Susan Rice and unmasking
So, the news broke yesterday in Bloomberg View in a piece by Eli Lake that the Obama Administration’s national security adviser Susan Rice solicited the identities of American citizens who were swept up in intelligence gathering of foreign communications;
The pattern of Rice’s requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government’s policy on “unmasking” the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like “U.S. Person One.”
[…]
In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice’s multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel’s office, who reviewed more of Rice’s requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.
The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations — primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials.
Technically, it’s legal, but, it is not ethical. Senator Rand Paul is calling for Rice to testify to Congress according to The Hill;
The Kentucky senator, while acknowledging he has little information about the matter beyond the news report, called the unmasking an “enormous deal” and indicated that it should be illegal.
“I don’t think we should discount how big a deal it was that Susan Rice was looking at these, and she needs to be asked, did President Obama ask her to do this? Was this a directive from President Obama?” Paul told reporters.
“I think she ought to testify under oath on this. I think she should be asked under oath, did she reveal it to The Washington Post.”
“I think they were illegally basically using an espionage tool to eavesdrop or wiretap — if you want to use the word generally — on the Trump campaign,” Paul said.
From Fox News;
Rice was asked on “PBS NewsHour” in March about the possibility of incidental intelligence gathering and she responded, “I know nothing about this.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post and the New York Times are doing their level best to ignore this controversy.
Category: Politics
“I know nothing about this” ranks right up there with, “I did not have sex with that woman”.
How bout, “I was only following orders.”
The “Nuremberg defense”…
And “At this point what difference does it make?”
Susan Rice has been unmasked.
I know Nothing! I see Nothing!!!
Hey, Schultz was a good guy, deep down. 🙂
Oddly enough, John Banner was interned in a pre-war concentration camp, and some of his family were killed.
Her real name is Mrs Schultz….”I know nothing, nothing”!!
She is a willing sap. She is a snake in high grass. She established that for all time and forever following the terrorist attack in Benghazi. He allegiance was never to the American people. It was to herself and her master, the POS who departed the WH in January. Her very name makes me want to vomit and her image makes me want to kick the shit out of something. She may be called to testify but I do not believe she will honor the oath that she must first take. I have no doubt that it is just so many words to her and that she is as dirty as sin.
To be fair, the image of some of her puppet-masters also inspires the desire to slap the bejabbers out of the subjects of those images.
She’ll just take the fifth.
Forgive my furriner lack of knowledge, but can she take the 5th as a federal employee?
Yes. See former IRS employee Lois Lerner for a prior example.
Also, even when they lie to Congress under oath, there are rarely any legal consequences.
Well, legal consequences are determined by the Department of Justice. When the former AG Eric Holder was held in contempt of congress (then later proclaimed to an audience it was done because he’s black), they submit their ruling to the DoJ to carry out the legal response to it. However, since they work for him, they didn’t do shit.
If she lies to Congress during this administration, she has no friends and the current AG will likely tag the shit out of her for doing it.
Just wondering if anyone can think of a compelling reason to deny a federal employee the right to Fifth Amendment protection when being questioned about actions done during the course of their employment. I’m all about the Bill of Rights protecting the citizenry from the government, but it seems to me in a case like this it is one branch of the government questioning another branch of the government. How else can we truly hold our government accountable?
I’m OK with public employees retaining their right to not self-incriminate. However, I am not OK with them remaining public employees after they exercise that right.
Ray. You raise an interesting point. There are times when questioning can touch upon criminality. In that situation, depending upon who is doing the questioning, the subject may be Mirandized and invoke his right to keep his mouth shut. Normally, this is not at issue when it comes to misconduct on the job and, of course, it all depends on who is doing the questioning. To answer your question, no, gov’t service does not result in a loss of ind’al rights.
2/17 I agree that what you said probably applies to federal govt. I work in local govt, and in our members handbook, it very clearly states that during an internal investigation, we have no rights against self incrimination, and must cooperate with any and all investigations, or we will be immediately terminated. The agency I worked at before this one had nearly identical language.
