signing off on court surveillance requests that omitted key facts about the political motivations of the person supplying some of the information, Christopher Steele, a former intelligence officer in Britain. The memo says Steele "was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations -- an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI." The FBI Agents Association on Friday said that agents "have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission." The full statement: The men and women of the FBI put their lives on the line every day in the fight against terrorists and criminals because of their dedication to our country and the Constitution. The American people should know that they continue to be well-served by the world's preeminent law enforcement agency. FBI Special Agents have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission.
The memo's so short, its interesting they choose not to reprint it instead of trying to add their spin to it.
From reading the actual memo, it's clear there's nothing in it that reveals anything detrimental to national security. On the contrary, it reveals top FBI officials acting in a way that is clearly not designed to protect US persons rights.
Hopefully this will be the start of a process leading to some much needed reforms of FISA.
This is a great day for the FISA court system, which has been viciously attacked for decades right here on Slashdot.
Now that there's pretty solid evidence that the DNC basically used the DOJ to lie to the FISA courts as part of its campaign... SUDDENLY FISA IS OK! That's because the abuses were against Trump. Just remember, if it had been against a terrorist or an actual foreign spy, that would have been unconstitutional.
But against Trump? Fuck the constitution the ends always justify the means.
Remember, principles should be sacrificed as long as the end result is reinforcing the narrative that OMG TRUMP RUSSIA is true no matter what.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
I can see why the FBI and Democrat's did not want the memo released. But some of this just confirms what some already were saying. Yes, its very much embarrassing to see what lengths were taken to try and affect the election. But more important is how any evidence Muller has obtained in his investigation that was directly or indirectly obtained through this FISA warrant is now defunct. The warrant was obtained with improper and false information already proven. Talk about collusion, now this stuff is collusion in the biggest way.
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- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
He's operating on the principle of "if you can't join 'em, beat 'em". This is nothing less than an attempt to build the case that the FBI needs to be cleansed of anyone who isn't more loyal to Trump than the country, the law, or the constitution.
I think that the Slashdot editors owe all of us readers a big apology, at the very least.
For many months now the Slashdot editors have repeatedly forced one "Russia narrative" submission after another upon us readers.
It was pretty clear from the very beginning of this sad "Russia narrative" ordeal that there was no basis to it, in my opinion.
Now we have this memo which pretty much confirms that this whole "Russia narrative" really is total nonsense.
In my opinion, the Slashdot editors have done a huge disservice to our community here by pushing this nonsensical "Russia narrative" so hard.
Slashdot's community is now more divided than I've ever seen it, and I've been a reader here since the early Malda days.
Additionally, this editor-led emphasis on politics has resulted in the lowest quality submissions and comments I've ever seen at this site. I think it has been worse than even the dark days of the Slashdot Beta debacle.
So I think we, as a community, should be entitled to an apology from the editors for what they've put us through this past year.
Although I doubt it will happen, I also think that all of the current editors should be fired. I know that I will never be able to trust them ever again.
I really hope that this memo helps close what has been perhaps one of the worst, if not the worst, chapter in Slashdot's history.
Perhaps with a new team of editors, who aren't fixated on pushing discredited political agendas, Slashdot could return to being one of the premiere technology/science/math/computing-focused news web sites.
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“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Republicans are alleging that FISA was abused. If that's true, regardless the reasons or motivations, it only re-affirms what a lot of us were thinking would happen when the warrantless wiretapping program and "unmasking" was made public back in 2005.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you build a giant surveillance machine with limited checks and balances and without regard for the constitution, things like what the memo alleges are eventually going to occur. It's human nature. What's more disturbing than the memo is that BOTH Democrat and Republican lawmakers allowed this sort of surveillance to proceed. There is no place for a FISA (Secret Courts) in a free society.
How relevant or important is that? If they cited as a reason that "Hillary Clinton herself has stated that she thinks this man is a poopyface, and she paid me $100 to write this" that would also not mean that there could not be other, good reasons for surveilling Page listed right alongside it.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I don't think that's the point. Your analysis requires nuance, and the point of the memo is to rally GOP partisans and give the talking heads on Fox News talking points that sound official. Most things that require nuance are beyond the comprehension of most voters (as the various AC posts that immediately flooded this story demonstrate), and this allows the administration to pretend to be the victim.
