Former national security adviser Susan Rice told House investigators that she internally unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials in order to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year, CNN reports .
Last December, the crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, met with three transition team members in Trump Tower: Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser; the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and chief strategist Stephen Bannon, multiple sources told CNN.
The UAE failed to inform the Obama administration that Zayed was coming to the United States, a contravention of typical diplomatic courtesy that left the Obama White House concerned it had been misled. Rice told House Intelligence Committee investigators that she requested to know the names of the Americans mentioned in the classified report of the crown prince’s visit — a practice known as “unmasking” that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say is common.
Rice has been at the center of the controversy over unmasking.
Normally, when government officials receive intelligence reports, the names of American citizens are redacted to protect their privacy. But officials can request that names — listed as “U.S. Person 1,” for example — be unmasked internally in order to give context about the potential value of the intelligence.
Senior officials have the authority to request the unmasking of names if there is a compelling national security reason to do so.
The House panel’s probe has grown to encompass concerns with the practice, which some committee Republicans consider too permissive for senior officials. The Trump administration as well as several Hill Republicans have previously suggested that Rice may have inappropriately sought to reveal the identities of transition team officials.
But several Republican lawmakers who attended the September interview with Rice have said that they have seen no evidence that she acted inappropriately or illegally.
The Trump Tower meeting with Zayed has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill for another reason: It preceded a separate effort by the UAE, brokered by Trump ally Erik Prince, to facilitate a back-channel communication between Russia and the incoming Trump White House.
That meeting, held in the Seychelles Islands and initially reported in April by The Washington Post, was reportedly part of an effort by the UAE to persuade Russia to curtail its relationship with Iran.
It’s unclear which officials Rice discussed at the interview with House Intelligence investigators earlier this month, according to CNN. But according to two sources, the three-hour discussion focused on a range of issues involving the Mideast.
Those sources told CNN that opening a backchannel with Russia was not discussed during the December meeting.
"The meeting was about ascertaining the Trump team's view of the region and sharing the UAE's view of the region and what the U.S. role should be," a senior Middle East official told CNN. "No one was coming in to sell anything or arrange anything."
I haven't heard a compelling reason for the unmasking
Apparently none of the very conservative republicans who discussed this with with Ms. Rice found anything amiss. Maybe you should write Trey Gowdy a letter.
We may never know much about it since requests for records have been denied - it seems all those records of Ms Rice have been removed to the Obama library, where they will remain unavailable to the public for 5 years.
As far as her word goes - she has a long history of lying, going back to the Benghazi video yarn
I believe the investigation is ongoing so some of the dots may not be connecting yet. It's really too early for anyone to be forming any opinions.
This is one of my gripes with the media. They go off half cocked and start reporting a smidgen of the story in an effort to get it out and more often then not they only create more confusion. I wish they'd STOP putting these incomplete stories out.
So much for collusion. If this story is corrrect, the trump administration didn't have any backdoor channels of communication set up AFTER the election.
"The identities of US persons may be released under two circumstances: 1) the identity is needed to make sense of the intercept; 2) if a crime is involved in the conversation," said Robert Deitz, a former senior counselor to the CIA director and former general counsel at the National Security Agency.
I wonder how many others she unmasked? Who did she share the info with? Which Obama official illegally leaked?
You wouldn't be asking these questions if you'd have read the article. The issue was fully vetted with appropriate senate and house committee members and Ms. Rice and none of the members of those committees, including all of the republicans, have expressed any concern that there was anything but proper use of the intelligence methods. Try another innuendo fishin' hole.
Rice is a proven liar so she has no credibility. Her first word was to play clueless about unmasking. Not knowing anything about it. Now she has admitted to one.
Looks like the white house was using NSA wiretaps to spy on the Trump organization.
There are a limited number of people who can unmask legally. The leak had to come from one of them. At the time that would have been Obama people.
Looks like the white house was using NSA wiretaps to spy on the Trump organization.
