Gotta love the professionally obtuse former DNI James Clapper.

As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.

Cue the audio visual “slippage.”  Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance.  WATCH:

06:48 ..”as I understand it, this was simply an extension of uh, the original, uh, FISA request.  Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered, uh, ‘valuable’, that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request.”

“FISA’s have, uh, finite dates. Uh, in other words they have deadlines; they aren’t indefinite… So when the time was up for the initial FISA report, FISA request, then it was time to get an extension. So on its face, I don’t know that the dossier played, very much, in this at all”…

Well, that’s interesting.  I wonder who gave Clapper the “as I understand it” part? Now let’s go back to March 5th 2017 and review what DNI James Clapper said about the Department of Justice getting FISA-702 surveillance authority on Trump campaign officials.

Notice in this March 5th, 2017 interview, the question is specifically about “The FBI” (not other Title III orgs) gaining a FISA Court Order on Trump Tower or Trump Campaign officials. WATCH:

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Clapper didn’t know of any FISA-702 surveillance authority in March 2017, but today, January 31st, 2018, “as he understands it”, the Clinton/Steele dossier was used during an FBI  FISA702 re-authorization he never knew was happening.

I wonder why Jake Tapper never asked him when he came to this new understanding?  Nevermind, rhetorical.

Funny how that happens…

Gotta love obsequious James Clapper

Of course all of this begs the question: Then when did FISA-702 surveillance begin?

If the dossier was used for an extension in September-October 2016, and extensions are in 90-day increments, then FISA surveillance was happening in June-July 2016.  Implying there never was a denial of any originating FISA request.

Keeping in mind James Comey testified March 20th, 2017, that the FBI counterintelligence operation began in July 2016, this would align with an October 2016 re-authorization date.

ie. Candidate Donald J Trump was under surveillance from the minute he won the GOP primary.

Funny how that sunlight shines through.

If the apparent Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte and Horowitz timing remains as previously evidenced, today should be Memo Release Day.

The White House having allowed a full 36 hours of media discussion time to talk through the SoU address, is poised to permit the Executive Branch declassification approval of the Legislative Branch intelligence work product.

In a last minute effort to block the executive approvals, Minority Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, claimed last night there were changes to the legislative work product.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes shared with Adam Schiff some minor edits to the drafted memo that resulted from the executive branch (FBI Director Wray) making a request upon initial review:

Counting on people not to know the FBI is part of the executive branch, Schiff claimed, wrongly, that any changes made the initial work product contrary to that which was approved for submission by the House Intelligence Committee.

A desperate attempt to stop the declassification by the White House, as quickly pointed out by Chairman Nunes:

In the back-and-forth it becomes evident why we stated last week to pay attention to the process.  The memo is classified legislative work product of the legislative branch.  The legislative branch is asking the executive branch to declassify the memo.  When Devin Nunes invited FBI Director Christopher Wray to review the memo on Sunday night he was inviting the executive branch to preview the work-product prior to submission.

It would be ordinary for any minor executive-branch-requested adjustments to be made, prior to submission/approval for executive declassification.  That’s exactly what happened.

Minor adjustments were made at the request of the FBI Director prior to submission for declassification approval.   Majority Chairman Devin Nunes shared those adjustments with Minority Chair Adam Schiff.

Schiff tried, and failed, to make a political issue out of a simple process.

Additionally, Minority Chair Adam Schiff, along with most corporate media, are trying to present the intelligence community (DOJ/FBI) as a fourth branch of government.  As silly as it sounds, former DNI James Clapper attempted the same argument on Wednesday night during a CNN appearance.  They’re not.  All of the intelligence community resides under the executive branch and the Chief Executive is President Donald Trump.

The normal review for any declassification request is a review by the National Security Council, the Office of Legal Counsel (all depts); all impacted cabinet officials; all heads of potentially impacted national security departments (DOJ-NSD, FBI Counterintelligence, NSA, CIA, State, DoD etc.); along with the White House Chief-of-Staff (General Kelly).

That review complete, it’s now up to the Chief Executive, President Trump, to sign off and release.  This is the formal process, and this is the process that has been followed.

As much as the formal and appropriate process annoys Representative Adam Schiff, all of the correct procedures have been followed.  Additionally, the memo itself is not the biggest benefit to exposing the corruption.  The real goal will be reviewing the underlying documents and evidence that support the memo.  That’s phase two:

Beyond the obvious reasons, the political reason Adam Schiff is annoyed is that his party leadership is intent on selling a false narrative that President Trump is undermining the institutions of the Intelligence Community.  If people accurately review events against the backdrop of factual structures of government: Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, Executive Branch, the claims by Democrats toward “undermining institutions” fall flat.

A desire by the President to address needed structural reform resulting from revealed corruption within the Justice Department is no different than the desire by the President to reform a corrupt Veterans Affairs department.   Same/Same.  Both fall under the authority of the executive; both agency officials capable of gross misconduct.

The Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Devin Nunes, (by position) is directly responsible to conduct oversight on the intelligence apparatus within the national security departments as they relate to potential FISA and FISC abuses.  As a Gang of Eight member, that specific aspect of oversight falls to the HPSCI Chairman.

The person directly above the HPSCI chairman in this regard is the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.  Devin Nunes has followed the correct procedure for notifying the chain-of-command of a violation based on his oversight findings.  Paul Ryan was notified.

Once the issue of intelligence abuse is identified via committee review, and with the House Speaker informed of the committee findings, the next step is to inform the head of the Executive Branch, that’s President Trump.

Now that President Trump has been notified of abuses within the intelligence apparatus, directly under the supervision of the executive, President Trump is compelled to take action to resolve those abuses.   In the matter of this specific FISA-702 abuse, solely as an outcome of the specific DOJ/FBI conduct, the office responsible for dealing with the misconduct is also the office victimized by the misconduct.

Thus we see the historic nature of corruption within what has taken place.  The intelligence apparatus of the United States Justice Department, via the DOJ and FBI was weaponized against the person running to hold executive authority over the United States Justice Department; and the misuse of the offices within the DOJ and FBI continued after the election – as the same officials sought to eliminate the person who holds ultimate accountability and authority over them.

The U.S. corporate media has been working overtime trying to cloud this structural reality by attempting to create, out of loincloth, some non-existent separation of authority between the Office of the President and the U.S. Justice Department.

The Executive Branch did not create the DOJ or FBI, the Legislative Branch did.  However, when the legislative branch created those entities – they placed them directly under the Executive Branch.  President Trump is the Chief Executive and he can reform any agency under his executive authority. Period.

Against a newly discovered likelihood the Robert Mueller investigation began under false pretenses; and against the backdrop that FBI surveillance and wiretaps were obtained through materially (intentionally) false representations to the FISA court; and against the backdrop the original FISA judge ‘was summarily recused’ from the case; and against increasing evidence that Mike Flynn was set up by a terminal animus, and politically-motivated investigative rogue unit, operating within the FBI; and against surfacing evidence that FBI investigators manipulated (lied on) their FD-302 interrogation documents;…

…Special Counsel Robert Mueller now asks for postponement of sentencing:

(pdf link)

On Monday night January 29th, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence met to discuss the release of a classified committee memo that outlined corruption within the U.S. Justice Department, and how the DOJ/FBI used fraudulent material to apply for FISA surveillance warrants on American citizens.

Below is the committee transcript from that meeting. Democrats (minority) opposed the release of the Intelligence Memo; Republicans (majority) supported it. The minority wanted to distribute a memo of their own; the majority supported the request of the minority so long as they followed the same process as previous.  (link to pdf)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/370457752/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-ZxrY7RlW83UobxTBpOnN

There are multiple corrupt officials inside the U.S. Department of Justice.  This has never been in doubt since DOJ and FBI officials made direct admissions to the FISA court that they intentionally manipulated the court system for political purposes (April ’17 FISC pdf).

After the material admissions to the court; and against revelations from sunlight upon the activity showing the DOJ and FBI manipulated the FISC to gain surveillance authority to spy on Donald Trump campaign officials; the issue shifted toward disclosure of the activity, evidence of scale of abuse and ultimately, accountability.

Accountability for the weaponization of intelligence has been the ongoing goal of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.  Explaining what took place leads to Chairman Nunes creating the intelligence memo.  However, it is the underlying classified information behind the memo where evidence of ‘how’ the apparatus was weaponized will be found.

Current and former officials within the Department of Justice (national security division) and FBI (counterintelligence division) are at the heart of the malfeasance.  Those officials have a vested interest in trying to stop the public from seeing what took place.  They are aided by a political media apparatus who are attempting to shield the corrupt officials due to aligned political opposition against the current President.

The corrupt FBI officials -remaining inside the DOJ/FBI- know they can rely on their media allies to assist them in keeping what took place hidden from public review.  Today, those FBI entities attempt to cloud the Nunes memo and shape a narrative.  Their release:

WASHINGTON – The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.

With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.  (read more)

Chairman Nunes responds.

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes issued the following statement today:

“Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies.

The FBI is intimately familiar with ‘material omissions’ with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses.

Regardless, it’s clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign. Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again.”  (read more)

The White House is preparing to release the memo.  However, it is important to remember, what the public really needs to see is the evidence behind the memo.

So long as corrupt officials, and media, can dismiss the claims of the Nunes memo, they will continue to do so.  Ultimately and hopefully, the opposition to the memo will create momentum for the underlying content to be declassified and released.

