XPost: alt.guitar.amps, alt.politics.usa.republican, tx.general   
   XPost: tx.guns   
   From: NoEmail@void.net   
      
   In the final days of the Obama administration, someone leaked a key   
   nugget of information to The Washington Post about Michael Flynn,   
   President-elect Donald Trump's national security adviser.   
      
     Trump and Republicans have argued that was an abuse of power and a   
   breach of the law, one that, in their view, needlessly cost Flynn his   
   reputation, his liberty and a fortune in legal fees.   
      
      
      
   But the story is complicated, and the complexity starts with the   
   underlying practice at issue in the Flynn saga: "unmasking."   
      
   What is it?   
      
   The intelligence community spies on hundreds or thousands of foreign   
   targets abroad or foreign agents inside the United States. In many   
   cases, it can hear what they say over the phone or read what they write   
   in emails or text messages.   
      
   Reporting about those communications is used in myriad ways by   
   investigators, analysts and policymakers. But for the sake of security   
   and, to some extent, privacy, the reports undergo "minimization" before   
   they're circulated widely.   
      
   So a report might not say: "Foreign Minister So-And-So talked about the   
   election this week with John Smith." It would say he talked with "U.S.   
   Person 1."   
      
   Certain officials of sufficient stature can ask for "person 1's"   
   identity to be "unmasked" to more fully understand what's taking place   
   in the reporting. As the intelligence community has now revealed, one of   
   those "U.S. Persons" appearing in reports in late 2016 and early 2017   
   was Flynn.   
   Was the government spying on him?   
      
   It was spying on the people with whom he was talking. When Flynn talked   
   with them, he was captured in that surveillance.   
      
   On Wednesday, the intelligence community released a list of the people   
   in the Obama administration who sought materials in which Flynn figured   
   this way, though the National Security Agency said it couldn't assess   
   whether everyone who'd requested such reports had actually seen them.   
      
   A spokesman for Biden emphasized on Wednesday that because of the way   
   "minimization" works, there was no way for officials in the Obama era to   
   single out Flynn or anyone else as a part of these practices. They   
   couldn't see the names of the "U.S. Persons" beforehand.   
      
   They were working from reports about ongoing targets of surveillance —   
   people such as Russia's then-ambassador to the United States.   
      
   Why was Flynn talking with targets of U.S. spying?   
      
   Flynn was Trump's foreign policy adviser in the campaign before he   
   briefly became national security adviser. He and other members of the   
   forthcoming Trump administration-in-waiting began reaching out to   
   foreign officials after the 2016 election.   
      
   During that time, people in the Obama administration likely began to see   
   new references to "U.S. Persons" in their reporting streams. Many of   
   them, it's now clear, asked to see who was involved.   
      
   Some of the officials are boldfaced names from that era including Biden,   
   then-U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, then-CIA Director John Brennan and   
   others. But many of the names in the intelligence materials are   
   lower-level State, Treasury, CIA and other nonpartisan career officials.   
   Some of the names are redacted, suggesting they remain on duty in the   
   national security world.   
      
   There are more than 30 names in the directory.   
      
   What did all those people want to know?   
      
   Those details aren't clear, but it's possible to surmise based on some   
   context clues. Two of the people, for example, are the then-U.S.   
   ambassador to Italy and the then-deputy chief of mission at the embassy   
   in Rome. They both submitted unmasking requests on the same day — Dec.   
   6, 2016 — the newly released records show.   
      
   It's possible they were looking at intelligence reports about the   
   Italian or another European government, saw a reference to   
   communications with a "U.S. Person" and asked to see who it was.   
      
   So this is how the FBI knew about Flynn's conversation with the Russian   
   ambassador?   
      
   Right. It was surveilling the ambassador and heard when he made contact   
   with Flynn. So the FBI also knew that Flynn asked Russia's   
   then-ambassador to ask the Kremlin not to retaliate against the punitive   
   measures the outgoing Obama administration was imposing.   
      
   But when Flynn talked about that conversation after it was revealed by   
   The Post, he said he hadn't discussed sanctions. Vice President Pence   
   repeated as much.   
      
   The FBI and Justice Department knew that wasn't true and worried Flynn   
   could be opening himself up to blackmail, because the Russians could   
   threaten to expose what really had been said. Subsequent investigations   
   also have revealed a number of issues with the procedures, or lack   
   thereof, observed by the FBI and Justice Department at this time.   
      
   Were other people in the Trump camp swept up like Flynn was?   
      
   Probably, but there is no definitive accounting as the intelligence   
   community has provided about Flynn. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman   
   Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday he wants to know about all   
   the people in the Trump camp who might have been swept up or unmasked in   
   this kind of surveillance.   
      
   With Trump's allies holding the reins of the intelligence community,   
   that could be forthcoming.   
      
   Was this "unmasking" illegal?   
      
   No. It's common for officials of sufficient seniority. The intelligence   
   agencies get thousands of unmasking requests every year. And the   
   relevant agencies keep records about who makes the requests, as this   
   week's developments have confirmed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)