US under Trump Series: Mainstream media caught in their own anonymous soups

Last Saturday, the US President Donald Trump created quite a furor by tweeting and alleging that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump tower and the campaign in a politically motivated move. This is truly groundbreaking revelations/allegations, just like the media reports but that not necessarily mean that they are not plausible. There is ample evidence that the Obama administration did similar things to private citizens. Below is a sample from long list of instances,

• Obama’s Justice Department secretly subpoenaed AP reporters’ private phone records
• Fox News reporter James Rosen and his parents’ phone records were seized
• Restricted files of congressman and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee Jason Chafez were accessed by the Obama Secret Service.
• US intelligence community under the Obama administration did phone surveillance of foreign leaders including allies like Germany.
• National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

So, no matter how explosive the allegations of Donald Trump have been, it could definitely be possible. The reaction of the mainstream media can all be call hypocritical, who said the allegations are outrageous and tried to provide a clean chit to the previous administration.

However, Mark Levin, an American lawyer, host of a Radio show and a former chief of Stuff for Attorney General during the Regan era skillfully analyzed publicly available media reports, which exactly says what Donald Trump accused the Obama administration of. Speaking to the Fox news, Mr. Levin laid out an array of media reports from Trump-unfriendly media houses which strongly suggest that the allegations are true or at least could be true. Here’s how, Mr. Levin laid it out, we quote from worldnewspolitics.com,

1. “Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.” (Heatstreet)
2. “The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials.” (The Guardian)
3. “The FBI and five other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have collaborated for months in an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the November election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said.” (McClatchy)
4. “The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.” (NYT)
5. “In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.” (NYT)
6. “In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.” (NYT)
7. Flynn Is Said to Have Talked to Russians About Sanctions Before Trump Took Office (NYT) [“Where’d they get this information?” Levin asks.]
8. “The focus of the U.S. counterintelligence investigation has been on communications between Trump campaign officials and Russia. The inquiry involving Mr. Sessions is examining his contacts while serving as Mr. Trump’s foreign-policy adviser in the spring and summer of 2016, one person familiar with the matter said.” [References Washington Post in video, but actually Wall Street Journal]

Recently President Trump waged a war against anonymous sources used by media houses which allege that his campaign colluded with Russia. So, if Mr. Trump is wrong then these media reports are true too, which suggest that there were surveillance and if these reports are incorrect then Mr. Trump is right that the media houses make up sources.

We previously wrote an article that these are the dark days of journalism which probably died in the US last year in favor of favoritism and cheerleading for a particular side.