Trump and his supporters want to reframe the argument. If the argument is "did Trump collude with Russian to undermine American democracy?" he's in a losing situation. If the argument is, "was Trump being unfairly investigated by intelligence agencies?" then he has a chance to discredit any questions about his campaign. By selectively declassifying information, Nunes and Trump can lie by omission, which is enough to convince those who are stupid and those who don't care if Trump colluded with the Russians so long as he enacts their desired policies.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Wow. Actually for people like myself who have great concern for the surveillance state that has been erected post 9-11 this is exactly what we feared. The secret surveillance state abused and being used as a political weapon in the name of national security all without any oversight by the people of the country. You seem to think that this whole thing is partisan which means you buy into the propaganda. That isn't surprising. The media has been spinning this as a partisan attack for some time. The reality is it speaks to how easy it is to abuse the great monstrous civil rights crushing system which people like Rand Paul and Ron Wyden have been fighting to prevent. Hopefully they seize on this moment to deliver a large blow against it although the President just signed worse legislation weeks ago.
It isn't just one guy, and that is the problem.
There is Steele: The SOLE source of the Russian based intel used to create the FISA request
There is Bruce Ohr: The top DOJ that used the Steele info from Fusion GPS. Where his wife happened to work.
There is McCabe as you pointed out
And it all goes on and on and on.
There are two options. 1) All coincidences. All these people were NOT working in concert, or 2) Conspiracy, they were at least in part, working together. The fact that McCabe, Page and Strzok were at least aware of each other's efforts, and appears via their text messages to be working in concert (Conspiracy). IF McCabe knew of Bruce Ohr and the FISA Court Warrant/Request (which he likely did), that would tie just about everyone together in an actual conspiracy.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
So let me get this straight; We know Christopher Steele an ex-MI6 agent got info from the Russian Kremlin and sold it to FusionGPS, who intern sold it to the DNC who then gave it to the FBI. This sounds the Russians are playing the DNC as the fools they are?
Or, maybe, your very premise is incorrect and Trump does not, actually, want to be an authoritarian despot?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
He also wrote the initial draft to re-open the email server investigation so...not sure where you're going with this.
Yeah. After sitting on it for months.
WaPo: Justice IG focused on McCabe delay in examining Clinton emails on Weiner laptop
You really need to start looking into Cody Shearer and his ties to Fusion GPS and Steele - Shearer would be the same Clinton "plumber" who back in 1992 planted false stories about Dan Quayle using cocaine.
Or are you going to argue it'd be beneath the Clintons to plant a false story about Trump and pay a few hundred thousand dollars to an anti-Trump Brit ex-intel officer to front them?
Carter Page was under investigation before GPS Fusion was contracted by the GOP, which was before Clinton contracted them. FISA warrants were issued for the investigation well before the Steele dossier was even conceived.
That argument breaks down entirely given the fact that the first 2 or 3 FISA warrents on Carter Page, were initiated several months before the Steele dossier was even prepared. The FISA warrent in question was the 3rd or 4th one approved by the FISA Court. The memo also leaves out numerous accounts tha tthe Steele dossier was intially commissioned by one of the GOP presidential campaigns prior to the Clinton campaign paying to get their hands on it.
Prove it.
And do that without relying on any info from anonymous sources we can't verify which was probably leaked by these guys to "corroborate" their own testimony. You just accused someone of treason, but you failed to provide even one shred of proof. Also, if they're willing to lie to us to get spying powers, why should we believe they won't lie to us about what they've found in order to keep themselves out of prison for unlawful spying?
Ahh, right, we should believe whatever is in your interests, no matter how divorced from the facts. Figures. I mean, you have dozens of media outlets... who just happen to be all talking to the same anonymous leaker. You do know that corroboration means something more than hearing the same rumor from two different people, right? I bet you still believe that hookers pissed on Obama's bed, too.
