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The Obama Administration’s Abuse Of Foreign Intelligence

5 Comments

Did it start before Trump?

In a December 29, 2015 article, The Wall Street Journal described how the Obama administration had conducted surveillance on Israeli officials to understand how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, like Ambassador Ron Dermer, intended to fight the Iran Deal. The Journal reported that the targeting “also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups.”

Despite this reporting, it seemed inconceivable at the time that—given myriad legal, ethical, political, and historical concerns, as well as strict National Security Agency protocols that protect the identity of American names caught in intercepts—the Obama White House would have actually spied on American citizens. In a December 31, 2016, Tablet article on the controversy, “Why the White House Wanted Congress to Think It Was Being Spied on By the NSA,” I argued that the Obama administration had merely used the appearance of spying on American lawmakers to corner opponents of the Iran Deal. Spying on U.S. citizens would be a clear abuse of the foreign-intelligence surveillance system. It would be a felony offense to leak the names of U.S. citizens to the press.

Increasingly, I believe that my conclusion in that piece was wrong. I believe the spying was real and that it was done not in an effort to keep the country safe from threats—but in order to help the White House fight their domestic political opponents.

It would be perfectly in character.

5 thoughts on “The Obama Administration’s Abuse Of Foreign Intelligence”

  1. Let’s not forget that Obama’s IRS persecuted Jewish groups along with the Tea Party.

    Connecting all the dots certainly makes Obama appear to be one of the most corrupt Presidents in our history, definitely the most this century.

  2. If Trump were as godawful a threat to the Republic as the Left screams daily, Obama & Co should be s&%**%?g [1] bricks…because it could be turned around on him instantly. At least then we’d find out, as is becoming increasingly easy to believe, that Obama was in fact the Islamic Manchurian candidate.

    [1] “shitting”

  3. It started back with the “unmasking” of Seven-of-Nine’s sealed divorce records.

    You know what I am talking about — the Illinois Senate race, and the estranged spouse of the Star Trek actor, and then the Republicans running Alan Keyes?

  4. Why wouldn’t Obama have abused his access? No one was (or will) call him out on it. Not his own party, not the press (but I repeat myself), not the Republicans (Racist!). If you had that kind of room to maneuver, and you were convinced of your own divinity, wouldn’t you?

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