Obviously, Obama & Rice knew the FBI was monitoring conversations from Trump Tower - they quickly took advantage of it. Trump may have been technically incorrect when he said he was "wiretapped" by Obama, but he was right about being sabotaged by same
Not only did they have Rice lie about the source they forced security to keep silent about what happened:
Security at the State Department's Benghazi compound was so dire that another contractor was brought in to clean up the mess just two weeks before the 2012 terror attack – and was later pressured to keep quiet by a government bureaucrat under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to two men from the American security company.
Brad Owens and Jerry Torres, of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions, say they faced pressure to stay silent and get on the same page with the State Department with regard to the security lapses that led to the deaths of four Americans.
So the story is false because you don't trust Townhall?
Can't get anything by you, can I. And here I thought I was being so subtle. Clownhall is one of the leading rightwing garbage manufacturers and distributers. To use that as a source is an admission that you can't find actual evidence in the reputable press* to back you up.
*Oh, yeah. I forgot. Any media that actually digs up the facts is considered "liberal," right? Don't understand why you always give liberals the credit for that but then there's really no point in trying to use rational thinking to figure the rightwing out.
First she didn't know anything about it and now she does. I think the Crown Prince idea was just convenient after thinking about it for awhile. That's the way liars are. They will tell a lie and if it doesn't hold, then when another excuse to cover the lie comes along, they will use it. Never quit lying, never, never.
Interview with a liar....
Well, so much for that, but if you go to YouTube and search for.....
Susan Rice on Nunes allegations: 'I know nothing about this'
you will see one of the many videos of Susan Rice Lying, not to mention her Benghazi lies.
I think the Crown Prince idea was just convenient after thinking about it for awhile.
Very convenient! I'm sure if that was the reason she would have admitted to it from the start instead of, as you point out, her original denial, then if you recall she wasn't going to comply with the House request to appear before the committee. Suddenly, she did a 180 degree turn, comes in with the Crown Price and his not so secret trip to the US to meet with the incoming administrations representatives. She persuades those Republican members of the committee - it was about the Iran deal and we needed to make sense of it, don't you know!
Let's pretend for a minute that George W Bush's national security advisor unmasked the incoming Obama administration people who were setting up a back channel to Iran - what do you think the reaction to that would have been?
The Crown Prince conversations were one of many that Rice and others looked at. No mention of the unmasking of Flynn. That is were someone eventually leaked Flynn's name.
I would like to thank all the rightwingers commenting on this post for showing us easy it is for all of you to completely ignore every inconvenient truth and fact in order to stick to your entirely false narrative. This entire thread could be a teaching tool for warped ideation and delusional thinking for psychology students.
I haven't heard a compelling reason for the unmasking
I haven't heard a compelling reason for the unmasking
Apparently none of the very conservative republicans who discussed this with with Ms. Rice found anything amiss. Maybe you should write Trey Gowdy a letter.
We may never know much about it since requests for records have been denied - it seems all those records of Ms Rice have been removed to the Obama library, where they will remain unavailable to the public for 5 years.
As far as her word goes - she has a long history of lying, going back to the Benghazi video yarn
I believe the investigation is ongoing so some of the dots may not be connecting yet. It's really too early for anyone to be forming any opinions.
This is one of my gripes with the media. They go off half cocked and start reporting a smidgen of the story in an effort to get it out and more often then not they only create more confusion. I wish they'd STOP putting these incomplete stories out.
So much for collusion. If this story is corrrect, the trump administration didn't have any backdoor channels of communication set up AFTER the election.
"The identities of US persons may be released under two circumstances: 1) the identity is needed to make sense of the intercept; 2) if a crime is involved in the conversation," said Robert Deitz, a former senior counselor to the CIA director and former general counsel at the National Security Agency.
I wonder how many others she unmasked? Who did she share the info with? Which Obama official illegally leaked?
I wonder how many others she unmasked? Who did she share the info with? Which Obama official illegally leaked?
You wouldn't be asking these questions if you'd have read the article. The issue was fully vetted with appropriate senate and house committee members and Ms. Rice and none of the members of those committees, including all of the republicans, have expressed any concern that there was anything but proper use of the intelligence methods. Try another innuendo fishin' hole.
