Just Don't Call It "Spying"

The NY Times learns more about Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI effort to totally not spy on the Trump campaign:

F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016

WASHINGTON — The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it “Spygate.”

She was working with Stefan Halper and may have gone along so that, in the event of a trial, she could be the FBI witness and somewhat preserve Halper's anonymity.

A nod to the obvious here, my emphasis:

The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.

AG Barr knew, or made a lucky guess recently:

Mr. Barr reignited the controversy last month when he told Congress, “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal.” He backed off the charged declaration later in the same hearing, saying: “I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”

Mr. Barr again defended his use of the term “spying” at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, saying he wanted to know more about the F.B.I.’s investigative efforts during 2016 and explained that the early inquiry likely went beyond the use of an informant and a court-authorized wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, who had interacted with a Russian intelligence officer.

“Many people seem to assume that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant” and the warrant to surveil Mr. Page, Mr. Barr said. “I would like to find out whether that is in fact true. It strikes me as a fairly anemic effort if that was the counterintelligence effort designed to stop the threat as it’s being represented.”

Apparently the effort was less anemic than we have been told so far.

Comments

[Robin, eff 'em all]

Dang nabbit, off.

Did that work?

[Narciso79]

Her husband owns an evil skydragon killing (mining) company. She was the ambassador to zoolander.

[MissMarple2]

Retweeted by the President. Links go to picture and announcement.

Happy National Space Day! 🚀

America is the best in space, and President @realDonaldTrump is making sure no other country can compete with our leadership. https://t.co/JgU6MGgJ5D pic.twitter.com/q1tPclJz25

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2019

[MissMarple2]

Retweeted by the President. Link goes to that article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that I posted earlier:

President @realDonaldTrump is fixing American trade to bring our steel and manufacturing jobs back HOME!https://t.co/PjD6tEWFlm

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2019

[clarice]

The thing about what is obviously the Weissman theory of obstruction is that it makes the prosecutor king.If perfectly legal conduct can be deemed obstruction whenever the prosecutor with no objective basis for doing so decides it obstructs his take on the case, we really do have no need for judges or juries or--come to think of it--laws, do we? It's like the inquisition or the witch trials.

[Narciso79]

She and her husband were co chairs for Romney in 2012, but that's to be expected

[Jane]

Momto2,

Your 10:43 from last night should go viral.

[MissMarple2]

Retweeted by the President. Link goes to Breitbart article about social media banning of certain people.

This will become an imp & bigger story going into #2020 ⁦@GOPLeader⁩ ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ ⁦@MorningsMaria⁩ ⁦@FoxBusiness⁩ #vote harvesting pic.twitter.com/ZTJlWx0UJV

— Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) May 3, 2019

[Captain Hate]

Dealing with Zoolander is probably good training.

Meanwhile back at the monkey house

I feel increasingly as though “Republicans” by and large represent opinions I disagree with. Watching Ted Cruz mock the idea that a distortion of the report could matter when the report itself came out a few weeks later, I realized that I had much more in common on this particular issue with Pat Leahy and Dick Durbin, who were asking Barr how he could possibly have failed to mention the Mueller letter when asked by Crist.

That said, Pat Leahy and Dick Durbin will vote to smear good judges and confirm awful ones every time, and Ted Cruz will vote for and support the good judges every time. So let’s not get carried away here. I haven’t changed; I just despise the Republican president even more after the issuance of the Mueller report than ever before.

Patterico (115b1f) — 5/3/2019 @ 4:42 am

[Beasts of England]

Yea!! National Space Day! 🛰

[MissMarple2]

Retweeted by the President:

Maria Bartiromo
‏Verified account @MariaBartiromo
7h7 hours ago

"I will declassify soon" - @POTUS @realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @FoxBusiness

[Narciso79]

Hes on full Frank grimes mode, isnt he.

[MissMarple2]

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
4m4 minutes ago

Finally, Mainstream Media is getting involved - too “hot” to avoid. Pulitzer Prize anyone? The New York Times, on front page (finally), “Details effort to spy on Trump Campaign.” @foxandfriends This is bigger than WATERGATE, but the reverse!

[MissMarple2]

https://freebeacon.com/columns/the-new-cheney/

Why Barr is our new hero.

[sbwaters]

Lyle: glock

Absolutely unfamiliar with Glocks other than that the grip angle throws off my aim because I'm not used to it.

I'm sure you Googled, "glock stuck slide". Lots of different approaches.

I tend to agree with Ig, though. I use a 1911, Springfield Armory, and CZ75B.

[MissMarple2]

#MississippiRiverFlood2019 this the view from our neighboring businesses of River Drive and Mertyl Street in Davenport Iowa at record crest of 22.7 feet above flood stage. 15 feet is considered minor flooding pic.twitter.com/MFvoTqhpQD

— 🇺🇸Joe Soliz 🎸🇺🇸 (@joe56odad) May 3, 2019

Video at link.

[Momto2]

From MM's post @ 5:18

This is a statistic I had never seen before.

In the United Kingdom the name (Mohammed) has been the most popular in England and Wales for six straight years according to a report released in September, as well by the British government.

[henry]

CNBC Now @CNBCnow
3m

BREAKING: US created 263,000 jobs in April, vs 190,000 expected

[Narciso79]

I think the sentiment expressed above 'I hate him 3000, vs 'hes a good man'

[Jane]

HUGE jobs reports out! Best since 1969.

[MissMarple2]

Lindsey Graham
‏Verified account @LindseyGrahamSC
16h16 hours ago

Ample evidence to justify further investigation into whether DOJ and FBI ran a shady counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign, misled the FISA court, and gave Clinton a pass because of political bias.

[Captain Hate]

There is no head of the deep state. It's not like this is something that just sprang to life under Obama.

The bureaucratic state has been growing and mutating for decades. Many people have various levels of involvement, some all in and some not so much. Some are true believers, some are transactional players and some just seem guilty by association or circumstances.

It can be used by (mostly) Democrat administrations in various ways and degrees to influence or downright destroy. There are players inside the government and outside for things like funding (Soros), media (Fusion), nefarious deeds (Halper, Mifsud, Chalupa).

This isn't all black and white. It's 500 shades of grey which is what makes it so difficult to know who is a good guy and who isn't.
Posted by: JackStraw at May 03, 2019 08:40 AM (/tuJf)

[Narciso79]

Cmm is still totes for bland vanilla.

[Jane]

I'm so impressed with Trump's tweet from last night telling Congress to get together to accomplish some stuff. I'd be tweeting that all of them are going down. He's truly amazing in his demeanor.

[Narciso79]

Well certainly Pompeo or haspel dont control it now but there is a whole superstructure like thise germans in their bunkers.

[Another Bob]

Momto2, I’ve had the opportunity to go to/through the UK roughly yearly since the mid-‘80s. You can see the steady change that brought them there.

They’ve thrown their culture away. Same is happening here.

[henry]

Dan O'Donnell @DanODonnellShow
19h

Mayor Barrett's proposal to extend Milwaukee's streetcar line by just 0.4 miles will cost $28 million. That's $13,257 per foot or $1,104 per inch!

[Narciso79]

We had a train that went nowhere in particular as well:

https://freebeacon.com/politics/sanders-promoted-false-flag-conspiracy-theory-after-several-domestic-bombings-in-1970s/

[Sandy Daze]

On my mind:

I am beginning to believe--and would like the question to be asked by TBTB, just how many candidates have been under surveillance?

I suspect--since we are fairly well assured that the spying on DJT began in 2015--that every single one of the Republican candidates were placed under investigation, i.e. were spied on at the beginning of their candidacies. The spying continued, in my estimation until they dropped out, or until they were no longer considered to be an option as a Veep candidate.

I think the concept might have been to initiate activities on all, and then close down those activities as a clearer picture emerged of who the R candidate would be.

Likely a small network completely apart from various classified main network(s) was created to capture all information on the various investigations.

Many have suggested that the investigation into DJT was known as "Crossfire Hurricane" in homage (or nod) to the Rolling Stones' song.

Possible, sure.

But, here's another idea. Not sure if I got the information on the "X-Fire (pronounced "Crossfire")" software here or elsewhere. (See below.)

What I think may have happened is that that the Crossfire software was used to track the various investigations into all/ALL of the Republican candidates. "Crossfire" as the prefix name to distinguish the investigation from more traditional on-going FBI efforts.

Anyone 'in the know' would know that the "Crossfire" prefix regarded an election investigation. The suffix "Hurricane" was the (my guess) suffix applied to DJT.

Similarly, there may have been (and I believe there were) an investigations into all of the candidates, e.g.:

Jeb Bush Crossfire alpha
Ben Carson Crossfire bravo
Chris Christie Crossfire charlie
Ted Cruz Crossfire delta
Carly Fiorina Crossfire echo
Jim Gilmore Crossfire etcetera
Lindsey Graham "
Mike Huckabee "
Bobby Jindal "
John Kasich "
George Pataki "
Rand Paul "
Rick Perry "
Marco Rubio "
Rick Santorum "
Scott Walker "

"ENTERPRISE INVESTIGATION SOFTWARE
Law Enforcement Case Management Software

X-FIRE Case Management Software Logo Effectively Manage Investigations™

X-FIRE™ (pronounced “crossfire”) is Agnovi’s best-in-class investigative case management software for law enforcement and police. Designed with the investigator in mind, X-FIRE is the top tool available to support major investigations—from initial incident to court disclosure. X-FIRE is easy-to-use, comprehensive, powerful and affordable."

https://www.agnovi.com/enterprise-investigation-software/

[Jane]

Gee it sort of feels like it can't get any better!

[Momto2]

AnotherBob - That entire article was frightening. It appears their strategy is to infiltrate the capital and larger cities of every country and then start reproducing as quickly as possible. It reminds me of how cancer cells perform.

[Jane]

BREAKING: Ukrainian Embassy Confirms DNC Contractor Solicited Dirt on Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort in 2016

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/breaking-ukrainian-embassy-confirms-dnc-contractor-solicited-dirt-on-trump-campaign-chairman-paul-manafort-in-2016/

[Melinda]

Sandy-

I'll see your 2015 and raise you to February, 2009.

NonSeasonally Adjusted NonFarm Payrolls was up 1,126,000

Private payrolls +1,060,000

Wayyyy, way stronger than the headlines.

[Narciso79]

Yes another Bob, the word Is al hijrah, which happens to have been the name of aulaqis Virginia mosque.

[Sandy Daze]

Mel,

Well, sure, and no argument. James Rosen, Sharyl Attkisson, et al.*

I suspect the domestic spying operation was massive--in this I think we are in violent agreement, Melinda.

The OPM loss of data on those of us with clearances might have been part of the coverup... But that is some-dimensional chess of many wearing some-colored hat (!), mainly black.

heh

* but in so far as the election spying began, obvi could not begin spying on candidates until they announced; that is, unless they were already being spied upon as potential enemies of the people.

[henry]

heh, suck it Evers:

https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2019/may/02/donald-trump/trump-hits-paydirt-claim-wisconsins-low-unemployme/

[Buckeye]

"Little Nads" Nadler will huff and puff a lot today.

Hope he gets drowned out by the sound of SHTF on multiple fronts.

[Narciso79]

It contradicts an earlier headline

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/05/02/offshore-drilling-interior-department/

[Sandy Daze]

Brennan's CIA was spying on Feinstein's intell cmte:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/world/senate-intelligence-commitee-cia-interrogation-report.html

[henry]

No wonder we haven't seen press coverage of this committee meeting.

Climate Statistician Dr. Caleb Rossiter: ‘We are trying to save the people of the planet from the people ‘saving the planet.'”

Climate statistician Dr. Caleb Rossiter from the CO2 Coalition hijacked the Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and the Democrats climate hearing on Capitol Hill on April 30.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/01/skeptical-scientist-hijacks-aoc-congressional-climate-hearing/

[Melinda]

Sandy,

They surveilled any and all philosophical opponents. It's part of the Cook County Skool a Bidness curriculum. They can't help themselves.

[Momto2]

MM's early morning link reminded me of a quote by John Rees-Davis (Gimli)

There is an extraordinary silence in the West. Basically, Christianity in the Middle East and in Africa is being wiped out – I mean not just ideologically but physically, and people are being enslaved and killed because they are Christians. And your country and my country (Wales) are doing nothing about it. ... This is a unique age. We don't want to be judgmental. Every other age that's come before us has believed exactly the opposite. I mean, T.S. Eliot referred to 'the common pursuit of true judgment.' Yes, that's what it's about. Getting our judgments right, getting them accurate. ... We have lost our moral compass completely, and unless we find it, we’re going to lose our civilization.

[Sandy Daze]

Momto2,

Good morning.

You may enjoy this piece by by Andrew Klavan in City Journal asking Can We Believe, and discussing why we shouldn't abandon the faith.

https://www.city-journal.org/faith-western-civilization

[Beasts of England]

'Let’s get it back to the actual subject of this hearing,” she [AOC] urged, “which is the impact of climate change on human health.'

Begging the question is the new black.

[jimmyk]

Gee it sort of feels like it can't get any better!

Comey, Brennan, and McCabe in orange jumpsuits.

[James D.]

This isn't all black and white. It's 500 shades of grey which is what makes it so difficult to know who is a good guy and who isn't.

Kill them all. God will know his own.

[henry]

new

[Narciso79]

Yes 2014 thanos how can be stronger than 2018 version

[Porchlight]

RIP Peter Mayhew the actor who played Chewbacca.

Oh, no. We used to see him here in Austin where he lived for a time. He used to patronize the independent video store where my BIL was managing. Softspoken, unfailingly polite and friendly. RIP.

[Porchlight]

The initial response of cell death can nearly overwhelm the body--don't be discouraged if you hear he's in the ICU in a day or two.

Thanks so much for this information and for your encouragement, anonamom, and I'll keep you posted. I know he is required to stay in Houston for a few more weeks to be near the clinic, surely for just that reason.

[Porchlight]

What a week for Trump. Damn straight he will take a victory lap (or five).