Sounds like you don’t have the same unions, lobbyists, and thousands of regulations and laws protecting you as a federal civilian worker does.
She was also SES. Management who does not have Union representation. They could rep her if they feel it is in the best interest of the Union and it’s membership, but they do not have to.
We did have a union, but along with a no strike clause, we had things like that.. a bit of a mixed bag for sure.
Rice’s federal employment ended on Jan 20, 2017.
So the former White House NSA asked for electronic surveillance information on the Trump team but there was no electronic surveillance on the Trump team? The explanation is that the surveillance was on the Russians and Trump team was just ‘mentioned’ – sounds a lot like quibbling over what your definition of ‘is’ is.
Because we’re tired of quibbling over whether it was the hackers who interfered with the elections, or it was the behavior of Democrats that ruined their chances to win the election.
Just once, if they want to establish some credibility, they could deny that all the released info was true. THAT would be more of a support for Russian meddling. Now they just look like kids who got caught red-handed in the cookie jar.
“red-handed”
Heh. double entondre.
Thank you for catching it.
Susan Rice is a willing serving girl to her masters in the DNC.
Susan Rice is also as unethical as the Clintons.
I think that calling Susan Rice a “snake in the grass” does a disservice to snakes. Living in the country as I do, growing up playing with snakes and where snakes venomous and non-venomous live, I know a snake in the grass would just as soon avoid me.
Susan Rice is more like a hyena or a coyote – she went out of her way to attack the innocent. And I suspect the song-dogs are a few steps up from her and her masters.
This is my biggest beef with all leftish creatures, no matter the actual faction.
To them, the end justifies the means.
Lying and cheating is ok because they are doing it to save the future.
I concur, plus snakes are predictable and have a normal behavior. A snake will never change its story if it bites you. Snakes also do not abuse their power or position.
I’ll just pull the pin, let the spoon fly, and roll this out there for Team TAH’s consideration.
Just imagine what we would have been subjected to if anyone on GWB’s staff had pulled something like this on then-candidate BHO during the run-up to the 2008 election.
The shrill cacophony of outrage and protest from the Left and their media supporters that would have resulted would have been deafening and endless, and the incident would have been portrayed as being bigger and more scandalous than Watergate. We’d still be hearing about it today, every day.
As egregious as this all appears to be, in my (cynical) estimation, I sadly don’t believe that this will go anywhere. My prediction is that the Democrats are going to close ranks on this, employ their proven tactics of ‘admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter-accusations’, and their supporting media allies will render all assistance to help them stifle this story. And at the end of the day, the Republicans will let them get away with it.
We’ll have it demonstrated to us yet again that there are laws for the select few, and then there are laws for the rest of us.
It’s sickening to contemplate, but I predict that Rice and whoever else may be involved in this will walk away without any adverse consequences.
I agree with Mick. This thing is covered with the same type of high-test Teflon as the Clintons.
Hasn’t this happened before, in other elections? OH, yeah, that thing about the Pentagon papers – stuff like that. It’s still ‘get even, get some’ with both sides, at this point. I don’t think it will ever stop.
So she is volunteering to be a possible sacrificial lamb. Again.
Waaaaaay back when the first outrage was aired over this, my initial thought was, “Are you Dems really, really sure you want to go down this road?” If this was a tactical decision on the administration’s part, it was a brilliant one. The Dems were baited and they eagerly took the bait.
Difficult to believe that it was anything other than intentional. The choice of words, “tapping my wires,” alone was genius. All the rest just follows logically. Had they not taken the bait? No great loss, but since they did, they are now digging their own graves, so to speak.
Keep running your mouth, Ms Rice. You are not making yourself and those you serve look very good.
When will the media realize that they are hoisting their own petards? Or will they? And does it matter?
It was criminal when Nixon did it…
Yeah, I keep thinking that. Oh, but now….Reasons… That Ben Franklin quote keeps coming back to me too. They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety
I long for the day when Susan Rice just says “Fuck this. I’m done. No more taking one for the team. Here’s the whole story on the Obama gang.”
But then again, I’m too old to believe in fairy tales and unicorns.
I did see an Artesian once.
