TRUMP.

[Joel]

If Trump Tower Was Wiretapped, Trump Can Declassify That Right Now

IF IN FACT Trump Tower was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign, as President Trump claimed in several tweets Saturday morning, he can do much more than say so on twitter: Presidents have the power to declassify anything at any time, so Trump could immediately make public any government records of such surveillance.

What Trump is saying seems to be a garbled version of previous reporting by the BBC, among other news outlets.



According to a report in the BBC, citing unnamed sources, a joint government task force was formed in spring of 2016 to look into an intelligence report from a foreign government that Russian money was somehow coming into the U.S. presidential race. In June the Department of Justice, part of the task force, asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for a warrant to intercept electronic communications by two Russian banks (presumably involving communications with Americans, or else no warrant would be needed).

However, the BBC’s report says, the FISA court turned the application down, something it almost never does. The Justice Department then asked again in July with a more narrowly drawn request, which was again turned down. Justice then made a third request for a warrant on October 15, which was granted.

None of this involves wiretapping Trump Tower. However, it is possible that Trump picked that up from a Breitbart article that in turn relied on a Heat Street piece that claimed the warrant was issued because of evidence of links between a “private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower” and a Russian bank. In fact, the server in question, set up by a marketing company hired by Trump, was physically located in Philadelphia.

Barack Obama’s spokesman responded to Trump’s tweets by saying that “neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.” Notably, this statement does not deny that someone in the Obama administration ordered surveillance of Trump Tower, simply that the White House did not – which isn’t meaningful, since in a properly functioning executive branch the Justice Department would make that decision on its own without White House interference.

So what does all this mean?

The most likely explanation is that there was never any wiretapping of Trump Tower – or as Trump put it in another tweet, “my phones” — but the FISA court did allow surveillance of the Philadelphia server and the Justice Department ultimately decided there was nothing to it.

Or perhaps the Justice Department decided there was something to it and is still investigating it.

Or perhaps there were FISA court warrants but for surveillance of people around Trump that had nothing to do with the Philadelphia server and the Russian bank.

Or perhaps Trump never read the Breitbart article but instead learned there was significant surveillance of Trump Tower in the way you’d expect a president would, from the massive intelligence apparatus he commands.

Or perhaps Trump has simply gotten all of this wrong.

Whatever the case, Trump has the power to clarify it and everything else about the Russia story right now by declassifying whatever surveillance records exist of contacts between people in his orbit and Russia. If he and his associates did nothing wrong, he has every incentive to do so as soon as possible.

The White House press office did not immediately respond to requests to comment on whether Trump will use his declassification power regarding his tweeted claims. It’s previously ignored repeated questions about whether he will use it regarding the general issue of contacts between Russia and his campaign.

INTERESTINGLY, THERE HAS in fact been significant government surveillance involving a presidential campaign in the past, although it’s unlikely Trump will want to remind America of it.

During the 1968 contest between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, President Lyndon Johnson was attempting to negotiate a peace deal to end the Vietnam War.

Nixon was worried that if this happened just before the election it would help Humphrey, who was Johnson’s vice president. Recently discovered notes by one of Nixon’s top campaign aides show that Nixon asked him to “monkey wrench” the peace talks. Via Anna Chennault, a top Republican fundraiser, the Nixon campaign sent messages to the government of South Vietnam not to go along with Johnson’s plans.

Johnson knew that this was happening at the time, and believed that it constituted “treason.” He ordered the FBI to wiretap the embassy of South Vietnam in Washington, which picked up Ambassador Bui Diem communicating with Chennault. (Presidents could and did directly order wiretaps prior to the establishment of the FISA court in 1978 to prevent executive branch abuses of its surveillance power.) The FBI also began conducting general surveillance of Chennault.

Johnson and several top officials, including Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, struggled with what to do in a fascinating phone call on November 4, 1968, the day before the election.

Johnson speaks of not wanting to be “a McCarthy” and worries about the certainty that “we’ll be charged with trying to interfere with the election.”

Rusk also equivocates, telling Johnson that “I do not believe that any president can make any use of interceptions or telephone taps in any way that would involve politics. The moment we cross over that divide we are in a different kind of society. … We get a lot of information through these special channels that we don’t make public. For example, some of the malfeasances of senators and congressmen and other people. … I think that we must continue to respect the classification of that kind of material.”

Clifford chimed in with another concern: that Americans just couldn’t endure learning how the world actually works. “I think,” Clifford fretted, “that some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story, and then possibly to have a certain individual elected. It could cast his whole administration under such doubts that I would think it would be inimical to our country’s interests.”

