Obama’s newest cagey OBSTRUCTION on Susan Rice documents

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My, Barack Hussein Obama is being quite clever again, by moving documents relating to Susan Rice and her unmasking of Republicans to his library so that they may now be sealed and inaccessible.

From Breitbart.com:

Judicial Watch: Susan Rice ‘Unmasking’ Documents Moved from NSC to Obama Library

by Kristina Wong

The National Security Council cannot hand over records relating to former National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s surveillance of Americans, because they have been moved to the Obama presidential library and may be sealed for as many as five years, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch announced Monday.

Of course, the first thing one thinks is: surely nothing but innocent coincidence, yes?

The NSC informed Judicial Watch in a letter dated May 23 that materials related to Rice’s requests to know the identities of Americans swept up in surveillance of foreign targets, including any Trump campaign or transition officials, have been moved to the library.

The NSC’s Director of Access Management John Powers said in the letter:

Documents from the Obama administration have been transferred to the Barack Obama Presidential Library. You may send your request to the Obama Library. However, you should be aware that under the Presidential Records Act, Presidential records remain closed to the public for five years after an administration has left office.

Now if this isn’t perfect, I don’t know what is.

Judicial Watch earlier this year filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for those documents, including of communications between Rice and any intelligence community member or agency regarding any Russian involvement in the 2016 elections, the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers, or any suspected communications between Russia and Trump officials.

It began as I documented here when, in his last days, Mr Obama changed a few things.

And in his final days in office, Obama created the largest ever expansion of access to non-minimized NSA intercepts, creating a path for all U.S. intelligence to gain access to unmasked reports by changes encoded in a Reagan-era Executive Order 12333.

The government officials who could request or approve an exception to unmask a U.S. citizen’s identity has grown substantially. The NSA now has 20 executives who can approve the unmasking of American information inside intercepts, and the FBI has similar numbers.

And executives in 16 agencies — not just the FBI, CIA and NSA — have the right to request unmasked information.

Confirmed by the NYTimes.com, you see.

N.S.A. Gets More Latitude to Share Intercepted Communications

by Charlie Savage

WASHINGTON — In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.

The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches.

The change means that far more officials will be searching through raw data. Essentially, the government is reducing the risk that the N.S.A. will fail to recognize that a piece of information would be valuable to another agency, but increasing the risk that officials will see private information about innocent people.

Why are these documents important? Because, if you recall, it was Susan Rice who was responsible for the unmasking of Trump and others in his campaign and staff via NSA intercepts.

Mike Cernovich wrote:

Susan Rice Requested Unmasking of Incoming Trump Administration Officials

Susan Rice, who served as the National Security Adviser under President Obama, has been identified as the official who requested unmasking of incoming Trump officials, Cernovich Media can exclusively report.

The White House Counsel’s office identified Rice as the person responsible for the unmasking after examining Rice’s document log requests. The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice’s actions, H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

This reporter has been informed that Maggie Haberman has had this story about Susan Rice for at least 48 hours, and has chosen to sit on it in an effort to protect the reputation of former President Barack Obama.

The House Intelligence Committee has also subpoenaed the intelligence community for information on unmasking requests by Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Powers. Guess what? Crickets.

Isn’t this the perfect circular firing squad? And isn’t it wonderful when the Demorats get to so thoroughly pre-plan their obstruction via Barack Hussein Obama?

BZ

 

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Loretta Lynch obstructed justice and must be investigated

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Are those legs or are those pier pilings to which eastern cod trawlers should tie up?

It is clear that the Demorats are working in concert with embedded deep state undermining civilian operators along with GOP EstabliHacks in order to create a cavernous and extensive coalition crossing aisles whose goal is to ultimately impeach and remove President Donald Trump.

You know. The person lawfully elected by the people of the United States of America. The guy with the dead orange cat on his head.

For the GOP, you have to ask yourselves why.

Perhaps Judge Pirro knows why.

Good points, all. Where are they indeed? Hiding, hoarding their gold on the table, their collective arms around it, ensuring their money and — mostly — their inherent power is not disturbed in the slightest. Oval office holders may come and go but Entrenched Power prevails. It must not be disturbed or distressed on either side of the aisle. Verboten.

