Tag: source

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Dem Rep Jayapal Questions FBI Director Wray Over Warrantless Searches

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Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) appeared on CNN’s The Source show (07/12/23) where she discussed among other things, her questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray about warrantless searches at a recent House hearing. Specifically, Rep Jayapal wanted to know why the FBI and other federal agencies are buying vast quantities of personal data from data brokers, and how the agencies use this warrantless search data.

Rep Jayapal dropped a bombshell during her interview, telling host Kaitlan Collins that if the FBI doesn’t provide a satisfactory answer to this important question, she will have no other choice but to vote against reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) when it expires later this year–a very big deal.

What makes this a very big deal, you ask? Well, Rep Jayapal heads the House Progressive Caucus. If she decides to vote against reauthorizing FISA, you can rest assured that nearly all House Progressives will vote with her, killing FISA.

Asked by host Kaitlan Collins whether she was satisfied by the answers she got from FBI Director Wray, Rep Jayapal said she wasn’t, adding( 1:29), “We do have significant concerns, It’s not just I. The Office of Director of National Intelligence(ODNI) is where the report came from, that said that the FBI is purchasing large amounts of data from these data brokers, and that information contains everything, from your location information, your medical information, it could contain information about all kinds of private things that American people understandably don’t want the FBI to have…These are warrantless searches…they are backdoor searches. The information is used in ways we don’t know…”

Bottom line folks, Rep Jayapal is absolutely correct that warrantless surveillance by the FBI and other federal agencies is out of control, and in serious need of a fix. We’ve become accustomed to hearing members of Congress threatening to block FISA reauthorization over the same surveillance abuses, only to have them cave at the end due to pressure from the national security establishment. Something however tells me (not exactly sure what that is), that 2023 may be the year members of Congress finally drop the hammer on FISA, or as legal eagle Jonathan Turley puts it, the year they decide against being “chumps”.

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Green Party Presidential Candidate Cornel West Addresses “Spoiler” Charge

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U.S. presidential candidate Cornel West (Green Party) appeared on CNN’s The Source show (07/13/23) where he among other things, addressed the charge that he’s playing the role of “spoiler” for incumbent President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2024 election. You’ll remember back in 2016, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was blamed for helping Republican Donald Trump eke out wins in the key battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, thus securing enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Coincidentally, the same Jill Stein is now Cornel West’s campaign manager, as former President Trump appears poised to be Biden’s Republican challenger in 2024.

Asked by host Kaitlan Collins about the spoiler charge, and the fact that Jill Stein, who many blame for sinking Hillary in 2024 is his campaign manager, West dismissed the charge, adding(2:50): “The Democratic Party is so unsocratic, as well as undemocratic…Examine yourself. Examine why it is, you did not speak to the issues of poor and working people, and therefore you lost. If you’d rather lose than change and examine yourself, then you’re going to have third parties popping out all over the place because people are suffering out here.”

Asked whether he plans to endorse President Biden if the presidential race gets too tight, Cornel West gave quite an interesting response–the kind you’d expect from a seasoned intellectual like him. He said both Trump and Biden are bad choices for the presidency because Trump is leading us towards a second civil war, and Biden is leading us towards a third world war (an obvious reference to Biden’s pro-Ukraine stance).

It remains to be seen what effect Cornel West’s presidential run will have on President Biden’s reelection prospects. Will West cost Biden the White House in 2024 like Jill Stein cost Hillary Clinton in 2016? Only time will tell. What’s impossible to ignore however is the Trump-Jill Stein nexus when it comes to U.S. presidential elections, especially given the fact that they are both very friendly with Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, an avowed U.S. foe. This image of Jill Stein dining with Putin and other Kremlin officials, formed the basis of the allegations that she was a spoiler candidate in 2016.

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