In the end, Johnson decided not to reveal what he knew about Nixon’s shocking subterfuge.

The next day Nixon narrowly beat Humphrey. During Nixon’s time in office, 20,000 more U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died before the war finally ended.

The fact that Nixon did ally with a foreign government for advantage in a presidential election certainly doesn’t mean that Trump did the same. However, it does mean that U.S. politicians are capable of doing that – and that past presidents have used wiretaps to track the actions of their political adversaries.

[Joel]

[Joel]

[Mark]

Make light of these unconstitutional Survealance tactics all you want Joel. You probably work for the DNC. However for any concerned about constitutional protections and the rule of law these allegations and potentials are just down right scary. The Obama swamp is Looking like a crime syndicate with the power of govt behind them. Every freedom loving American should be concerned about these potential breaches of constitutional authority and the protections afforded us as citizens thru the constitution. Levin does a good job breaking this down.

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/03/ ... ng-claims/

[Joel]

[Joel]

[Elizabeth]

" 6 March 2017.

I just signed a NEW Executive Order on immigration:

Temporarily Restricting immigration from six countries compromised by radical Islamic terrorism: Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen

Momentarily Freezing travel for citizens of those countries who do not have approved U.S. visas

Suspending the entire U.S. refugee program for 120 days to allow time to develop extreme vetting procedures
As your President, I made a solemn promise to keep America safe. And I will NEVER stop fighting until we implement the policies you -- and millions of Americans like you -- voted for.

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States."

[Joel]

Did Trump’s Grandfather Beg the Government of Bavaria Not To Deport Him?

“Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family," wrote Friedrich Trump in 1905.

On 1 March 2017, Harper’s magazine published a translation of a letter written by President Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, to Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, in which he pled (unsuccessfully) for the Prince regent to reconsider his family’s deportation.

The letter was found in a local German archive and was first published in the German newspaper Bild on 21 November 2016. The Associated Press confirmed the story in a bulletin posted that same day:

Bild newspaper printed the 1905 letter located by an historian, in which Friedrich Trump wrote Bavarian Prince Luitpold begging the “well-loved, noble, wise and just” leader not to deport him. Luitpold rejected the “most subservient request.”

Trump’s grandfather was born in Kallstadt, then part of Bavaria, and immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager without performing his military service. It was after he’d made his fortune there and tried to resettle in Germany that he was ordered expelled, and returned to the U.S.

Many news outlets have suggested that Friedrich’s arguments appear similar to contemporary ones raised by those who fear deportation under President Trump’s orders or oppose his immigration policies, including this passage:

We were confronted all at once, as if by a lightning strike from fair skies, with the news that the High Royal State Ministry had decided that we must leave our residence in the Kingdom of Bavaria. We were paralyzed with fright; our happy family life was tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick.

Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur. I would like to become a Bavarian citizen again.

The back story to this letter (and Trump’s ultimate deportation from Bavaria) began when Friedrich first arrived in America as a 16-year-old barber’s apprentice in 1886. He bounced around a variety of apartments and jobs in New York before moving to Washington state in 1891 and finding financial success even further north in Canada during the Gold Rush, as discussed in a New Yorker profile of him:

Suddenly, in 1891, Friedrich was off to Washington State before going to the Klondike regions, where he pursued a colorful career providing food, liquor, and women to miners He came back to New York enriched, a decade later, and continued to move around, trying the Bronx before settling in the Woodhaven section of Queens, where the Trump empire put down deeper roots than it had in Manhattan, and where his grandson [President Trump] was raised.

In 1902, during a trip back to his hometown of Kallstadt, Frederick Trump married a local woman named Elizabeth Christ and brought her home with him to New York:

On one of his trips home to Kallstadt, Friedrich married the girl next door, Elizabeth, and took her to New York. Elizabeth, however, was homesick, and in 1904 the family returned to Kallstadt. Friedrich “worked, for a year, to get his citizenship back” from the German authorities, according to John Walter, Donald’s first cousin, who works for the Trump Organization and serves as the family historian. To no avail: Friedrich had failed to fulfill his compulsory military duty, and as a result he was expelled. “So they left,” Walter says. “And they went back to America, and that’s why Donald and I are here.”

This was the context within which Friedrich pleaded Prince Luitpold for citizenship in 1905:

Most Serene, Most Powerful Prince Regent! Most Gracious Regent and Lord!