Where were they in re James Comey? Conspicuously silent?

Former FBI Director James Comey testified just last week, Thursday, June 8th — how far and long ago that now seems — that Loretta Lynch compromised him. And you. And me. And the investigation into Hillary Clinton. Let us refresh.

We know now, because of this testimony, that Loretta Lynch herself in the Barack Obama administration attempted to obstruct justice and deflect or remove the serious status of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Minimization. Further, James Comey went along with it.

Let’s go back, shall we, to a certain tete-a-tete between Loretta Lynch and Jason Chaffetz in which Lorette Lynch decided to

“You refused to answer 74 times.”

“Your refusal to answer.”

Perhaps a wee bit-o-history of refusal and obfuscation? No, nothing like that.

Then let us away with Trey Gowdy.

Warte mal. 

Are you starting to witness something of a trend here?

A trend completely ignored, and purposely so, by the Demorats and the American Media Maggots and, to an extent, the EstabliHacks of the GOP, with a select few exceptions?

I have set my background. Now it is time to reveal more from Circa.com.

Comey got ‘steely silence’ after confronting Loretta Lynch about Clinton’s email probe

by John Solomon and Sara A. Carter

Ex-FBI Director James Comey has privately told members of Congress that he had a frosty exchange with Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch last year when he confronted her about possible political interference in the Hillary Clinton email investigation after showing Lynch a sensitive document she was unaware the FBI possessed, according to sources who were directly briefed on the matter.

During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last Thursday, Comey alluded to the exchange after publicly discussing an encounter with Lynch, where she ordered him not to refer to the criminal probe of Clinton’ handling of classified emails not as an “investigation” but rather as a “matter.” He suggested it smacked of political spin rather than the way professional law enforcement officers talk.

Buttery goodness? But wait, there’s more.

In multiple private sessions over the last few months, Comey has told lawmakers about a second, later confrontation with Lynch shortly before the email probe was shut down.

Really? That hadn’t been plastered near and far by the American Media Maggots. Why might that be?

Comey told lawmakers in the closed door session that he raised his concern with the attorney general that she had created a conflict of interest by meeting with Clinton’s husband, the former President Bill Clinton, on an airport tarmac while the investigation was ongoing.

During the conversation, Comey told lawmakers he confronted Lynch with a highly sensitive piece of evidence, a communication between two political figures that suggested Lynch had agreed to put the kibosh on any prosecution of Clinton.

At minimum a conflict of interest — the likes of which, truly, Comey had no interest considering his approval of Assistant FBI Director McCabe’s direct involvement with Demorat partisan politics on behalf of McCabe’s clearly partisan Demorat wife, Jill. Comey ruled the conflict wasn’t just regular cool, but that it was extra crispy cool. Nothing to see here. Move on. Dot org.

Comey said “the attorney general looked at the document then looked up with a steely silence that lasted for some time, then asked him if he had any other business with her and if not that he should leave her office,” said one source who was briefed.

Bing. Done. Gone. Leave. Vacate.

Comey “took that interaction and the fact she had met with Bill Clinton as enough reason to decide he would not allow the Justice Department to decide the fate of the case and instead would go public” with his own assessment that the FBI could not prove Mrs. Clinton intended to violate the law when she transmitted classified information through her private email and therefore should not be criminally charged. Another source said the “tarmac meeting was the public excuse for not going to Lynch when all along there was other evidence that was more concerning to Comey.”

In other words, politics trumped the truth and the need for Comey to insert himself as something of a Knight In Shining Armor. A fantasy that had been brewing in his fetid, knurled, convoluted and twisted mind for years.

Are Senate Republicans are finally starting to get the message?

Senate Republicans Hope to Question Loretta Lynch on Conduct in Clinton Email Case

by Aaron Klein

NEW YORK — Senate Republicans are eying the possibility of seeking testimony from former Attorney General Loretta Lynch over possible wrongdoing with regard to the FBI’s criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, formally requesting that the committee probe any attempts to influence the FBI’s investigations under the Trump and Obama administrations.

