The NY Times notices a big problem
National Security Wiretap System Was Long Plagued by Risk of Errors and Omissions
In the 1990s, F.B.I. agents hunting for a Russian mole zeroed in on a C.I.A. official as their main suspect as they tried to determine who had sold secrets that had led to the deaths of American spies. When they sought court permission to wiretap him, they kept quiet about facts that cast doubts on their theory.
But the mole turned out to instead be one of the F.B.I.’s own, Robert P. Hanssen, and the agents were later exposed for cherry-picking evidence against the innocent C.I.A. official in their surveillance applications.
That little-known aspect of the notorious Hanssen case illustrates the risk of dysfunction in national security wiretapping, one of counterintelligence agents’ most powerful tools in fighting terrorism and espionage. Now, that defect has surfaced again. The F.B.I.’s flawed applications to monitor a former Trump adviser in the Russia investigation, Carter Page, has prompted a new cycle of scandal revealed in a damning report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The problems may be part of a broader pattern in other applications that never receive the same intense scrutiny, according to interviews with more than two dozen current and former F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials who have worked with national security wiretaps. The system is vulnerable, they said, to lower-level agents suppressing or overlooking evidence that weakens their case when they seek permission to conduct surveillance.
Hmm, lower level agents
President Trump and his supporters have long embraced a theory that Mr. Page was a victim of a high-level political conspiracy. The inspector general report did not confirm that narrative, instead finding different — yet still serious — problems. (snip)
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee, led by Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, will mark up a bill that is expected to become a vehicle for Congress to weigh in on broader surveillance issues. He has been negotiating with Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, who leads the Intelligence Committee, and with Republicans on his own panel. (snip)
But the bill, according to people familiar with negotiations over the draft, would make other adjustments that dovetail with the inspector general report — like expanding when FISA judges should appoint outsiders to critique the government’s arguments. Lawmakers could also legally require the F.B.I. to be candid with the FISA court and to correct errors.
Um, it’s already rather against the law to lie to any court, including the FISA court. If anything, the bill should make sure that government employees who lie to the court are actually punished. Who has been punished for lying to the FISA court over Carter Page or any of the other Trump associates, as well as Mr. Trump himself?
Notice what this is really all about: blaming low level agents and a flawed process, which is why they mentioned Robert Hanssen, rather than high ranking government employees who took advantage of the system and lied, hid information, and made up information. There’s zero chance that it was low level agents involved in obtaining warrants to spy on a presidential candidate and people working for and associated with his campaign. Sure, there are issues with the court and the process, as the Times lays out ad nauseum in a long article, but, a junior agent isn’t going to be getting a warrant to surveille a presidential candidate.
Read: Surprise: National Security Wiretap System Is A Mess »
First and foremost, denial is about comfort. Doing as little as you have to so as not to face the consequences of change. Avoiding Conflict. Staying the course makes life easier. Continuing to burn fossil fuels because change is complicated. Neglecting to acknowledge nearly every choice you make inflicts damage on someone/something, because you can’t feel good about it.
Celebrating what appeared to be a convincing Nevada caucuses victory thanks to Vladimir Putin, an exuberant Bernie Sanders crowed to a large crowd Saturday night after moving on to the Super Tuesday state of Texas.
Daffodils flowering before Christmas. Roses still in bloom in January. Grapes flourishing in the home counties. Across the UK, the changing climate is upending gardening calendars. But while milder temperatures mean we can now grow species that would previously be unable to endure the cold, longer growing seasons and extreme weather events are also having negative effects on the British garden.
It’s not a fluke, an error, or an outlier. In poll after poll, the results are clear: Climate change is one of the most important issues in the 2020 presidential election.
A diminutive brown snail species has been named after Greta Thunberg, with researchers saying they named the mollusc for the Swedish climate worrier because her generation “will be responsible for fixing problems they did not create.â€
Russia has been trying to intervene in the Democratic primaries to aid Senator Bernie Sanders, according to people familiar with the matter, and Mr. Sanders said on Friday that intelligence officials recently briefed him.
