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Thread: Rand Paul says Trump Intel pick has 'worrisome' record on surveillance

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  1. #1

    Rand Paul says Trump Intel pick has 'worrisome' record on surveillance

    https://thehill.com/policy/national-...n-surveillance

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday expressed misgivings about President Trump’s nominee to serve as director of national intelligence, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), calling his record on surveillance “very worrisome.”

    Paul said he hadn’t made a “final conclusion” on Trump’s decision to tap Ratcliffe to replace outgoing Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, but said he was worried about the Republican congressman’s voting record related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

    “It sounds like he’s been a proponent of more power to the FISA court, he’s been a proponent of warrantless searches,” Paul told The Hill when asked about Ratcliffe’s nomination Wednesday.

    Though he didn’t offer specifics, Paul appeared to be referring to Ratcliffe’s decision to join a group of bipartisan House lawmakers in voting against privacy reforms to the intelligence community’s collection powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last year.

    The provision allows the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on non-American targets outside the United States without a warrant, including in cases when the targets communicate with Americans. The Senate voted to extend the program in January 2018 after Paul and others tried unsuccessfully to filibuster it.

    Proponents of the program argue it is in the interest of national security and keeps Americans safe. But critics like Paul and civil liberties advocates have pushed for reform, sounding the alarm over the so-called backdoor search loophole that allows federal investigators to sift through data incidentally collected on Americans.

    “We’ve been advocating for years that we need more protection for Americans,” Paul said Wednesday. “The Fourth Amendment needs to be applied more consistently throughout the intelligence community. We want more restrictions on FBI looking at FISA data that’s been obtained without a warrant for Americans.”

    “My first impression is [Ratcliffe] seems to be coming from a different point of view, which is worrisome. I haven’t made a final conclusion, but I can tell you that our initial look is very, very worrisome,” Paul added.

    Ratcliffe, who has a background in law enforcement as a former federal prosecutor, has raised concerns about FISA abuses in connection with the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

    In particular, Ratcliffe and other Republicans have suggested the FBI abused its authorities in applying for a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page by using research compiled by Christopher Steele, the author of a controversial Trump-Russia dossier.

    Critics say Republicans have raised the accusations in order to undermine former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

    The Justice Department inspector general is reviewing whether the FBI followed appropriate rules in applying for the Page warrant, and his report is expected to be released in the near future. Attorney General William Barr has also opened a separate inquiry into what he has termed “spying” on the Trump campaign.

    Since Trump announced plans to nominate him to the top intelligence post, Ratcliffe has come under scrutiny for his critique of the Russia probe. Democrats have argued he is too political for the role, and others have raised concerns about his lack of national security experience when compared to past nominees.

    His backers have argued his law enforcement background and work in Congress — Ratcliffe is a member of the House Intelligence Committee — have prepared him adequately for the job.

    Paul said Wednesday that he believes Trump was “abused by the intelligence community” but that he favors a nominee for director of national intelligence who “understands that it’s not just about President Trump.”

    “I think there’s great danger to politics in general or to people who are political activists if we use the intelligence community to look at their phone calls and listen to them,” Paul said.

    “I’m more worried about that than whether or not he’s a loyalist to the president because I think it takes someone who thinks maybe the president was abused, it takes someone who can generalize that to say, hey, I’m for really protecting all Americans from an overzealous intelligence community, and I’m not so sure his record reflects that.”

    Paul added that he would look “very carefully” at the nomination and didn’t want to make a “snap decision.”

    Ratcliffe's office did not offer comment for this article.
    More at link.



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  3. #2
    95% of the oxygen consuming bodies in Mordor on the Potomac have a worrisome approach to surveillance. Most of the remaining 5%, its questionable if they are oxygen consuming.

    XNN
    "They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars. I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why. They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are but theyre never the ones to fight or to die." - Jackson Browne Lives In The Balance

  4. #3
    Zippy, you act like there are no free thinkers among libertarians. It’s the liberals between whom you can’t find a spark of daylight.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by euphemia View Post
    Zippy, you act like there are no free thinkers among libertarians. It’s the liberals between whom you can’t find a spark of daylight.
    Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But I don't see how on earth you got that from this thread.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  6. #5
    May GOD Bless RAND PAUL!
    FLIP THOSE FLAGS, THE NATION IS IN DISTRESS!


    why I should worship the state (who apparently is the only party that can possess guns without question).
    The state's only purpose is to kill and control. Why do you worship it? - Sola_Fide

    Baptiste said.
    At which point will Americans realize that creating an unaccountable institution that is able to pass its liability on to tax-payers is immoral and attracts sociopaths?

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Trump drains the swamp by putting more snakes in it.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Trump drains the swamp by putting more snakes in it.
    Some people say that he is exposing the deep state, that has to be something right?

  9. #8
    John Ratcliffe:

    100% - nope.

    90% - nope.

    80% - nope.

    70% - nope.
    .
    .
    Cumulative Freedom Index Score: 68%


    https://www.thenewamerican.com/index...nameid=R000601
    ____________

    An Agorist Primer ~ Samuel Edward Konkin III (free PDF download)

    The End of All Evil ~ Jeremy Locke (free PDF download)



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Trump drains the swamp by putting more snakes in it.
    Quote Originally Posted by PAF View Post
    John Ratcliffe:

    100% - nope.

    90% - nope.

    80% - nope.

    70% - nope.
    .
    .
    Cumulative Freedom Index Score: 68%


    https://www.thenewamerican.com/index...nameid=R000601
    Ratcliff withdrew.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Trump drains the swamp by putting more snakes in it.
    Quote Originally Posted by juleswin View Post
    Some people say that he is exposing the deep state, that has to be something right?
    Well, I heard that he's just trying to make the deep state comfortable ...

    The Bastiat Collection · FREE PDF · FREE EPUB · PAPER
    Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

    • "When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law."
      -- The Law (p. 54)
    • "Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
      -- Government (p. 99)
    • "[W]ar is always begun in the interest of the few, and at the expense of the many."
      -- Economic Sophisms - Second Series (p. 312)
    • "There are two principles that can never be reconciled - Liberty and Constraint."
      -- Harmonies of Political Economy - Book One (p. 447)

    · tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ·

  13. #11
    Well, Ratcliffe withdrew, so problem solved.



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