There are three important issues that should logically require the testimony of Lynch.

One is Lynch’s infamous tarmac meeting last June at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in which former President Bill Clinton, the husband of the FBI’s main subject in a criminal probe — Hillary’s email case — boarded the attorney general’s plane and reportedly stayed there for about thirty minutes for a private chat.

The second concern is Lynch’s reported directive for then-FBI Director James Comey to publically refer to the FBI’s criminal investigation into Clinton’s email as a “matter” instead of an investigation or a criminal probe. The language matched the specific rhetoric used at the time by Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, which referred to the criminal investigation as a “matter.”

The third issue relates to testimony and questions surrounding reports claiming that Comey was in possession of a document purportedly indicating that Lynch would ensure the Clinton email probe didn’t go too far.

Even the politically-biased James Comey — ex FBI Director, thank God —  said the “Justice Department leadership could not credibly complete the investigation and declined prosecution without grievous damage to the American people’s confidence in the — in the justice system.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano rightly asks: where are we now?

The Demorats are making these times all about process, as I say, and not about governing. Republicans are buying into it. Republicans appear to willingly be ceding the power they truly possess.

Pendulum..

BZ

 

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US destroyer collides with container ship: 3 injured, 7 still missing

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The damage of the right side of the USS Fitzgerald is seen off Shimoda, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, after the Navy destroyer collided with a merchant ship, Saturday, June 16, 2017. The U.S. Navy says the USS Fitzgerald suffered damage below the water line on its starboard side after it collided with a Philippine-flagged merchant ship. (Iori Sagisawa/Kyodo News via AP)

The damage of Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal is seen off Izu Oshima, Japan, after it had collided with the USS Fitzgerald southwest of Yokusuka, Japan, Saturday, June 16, 2017. The U.S. Navy says the USS Fitzgerald suffered damage below the water line on its starboard side after it collided with the Philippine-flagged merchant ship. (Iori Sagisawa/Kyodo News via AP)

First, note the photographs above. You can see the damage to the navy destroyer, USS Fitzgerald, is significant whilst the damage to the container ship ACX Crystal is minor. These two photographs provide a massive amount of information to an attentive observer regarding the tragedy, with only one conclusion. The OOD/Captain of the USS Fitzgerald is directly responsible for the loss of those seven sailors and will likely face a courts martial. In my opinion criminal charges should be considered.

First, the story from AP.org:

US, JAPAN SEARCH FOR 7 NAVY SAILORS, PUZZLE OVER SHIP CRASH

BY EUGENE HOSHIKO AND KOJI UEDA

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — U.S. and Japanese vessels and aircraft searched Saturday for seven American sailors who were missing after their Navy destroyer collided before dawn with a container ship four times its size off the coast of Japan.

The USS Fitzgerald was back at its home port in Yokosuka Naval Base south of Tokyo by sunset Saturday, its crew lined up on deck. The Philippine-flagged container ship was berthed at Tokyo’s Oi wharf, where officials began questioning crew members about the cause of the nighttime crash.

After helping stabilize the USS Fitzgerald, the destroyer USS Dewey joined other American and Japanese vessels and aircraft in the search for the missing sailors.

At least three other Navy sailors were injured in the collision.

Now, some damning facts.

Examining the photographs, you can see major damage to the USS Fitzgerald’s starboard side, almost amidships and directly under the bridge. The corresponding damage to the ACX Crystal is at the port bow where there is a remarkable mismatch in deck height.

That in and of itself tells me that the USS Fitzgerald turned across the path of the container ship, the container ship not at a 90-degree angle but at an obtuse angle to the USS Fitzgerald. That tells me avoidance was likely under way but initiated too late by the naval vessel.

Absent war or other factors it would be the primary duty of the smaller vessel, the USS Fitzgerald, to avoid collision. Because of navigational issues on the part of the container ship ACX Crystal with regard to handling characteristics — that is to say, its inability to stop or maneuver in any sort of rapid or noteworthy manner involving distance or time — the maritime “rules of the road” provide favor to the container ship. Particularly damning is this.

Conditions were clear at the time of the collision, though Yutaka Saito of the coast guard said the area is particularly busy with sea traffic.