I was born in Kallstadt on March 14, 1869. My parents were honest, plain, pious vineyard workers. They strictly held me to everything good — to diligence and piety, to regular attendance in school and church, to absolute obedience toward the high authority.

After my confirmation, in 1882, I apprenticed to become a barber. I emigrated in 1885, in my sixteenth year. In America I carried on my business with diligence, discretion, and prudence. God’s blessing was with me, and I became rich. I obtained American citizenship in 1892. In 1902 I met my current wife. Sadly, she could not tolerate the climate in New York, and I went with my dear family back to Kallstadt.

This request was ultimately denied because Trump had avoided his compulsory military service and because he had never removed himself from the registry of the town of Kallstadt as required of an emigrant, as reported by German public media outlet Deutsche Welle:

The authorities soon discovered that Friedrich Trump had never performed the mandatory military service before leaving Germany. Another problem, according to local historian Roland Paul, was that Trump never officially unregistered from his hometown.

The official notice of Trump’s deportation read: “The American citizen and pensioner Friedrich Trump, currently residing in Kallstadt, is hereby informed that he is to depart the state of Bavaria, or face deportation.”

Friedrich and Elisabeth returned to New York in July 1905 during Elizabeth’s pregnancy with Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father.

[Joel]

[Elizabeth]

The above is not worthy to be posted Joel, you should be ashamed to do so.

[Joel]

[Joel]

I wish this was brought up,Chapter 36 of Title 50 of the US Code *War and National Defense", Subchapter 1, Section 1802:

(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that—
(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—
(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or
(ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title;
(B) there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party; and
(C) the proposed minimization procedures with respect to such surveillance meet the definition of minimization procedures under section 1801(h) of this title; and
if the Attorney General reports such minimization procedures and any changes thereto to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at least thirty days prior to their effective date, unless the Attorney General determines immediate action is required and notifies the committees immediately of such minimization procedures and the reason for their becoming effective immediately.

If using that section of the law I wonder if Obama used statements like these to justify any wiretapping that may have taken place at Trump tower?

If there is an investigation it would be interesting to watch if it is found that Obama committed a crime and how that is handled... Would there be prison time considered?

[Joel]

[Joel]

Mark Hamill Records Donald Trump’s Obama Wire Tapping Tweets in the Villainous Voice of The Joker

https://audioboom.com/posts/5682221-tap ... ster-again

[Joel]

[Older/wiser?]

Love Trump or hate him, He told planned parenthood no more money unless they stop doing abortions, ya got love that. Whether it comes to pass or not time will tell, it's great to hear the man at the top say things like "G_d bless America " and refer to us as a Christian Nation. Over the pass 8 yrs I don't believe I ever heard the previous pontiff refer to our nation in that light. He may fail the odds aren't in his favor, to much to untangle and battle. For the moment, I just found it refreshing to hear him say No money unless you stop abortions. To that I wholeheartedly add my support.

[Elizabeth]

Well said O/W

[Joel]

Shep Smith apoplectic after latest Michael Flynn revelations: ‘It’s too much lying, and too much smoke!’

Fox News host Shep Smith on Thursday erupted over reports that Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to Donald Trump retroactively registered as a foreign agent working on behalf of the Turkish government.

Noting Flynn is the same person who “lied to the Vice President about his conversation with Russian leaders, and was forced to resign after 24 days on the job,” Smith reported that Flynn also helped “the Turkish leader as a lobbyist during the U.S. presidential campaign,” earning $530,000 for his work.

Smith played footage of Flynn “on the campaign trail with Donald Trump complaining about pay-for-play, as he was paid to play by a businessman that supported the Turkish leader who’s voting base is Islamic voters.”

“There’s been a lot of lying,” Smith said. “There’s been lying about who you talked to—and, by lots of people—and almost inevitable and invariably, they were lying about talking to the Russians about something.”

“It’s too much lying, and too much Russia, and too much smoke!” Smith exclaimed.

[Joel]

2016

today

[Joel]

U.S. Drone Strikes Have Gone Up 432% Since Trump Took Office



When he was in office, former President Barack Obama earned the ire of anti-war activists for his expansion of Bush’s drone wars. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning head of state ordered ten times more drone strikes than the previous president, and estimates late in Obama’s presidency showed 49 out of 50 victims were civilians. In 2015, it was reported that up to 90% of drone casualties were not the intended targets.

Current President Donald Trump campaigned on a less interventionist foreign policy, claiming to be opposed to nation-building and misguided invasions. But less than two months into his presidency, Trump has expanded the drone strikes that plagued Obama’s “peaceful” presidency.

