Where’s the Smoking Gun?

Representative Devin Nunes is now going to have a closed door session with FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers, as the House Intelligence Committee looks into “topics” that include whether the Obama administration used the guise of “legally authorized top-secret surveillance of foreign targets” to spy on the Trump transition team and spread throughout the government, far and wide, “unmasked” information concerning what the Trump team was doing and to whom they were talking between the November election and Trump’s inauguration.

NSA Spins to the House Intelligence Committee (Open Thread)

© Miri WTPOTUS June 18, 2013

Today we were treated to a hearing during which General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency (NSA) tried once again to explain to We the People why we shouldn’t be concerned that the NSA stores metadata from all of our phone calls.  Also testifying were representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This was basically a propaganda operation combined with a love fest, with much parsing thrown in.  During opening statements, we were assured by committee members and witnesses alike that “safeguards” are in place to secure the information. [Would those be the very same safeguards that did not prevent low-level, undereducated “system administrator” Edward Joseph Snowden from copying and disseminating top secret documents to the entire world?]

AP Phone Records Scandal: You Rang? (Open Thread)

© Miri WTPOTUS May 16, 2013

By now, almost everyone is aware of three scandals currently plaguing the Obama administration:  Benghazi talking points, IRS targeting of conservatives, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenaing telephone records of AP reporters to investigate an alleged national security leak.  Let’s look at that last scandal in more depth.