{"id":30538,"date":"2017-03-31T12:34:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T16:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=30538"},"modified":"2017-03-31T12:34:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T16:34:34","slug":"the-real-bottom-line-on-russiagate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=30538","title":{"rendered":"The Real Bottom Line On RussiaGate"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, The Hill <\/a>posted an article about the scandal surrounding Russian influence during the 2016 presidential campaign and election.<\/p>\n

The article reminds us of some recent events:<\/p>\n

Senator Chuck Schumer<\/a><\/span> and Congressman Adam Schiff<\/a><\/span> have both castigated Devin Nunes<\/a>, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a>, for his handling of the inquiry into Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 presidential election. \u00a0They should think twice. \u00a0The issue that has recently seized Nunes is of vital importance to anyone who cares about fundamental civil liberties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trail that Nunes is following will inevitably lead back to a particularly significant leak. \u00a0On Jan. 12, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius<\/a> reported<\/a> that \u201caccording to a senior U.S. government official, (General Mike) Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador<\/a> Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember–this case (or lack of it) is based on leaked information. The rights of a private American<\/a> citizen were violated in the way the information about the Russian Ambassador’s phone call was distributed and leaked. What happened here is exactly what the Congressmen who opposed the Patriot Act<\/a> feared would happen–the use of government apparatus to spy on political opponents. It’s here.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

Regardless of how the government collected on Flynn, the leak was a felony and a violation of his civil rights. \u00a0But it was also a severe breach of the public trust. When I worked as an NSC staffer in the White House<\/a>, 2005-2007, I read dozens of NSA surveillance reports every day. On the basis of my familiarity with this system, I strongly suspect that someone in the Obama White House blew a hole in the thin wall that prevents the government from using information collected from surveillance to destroy the lives of the citizens whose privacy it is pledged to protect. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The leaking of Flynn\u2019s name was part of what can only be described as a White House campaign to hype the Russian threat and, at the same time, to depict Trump as Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s Manchurian candidate. \u00a0On Dec. 29, Obama announced<\/a> sanctions against Russia as retribution for its hacking activities. \u00a0From that date until Trump\u2019s inauguration, the White House aggressively pumped into the media two streams of information: one about Russian hacking; the other about Trump\u2019s Russia connection. In the hands of sympathetic reporters, the two streams blended into one. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In late December there were reports of Russians hacking into the electricity grid of a Vermont utility. The hype of Russian intervention continued. It turned out later that the story was totally misreported–an employee had mistakenly loaded some information into the utility’s computer system.<\/p>\n

The article\u00a0 concludes:<\/p>\n

While the White House was hyping the Russia threat, elements of the press showed a sudden interest in the infamous Steele dossier, which claimed<\/a> that Russian intelligence<\/a> services had caught Trump in Moscow in highly compromising situations. \u00a0The dossier was opposition research paid for by Trump\u2019s political opponents, and it had circulated<\/a> for months among reporters covering the election. \u00a0Because it was based on anonymous sources and entirely unverifiable, however, no reputable news organization had dared to touch it. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a little help from the Obama White House, the dossier became fair game for reporters. \u00a0A government leak<\/a> let it be known that the intelligence community had briefed Trump on the dossier. \u00a0If the president-elect was discussing it with his intelligence briefers, so the reasoning went, perhaps there was something to it after all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By turning the dossier into hard news, that leak weaponized malicious gossip. The same is true of the Flynn-Kislyak leak. \u00a0Ignatius used the leak to deepen<\/a> speculation about collusion between Putin and Trump: \u201cWhat did Flynn say (to Kislyak),\u201d Ignatius asked, \u201cand did it undercut the U.S. sanctions?\u201d The mere fact that Flynn\u2019s conversations were being monitored deepened his appearance of guilt. \u00a0If he was innocent, why was the government monitoring him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It should not have been. \u00a0He had the right to talk to in private \u2014 even to a Russian ambassador. \u00a0Regardless of what one thinks about him or Trump or Putin, this leak should concern anyone who believes that we must erect a firewall between the national security state and our domestic politics. \u00a0The system that allowed it to happen must be reformed. \u00a0At stake is a core principle of our democracy: that elected representatives control the government, and not vice versa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laws were broken in releasing the transcripts of the conversations of General Flynn. It is time to get past the partisan divide and realize that this was a serious encroachment on the freedom of all Americans. Those responsible for spreading the information need to be dealt with severely.<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday, The Hill posted an article about the scandal surrounding Russian influence during the 2016 presidential campaign and election. The article reminds us of some recent events: Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Adam Schiff have both castigated Devin Nunes, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2316,3357,1083,4378,3327],"class_list":["post-30538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-devin-nunes","tag-donald-trump","tag-russia","tag-united-states-house-permanent-select-committee-on-intelligence","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30540,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30538\/revisions\/30540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}