Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
One of the reasons I dislike Twitter is that one is limited to 140 characters per tweet.
This caused President Trump to tweet, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
That came just after the New York Times published stories that indicated the FBI, NSA, CIA and Treasury Department were investigating Trump and his campaign staff.
The Times topped off its stories with the headline, “Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides.”
Trump was widely castigated for his claim. Media of all type pounced on his lack of proof or confirmation to corroborate his shocking assertion. At no time did any member of the media think to inquire if the Times had any evidence to substantiate its stories.
Trump unchained from 140 characters could have tweeted, “Terrible! Just read in the New York Times that a high-ranking official in the Obama administration ordered many different branches of the Intelligence Community to initiate electronic surveillance on all the communication equipment in Trump Tower. Although they found nothing, surveillance continues. This is McCarthyism on steroids!”
Comes now a Washington Post story headlined, “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page.”
The story begins, “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.”
Last summer the conventional wisdom was that Hillary would win easily against any Republican and the Clinton campaign’s Republican of choice was Donald Trump. Is it possible that the Clinton campaign with its ties to Obama sought to use the FISA courts against a political opponent?
If you believe what you read in the Washington Post, the intelligence community accused Carter Page of spying for Russia in their application to the FISA court. They made that claim to get approval to surveil his communications.
Libertarians have always been concerned that the FISA process was susceptible to political abuse and this begins to smell like that abuse. The argument that the intelligence community is too moral and decent to permit something like that is becoming frayed at the edges.
I tend to agree that the rank and file members of intelligence organizations are indeed honorable, patriotic Americans. I can’t say that about the non-professional political appointees.
It looks like Trump’s famous tweets were, in substance, true.
Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at: