Listen as Larry spoke with John Solomon of The Hill regarding his latest article, Spy agencies changed rules, making it easier to unmask members of Congress.
During the interview, Solomon revealed the Obama administration made it easier to unmask the names of Congressmen:
O’Connor: Are you hearing anything from anyone in this town who understands these issues intimately that could even vaguely argue why the Ambassador to the United Nations would call for hundreds of American citizens’ names to be unmasked?
Solomon: Well, one possibility is that an American is defined as someone who is legally on U.S. soil at the time that they are intercepted. It’s possible that they were spying on U.N. ambassadors and foreign diplomats on U.S. soil to try to gain information about what their strategies were. I suppose that’s one plausible thing that still might make our allies feel unhappy. There are more notorious things that people have suggested, I just don’t think the reporting supports it yet. I have a story that’s breaking right now on The Hill that kind of takes it to a new issue which is in 2013 the Obama administration lessened the rules, lowered the threshold for when they could unmask a member of Congress. So the rules had always been, since 1992, that it was a rare thing when you asked to unmask the name of a Congressman or their staffers and that’s because of the separation of powers of the Constitution. In 2013, we changed those rules to make it a lot easier for intelligence agencies to unmask Congressmen. That story is just breaking right now on TheHill.com. I think that might catch lawmaker’s attention. There is nothing like something in your backyard.
An excerpt of the article is below:
President Obama’s intelligence chief issued revised procedures in 2013 that made it easier for executive branch officials to “unmask” the names of lawmakers or congressional staffers caught up in intelligence intercepts overseas, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Hill.
Procedures issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in March 2013 formally supplanted a 1992 set of rules that made the dissemination of names of intercepted lawmakers or congressional aides an act of last resort. [Read More]
CALL: 202-432-WMAL (9625) | 888-630-WMAL (9625)
Email The Show
