Stephen Lendman

On Wednesday, House Select Committee on Intelligence chair Devin Nunez (R. CA) issued a statement, saying “on numerous occasions, the Intelligence Community incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition.”

“Details about US persons associated with the incoming administration - details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value - were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.”

“I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked” - their identities revealed, likely for political reasons.

“To be clear, none of this surveillance was related to Russia or any investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team.”

“The House Intelligence Committee will thoroughly investigate this surveillance and its subsequent dissemination to determine:

Who was aware of it

Why it was not disclosed to Congress

Who requested and authorized the additional unmasking

Whether anyone directed the intelligence community to focus on Trump associates; and

Whether any laws, regulations, or procedures were violated.”

“I’ve asked the Directors of the FBI, NSA, and CIA to expeditiously comply with my March 15 letter, and to provide a full account of these surveillance activities.”

While no physical evidence of wiretapping Trump Tower is known, Nunez expressed concern about surveillance activities on Trump and his associates, including Michael Flynn, information about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to Washington leaked.

Nunez: “The NSA is…cooperati(ng)” in providing what it knows about Trump team surveillance, “so far (not) the FBI…”

Asked if he could rule out Obama administration involvement, Nunez said: “No, I cannot.”

The former president is conveniently out of the country in Tahiti from mid-March to mid-April, not readily available for comment.

Team Trump’s conversations were recorded, information from them leaked, Nunez explained.

Trump said he feels “somewhat” vindicated by information the congressman supplied.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said if further information is learned on this, it’ll be shared with reporters, adding:

“(A)ll of the questions (asked by the media) are in the presumptive negative towards us, as opposed to ‘why was this taking place.’ “

“ ‘Why were people surveilled ostensibly.’ They were involved in the campaign…Why would someone’s name get put out there…There’s a lot of questions” needing answers.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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