Rice is a proven liar so she has no credibility. Her first word was to play clueless about unmasking. Not knowing anything about it. Now she has admitted to one.
Looks like the white house was using NSA wiretaps to spy on the Trump organization.
There are a limited number of people who can unmask legally. The leak had to come from one of them. At the time that would have been Obama people.
Looks like the white house was using NSA wiretaps to spy on the Trump organization.
Obviously, Obama & Rice knew the FBI was monitoring conversations from Trump Tower - they quickly took advantage of it. Trump may have been technically incorrect when he said he was "wiretapped" by Obama, but he was right about being sabotaged by same
Obviously, there is not a single rightwing-invented scandal that you two will not believe and push. Really quite bizarre.
These scandals seem to fade away, haven't they? - the Obama Justice Department took good care of that
Obviously, there is not a single rightwing-invented scandal
And there is not a left wing scandal you will gloss over.
It may take 5 years to find out, like Lois Lerner & Hillary Clinton the evidence is either well hidden or destroyed
Oh, gawd, that fake IRS "scandal" again. Once again we learn that rightwing lies will never die.
fake ?
Not only did they have Rice lie about the source they forced security to keep silent about what happened:
Security at the State Department's Benghazi compound was so dire that another contractor was brought in to clean up the mess just two weeks before the 2012 terror attack – and was later pressured to keep quiet by a government bureaucrat under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to two men from the American security company.
Brad Owens and Jerry Torres, of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions, say they faced pressure to stay silent and get on the same page with the State Department with regard to the security lapses that led to the deaths of four Americans.
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So the story is false because you don't trust Townhall? It is not the only place that new story appears.
Attacking the source is an easy fallacy for lightweights to employ.
So the story is false because you don't trust Townhall?
Can't get anything by you, can I. And here I thought I was being so subtle. Clownhall is one of the leading rightwing garbage manufacturers and distributers. To use that as a source is an admission that you can't find actual evidence in the reputable press* to back you up.
*Oh, yeah. I forgot. Any media that actually digs up the facts is considered "liberal," right? Don't understand why you always give liberals the credit for that but then there's really no point in trying to use rational thinking to figure the rightwing out.
First she didn't know anything about it and now she does. I think the Crown Prince idea was just convenient after thinking about it for awhile. That's the way liars are. They will tell a lie and if it doesn't hold, then when another excuse to cover the lie comes along, they will use it. Never quit lying, never, never.
Interview with a liar....
Well, so much for that, but if you go to YouTube and search for.....
Susan Rice on Nunes allegations: 'I know nothing about this'
you will see one of the many videos of Susan Rice Lying, not to mention her Benghazi lies.
Or you can go here:
See how fast she changes the subject.
Well, that link isn't live either. Perrie is working on it and will hopefully have it fixed tomorrow. A whole lot of work going on!!!
I think the Crown Prince idea was just convenient after thinking about it for awhile.
Very convenient! I'm sure if that was the reason she would have admitted to it from the start instead of, as you point out, her original denial, then if you recall she wasn't going to comply with the House request to appear before the committee. Suddenly, she did a 180 degree turn, comes in with the Crown Price and his not so secret trip to the US to meet with the incoming administrations representatives. She persuades those Republican members of the committee - it was about the Iran deal and we needed to make sense of it, don't you know!
Let's pretend for a minute that George W Bush's national security advisor unmasked the incoming Obama administration people who were setting up a back channel to Iran - what do you think the reaction to that would have been?
The Crown Prince conversations were one of many that Rice and others looked at. No mention of the unmasking of Flynn. That is were someone eventually leaked Flynn's name.
A crime that isn't really being investigated
I would like to thank all the rightwingers commenting on this post for showing us easy it is for all of you to completely ignore every inconvenient truth and fact in order to stick to your entirely false narrative. This entire thread could be a teaching tool for warped ideation and delusional thinking for psychology students.
Not a right wing skill set.
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