That information becomes critical when one reads this paragraph.

The U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement that the crash damaged two berthing spaces, a machinery room and the radio room. Most of the more than 200 sailors aboard would have been asleep in their berths at the time of the pre-dawn crash.

The ACX Crystal possesses what is termed a “bulbous bow” under the waterline, which exists to smooth the flow of water around the hull and minimize drag thus yielding a slightly greater speed, range, stability in rougher weather and fuel efficiency. I posit it’s not impossible that the bulbous bow of the ACX Crystal may have impacted the USS Fitzgerald under the waterline and directly into the berthing areas. I submit the missing sailors may have been crushed inside the naval ship and/or sucked directly out to sea from the resulting impact.

The USS Fitzgerald’s captain, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, was airlifted early Saturday to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka and was in stable condition with a head injury, the Navy said. Two other crew members suffered cuts and bruises and were evacuated. It was unclear how many others may have been hurt.

This suggests to me Captain Benson was on the bridge and in full charge of the navy ship and not an OOD or Officer of the Deck. It makes me wonder why the captain was on the bridge that early in the morning (2:30 AM local time) unless he was awakened by personnel due to calamitous and emergent conditions.

Some very important comparisons. The ACX Crystal is a Phillipines-flagged cargo container vessel built in 2008, working for the Japanese NYK Line. It is a 29,060 ton ship with a dead weight tonnage of 39,565 tons. It is 730 feet long with a capacity of 2,858 containers though at the time of collision it was carrying 1,080 containers. Maximum speed is 25 knots or 28 mph. In such a high traffic area the ship was likely not steaming at such a speed as the captain would be aware of its inherent handling deficiencies in such conditions. MarineTraffic.com indicates the ship had been traveling at between 16 and 18 knots. There were no injuries whatsoever on the ACX Crystal, which also says much about the overall incident and nature of ship dynamics.

In contrast, the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer launched in 1994 with a full displacement of 9,000 tons at a length of 505 feet, with a maximum speed greater than 30 knots, or 34 mph. It has the AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar, AN/SPS-67 (V)2 Surface Search Radar or AN/SPS-73(V)12 Surface Search Radar system on board. Suffice to say these are more sophisticated systems than those of a merchant vessel.

Some amateur marine enthusiasts are indicating the ACX Crystal may have deviated from its original course twice.

Still and all, as per the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, the onus for avoidance was on the USS Fitzgerald due to a wide variety of factors to include ability to avoid, vessel dynamics and ship handling.

The situation immediately brings to my mind the 2001 collision between the Japanese fishing training boat Ehime Maru and the USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine, when the sub surfaced underneath the boat during an emergency ballast blow surfacing maneuver demonstration for some VIP civilians on board. In all, nine civilian crew members were killed on the Ehime Maru, including four high school students.

The captain and applicable crew of the USS Greeneville received non-judicial punishment.

UPDATED INFORMATION ON SUNDAY:

Two points: first, from the NavyTimes.com:

Navy search and rescue crews have discovered the bodies of seven missing sailors from the destroyer Fitzgerald in flooded berthing compartments, two defense officials confirmed to Navy Times.

Second, from the WSJ.com:

In a period of seconds, a 29,000 ton cargo ship loaded with containers plowed into its right side, crushing a large section of the destroyer’s main structure, including the captain’s cabin and sleeping quarters for 116 sailors below the waterline. Seawater flooded in through a large gash.

As the crew scrambled to save themselves and the ship, seven sailors didn’t make it out of the berthing area. Their bodies were recovered by divers after the ship crawled to the port of Yokosuka.

Badly injured, the captain, Bryce Benson, escaped from his cabin. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he was receiving emergency treatment on Sunday before being questioned.

This now clearly indicates the sailors were trapped or crushed and drowned down in their berths below the waterline, and would also account for the injuries to the captain as his cabin was specifically affected as well. Therefore we now know that another officer, not the captain, was OOD during the collision at night.

I suggest this will become a criminal proceeding. I cannot think of a ready excuse for a situation such as this occurring in the modern US Navy absent terrible negligence.

BZ

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