According to an analysis from Micah Zenko, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, Trump has markedly increased U.S. drone strikes since taking office. Zenko, who reported earlier this year on the over 26,000 bombs Obama dropped in 2016, summarized the increase:

“During President Obama’s two terms in office, he approved 542 such targeted strikes in 2,920 days—one every 5.4 days. From his inauguration through today, President Trump had approved at least 36 drone strikes or raids in 45 days—one every 1.25 days.”

That’s an increase of 432 percent.

He highlights some of the attacks:

“These include three drone strikes in Yemen on January 20, 21, and 22; the January 28 Navy SEAL raid in Yemen; one reported strike in Pakistan on March 1; more than thirty strikes in Yemen on March 2 and 3; and at least one more on March 6.”

The Trump administration has provided little acknowledgment of the human toll these strikes are taking. As journalist Glenn Greenwald noted in the Intercept, the Trump administration hastily brushed off recent civilian casualties in favor of honoring the life of a single U.S. soldier who died during one of the Yemen raids just days after Trump took office:

“The raid in Yemen that cost Owens his life also killed 30 other people, including ‘many civilians,’ at least nine of whom were children. None of them were mentioned by Trump in last night’s speech, let alone honored with applause and the presence of grieving relatives. That’s because they were Yemenis, not Americans; therefore, their deaths, and lives, must be ignored (the only exception was some fleeting media mention of the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, but only because she was a U.S. citizen and because of the irony that Obama killed her 16-year-old American brother with a drone strike).”

Greenwald notes this is typical of not just Trump, but the American war machine in general:

“We fixate on the Americans killed, learning their names and life stories and the plight of their spouses and parents, but steadfastly ignore the innocent people the U.S. government kills, whose numbers are always far greater.”

Though some Trump supporters sang his praises as a peace candidate before he took office, the president’s militarism was apparent on many occasions. He openly advocated increasing the size and scope of the military, a promise he is now moving to keep. And as Zenko highlights, Trump was disingenuous with his rhetoric against interventionism:

“He claimed to have opposed the 2003 Iraq War when he actually backed it, and to have opposed the 2011 Libya intervention when he actually strongly endorsed it, including with U.S. ground troops. Yet, Trump and his loyalists consistently implied that he would be less supportive of costly and bloody foreign wars, especially when compared to President Obama, and by extension, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

As Trump continues to dig his heels into decades-old policies he has criticized himself — reportedly mulling over sending ground troops into Syria — he is increasingly proving to be yet another establishment warmonger implementing policies that spawn the creation of more terrorists. As Zenko concludes:

“We are now on our third post-9/11 administration pursuing many of the same policies that have failed to meaningfully reduce the number of jihadist extremist fighters, or their attractiveness among potential recruits or self-directed terrorists. The Global War on Terrorism remains broadly unquestioned within Washington, no matter who is in the White House.”

[Joel]

[Joel]

[inho]

Trump gives CIA power to launch drone strikes

President Donald Trump has given the Central Intelligence Agency secret new authority to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists, U.S. officials said, changing the Obama administration’s policy of limiting the spy agency’s paramilitary role and reopening a turf war between the agency and the Pentagon.

The new authority, which hadn’t been previously disclosed, represents a significant departure from a cooperative approach that had become standard practice by the end of former President Barack Obama’s tenure: The CIA used drones and other intelligence resources to locate suspected terrorists and then the military conducted the actual strike. The U.S. drone strike that killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in May 2016 in Pakistan was the best example of that hybrid approach, U.S. officials said.

The Obama administration put the military in charge of pulling the trigger to promote transparency and accountability. The CIA, which operates under covert authorities, wasn’t required to disclose the number of suspected terrorists or civilian bystanders it killed in drone strikes. The Pentagon, however, must publicly report most airstrikes.

Mr. Trump has indicated he wants to accelerate the fight against Islamic State and other militant groups. The CIA first used its new authority in late February in a strike on a senior al Qaeda leader in Syria, Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, U.S. officials said. The strike in northern Syria on Mr. Masri, a son-in-law of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, had been reported, but it wasn’t previously known the CIA had carried it out under the new authority. U.S. officials are still assessing results of the strike.

Spokesmen for the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment.

[Joel]

[Joel]

David Clay Johnston, the journalist who broke the Trump tax return story, says he believes President Donald Trump is the one who sent him the pages anonymously.