Look out for Congressional questioners who are limiting their inquiry to questions tailored to be narrowly focused on the issue of “wiretaps” “ordered” by the FBI; and/or the DOJ; and/or the U.S. Intelligence or Security Agencies
Tenor of Sunday article in Newsday downplays significance of Monday’s testimony by Comey and Rogers to House Intelligence Committee --- UNLESS --- something bad for President Trump comes out
So far, based upon the articles that have appeared in
the mainstream media, the prospect of tomorrow's hearing does inspire any real confidence that either the Republicans
actually want to find anything that might help President Trump’s claims against
former President Obama or that the Democrats will let-up on any of the Trump-Russia election conspiracy theories any time soon.
NEWSDAY’S PRE-HEARING OUTLOOK
An illustrative example of what everybody is
being told by way of the MSM coverage of the upcoming hearings is an article
appearing today in Newsday.
Here is a soupcon of what Newsday wants you
to expect in its Sunday article and tomorrow’s Congressional hearing:
“HIGHLIGHTS…. Lawmakers seek definitive answer
to surveillance questions…. Panel to press on whether Trump
campaign, Russia colluded….”
The
actual article opens with these paragraphs:
: “The stakes will be high
when FBI Director James Comey testifies before a House panel Monday morning on
President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor ‘wire
tapped’ Trump Tower during the campaign last year…. It will be Comey’s first public discussion
of the explosive charges that Trump leveled in a series of tweets early on a
Saturday morning two weeks ago, accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping
or conducting surveillance last year on Trump and his campaign…. ‘This could be high drama,’ said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), a member of
the House Intelligence Committee, which is holding the hearing. ‘I have no idea
where this hearing is going to end up at the end of the day.’… Lawmakers said they want Comey to give a
definitive answer to questions that have hung over Washington: Did the FBI
wiretap Trump Tower, Trump or his associates last year as part of an
investigation into Trump and the campaign’s ties to Russia? And did Obama have
a role?... The committee members also
will press Comey on whether the FBI has probed or discovered evidence that
Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia or that the Obama administration
illegally leaked surveillance transcripts for political purposes…. All the indications now are that the FBI had no evidence that
Obama wiretapped Trump….” (See.. “FBI Director James Comey to testify on President Trump’s unproven wiretap claim” by Tom Brune, 3/19/17, Newsday/ News/ Nation [http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/fbi-director-comey-to-testify-on-president-trump-s-unproven-wiretap-claim-1.13287142]).
It takes quite a while before Newsday gets around to the fact that also testifying before
the Congressional Committee will be the head of the NSA --- “…. Yet it is not
clear how much Comey will reveal as he and National Security Agency director
Mike Rogers testify as part of the committee’s investigation of Trump’s
wiretapping assertion and Russian interference in last year’s presidential
election….”
Also according to the Newsday
report, “…. House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin
Nunes (R-Calif.) and ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — as well as Senate
Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and vice chair Mark
Warner (D-Va.) — have all had closed-door briefings by the FBI. They said last
week they have seen no evidence for Trump’s claim against Obama…. Schiff said Sunday he expects Comey will say
the same….”
The Brune-Newsday article
continued its report by indicating that
--- for his part, Republican Intelligence
Committee Chairman “… Nunes said Friday
that the committee had received information it requested from the FBI on ‘possible
surveillance related to Donald Trump or his associates.’… He told ‘Fox News Sunday’ it did not prove
wiretapping…. ‘Was there a physical
wiretap of Trump Tower? No,’ he said. ‘There never was, and the information we got
on Friday continues to lead us in that direction.’...” However, Newsday also noted this caveat by
the Committee Chairman: “…. Nunes did not rule out other types of
surveillance and continued to condemn intelligence leaks….”
The Newsday article closed with
these observations about what will be coming up in the near future: “…. The intelligence committees
in both the House and Senate will continue to investigate…. The
House will hear testimony from former Obama officials — Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and Deputy Attorney
General Sally Yates — at a hearing on March 28…. And the Senate Intelligence Committee said
it will hold a hearing on Russian interference in other countries and
cyberwarfare on March 30….”
WHAT NEEDS TO BE ASKED IN A PROPER OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE HEARING
Any inquiry actually looking for proof of Obama
Administration wrong-doing vis a vis Trump and/or the Trump Campaign and/or President-Elect
Trump’s Transition Team, needs to be open- ended and broad enough to reach all
of the techniques and modalities that might have been used to tap into and mine
Trump’s phone and computer lines.
