The CIA, NSA and other spy agencies are abusing their power by unconstitutionally spying on Americans.
In fact, the politicization of our spy agencies is undermining our freedom and privacy.
When you read about “major leaks” in Washington, ask yourself, who has access to private White House conversations? The spy agencies.
The official term is “unmasking” of the political opposition by government officials, something that isn’t supposed to happen.
Finally, some in Congress are asking for a special counsel to investigate:
- Major Obama administration officials involved with unmasking and leaking, including then National Security Advisor and Obama confidant Susan Rice, former CIA director John Brennan, UN ambassador Samantha Power, and former FBI director James Comey. Of late, former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes has come under scrutiny.
- Why are officials in non-spy agency positions, such as a UN ambassador, requesting hundreds of American names be unmasked?
- What were the reasons for a 320% increase in unmasking requests since 2011.
- Why were the names unmasked? Was it for political spying?
Sen. Rand Paul is on record accusing the Obama administration of using spying for political purposes.
The House Judiciary Committee earlier subpoenaed the NSA, CIA, and FBI to demand they turn over all records related to the Obama administration’s unmasking of members of Donald Trump’s campaign team
If it turns out our national security apparatus was used for spying by one political party against the other, then the Obama administration has created an abuse of power … and then must be forever stopped.
Some of the damaging leaks are directly related to the unmasking of American citizens, the most high-profile being Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, which eventually cost him his job.
The request for the unmasking of names is 7 times greater now than it was when Bush was president.
And officials, such as then UN ambassador Samantha Power made numerous requests for the unmasking of names.
How did this happen?
- Blame the Deep State.
- Blame unelected bureaucrats who don’t want a new sheriff in town.
- Blame entrenched Obama appointees and Democrats.
- Blame the liberal elite mentality of power and control at all costs.
But, bottom line, it happened because those in power can and will abuse their power. Good intentions always crumble when bureaucrats have power.
Masking the names of Americans caught up in conversations was done to protect their 4th Amendment rights to privacy.
But in 2013, in the waning days of the Obama presidency, National Security Agency director James Clapper issued a revision to the rules of masking, making it easier for executive branch officials to unmask names, particularly of lawmakers and congressional staffers.
While it may have been Clapper’s motive to make things easier, there is little doubt the Obama administration took full advantage of it as the number of unmasking requests rose sharply.
By the way, Clapper, now a contributor for CNN, lied to the American people about NSA spying on Americans and meta-data collection.
As of 1992, only the CIA director could unmask names, and he needed written authorization to do so. Now members of 17 different agencies can request unmasking with a stroke of the pen.
The CIA under Brennan embraced radical progressive appointees from the Obama administration, all who wanted to transform America toward a socialist nation.
Until the Washington swamp gets drained, you should not trust the CIA, NSA or even the FBI.
America’s spy agencies have become corrupted and completely politicized.
Yes, we need a strong and modern intelligence service in our very dangerous world.
But we don’t need to be a police state where everyone’s privacy rights are kicked to the curb at the stroke of a pen.
We have learned some hard lessons the past 8 years, that giving power to the elite will effectively result in abuse.
Spy agencies need to go back to protecting Americans, not spying on them for political gain.
What do you think? Write me at [email protected]