Former Obama Aide Ben Rhodes now a person of interest in unmasking investigation

Former Obama White House National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes is now an emerging as a person of interest in the House Intelligence Committee’s unmasking investigation, according to a letter sent Tuesday by the committee to the National Security Agency (NSA). This adds Rhodes to the growing list of top Obama government officials who may have improperly unmasked Americans in communications intercepted overseas by the NSA, Circa has confirmed.

The House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-CA, sent the letter to the National Security Agency requesting the number of unmaskings made by Rhodes from Jan. 1, 2016 to Jan. 20, 2017, according to congressional sources who spoke with Circa. Rhodes, who worked closely with former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and was a former deputy national security adviser for strategic communications for President Obama, became a focus of the committee during its review of classified information to assess whether laws were broken regarding NSA intercepted communications of President Trump, members of his administration and other Americans before and after the election, according to congressional officials. The committee is requesting that the NSA deliver the information on Rhodes by August, 21.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Rice and former CIA Director John Brennan have all been named in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into the unmasking of Americans. A letter sent last week from Nunes to Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, suggested that top Obama aides made hundreds of unmasking requests during the 2016 presidential elections. The story, which was first reported by The Hill last week, stated that the requests were made without specific justifications as to why the unmasking was necessary. Rice and Brennan have confirmed they sought the unredacted names of Americans in NSA-sourced intelligence reports but insisted their requests were routine parts of their work and had no nefarious intentions. Power also has legal authority to unmask officials, though the practice has not reportedly been common for someone in her position. Rhodes also had legal authority to unmask Americans in NSA-source intelligence reports. But intelligence and congressional sources question the extent of the unmasking.



https://www.circa.com/story/2017/08...ntelligence-committee-unmasking-investigation

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This should be a concern on both sides of the isle as far as how the Obama administration used the National Security institutions of this country for partisan political purposes...A very bad precident to set for sure, and shows the real corruption in the previous administration.

I believe if this is exposed fully then the Obama administration will go down as the most corrupted, and criminal administration in history.

j-mac said:

This should be a concern on both sides of the isle as far as how the Obama administration used the National Security institutions of this country for partisan political purposes...A very bad precident to set for sure, and shows the real corruption in the previous administration.

I believe if this is exposed fully then the Obama administration will go down as the most corrupted, and criminal administration in history.

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If what is fully exposed. Were these Americans talking to known criminals in other countries? I think they were, right?

Any report replete with the words "Nunes" and "unmasking" should be taken with a grain of salt until and unless an indictment is actually handed down.

Talk about witch hunts; this is what a real witch hunt looks like.

Mustachio said:

If what is fully exposed. Were these Americans talking to known criminals in other countries? I think they were, right?

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Obama and Co. corrupted the use of the Intel community for political purposes, and you think that's all good?

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Mustachio said:

If what is fully exposed. Were these Americans talking to known criminals in other countries? I think they were, right?

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Does that make unmasking for political reasons any less illegal?

DiAnna said:

Any report replete with the words "Nunes" and "unmasking" should be taken with a grain of salt until and unless an indictment is actually handed down.

Talk about witch hunts; this is what a real witch hunt looks like.

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Oh yes, nothing to see unless it's Trump, right?

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j-mac said:

Oh yes, nothing to see unless it's Trump, right?

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Nunes burned his own credibility on this "unmasking" thing early this year. It's why he had to recuse his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He's fishing to shore up his own reputation... and doing his own leaking, apparently! Why use a middleman? :lol:

j-mac said:

This should be a concern on both sides of the isle as far as how the Obama administration used the National Security institutions of this country for partisan political purposes...A very bad precident to set for sure, and shows the real corruption in the previous administration.

I believe if this is exposed fully then the Obama administration will go down as the most corrupted, and criminal administration in history.

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No, it won't.

dobieg said:

Does that make unmasking for political reasons any less illegal?

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Sorry, zelda, they did nothing illegal in the unmasking: just won't fly.

JamesBY said:

Sorry, zelda, they did nothing illegal in the unmasking: just won't fly.

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I'm guessing you don't have the first clue how this works.

Being that Trump and half his administration is under criminal investigation right now I'd lean towards the unmaskings being legitimate. In fact the Obama administration deserves praise for professionally handling the transition of power all the while laying the groundwork to make sure the law catches up with these crooks.

dobieg said:

I'm guessing you don't have the first clue how this works.

