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Victor Davis Hansen - The FISA-Gate Boomerangs
Selected excerpt:[Victor Davis Hanson Papers] Democrats allege that, given Carter Page’s familiarity with Russians, it was logical for the Obama administration to use the dossier’s references to him to substantiate FISA warrants. But is not the opposite more likely true? He was apparently known to intelligence agencies for years (supposedly under investigation variously by the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), and he may have been the object of a 2014 FISA warrant. But such intelligence agents were never able to bring charges against him, and it appears he even cooperated with American intelligence in gathering info against the Russians. So why would the FBI and DOJ, suddenly in 2016, believe that mention of Page’s name in an unverified opposition-research dossier warranted four FISA warrants to find wrongdoing? After all, if he was so well known to the FBI for so many years, during which they never charged him with being a Russian agent, and if the FBI nonetheless still regarded him as suspicious in 2016, why not simply go to a regular court to obtain a warrant to wiretap him? Such a court, of course, would be less secretive, not known for a 99 percent approval rate, subject to far more deliberation, and less useful for surveilling Trump associates. Of course he was 'not charged.' Witting or unwitting, what good is a jailed source ? A more likely supposition is that it was not Page’s past flirtations with the Russians (who supposedly dubbed him an "idiot") that abruptly brought him back into the sights of the DOJ and FBI in 2016. Instead, it was his brief and minor relationship with Trump, and his appearance in a bogus dossier, that offered useful pretexts for court-ordered surveillance sweeps and indirect targeting of possible Trump associates. Bingo! VDH nails it squarely. Page had placement and access and was a convenient tool and cover for action for "incidental collection." The bureau had mountains of data on Page, and mountains of data is what the FISA court demands. Page was their ticket to ride. Page was simply a tool, to be surveilled in hopes of also sweeping up other names and information that might corroborate some shred of the dubious Steele dossier. In that narrow sense, his name might as well have been Jones or Smith. My emphasis added. Posted by: Besoeker 2018-02-07 |
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