Free Republic

WASHINGTON — She has been here before. After the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, Susan E. Rice was at the center of conflict, her statements scrutinized and criticized. Now she finds herself back in the cross hairs as her handling of intelligence involving President Trump’s associates comes into question. A longtime Democratic foreign policy official who served as President Barack Obama’s last national security adviser, Ms. Rice has become an inkblot test in the controversy over Russian meddling in last year’s election. Republicans see a partisan who mined intelligence reports to spy on Mr. Trump’s...

In a monologue on his Monday night program, CNN host Don Lemon said the network and host will not cover the story about Susan Rice uncovering, or 'unmasking,' the names of Trump officials and confidants that were swept up in surveillance. "So let us be very clear about this," Lemon said. "There is no evidence whatsoever that the Trump team surveilled or spied on -- was spied on illegally. There is no evidence that backs up the president's original claim." "And on this program tonight, we will not insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise, nor will we aid and abet...

Fact: Susan Rice, the Obama administration’s national security adviser, directed the “unmasking” of NSA intercepts of Donald Trump’s aides and associates. In other words, the Obama administration used the intelligence community’s spying on Mr. Trump, and Ms. Rice then demanded that the names of those captured on intercepts be given to her. {..snip..}

...The national-security adviser is not an investigator. She is a White House staffer. The president’s staff is a consumer of intelligence, not a generator or collector of it. If Susan Rice was unmasking Americans, it was not to fulfill an intelligence need based on American interests; it was to fulfill a political desire based on Democratic-party interests. ...Thus, Comey added, these consumers “can ask the collectors to unmask.” But the unmasking authority “resides with those who collected the information.”

Susan Rice, former President Obama's national security adviser, dodged a question Tuesday on her willingness to testify before Congress over reports that she sought several times to "unmask" the identities of U.S. persons in intelligence reports linked to President Trump's transition and campaign. "[Sen.] Rand Paul is suggesting that you be subpoenaed to testify," MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell said to Rice. "Would you be willing to go to Capitol Hill?" "Andrea, let's see what comes. I'm not going to sit here and prejudge," Rice responded. Rice then shifted the conversation from a possible subpoena to discuss the ongoing investigations into...

Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice only needed to confirm one aspect of the intelligence unmasking story for all of the dots to connect. She made that confirmation within two minutes of her interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. From the MSNBC transcript, emphasis mine: Susan Rice @00:51 – …”Let me explain how this works. I was a National Security Adviser, my job is to protect the American people and the security of our country. That’s the same as the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director.; and every morning, to enable us to do that, we receive –...

On Monday, CNN’s Jim Sciutto dismissed Bloomberg’s scoop on Susan Rice as “largely ginned up, partly as a distraction from this larger investigation.” However, the journalist failed to mention that he has a connection to the key figure in this story, as he once worked at the State Department during the Obama administration between 2011 and 2013. This means that Sciutto and Rice both worked for the Obama White House. During the same time period, Rice was serving as President Barack Obama‘s ambassador to the United Nations. The journalist’s connection to Rice goes beyond the Obama administration, as RedState pointed...

UPDATE: Susan Rice Confirms Her “Unmasking Requests” Were for President Obama’s Daily Briefing (PDB)… With a general set of narrative ‘talking points’ in hand President Obama’s Former National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, appeared this morning on MSNBC for an interview with Andrea Mitchell. This is the ‘We-Have-To-Respond-phase‘, which necessitates the optic. Andrea Mitchell is considered a trustworthy ally of the Clinton/Obama political networks; as such, it is not a surprise to see Mitchell selected as the interviewer. Mitchell’s use of wording carefully guides Susan Rice through the narrow path of self-incrimination by providing plausible deniability for verbal missteps. You already...

Appearing on the Tuesday edition of the Fox Business Network’s After the Bell, Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell didn’t mince words when it came to the liberal media’s scant coverage of the Susan Rice “unmasking” story, ruling “CNN has been on a jihad” against outlet that have dared cover it. Bozell appeared alongside co-host David Asman, who introduced by Bozell by pointing out that “the mainstream media essentially dismissing the Susan Rice story today” as “when it [came] to the network evening news last night, CBS devoted a whopping 46 seconds to the story, but that was...

As Susan Rice faces growing calls to testify under oath, the former Obama administration official now accused of ordering the unmasking of Trump officials under surveillance is suggesting that she never did so for political purposes, and that it is sometimes "necessary" for investigative purposes. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of both the Senate Judiciary and Select Committee on Intelligence, suggested in a tweet earlier Tuesday that Rice "needs to testify under oath."

