[nathanbedford]

The Horowitz report notes 17 acts of misfeasance leading to the issuance of the FISA warrants. Horowitz declines to take the only rational inference, that these omissions were the product of bias rather than chance. I googled the odds of quarter dollar coming up heads 17 consecutive tosses and the odds exceed one in 320,000.

A footnote in the appendix to that report reveals a total of 51 omissions and/or acts of misfeasance, I did not bother to Google those odds.

As an additional thought, we see reports that the surveillance authorized and actually procured through this FISA warrant naming Carter Page, was far more widespread because in practice the warrant authorized spying on those with whom Page communicated and those who communicated in their turn with them until, as some accounts assert, as many as 23,000 people were spied upon under the Page FISA warrants.

One would think that this appalling statistic would be more widely emphasized if it is true. One would think the author of this article would have made that point to further vent his outrage. Does anyone have information on this subject which definitively sets the actual parameters of these searches?

[nathanbedford]

A freeper has kindly corrected my reference to the odds of a coin toss 17 times, the correct number is in excess of 120,000 to 1.

[Avalon Memories]

Nathanbedford, I usually don’t correct the word choice of others, but you write so excellently that I was surprised by your continued use of misfeasance when what happened was malfeasance. Malfeasance is any act that is illegal or wrongful. Misfeasance is an act that is legal but improperly performed. There is absolutely nothing that cabal did which was legal. They didn’t make “errors.” They committed criminal acts for which I doubt they will be held accountable. So we, at least, should accurately describe their actions.

[KitJ]

What you’re looking for is the “3-hop” rule. The Page warrant opened the door to spying on potentially millions.

[excerpt from 2013, still in place today]

“...It hinges on what’s known as “hop” or “chain” analysis. When the NSA identifies a suspect, it can look not just at his phone records, but also the records of everyone he calls, everyone who calls those people and everyone who calls those people.

If the average person called 40 unique people, three-hop analysis would allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist....”

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=207195207

[Kid Shelleen]

>>> 17 consecutive tosses and the odds exceed one in 320,000. <<

To elaborate on your excellent point.

Imagine that your favorite football team had 17 flagrant bad calls against them in one game.
Imagine anonymous gamblers bet billions of dollars against your team.
Imagine that all the refs were friends or family of the gamblers.
Imagine spies in the press and media stole your team's playbook and gave it to the other team..