http://tiny.cc/ozf4oz
Greenwald:
http://tiny.cc/lcp4oz
Suddenly, unmaskings are 'routine'
http://tiny.cc/hs75oz
The Flynn witch hunt is just a part of the outrageous Russia hoax witch hunt conducted against Trump and his associates by Obama's top security operatives. That they would abuse their positions of trust for lowdown political skullduggery is something that we as a free people cannot permit to pass without correction.
The get-Trump abuses should bring to mind another horrific breach of constitutional principles: the Obama administration's secret mass surveillance of Americans with no authorization by Congress. That whole episode needs to be thoroughly re-examined on the basis that political spying is not a silly conjecture, considering the abuses of which Obama's security gurus were capable. Recall that Obama's IRS was used to harass and essentially shut down the Tea Party movement.
As Rand Paul says, the federal government has no right to spy on Americans and should be formally stripped of that power.
After all, why were so many top Obama officials eager to "unmask" Flynn? Obviously they intended political harm. As Paul said, there was no national security issue involved.
It's quite sad that Obama was done such a grievous disservice by a group of leftists around him in whom he vested too much trust. Something similar happened to another outstanding president. FDR assumed that his "liberals" were all maliciously aligned by conservatives, when in fact, he should have listened to the warnings about some of them.
As Greenwald's example demonstrates, not all leftists (or libertarians) are cut from a single cookie cutter.
Flynn’s case grew out of phone calls he made to Sergey Kislyak in the final days of 2016, asking that Moscow refrain from retaliating after the Obama administration expelled Russian diplomats as a means of dramatizing claims of Russian election meddling. The conversations were captured on routine wiretaps of Kislyak -- which intelligence veteran Flynn must have realized were in place -- but which stirred F.B.I. officials into action against Flynn. Flynn's discussion, though a normal bit of quiet diplomacy, would come to "look bad" politically amid the media hysteria whipped up claiming Trump-Russia collusion, which is why so many Obama aides were eager to reveal Flynn's diplomacy.
The federal judge in Flynn's case, Emmet G. Sullivan, seems more concerned with the fact that Flynn entered a false plea than with evidence that exculpatory evidence was withheld from Flynn's lawyers.
Sullivan's decision to ask a former federal judge, known for his anti-Trump rhetoric, to review the Flynn case echoes Sullivan's previous behavior in another highly controversial case brought against Ted Stevens.
Sullivan presided over the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, D-Alaska, who was convicted in October 2008 of seven felony ethics violations.
The following April Sullivan accepted a Justice Department review of the Stevens case and set aside Stevens's conviction.
As more evidence of prosecutorial misconduct became known in early 2009, Sullivan held four prosecutors in civil contempt of court. One of them committed suicide.
Top: Greenwald, at left, and Flynn. Bottom: Snowden, at left, and Obama.
Fox News, or somebody, routinely blocks my links to Fox, even though, supposedly, I rarely get more than one or two hits in the Google stats. Generally, I am credited with zero hits. In any case, if a link fails, try pasting it into your browser. The hit counter below is not accurate either, but I have installed it for comparison purposes. [It has now been adjusted so that it only records my personal page views, most of which occur during editing. That was not the case before I posted this note.]
Flynn is a right-wing, hawkish General whose views on the War on Terror are ones utterly anathema to my own beliefs. That does not make his prosecution justified. One’s views of Flynn personally or his politics (or those of the Trump administration generally) should have absolutely no bearing on one’s assessment of the justifiability of what the U.S. Government did to him here — any more than one has to like the political views of the detainees at Guantanamo to find their treatment abusive and illegal, or any more than one has to agree with the views of people who are being censored in order to defend their right of free expression.Carlson, Paul blast knifing of Constitution
http://tiny.cc/lcp4oz
Suddenly, unmaskings are 'routine'
http://tiny.cc/hs75oz
The Flynn witch hunt is just a part of the outrageous Russia hoax witch hunt conducted against Trump and his associates by Obama's top security operatives. That they would abuse their positions of trust for lowdown political skullduggery is something that we as a free people cannot permit to pass without correction.
The get-Trump abuses should bring to mind another horrific breach of constitutional principles: the Obama administration's secret mass surveillance of Americans with no authorization by Congress. That whole episode needs to be thoroughly re-examined on the basis that political spying is not a silly conjecture, considering the abuses of which Obama's security gurus were capable. Recall that Obama's IRS was used to harass and essentially shut down the Tea Party movement.
As Rand Paul says, the federal government has no right to spy on Americans and should be formally stripped of that power.
After all, why were so many top Obama officials eager to "unmask" Flynn? Obviously they intended political harm. As Paul said, there was no national security issue involved.
It's quite sad that Obama was done such a grievous disservice by a group of leftists around him in whom he vested too much trust. Something similar happened to another outstanding president. FDR assumed that his "liberals" were all maliciously aligned by conservatives, when in fact, he should have listened to the warnings about some of them.
As Greenwald's example demonstrates, not all leftists (or libertarians) are cut from a single cookie cutter.
Flynn’s case grew out of phone calls he made to Sergey Kislyak in the final days of 2016, asking that Moscow refrain from retaliating after the Obama administration expelled Russian diplomats as a means of dramatizing claims of Russian election meddling. The conversations were captured on routine wiretaps of Kislyak -- which intelligence veteran Flynn must have realized were in place -- but which stirred F.B.I. officials into action against Flynn. Flynn's discussion, though a normal bit of quiet diplomacy, would come to "look bad" politically amid the media hysteria whipped up claiming Trump-Russia collusion, which is why so many Obama aides were eager to reveal Flynn's diplomacy.
The federal judge in Flynn's case, Emmet G. Sullivan, seems more concerned with the fact that Flynn entered a false plea than with evidence that exculpatory evidence was withheld from Flynn's lawyers.
Sullivan's decision to ask a former federal judge, known for his anti-Trump rhetoric, to review the Flynn case echoes Sullivan's previous behavior in another highly controversial case brought against Ted Stevens.
Sullivan presided over the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, D-Alaska, who was convicted in October 2008 of seven felony ethics violations.
During the trial, the judge refused requests by the defense for a mistrial to be declared after information was revealed that the prosecution had withheld exculpatory Brady material.Eight days after the guilty verdict, Stevens narrowly lost his reelection bid.
The following April Sullivan accepted a Justice Department review of the Stevens case and set aside Stevens's conviction.
As more evidence of prosecutorial misconduct became known in early 2009, Sullivan held four prosecutors in civil contempt of court. One of them committed suicide.
Top: Greenwald, at left, and Flynn. Bottom: Snowden, at left, and Obama.
Fox News, or somebody, routinely blocks my links to Fox, even though, supposedly, I rarely get more than one or two hits in the Google stats. Generally, I am credited with zero hits. In any case, if a link fails, try pasting it into your browser. The hit counter below is not accurate either, but I have installed it for comparison purposes. [It has now been adjusted so that it only records my personal page views, most of which occur during editing. That was not the case before I posted this note.]
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