Do you suspect that the noise over Trump campaign contacts with the Russians is just a political hit arranged by Obama insiders before they left? You got fresh evidence of that Monday, with news that then-national security adviser Susan Rice was behind the “unmasking” of Trumpites in transcripts of calls with Russian officials. Again, nothing on the public record so far shows that anyone on Team Trump said anything improper on those calls. It’s no surprise that US spooks intercept foreign officials’ calls. But intelligence community reports don’t disclose the names of US citizens on the other end. To get...

In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC Tuesday, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice broke her silence over this week’s stunning reports that she requested the names of Trump campaign and transition officials be “demasked” from National Security Agency (NSA) intercepts. It was an awkward interview. Rice confirmed that she requested the demasking of Americans while she was National Security Adviser. While Rice would not deny that she asked that names of Trump officials be demasked, she insisted the Obama administration did not spy on Mr. Trump or his staff for political purposes. As a former CIA analyst who...

Before and after the 2016 presidential election, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice (shown) asked for the names of U.S. persons found in what has been described as “raw intelligence reports.” Normally, when U.S. intelligence agencies are surveilling foreigners, the names of U.S. persons who are involved in conversation with those foreigners are “redacted,” or edited out in summaries of the monitored conversations. Instead of using the American citizen’s actual name, they are referred to as “U.S. Person One,” and the like. In this case, however, Rice wanted the real names of the persons. These names were later leaked to...

If former National Security Advisor Susan Rice though she could get away from the current furore over the Trump "unmasking" scandal with just one MSNBC interview in which Andrea Mitchell did not even ask her why she lied two weeks ago to PBS, she will be disappointed as moments ago Dow Jones reported that the House Intelligence Panel has asked Susan Rice to testify, supposedly under oath. HOUSE INTELLIGENCE PANEL ASKS SUSAN RICE TO TESTIFY, DJ SAYS The next question on everyone's lips: will she plead the Fifth? As a reminder, earlier in the day, the MSNBC anchor asked Susan...

The law imposes criminal sanctions on government officials who “engage in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized” by statutes and governing regulations implementing those statutes. This same criminal law makes a person “guilty of an offense” if she intentionally “discloses or uses information obtained under color of law by electronic surveillance, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained” in a manner “not authorized” by law. According to both FBI Director Comey and NSA Director Clapper, no warrant ever authorized the intercepts and electronic surveillance on a member of Trump’s team. Susan Rice, and...

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has come a long way on this story in a very short time. One week ago, he was pronouncing it part of a White House deflection effort. By the end of last week, he said it was worth investigating. Today, Scarborough is suggesting other media outlets, including the New York Times, are dropping the ball by failing to cover it on the front page. “What if Dick Cheney had asked for the unmasking of names for Barack Obama’s incoming administration?” Scarborough asked. He continued, “It’s a very simple question to ask the next time anybody says this...

House Intel Dem: If Flynn Was Unmasked, It Would Have To Be Rice Who Did It

Less than two weeks before sources said it was Susan Rice who requested to unmask the names of Trump associates caught up in sensitive intelligence reports, former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser said she knew “nothing about” surveillance allegations. Rice told PBS on March 22 that she “was not aware of any orders given to disseminate that information.” She did skirt the issues of whether she herself unmasked or disseminated information outright. Rice also limited her remarks to Trump’s debunked early March tweet claiming a wiretap of Trump Tower and vague remarks made by House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin...

Ever since Mike Cernovich dropped the bombshell report over the weekend outing Obama's National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, as the person behind the unmasking of the identity of various members of Trump's team who were 'incidentally' surveilled during the 2016 campaign (see "Confirmed: Susan Rice "Unmasked" Trump Team"), a report which was subsequently confirmed by Eli Lake of Bloomberg earlier this morning, everyone has been wondering who within the Trump White House or the intelligence community supplied him with such a massive scoop. But, as it turns out, Cernovich didn't need a 'deep throat' within the NSA or CIA for...

Full title.......................'I leaked nothing to nobody': Obama national security adviser Susan Rice angrily denies she unmasked Trump-related names 'for political purposes'.................. Obama national security adviser Susan Rice was accused Tuesday of asking U.S. agencies dozens of times to 'unmask' Trumpworld names from raw intelligence reports It's not unusual for a high-ranking national security official to ask for the names of people 'incidentally' surveilled, in order to understand a report's context But some names, including Rice's successor Mike Flynn, were subsequently leaked to the press – which constitutes a felony Rice forcefully denied everything during a Tuesday interview on MSNBC Congressman...