How relevant or important is that?
Very. They lied to the court to get the warrants, they broke multiple laws by doing so. They cast the justice system into disrepute, this is big, very big. The warrant was basically granted under false pretenses, that nulls *everything* the judge can revoke the warrant(s) and that all the evidence in that chain. That means anything tied to those fisa warrants at any level all gone. On top of that the people who filed for the warrants can be criminally charged.
This is why you don't lie when you file for a warrant. It's why you fully state the sources. You don't smudge, you don't nudge, you don't bullshit. Democrats and progressives wanted a "true" russian investigation, and these people just fucked it all up for you - forever.
Om, nomnomnom...
So it seems the FBI/DOJ under Obama used smear information bought from Russian intelligence sources by the Clinton Campaign to justify secretly wiretapping and investigating their political rivals during a presidential election. Did someone say Russian Collusion?
None of it was Russian, Steele was an ex British Intelligence officer. The Russian angle was the made up part, out of whole cloth, by Steele.
You're confusing the Author with the story. Like saying "Pennywise the Clown" is real because Stephen King said so.
The misdirect seems to be "FISA reforms", as if the problems were a direct result of problems with the FISA process and if only those problems didn't exist, this wouldn't have happened.
In actuality, FISA (the court) was given bad information, but worked as expected. For example, in addition to the dossier the FBI cited a newspaper article as corroboration evidence and told the court that Steele did not provide the info for the article. In reality, Steele did, in fact provide the information for the newspaper to print the article, the FBI knew this, and didn't tell the court.
That's a clear-cut case of lying to the court in order to get the warrant. That's not a problem with the FISA process, it's a problem with the people involved, which is why everyone is running around right now.
To be clear: this is not a problem with the process, it's a problem with the people.
Certain people broke the law, and broke it in a way that tried to seriously compromise our political system.
Take a moment and think through the issues here. These people tried to take an axe to our tree of democracy.
Had they succeeded, the Deep State could have easily ended up running the country.
Take a moment and let that sink in.
Just listen to Carter Page incriminate himself repeatedly while trying to fool TV interviewers into thinking he's just been smeared by anonymous sources.
Carter Page, in his own words.
Now I suspect you will not click the link, or see the evidence that Carter Page himself accidentally incriminates himself with.
But that's the best part of this whole thing.
Republicans are tying themselves to a known Russian spie, and they are too stupid to see it.
Carter Page is one of the biggest traitors in this whole scandal. He's given anti-American speeches in Moscow, and that's not even the worst thing he did on that trip.
I'm really going to enjoy watching republicans tie themselves to Carter Page and then sink with him as the world's most obvious traitor takes the spotlight.
A guy like that would never conceal the political origins of the Steele dossier from the FISA court....
Probably because the political origins actually have nothing to do with the probable-cause given to the FISA court, four times. Duh? Obviously the facts they did present to the FISA court judge were compelling enough to issue the warrant for surveillance.
Repedocans are the only ones deluded into thinking the FBI is somehow political. It's not. I know they wish it were so they can lay blame, but sorry, nothing to see here but hot air and wishful thinking.
Wrong, Carter Page was subject of a previous investigation of Russian spies, years before.
Even if that were true - and given the cherry-picked nature of the information in the memo, I doubt it's the complete story - the Steel dossier was just one more piece of information. It may have been the one that put them over the top (and it may not have been) - but there was plenty of reason to seek the FISA warrant. Page's past connections with Russia, along with his connections with the Trump campaign, along with multiple Russia concerns about that campaign, along with Popadopolis' admitted lies to the FBI about contacts with, wait, Russian agents.
Nunes is claiming (or at least hoping Hannity will make the convincing argument) that it's scandalous to use the Steel memo for anything at all. But that's not how intelligence works. Yes, some of the info you gather may come from dubious sources - and that gets taken into account. For all we know, the Steel dossier convinced the FBI to seek the warrant - but as confirmation of other sourced information they already had. In fact, the FBI has pretty much confirmed this in their arguments against releasing this bit of propaganda. But Nunes is refusing to allow the rest of the context for the warrant to be released - or at least not until Hannity has had the chance to play this out in the court of public opinion.
