Why did UAE Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed travel to New York in December of 2016 to meet with members of the Trump transition team, including Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner? Yes, Trump was the president-elect at the time, but he was NOT president. Surely such a meeting could wait until Trump was sworn in.
More importantly, why did Bin Zayed enter the US without notifying the Obama Administration, which is customary? This unusual and suspicious act was noted by our intelligence agencies, who decided that Bin Zayed should be surveilled while in the US. Because a foreign leader sneaking into our country might have some national security implications.
So they did that (surveilled Bin Zayed) and passed the intel they gathered up the chain. Although first they blacked out the names of American citizens that Bin Zayed met with. Because Bin Zayed was the subject of the surveillance, not any Americans he met with. American citizens have rights in our country that a foreigner visiting does not. So, in order to protect those rights, the names weren't disclosed.
Susan Rice, in her capacity as President Obama's national security adviser, looked at these reports and decided that, in order to understand what the purpose of the meeting was, knowing the names of who Bin Zayed met with was necessary. So she requested that they be "unmasked". The names, however, would only be revealed to Rice and others on her team (as well as the president, I presume). Point is, the names were not publically disclosed. Or even disclosed to a large number of people within the Obama administration.
According to the Right, this is what Trump was talking about when he (via Tweet) accused President Obama of wiretapping him. But that's bullshit. It was Bin Zayed who was being surveilled, not Trump. Everything that was done was on the up-and-up and 100 percent legal.
Their complaint now is that Susan Rice, when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (a Republican representing California) told the world that he had discovered that Susan Rice requested that the American names (in the intel report on Bin Zayed) be unmasked, lied. Nunes said "it was possible the access to NSA information could have been used improperly for political purposes". An unproven accusation. Also Trump "won". So what were the "political purposes" the intel was used for?
None according to President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. He said Susan Rice did nothing wrong. Anyway, after Nunes whined (in an effort to validate Trump's "Obama wiretapped me" tweet), Susan Rice denied that she unmasked Trump transition team members.
(Note that my transcript below is of a YouTube created by a #trumpdupe going by the moniker Hard Bastard. This would be the same idiot Willis cited when he authored a post about how CNN faked a rescue by one of their reporters of a Hurricane Harvey victim. Even though the rescue was real... see OST #210).
| Transcript of discussion between Judy Woodruff of PBS Newshour and Susan Rice on 3/22/2017. Judy Woodruff: ...in the last few hours we've been following this disclosure by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, that, in essence, during the final days of the Obama administration, during the transition, after President Trump had been elected, that he, and the people around him, may have been caught up in the surveillance of foreign individuals. And their identities may have been disclosed. Do you know anything about this? Susan Rice: I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today. I mean, let's back up and recall where we have been. The president of the United States, accused his predecessor, President Obama, of wiretapping Trump Tower... Hard Bastard Commentary: And he did biotch! he did it! *laughs*. Susan Rice: Nothing of the sort occurred. Hard Bastard Commentary: Lie. |
This idiot "Hard Bastard" laughs a lot during his YouTubes. Anyway, it is easy to see why the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart loves Mr. Bastard's Youtube #trumpdupe bullshit. He's a fake news fool.
| Willis Hart: On the Fact that We Now Know with Absolute Certainty that Susan Rice Lied Through Her Molars On PBS Earlier this Year Regarding the Unmasking of Trump Officials [Hard Bastard Video, see bottom of post]. And how is the media responding to this? Let's just say that they don't seem too concerned (the fact that they haven't mentioned the lie, the fact that they've have been spinning like a top to make it seem like her actions were justified, the fact that they've been doubling-down on the thoroughly discredited Russian narrative, etc). (9/18/2017 at 4:38pm). |
There is no need for the media "make it seem like her actions were justified", because they WERE justified! Which is why, as per a 4/12/2017 CNN News story, an unnamed "congressional intelligence source", "described the requests made by Rice as normal and appropriate for officials who serve in that role to the president". A determination that Trump's own national security advisor, McMaster, agreed with.
So why did Rice (on the PBS Newshour) deny knowing what Nunes was talking about? It was because she "wanted to win another news cycle" according to David French of the National Review (in a 9/14/2017 article).
So Susan Rice didn't tell the complete truth. To "win the news cycle" or for some other reason. I don't know. I do note, however, that in the PBS Newshour video she pivots back to Trump's idiotic tweet. Her "I know nothing about this" was not the truth, but her "nothing of the sort occurred" IS accurate. Obama never wiretapped Trump Tower. The laughing idiot Hard Bastard is wrong. Willis says nothing about that. Instead he's offended by inaccuracies from Susan Rice. Inaccuracies from Trump aren't worth mentioning. Even though the moron whose video he puts on his blog repeats the Trump "Obama wiretapped me" lie.
President Obama did NOT order Trump Tower wiretapped. What happened was that "people around him, may have been caught up in the surveillance of foreign individuals" (as per the Judy Woodruff question to Susan Rice). Susan Rice said she didn't know anything about it, even though she did. So she "lied". I don't know what her reasoning was for being less than honest, but I don't really care. Because there are bigger lies and more important questions to be answered.
Why did Bin Zayed travel to NY to meet with president-elect Trump (without informing the Obama administration)? I've heard that the meeting was part of an "effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump". WTF is up with all this back-channeling between Trump and Russia, especially BEFORE Trump was inaugurated? Did the subject of discussion have something to do with Trump and Russia colluding?
IMO the answer is YES. We should be looking into it to find out, at least. Willis, of course says no, don't look into it. Because the "Russian narrative" has already been "thoroughly discredited". "Thoroughly discredited" because the metadata attached to the WikiLeaked DNC emails shows that "the download occurred at a rate that was too fast for the internet". Except that the metadata that's being looked at is what exists after the files were passed from the Russian hackers that stole them to Julian Assange. And (hello!) metadata can be manipulated! Motherboard (an online tech news publication by Vice Media) reports that "the metadata in the leaked documents are perhaps most revealing: one dumped document was modified using Russian language settings".
Proof that Willis Hart is a #trumpdupe. He focuses in on "lies" from Susan Rice, but ignores lies from the Trump Administration. Why did Devin Nunes meet with someone secretly at the White House prior to his press conference about the unmasking? As per NBC News "it's unclear why Nunes would have to go to the White House to seek a secure location to view classified material, since his own committee has a secure room in the Capitol where Nunes and his aides review secret documents on a daily basis".
It was "unclear" because Nunes lied about using the White House as a secure location. He went there because someone at the White House was his source. Bloomberg's Eli Lake says "this distinction is important because it raises questions about the independence of the congressional investigation Nunes is leading".
Nunes, who has referred to the investigation as a "witch hunt" (parroting Trump), lied because his goal in "investigating" the Trump-Russia investigation is to exonerate Trump. As opposed to looking at the facts and reaching a conclusion based on those facts. That's why lied about individuals at the White House being his source.
But the Hartster is not at all concerned about these consequential lies. Instead he focuses on an inconsequential lie from Susan Rice. And, if the purpose of Susan Rice's lie was to "win another news cycle" as David French says, then it surely is completely inconsequential. As opposed to Nunes' lie, which was to facilitate the clearing of the Trump Administration without a proper investigation (something he clearly has no interest in doing because he's already decided there's nothing to the allegations).
Video: Hard Bastard says "Susan Rice Lied About Unmasking Trump Campaign Members, Media Lauds Her". While the video runs over 20 minutes, I only watched until just under 9 minutes, so I don't know what Hard Bastard bullshit this #trumpdupe spews in the remaining 11 minutes.
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