Obama FISA Section 702: “Dirt Gate”

Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice is known by many as the scapegoat for the Hillary Clinton State Department in the Benghazi scandal.  You may remember her appearances on 5 Sunday morning news shows the week that four Americans were killed in attacks at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  Her reason for those television interviews was to place blame for the attacks on an American produced internet movie that ridiculed Islam.  That theory was later debunked.  Rice’s “smoke screen” appearance that day many thought was the beginning of a Obama Administration coverup to deflect blame for those deaths just before the election that gave Obama his second term as President.

It has been revealed that on her way out as NSA Director, Rice took if not illegal at least unethical actions in multiple requests for Intelligence agencies to unmask the identities of American citizens who were identified in legal foreign intelligence surveillance activities.   The actual surveillance acts were conducted legally under FISA law.  However, the unmasking of the identities of Americans incidentally included in that surveillance is illegal.  What is highly suspect is that Rice requested on numerous occasions unmasking of those identified in surveillance of Donald Trump campaign officials and possibly even the President himself.  Her unmasking requests were for Trump associates only.  (It’s odd that she wanted ONLY  Trump folks’ names unmasked)  This is a violation of FISA Section 702.

So what is FISA Section 702?  Find the link to the section of the FISA law below.  But before you read it, here’s the irony of the Amendment itself:  it was drafted by then Senator Barack Obama, passed by Congress and signed into law in 2008.  It was the result of the revelation of intelligence surveillance conducted without a FISA warrant by members of the George W. Bush Administration.  Here’s Section 702:

https://fas.org/irp/news/2013/06/nsa-sect702.pdf

Let’s simplify what happened and what it means:

• FISA Court actions are to protect identities of Americans incidentally identified in legal foreign intelligence surveillance
• Such surveillance must be justified with complete details and proof of necessity in advance
• They can be used only to obtain national security information of/from foreign individuals
• Unmasking is to occur only if those involved are part of criminal or terrorist activities and revealed only to specific individuals who are authorized to see unmasked names
• Leaking identities of Americans unmasked to media or unauthorized persons is a criminal violation that is a felony
• Rice requested unmasking over and over again of Trump transition and campaign individuals, which intelligence personnel found troubling
• At this writing, there is yet no proof Rice herself actually leaked identities of those unmasked

Let me summarize this still developing story.  (And this is purely editorial)  President Obama was embarrassed that Donald Trump was even considered by voters to replace him in the White House.  He considered himself to be the “Change Agent” of the ages to right the ship of America that had drifted too far into Individualism.  America needed “fundamental change.”  He brought it to the Nation, and he wanted that as his legacy to be maintained and even expanded.  He knew Trump would NOT expand it and, in fact, saw during the campaign that President Trump was committed to disassemble the Obama legacy.  What is NOT editorial is this one thing:  On Tuesday Susan Rice stated she requested the unmasking of Americans so her office could more effectively investigate certain foreign intelligence matters.  However, she nor her office are investigative:  they work for the White House!  They are purely political support staff.  The FBI and Justice Department investigate.  Her explanation for unmasking ONLY Trump people was purely for political purposes.  There is NO other plausible explanation.

President Obama seldom directly confronted dissenters during his two terms in office.  He almost always used surrogates.  And Susan Rice had proven to be a willing and very vocal surrogate against any and all who spoke out against President Obama.  He desperately wanted to find dirt on anyone part of the Trump organization and even Donald Trump himself.  Susan Rice as NSA Director was in the perfect spot to instigate “Dirt Gate” — what this entire debacle should be called.

I thought it curious that Obama would after the election “loosen” regulations regarding the sharing of surveillance and authorize distribution of these reports to 16 different intelligence agencies — something for which there was no precedent.  The only logical explanation is that he had a pretty good idea that scattering those around to so many people would assure they would be leaked to the Liberal Left Media — chiefly NY TIMES, and WASHINGTON POST.  Those and the electronic Leftist Media outlets at NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, and MSNBC would certainly pounce on this if provided to them.  It WAS provided….and they DID pounce!

Summary:

It’s really scary to this American that George Orwell foresaw in 1944 when he penned the book “1984” that Big Brother would REALLY exist and would thrive in the Barack Obama Administration in 2008-2016.  Big Brother is watching and has been looking in on private Americans for years — much of it illegal.  What else is scary is that members of the Intelligence Community have become so calloused that doing so seems like just work on another day at the office.  The operations of this intelligence community need to be scrubbed and scrubbed hard by all necessary authorities.  Blow the process up if necessary.  But at least clean house and carefully replace the super spies with honest and committed Americans that know, understand, and respect the laws of the United States and the privacy provided Americans in the U.S. Constitution.  In this case this entire travesty has trampled all over the 14th Amendment.

Americans, we need to hold our government accountable.  In this case Susan Rice needs to under oath without being given immunity even if requested, be asked “Who instructed you to order the unmasking of these surveilled American citizens?”  You can bet two things:  1) Barack Obama did NOT personally order it done; (he’s too smart for that) and 2) his fingerprints will be all over it though.

God help the USA!