The other day Attorney General Barr “shocked” the Congress when during his testimony Senator Shaheen (D-NH) asked him why he was investigating the activities of the government intelligence agencies against the Trump campaign. In the course of the exchange, Mrs. Shaheen said: “You’re not suggesting spying took place.” To which AG Barr said yes, he was. He qualified his comment saying he wasn’t sure yet if the activities followed the laws or not, and that was the reason for the investigation.
Of course, this put the opposition spin machines in motion and now everyone from Obama down to Comey is saying they have no idea what the Attorney General could be talking about, but that kind of language is not helpful. It’s as if the entire previous administration has built their response from the 1960s SITCOM “Hogan’s Heroes” where Sgt Schultz was famous for his line “I know nothing!”
My favorite example comes from the former director of the FBI, James Comey, who actually signed the requests that went to the FISA courts to approve the surveillance (spying) of the Trump campaign. His comment, made during a Hewlett Foundation meeting[1] said he had no idea what AG Barr could be talking about.
For the last two years, we’ve seen the former director of the CIA John O. Brennan’s kisser plastered all over ABCNNBCBS and MSNBC talking about how he “knew” the Trump campaign had conspired with the Russians. When the Mueller team failed to confirm this -- his explanation was he must have been misinformed. The obvious question is aren’t the people informing the director of the nation’s spy organization – spies? The same thing goes for James Clapper, as the former director of National Intelligence. It would seem obvious that his “intelligence” comes from spying, or maybe it was just partisan politics and they make up stuff they think sounds good.
The Patriot Act, passed after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, greatly expanded the governments right to monitor the activities of its citizens so to avoid another terrorist surprise. For the record, “monitoring” is just a fancy way of saying spying. There are supposed to be safeguards for the average citizen, but as we’ve seen there appeared to be routine abuses of these safeguards by the previous administration. There may still be abuses but so far they have not come to light other than in the ravings of people who appear to suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and whose accusations claiming Trump is a Nazi Dictator have been unsupported by the facts.
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