Free Republic

A former congressional information technology (IT) aide allegedly threatened to have his stepmother’s Pakistani relatives kidnapped if she talked to U.S. law enforcement authorities, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s (TheDCNF) Investigative Group. “Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful and if I ever call the police again, [he] will … kidnap my family members back in Pakistan,” Awan’s stepmother, Samina Gilani, claimed in the documents filed April 14 in Fairfax County, Va., in the case of Americo Financial Life and Annuity Insurance Company v. Abid A. Awan and Samina Ashraf Gilani. Imran Awan...

After leaving the presidency, Barack Obama has been spotted using his favorite iPad to take photos of his wife while on a David Geffen-owned megayacht in Tahiti. But this may be no ordinary iPad. A government watchdog speculates that he may have taken the Top Secret version out of the Oval Office, a big no-no.

An article in the Guardian last week provides more confirmation that John Brennan was the American progenitor of political espionage aimed at defeating Donald Trump. One side did collude with foreign powers to tip the election — Hillary’s. Seeking to retain his position as CIA director under Hillary, Brennan teamed up with British spies and Estonian spies to cripple Trump’s candidacy. He used their phony intelligence as a pretext for a multi-agency investigation into Trump, which led the FBI to probe a computer server connected to Trump Tower and gave cover to Susan Rice, among other Hillary supporters, to spy...

Last month, Fox News regular Judge Andrew Napolitano claimed that President Obama and his cronies used British intelligence to spy on then candidate Donald Trump. That certainly caused a stir among the higher-ups at Fox News. A week later the outspoken judge was suspended from Fox. More specifically, Judge Napolitano accused the Obama administration of doing an end run around the U.S. intelligence community, using GCHQ, the British spy agency, to do its dirty work. GCHQ has unfettered access to the NSA database. Meaning that the Brits could request transcripts of conversations between the Trump campaign and any foreign players, then...

It turns out both Donald Trump and Judge Napolitano were correct, GCHQ – as well as others – were spying on the Trump team, as outlined in The Guardian. But before discussing that let’s reflect for a moment on the fact that despite having to run against the Democrats, half the Republicans and the Media, Trump also had to run against the FBI, NSA, GCHQ,  Germany, Estonia, Poland, Australia, and possibly the Dutch and the French spy agencies. He was certainly right about being “wiretapped” - not only was he being spied on, he was being spied on BIGLY!As John...

I’ve spoken to a small group of reliable, formerly high-placed intelligence officials who have dropped a few interesting tidbits on me of late. Here’s my understanding, based on the discussions: It’s not true that wiretaps and/or electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens can “only” be done with a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order. Besides the FISA court, “wiretapping” or electronic surveillance can also be done under Title III authority. The government used this authority, for example, in the Justice Department’s secret Fast and Furious “gunwalking” case. Additionally, U.S. Presidents have the power to issue secret presidential directives that can...

Judge Napolitano spoke out about a secret truth he knew, but FOX NEWS fired him anyway! Instead of taking his word for it, they walked him out the door. That was a sad picture, and I am so happy he is back. Most of us know the Judge is one of the most honorable and most trustworthy people in the world. I hope FOX learned a lesson and will respect Napolitano for his honesty and legal expertise. In March, Napolitano claimed President Obama went outside of American chain-of-command to British Intelligence to spy on Trump and his Transition Team. When...

Russiagate’s latest celebrity is a former Donald Trump associate named Carter Page. Page, who worked for Merrill Lynch in Moscow and speaks Russian, is a banker and investor who early in 2016 was a part of the amorphous group that was advising Trump on foreign policy. There is no evidence to suggest that he was ever an insider with the Trump campaign—quite the contrary. The Washington Post reports that he made several efforts to meet directly with Donald Trump but that his entreaties were rejected. So why the fuss? Page appears to have been a target of Russian intelligence for...

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are expanding their investigations into former National Security Adviser Susan Rice's alleged "unmasking" of U.S. persons who were incidentally collected in surveillance of foreign officials. An unnamed member of the House Intelligence Committee confirmed that Rice is now under "a full-blown investigation," Fox News reported on Wednesday. "We will be performing an accounting of all unmasking for political purposes focused on the previous White House administration. This is now a full-blown investigation," the committee member said. While she was national security advisor, Rice reportedly requested the names of US persons associated with the Trump...