The questioning by the Congressional Members needs to include broad and open-ended questions
about any and all Trump-related surveillance and/or information recovery by electronic
or other technical means by the FBI, DOJ, U.S. Intelligence Agencies, any joint
and/or combined actors or agents, whose activities were authorized by any law
enforcement and/or security agency within the chain of command to the Obama
White House.
Anything less, would be an a obvious attempt NOT TO FIND EVIDENCE of any misuse of the law enforcement, intelligence and other security agencies by the prior administration.
Anything less, would be an a obvious attempt NOT TO FIND EVIDENCE of any misuse of the law enforcement, intelligence and other security agencies by the prior administration.
UPDATE: THE "COMEY IS REALLY SAYING -- I WON'T TALK" EDITION
ReplyDeleteSO FAR, FBI DIRECTOR HAS GIVEN VERY LIMITED TESTIMONY -- HE SPECIFICALLY WON'T GO NEAR "WHAT OBAMA KNEW AND WHEN HE KNEW IT..." ABOUT THE TRUMP-RELATED "INTELLIGENCE" ROLLING ROUND AND ROUND INSIDE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
So far things are going pretty much as predicted at today's House Intelligence Committee hearing. The Republicans questions are sticking to their talking points about the non-proof of the Trump-Russia collusion thing; and the Democrats are pitching their opposing spin on that topic. Comey was clear, however, that even though there has been no evidence of collusion or specific hacking of vote results, those investigations are open and ongoing, and that no final conclusions have been reached.....
There seemed to be broad agreement between both questioners and witnesses that President Obama's "ordering" any "wiretaps" or "surveillance" of Trump or at Trump Tower by any U.S. agencies or specific foreign agents like GCHQ is "ridiculous" and completely without factual support. So far, that's what the MSM is looking at and using as the peg for almost all of their coverage.
However, at least one exchange between Trey Gowdy and FBI Director Comey showed where one of the clear boundaries of the Committee's questioning is during this hearing: Comey refused to answer in any way >>> WHAT INFORMATION <<< about Trump, his campaign and his campaign advisers was passed-on from the FBI and security agencies to the White House or actually involved briefings to President Obama. Although, it was clear from many of the answers that several of Obama's key operators DID RECEIVE SUCH INFORMATION derived from various FBI, intelligence and/or security agencies
FURTHER UPDATE: THE "SENATOR JOE MC CARTHY -- SENATOR SAM ERVIN" EDITION
ReplyDeleteDEMOCRATS OPENED THE DOOR TO A DISCUSSION OF SO-CALLED "MC CARTHYISM" BY ASKING FBI DIRECTOR COMEY IF THIS-THAT-OR-THE-OTHER-THING FIT THE DEFINITION OF "MC CARTHYISM"
Needless to say, James Comey, himself, couldn't have channeled the 1950's U.S. Senator from Wisconsin any better than he did during his testimony to the Congressional Committee on Monday, unless he had begun some of his answers with the clause, "I have a list..."
Maybe, there should have been more congressional questioners asking this far more relevant and important question, over and over again, "What did President Obama know about the intelligence gathered on Trump and his folks, and when did he know it ? ? ?" You know, sort of the way Senator Sam Ervin & Co. did back in the Watergate days.
The way Comey was playing the keeper of the Obama flame in his first round of congressional testimony shows that he is a worthy successor to L. Patrick Gray. BTW, has anybody asked if Comey might have thrown any briefcases into the Potomac or burned any documents in his fireplace ?
UPDATE: THE "COMEY'S NOT TRANSPARENT" EDITION
ReplyDeleteSENATE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT COMEY HAD TO SAY OR HOW HE SAID IT --- SENATOR REFUSES TO SAY TRUMP NEEDS TO APOLOGIZE
Newsmax reports that -- "FBI Director James Comey could have been more transparent with his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday morning, while insisting there is more Comey could have said without violating national security or revealing details about an agency investigation.... '"There's so many accusations out there that the more that can be said, the better," the Iowa Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN's 'New Day' anchor Chris Cuomo. 'It will bring some more confidence, and so [I'm] basically calling for more transparency.'..." (See "Sen. Chuck Grassley: Comey Could Have Been More Transparent" by Sandy Fitzgerald, 3/21/17, Newsmax/ Home/ Politics [http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Chuck-Grassley-Comey-Transparent/2017/03/21/id/779867/]).
This part of the Newsmax article is very Interesting: ".... Grassley, though, said he couldn't get into whether he thinks President Donald Trump should apologize for his tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of being behind wiretapping at Trump Tower, as the question was based on the testimony offered from Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers.... 'I can't answer your question, because I didn't have one eye on the television set all day yesterday in regard to the Comey investigation, so I can't go into any anything about that, that you're asking me about," said Grassley...."