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I understand exactly what needs to be done to do it legally, which it was. All the yelling will get you no more than 'benghazi' did.

j-mac said:

This should be a concern on both sides of the isle as far as how the Obama administration used the National Security institutions of this country for partisan political purposes...A very bad precident to set for sure, and shows the real corruption in the previous administration.

I believe if this is exposed fully then the Obama administration will go down as the most corrupted, and criminal administration in history.

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What concerns me is just how Facist the GOP has become.

Nunes!

No need to read further! He makes Trey Gowdy look legit!

:elephantf:usflag2:

All this talk about 2 sides of the aisle and 2 separate political parties is so cute. Look kids, the truth is there is only The Party and it controls everything. Trump is a distraction from that fact. It's all for show in my opinion. Nothing but theater.

I wish there were some way an outsider champion of the people could rise to power but it ain't happenin'. So just take whichever color pill you want and go back to sleep in your little nested cubicle. This was all just a bad little dream. To paraphrase Dickens: “... it may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. ..."

j-mac said:

Obama and Co. corrupted the use of the Intel community for political purposes, and you think that's all good?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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dobieg said:

Does that make unmasking for political reasons any less illegal?

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"For political reasons"

If the political reasons are that there is suspicion that a presidential candidate has a team of guys like Flynn and Sessions communicating with Putin's top men, then that seems awfully legitimate. If the emails to Trump Jr. say "we have top level info on Clinton," what do you think the phone calls said? You might not want to assume this is the scandal of your lifetime.

DiAnna said:

Any report replete with the words "Nunes" and "unmasking" should be taken with a grain of salt until and unless an indictment is actually handed down.

Talk about witch hunts; this is what a real witch hunt looks like.

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They didn't say they were unmasking him - they called it an "unmasking" investigation and merely said he was a person of interest. You come across as defensive; the article clearly doesn't accuse him of anything and merely states the facts. The purpose of the investigation is to unmask.

fredmertzz said:

They didn't say they were unmasking him - they called it an "unmasking" investigation and merely said he was a person of interest. You come across as defensive; the article clearly doesn't accuse him of anything and merely states the facts. The purpose of the investigation is to unmask.

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Defensive? :lol:

No. Just dismissive. This is a fishing expedition headed by a disgraced Intelligence Committee member who made a fool of himself months ago, and got demoted for it.

Fantôme said:

All this talk about 2 sides of the aisle and 2 separate political parties is so cute. Look kids, the truth is there is only The Party and it controls everything. Trump is a distraction from that fact. It's all for show in my opinion. Nothing but theater.

I wish there were some way an outsider champion of the people could rise to power but it ain't happenin'. So just take whichever color pill you want and go back to sleep in your little nested cubicle. This was all just a bad little dream. To paraphrase Dickens: “... it may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. ..."

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Riight.
Who controls 'The Party'? Freemasons? Illuminati? Bill Gates, Jimmy Buffet, Arm and Hammer and the Walton family?

What colour was the pill you took?

DiAnna said:

Defensive? :lol:

No. Just dismissive. This is a fishing expedition headed by a disgraced Intelligence Committee member who made a fool of himself months ago, and got demoted for it.

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"Disgraced"? In whom's eyes? democrats that have hounded, and fabricated this **** show since they lost? Nah, I don't think so....Look, Obama and Co. politicized the tools of our intelligence services and turned it on private citizens running a campaign for President before the election, in effect trying to sway the outcome of an election....Now, liberals may think that is just peachy, but I for one think that is how police states act, and un American....Not to mention possibly illegal.

As for your assertion that Nunes recused himself from the chairmanship, well, you are just plain wrong about that....

"A Republican, he serves as chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence"

"On April 6, 2017, Nunes temporarily stepped aside from leading the Russia investigation while the Office of Congressional Ethics investigates whether he "improperly disclosed classified information" in his March press conference.[SUP][5][/SUP] He called the charges "entirely false and politically motivated".[SUP][6][/SUP] Few days later he said that he would continue to investigate whether Obama officials improperly requested names of Trump transition team be revealed in classified intelligence reports.[SUP][65]"

[/SUP]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devin_Nunes#Intelligence_Committee

So, while Nunes stepped aside as chair, on that particular investigation by the ethics committee, he remains the chairman of the intel committee....

I can understand why liberals want to dismiss revelations of their underhanded, corrupt, and unAmerican plan to throw our election, and why it is when this crap comes out, we will most likely find that all of this Russia flap is fabricated by democrats to hinder the President from moving on his agenda of cleaning up DC....I believe that is why you now see a SP Muller moving rapidly toward setting up a perjury trap rather than anything actually connected with the original mandate.