A newly revealed FISA warrant shows that a Trump campaign advisor was under surveillance by the Deep State during the campaign, adding even more evidence to Trump's assertion that the Obama administration had targeted him and his campaign. When President Trump took to Twitter last month to blast the Obama administration for using the intelligence community to wiretap Trump Tower, the liberal mainstream media and the Obama administration used words such as “sensational” and “false.” As more and more information comes out, it is now clear that words such as “delusional” and “dishonest” would best describe those who denied what...

Donald Trump set the media into a frenzy on March 4 when he Tweeted in the morning that Obama had "wiretapped him."  The Tweets read as follows: Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW! How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! This...

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton, spoke Thursday evening with Fox News' Tucker Carlson about the latest shoes to drop in the investigations into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia. The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security advisor, has told the FBI and congressional investigators that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution -- not a particularly good sign for the Trump White House. Cohen, one of the country's foremost experts on Russia, has been...

I’ve spoken to a small group of reliable, formerly high-placed intelligence officials who have dropped a few interesting tidbits on me of late. Here’s my understanding, based on the discussions: It’s not true that wiretaps and/or electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens can “only” be done with a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order. Besides the FISA court, “wiretapping” or electronic surveillance can also be done under Title III authority. The government used this authority, for example, in the Justice Department’s secret Fast and Furious “gunwalking” case. Additionally, U.S. Presidents have the power to issue secret presidential directives that can...

President Donald Trump dismissed Susan Rice’s assertion that she did not unmask General Michael Flynn for political reasons. “Does anybody really believe that?” he asked during an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. “Nobody believes that, even the people that try to protect her in the news media.” Trump reasserted his claim, adding that he and “so many other people” were the victims of surveillance and boasted that he was correct when he accused the Obama administration of wiretapping his team at Trump Tower.

Fox News reported Tuesday night that members of the House Intelligence Committee have expanded their investigation into the Susan Rice surveillance controversy. Appearing on The O'Reilly Factor, investigative reporter Adam Housley said the following: They're looking into allegations where Americans including politicians have possibly been unmasked and had their information collected into the files, similar to what they did to the Trump team. Housley also said that both the House and Senate investigations are being stonewalled: They say the FBI is being very difficult. We're told [investigators] just want to know about the unmasking. How frequent was this? Who was...

The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials. This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe...

Devin Nunes stepped away from the Russia probe. But he's still investigating the Obama administration's leak campaign against the Trump administration. ----------------------------------------------------- For one thing, stepping aside on the Russia inquiry isn’t as big of a deal now as it might have been months ago. That’s because the Russia investigation isn’t really going anywhere. On March 9, BuzzFeed reported that Democrats on the committee are worried that their base is expecting dramatic results that simply won’t be coming. Even some Democrats on the Intelligence Committee now quietly admit, after several briefings and preliminary inquiries, they don’t expect to find evidence...

The worst kind of bias is the bias of omission. And that was never more on display than after reports surfaced earlier this week alleging former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice's had unmasked Trump transition team members. So why is this a big story that deserves attention? Simply put, one of the highest-ranking members of the previous administration unmasked names of members of the incoming administration via classified intelligence reports, prompting many questions that warrant dogged journalism: Who leaked the information to newspapers like The Washington Post? Who, if anyone, ordered Rice to unmask the names of private U.S....

CNN's Van Jones ripped President Trump and the "right wing media" for attacking Obama National Security Adviser for "doing her job." Jones said Trump has declared Rice guilty of a crime with "zero facts." He also explained why he believes Susan Rice deserves the Presidential Medal Of Freedom from Trump.

On Tuesday, Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted that she used the intelligence community to spy on members of the Trump team, but this type of behavior isn’t anything new. In fact, it appears the Obama White House had been spying on its political opponents and leaking classified information about them long before Donald Trump won the presidential election last November, Lee Smith of Tablet Magazine writes. Remember the Iran Deal negotiations? In December 2015, The Wall Street Journal revealed that the Obama administration used the NSA to cast a wide net of surveillance around not just Israeli officials...