Where? Were you in Wisconsin? I think they live across the border from me, not sure.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an artesian once but I have seen an artesian well.
I’ve seen an Artesian in a hospital.
I guess he wasn’t…….well.
I’ll be here all night and don’t forget to tip your waitresses.
https://youtu.be/eSnqQFY8fZ0
Richard Farnsworth. Thank you, SFC D
The problem is, SFC D, she’s not smart enough to stop taking it in the ass for “the team”.
She has no problem taking it in the ass because she never has to deal with the clean up.
Hopefully with a new administration this bullshit won’t fly and it will be dealt with.
I’m sure that the surface has only been scratched and we’ll events see a flood of scumbaggery come into the open that will make Richard Nixon look like an Altar Boy while the DNC Pravda media does all it can to hide and mask everything.
“while the DNC Pravda media does all it can to hide and mask everything”. More? More than they’re doing now?
From Mika in the morning, to Richie Madcow at night, from Scott Pelley on See BS to Angrier Mitchell on MSDNC, they’ve all but buried anything about Susan Rice and what she’s done, already.
I am so disappointed with the Republitard party. They seem to still be afraid of the media. They act so carefully, still trying to compromise with an ideological enemy that does not understand reason.
Weak.
BAHAHAHA! If you’re bored, go over and read the shitstorm the DUmbasses started about this. I know the word epic is overused, but it’s pretty epic.
I find that reading DU is like watching “Jackass:” I can literally feel myself getting dumber.
Sorry, but every trip to that site leaves me with the feeling I need to take a Crying Game type of shower.
Trumps wire tap tweet now looks like a shot across the bow at the former administration. They pulled all kinds of shenanigans while in power and no matter how much they tried to cover up on the way out the door after unexpectedly loosing, there’s still enough residue to leave a stain. He was letting them know to shut the F up and back off or he will bring the rain.
I think they were trying to get Trump to play ball, both the Dems and the establishment Repubs and told him the info they had or he found out what was going on. Instead of caving and running off to hide as Repubs are wont to do he did what you said and dropped a bomb on them letting them know he was not going to stand and take it. I think the Hill Lizards still don’t understand Trump and what they are dealing with. It comes from not being dependent on Government for your job or caring what they think.
And, notice who is OCONUS writing his memoirs?
Well you won’t see much out of the media…she’s married to a ABC Executive Producer.
Susan Rice is not an elected official. She can lie to the public all she wants. She never has to win an election.
Just remember who put this snake in a position of power. And expect them to do this again and again if elected.
Apparently, the sources for the story weren’t from the intelligence community or the NSC, but from the NYT, who had pissed off a bunch of reporters by sitting on the story instead of publishing it.
” He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel’s office, who reviewed more of Rice’s requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy.”
Quacks like a cover up.
SGT Schultz would be proud.
It would be really nice if someone went to prison over this.
Sen. Wacky hair guy will go after them. Civil Rights and government overreach are his thing. Unfortunately he has zero pull on the hill.
I’m hearing and reading that this may or may not be legal. Even if it is not using domestic spy agencies to collect information on your opponents should be. Could she really trot out “we didn’t collect any data on Hillary because she wasn’t doing anything shady”?
Well in the last administration it was verboten to collect any information/intelligence on anything to do with the clintons. Why? Because no one with the ability to do so wanted to shoot themself in the head 5 times in a dark alley they’d never been down before.
Unmasking is “legal” yes. However, leaking the names of US Citizens is a federal felony.
The fact that her unmasking of US Citizens lead to their names being “leaked” is what will interest me because they’ll never be able to prove she herself actually ‘leaked’ the names to anyone.
Though, if she had no real reason to do so and her unmasking requests resulted in those names getting leaked, is it therefore possible for her to be charged with some sort of aiding and abetting in the leaking of the names?
Now that there is a new administration, a new attorney general, a new leader of the DoJ, etc etc., perhaps there will be real repercussions for the abuse of power happening in the previous administration.
well, we’ve seen what the penalties for being negligent with classified info are for high Dems before… obviously the severe penalties on Hillary scared everyone off. /sarc