In the interim, the institutional media will attack the executive office (President Trump), because the release of the memo and/or the underlying content is a risk to their corporate ideological efforts and political alignment.

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(Via Fox News) The FBI said Wednesday that the bureau has “grave concerns” about the classified memo that purportedly reveals government surveillance abuses, but White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says it is going public, anyway.

“With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,” the FBI said in a statement. “As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

But earlier Tuesday, Kelly told Fox News in an exclusive interview the classified memo will be made public soon. Kelly said White House national security aides have been reviewing the memo.

“It’ll be released here pretty quick I think and the whole world can see it,” he said.

The bureau’s claim that the memo involves “omissions of fact” came a day after a source told Fox News that two senior FBI officials reviewed the memo and “could not point to any factual inaccuracies” in the memo itself.  (more)

Legislative Oversight.

• Devin Nunes – Chairman House Intelligence Committee  (Intel focus)

• Chuck Grassley – Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee (FBI focus)

• Bob Goodlatte – Chairman of House Judiciary Committee (Main Justice focus)

• Michael Horowitz – Office of Inspector General (Total Justice Dept Focus)

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A Chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican congressmen headed to a GOP retreat collided with a dump truck blocking the tracks in Crozet Virginia just outside Charlottesville. One person on the truck was killed, a few of the lawmakers were injured.

(Via NBC) A chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers to a retreat collided with a trash truck in Virginia Wednesday morning and left at least one person dead. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was one confirmed fatality and one person seriously injured.

“There are no serious injuries among members of Congress or their staff,” she said in a statement. The victim’s identity was not immediately released.

The train was carrying House and Senate Republicans to the retreat in West Virginia when it hit the truck.

“We were on our way to West Virginia and it was a sudden impact, a loud noise and everyone was jolted,” Rep. Carlos Curbelo, of Florida, said on MSNBC.

Rep. Jason Lewis of Minnesota was taken to an area hospital for a reported concussion, but did not sustain a serious injury, according to a senior leadership source on the train.

A statement from Amtrak said the crash happened at 11:20 a.m. in Crozet, Virginia.

“Two Amtrak crew members and two passengers were transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. Local law enforcement is investigating the incident,” the statement said. (read more)

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) initiated a massive anti-corruption operation last year.  Today, just as a Qatari delegation arrives in DC and concedes to the terms of the alliance, Reuters is reporting the resulting Saudi asset seizures total more than $106 billion.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s government has arranged to seize more than $100 billion through financial settlements with businessmen and officials detained in its crackdown on corruption, the attorney general said on Tuesday.

The announcement appeared to represent a political victory for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the purge last November and predicted at the time that it would net about $100 billion in settlements.

Dozens of top officials and businessmen were detained in the crackdown, many of them confined and interrogated at Riyadh’s opulent Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Well over 100 detainees are believed to have been released.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owner of global investor Kingdom Holding, and Waleed al-Ibrahim, who controls influential regional broadcaster MBC, were freed last weekend.

“The estimated value of settlements currently stands at more than 400 billion riyals ($106 billion) represented in various types of assets, including real estate, commercial entities, securities, cash and other assets,” Sheikh Saud Al Mojeb said in a statement.

[…] Some detainees are believed to have been moved from the hotel to prison after refusing to admit wrongdoing and reach financial settlements; they may stand trial.

[…]  Prince Mohammed appears to have won widespread approval for the purge among ordinary Saudis, partly because the government has said it will use some of the money it seizes to fund social benefits.

“What has happened is great, it will be counted as a win for the government. Whoever the person is, he is being held accountable, whether a royal or a citizen,” said Abdullah al-Otaibi, drinking at a Riyadh coffee shop on Tuesday.

An international financier visiting the region said authorities’ tough approach might ultimately prove effective.  (read more)

In related regional news, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hosted a delegation from Qatar to Washington DC.

 **nudge**nudge**wink**wink**say.no.more**say.no.more**

Rex Tillerson: […] “The United States and Qatar will be signing three documents today outlining our cooperation in the important bilateral and regional areas mentioned, including three at this ceremony.

•The first is a memorandum of understanding that establishes the convention for this U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue on an annual basis going forward, so that we can continue to build on the close partnership between our two countries.

•The second document is a joint declaration outlining the United States cooperation with Qatar on matters of shared regional and security interests.

•The third document is a memorandum of understanding that creates a framework for the cooperation between the United States and Qatar to combat human trafficking.

I look forward to the outcomes of today’s inaugural U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue and our continued collaboration over the years to come. And with that, I’d welcome remarks from Foreign Minister al-Thani.  (read more)

Important Watch:

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What does this mean?  Qatar has conceded to terms:

ie.  The Muslim Brotherhood has been brought to heel.

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