The ultimate goal is either to give Trump an excuse to fire Rosenstein - and by extension Mueller, or simply to cast enough doubt on the Russia investigation that anything it comes up with will be tainted, and Trump will be able to lie/power his way through the findings - and the House will have an excuse to do nothing about them. In any case, this memo is an act of political propaganda - not intelligence oversight. Who knows (well, maybe Mueller does) - there could be nothing more to the Russian collusion scandal then the obvious fact that the Trump campaign knew Russia was pulling strings for them, and thought that was fine. That's sleazy, but probably not illegal. And Trump probably could've left it at that - had he not tried to fight the investigation at every turn. But what's likely to be found is all manner of financial wrongdoing involving Russians that may well have been illegal. There's something there - or else they wouldn't be trying so hard to suppress it.
Oh. And then there's the little matter of actual direct interference in our election - about which nothing is being done. Slashdotters have been raising red flags for years about weaknesses in the voting systems - and indeed systems that handle our voter roles were broken into. But somehow enough Slashdotters have become 'anti-liberal' enough that running interference for the likes of Donald Trump is more important to them than, oh, the integrity of our democracy. As DJT would say, SAD!
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
How do you figure? AFAIK, there's no law requiring intelligence officials to disclose every detail to a courts about how information was obtained. So unless the information was obtained illegally (fruit of the poisonous tree), I don't see how that could possibly invalidate the warrant. It might certainly be a violation of procedure that is worthy of termination, but that's an entirely separate matter than whether the warrant is legal.
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Not quite. Devin Nunes SAYS Andrew McCabe confirmed that. In a document that the FBI director (appointed by Trump) and the Justice Department (run by someone appointed by Trump) say is inaccurate.
You are welcome on my lawn.
What I think everybody is missing here is that the only reason we don't have the complete story is because they created a special court so they could keep their investigations secret. And now, we are getting one side of the story, formulated by friends of the administration, and because of the FISA court's sealed records, we are unable to get the other side of the story.
If ever there were absolute proof that secret court proceedings are a fundamental threat to democracy, THIS IS IT RIGHT HERE. We absolutely MUST dissolve the FISA court and do so through a constitutional amendment to make it clear that such shenanigans must never be used again. There is no greater threat to our democracy than public officials who cannot be held accountable by the people, whether those officials are members of the White House, members of the FBI, or anybody else.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
If that were true, why would the FBI use the Steele Dossier as justification for the initial FISA application and why would the FBI not tell the FISA courts about the political component of that dossier?
For probably the most stupid human reason of all: It was easy, and they knew that the FISA court would rubber stamp their request regardless.
I mean, if I needed to get something authorized in my building and I could just grab some dodgy report, chop off the bits that would raise eyebrows, and hand it in to get rubber stamped, why would I bother going through the effort of doing a decent job?
We've known that the FISA courts were a travesty for a long time. To my mind, this looks like just as much of an indictment of that process as it does the FBI's conduct. The FISA courts were supposed to be a check on the FBI's use of secret warrants, but as documented here, look how well that worked.
I'd love to see how common this is. While this event is obviously being unearthed for political purposes, I can't imagine that this isn't how a lot of the FISA rulings went over the last 40 years. Instead of focusing on the FBI, the real focus should be on the FISA courts, because they should have a level of rigor that nobody at the FBI would even think about trying to go to them with evidence like this.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
hey just need to show that they have some reason to suspect that the surveillance might show evidence of a crime
No! they need to show they have probable cause to think a crime was committed and the warrant execution would lead to evidence of that crime. Warrants have to be specific too! You don't get to say "he looks shady I want to search his house." It has to be more like "I have a corpse we extracted a 9mm round from so we suspect its a murder, I want bobs house for a recently fired 9mm hand gun because Sally saw him waving one around threatening Jim (the corpse) a few days prior."
That isn't "some reason" and "might show"
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