PRESS RELEASE
Nunes Tells Fox-TV Surveillance Crime Done against Trump Team
March 19, 2017 (EIRNS)—Fox TV’s interview of U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) today, and two hearings scheduled in the Intelligence Committee in the next ten days on the "unmasking of names" and their "Russian connections," appear to indicate that President Trump understands that the trail leads to British Intelligence’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as the agency deployed to attack his Administration’s openness to work with Russia.
As interviews with intelligence experts (see separate reports) make clear, when GCHQ is asked by the U.S. National Security Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency to do intercepts on the U.S. or other subjects, GCHQ may even use NSA facilities to do the interception. This is supposed to provide a thin deniability for both sides.
Representative Nunes, appearing on Fox TV this morning, said that the House Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing Monday to get to the bottom of the "unmasking" and intelligence leaks of conversations of Cabinet officials such as Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, whom Trump appointed as his National Security Adviser, only to have the nomination torpedoed by reports that he had conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, picked up by an intercept.
Representative Nunes repeated several times, "Names [of Americans associated with Trump] were unmasked; the leaking of the names; we know there was a lot of surveillance, and leaking of names, as happened with Flynn."
Host Chris Wallace posed to Nunes,
"You got FBI responses this week on wiretapping; that there was no evidence of President Obama wiretapping Trump in Trump Tower. You are concerned that other surveillance activities were used, such as unmasking names.... Flynn’s name."
Nunes agreed,
"There never was a physical wiretap of Trump Tower, but names were unmasked. Our concern is that they were using surveillance activities to leak and unmask people, as happened with General Flynn, and it was leaked to the press."
Fox then cut to President Trump saying, "I think you are going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront in the next two weeks." Nunes commented,
"If he is talking about any evidence of surveillance, and unmasking names, we had a deadline of Friday [March 17] for the NSA, FBI, and CIA to get us those names [which were] unmasked through the FISA system. We didn’t get those names on Friday. Until we get those names, we can’t rule it out."
FBI Director Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers are to testify to Nunes House Committee Monday.
Fox’s Wallace said that when Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak were intercepted, the subsequent leaking of Flynn’s name through the FISA system was a crime. He asked if Nunes thought others were swept up because they talked to Kislyak, and Nunes agreed:
"You are right—that is the one crime committed that we are trying to get to the bottom of.... What happened to Flynn is very concerning. Flynn was a U.S. citizen ... talking to an ambassador. We should not go after people talking to diplomats. I probably talk to a dozen diplomats a week."
Wallace:
"As Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, have you seen evidence of collusion between what I will call ‘Trump World’ and Russia to swing the 2016 election?"
Nunes: "I will give you a very simple answer: No."
Wallace: "Do you believe elements of intelligence are leaking to undercut the Trump Presidency?"
Nunes: "It’s pretty clear that’s happening.... People who were there who had classified information are no longer there."
On his March 20 hearing, Nunes concluded,
"We’re just beginning. On March 28, we will have another hearing with at least three more witnesses, trying to get at the crime scene—what they know, when they knew about leaks."
