Horowitz' FISA report

[Anderz]

Even though I'm supporting Marianne Williamson for the 2020 presidential election, I'm still a fan of Trump! That might seem crazy at first but Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is about to release his FISA report, or rather it has already been released to the Justice Department and the FBI for a classification review, but the report is expected to be released to the public soon.

"There has been scattered reporting about when the report will be released. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo announced over the weekend that her sources were telling her it would be released on Oct. 18, as well as calling it "thick as a telephone book" and covering "more than just FISA abuse." On Monday, Bartiromo updated her report, tweeting, "IG report NOT out this Friday 10/18. Classifications being made. Likely end of month."" - https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/food-fight-over-fisa-report-could-lead-to-extensive-redactions

Trump said that the Clintons are criminals. If he is wrong about that I will lose interesting in him, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and especially look at the FISA report to see if there is some Clinton and/or DNC corruption etc pointed out in it.

[Anderz]

"FISA court abuses do indeed exist. And they point to a disturbing rot in the justice system: unelected political appointees taking power into their own hands to surveil and investigate political topics under the guise of national security. This goes beyond Trump, Mueller, and the rest. This is about a total lack of transparency and accountability in a government that is supposed to work for us. We need answers, and it looks like we’re about to get them." - https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/what-to-expect-from-inspector-general-michael-horowitzs-report-on-alleged-fisa-abuses

[Bodigger]

I'm curious as to what took place as well.  At this time I think it looks very suspicious that a candidate for president was being monitored by a government agency.

[Anderz]

Here is a massive hearing about FISA:

As I see it, FISA is valid and useful for national security. What is a bigger issue however is what is called the Five Eyes program which as I understand it allows for example GCHQ to do surveillance legally on U.S. citizens.

Edit: Yes, looks like I was right about that:

"The former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described the Five Eyes as a "supra-national intelligence organisation that does not answer to the known laws of its own countries".[6] Documents leaked by Snowden in 2013 revealed that the FVEY has been spying on one another's citizens and sharing the collected information with each other in order to circumvent restrictive domestic regulations on surveillance of citizens.[7][8][9][10]" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

Edited October 17, 2019 by Anderz

[Anderz]

So what does Five Eyes have to do with Horowitz' FISA report? The answer is this:

"Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives ... Australia, a member of the “Five Eyes” spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said." - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia

Maybe there will even be something mentioned about Five Eyes in the FISA report. Isn't Five Eyes also useful for national security? Only in a messy way because lack of transparency results in a schizophrenic situation between governments and citizens where phony fronts are presented to the people while shadowy operations such as Five Eyes go on in the background. It's an unsustainable situation long-term.

[Leo Gura]

13 hours ago, Anderz said:

Trump said that the Clintons are criminals.

Pot calling the kettle black.

Whatever criminal stuff Clintons may have done, Trump did 10x worse.

13 hours ago, Anderz said:

but I will give him the benefit of the doubt

That's your mistake right there, Lol.

[Anderz]

It can be useful for people on the left to look at some pro Trump information just to get a perspective. Here is a good pro Trump presentation regarding the FISA report:

 

[Anderz]

Here is a lame update from yesterday, but it's at least something:

"Washington — The Justice Department's internal watchdog said a highly anticipated report on the department's use of secret surveillance warrants during the Russia investigation is "nearing completion" and will likely be released publicly, according to a letter obtained by CBS News.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote to congressional leaders on Thursday with an update on his investigation into alleged abuses of warrants obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Horowitz said he expects the report "will be released publicly with few redactions," but declined to provide a timeline." - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-inspector-general-michael-horowitz-says-fisa-report-is-nearing-completion/

Few redactions. Sounds fair enough. Some redactions will likely always be necessary to protect privacy etc.

[Anderz]

From Fox News minutes ago:

"Hannity: Reports on alleged FISA abuse and origins of Russia probe will ‘shock the conscious and soul of the nation'

... "We know the bulk of information was that Hillary Clinton bought and paid for dirty Russian dossier ... so they could help her win the election in 2016," Hannity added." - https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-says-fisa-report-will-shock-the-conscious-and-soul-of-the-nation-as-release-date-reportedly-draws-closer

Of course, comments like that are expected from Fox News, but there could be truth to it!

[Anderz]

The FISA report gets delayed and delayed!  I came to think that if the FISA report proves DNC corruption that it will not only help Trump but also massively improve the chances of Marianne Williamson being nominated! Because of this:

"Presidential candidate and author Marianne Williamson doubled down on her criticism of the Democratic National Committee, accusing the DNC of “dictating rather than facilitating the process of democracy.” ...

In an op-ed penned a day after the debate, Williamson accused the DNC of trying to exclude certain candidates who don’t discuss a “preordained category of topics.”

"Try as they might to throw people off the scent, the DNC and its media pals are creating the stench of inauthenticity at exactly the moment when some blazing truths should be shining through," she argued." - https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/466703-marianne-williamson-dnc-is-dictating-rather-than-facilitating-the-process-of

I would prefer Williamson over Trump. They both can deal with the corruption in a potential Watergate level scandal, yet Williamson will bring integral spirituality into the highest level of politics which I'm very interested in.

[Nak Khid]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/inspector-general-fisa-report-carter-page-russia-investigation.html

"Ultimately, it won’t do much to undermine the real investigation it targets.
It’s possible the report will find some bureaucratic missteps in the handling of a warrant application, but it’s not likely to undo any of the thorough work by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team. Barr’s less impartial investigation—he has himself accused the FBI of “spying” on the Trump campaign—may be the one to really keep an eye out for, if only because it will almost certainly mean more emphatic Trump tweets."

[Anderz]

Quote

"Report will clear FBI of misdeeds in Russia inquiry, sources say" - Los Angeles Times, Dec 7, 2019

I believe that's correct. The FBI is experienced enough to prevent monumental legal blunders probably. 

Quote

"Monday, Horowitz's office will release a long-awaited report on whether the FBI conducted illegal surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide. President Donald Trump and his allies contend the FBI improperly spied on the campaign." - USA Today, Dec 8, 2019

FISA report hopefully released tomorrow! What I'm curious about is whether the DNC and/or the Clintons are accused of corruption in the FISA report.

[Anderz]

Quote

"The report was compiled by the office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department's internal watchdog. ... Horowitz was nominated to his post by former President Barack Obama. Trump has called him an "Obama guy." But his peers have said he's nonpartisan" - USA Today, Dec 9, 2019

Horowitz is a serious fellow, I think he is unbiased and nonpartisan.

From the same article:

Quote

"What will the report address?

The report focuses on how the investigation into Russia began in the summer of 2016. The principal questions: Was the FBI's surveillance of former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page legal? ... Horowitz also examined the FBI's relationship and communication with Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and Russia expert who compiled a now-infamous "dossier" alleging links between Russia and Trump."

The Steele dossier seems suspicious and it's connected to Hillary Clinton and the DNC:

Quote

"WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr recently approved making public new details about a former F.B.I. informant ... Mr. Trump’s allies have emphasized that Mr. Steele compiled the information for a research firm, and that the firm was paid by lawyers who worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee." - The New York Times, Dec 9, 2019

 

[Anderz]

We need to have a laser focus on Hillary and the DNC when mainstream media unleashes a formidable school of red herrings in an attempt to divert our attention away from the crucial matter regarding the FISA report.

[Anderz]

Quote

"Comey told congressional investigators the Steele dossier wasn’t verified as of May 2017. Yet, somehow, the dossier was used as the primary piece of evidence by the FBI to obtain the Page FISA warrant on Oct. 21, 2016." - The Epoch Times, Dec 8, 2019

 

[Anderz]

The FISA report has been released: https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf

I browsed briefly through the report and found that the FISA application:

Quote

"Failed to update the description of Steele after information became known to the Crossfire Hurricane team, from Ohr and others, that provided greater clarity on the political origins and connections of Steele's reporting, including that Simpson was hired by someone associated with the Democratic Party and/or the DNC" - FISA report, Executive Summary

Very interesting! At least some mischief. I will look further into the report.

[Anderz]

There are a lot of mentioning of the hacked DNC emails in the FISA report. I only found that the report said that the hack was done by Russian agents. The report also mentioned that Putin denied those accusations:

Quote

"Russian President Vladimir Putin said in or about September 2016 that Russia was not responsible for the hack, but that the release of the DNC documents was a net positive: "The important thing is the content that was given to the public."" - FISA report, Appendix 1

And indeed, NSA whistleblower William Binney has found that the DNC emails were NOT hacked via the internet:

Quote

"Pompeo met on October 24 with William Binney, a former National Security Agency official-turned-whistleblower who co-authored an analysis published by a group of former intelligence officials that challenges the U.S. intelligence community’s official assessment that Russian intelligence was behind last year’s theft of data from DNC computers. Binney and the other former officials argue that the DNC data was “leaked,” not hacked, “by a person with physical access” to the DNC’s computer system." - The Intercept, Nov 7, 2017

Haha, physical access to the DNC servers. I doubt that some Russian GRU agents were running around within the DNC facilities and downloaded emails to a thumb drive. It smacks of some kind of inside job. This could be Watergate level scandal material.

[Anderz]

President Trump said in a response to the FISA report today that there is another report by federal prosecutor John Durham coming soon that is far worse. Could be true! We will see if Durham has been looking into this:

Quote

"The email messages subsequently posted by WikiLeaks had been pilfered by an insider of unknown identity: This was the conclusion VIPS drew in VIPS50, the group’s report on the mail incident, on the basis of the evidence it had gathered while working with other independent forensic investigators. The “hack,” in short, was not a hack. It was a leak." - Consortium News, Aug 5, 2019

 

[Anderz]

To summarize the Spygate saga so far: The DNC leaked their own emails, blamed it on the Russians and then used the leaked emails to accuse Trump of working together with the Russians.

[Bno]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:28 AM, Leo Gura said:

Pot calling the kettle black.

Whatever criminal stuff Clintons may have done, Trump did 10x worse.

We don't know who is worse unless we take the tine to compare everything they've done. They both have millions of skeletons in the closet. However, to be fair, the Clintons have had more opportunity than Trump to cause more actual harm on people, millions of which ended up dying because of their prison, economic, foreign, and trade policies.

You're right on not giving Trump the benefit of the doubt though lol, ever! Then again, I wouldn't give corporate Dems the benefit of the doubt either. Their incompetence is what gave us Trump.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Bno