US will 'not repeat' claims GCHQ wiretapped Donald Trump

**Seshmeister** · 03-17-2017, 10:07 AM

From BBC

US will 'not repeat' claims GCHQ wiretapped Donald Trump

The US has agreed not to repeat claims the UK's communications intelligence agency wiretapped Donald Trump during the presidential election campaign.
GCHQ rejected allegations made by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, that it spied on Mr Trump, as "nonsense".

No 10 has now been assured by Mr Spicer he would not repeat the accusation.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said it had been made clear to US authorities the claims were "ridiculous and should have been ignored".
GCHQ also rejected the allegations as "utterly ridiculous". The unusual move by the agency to comment on the news came after Mr Spicer cited claims first made on US TV channel Fox News earlier this week.

Mr Trump said that Trump Tower in New York was under surveillance, but has provided no evidence for the claim.

The allegations of GCHQ involvement were initially made by former judge Andrew Napolitano.
Mr Spicer quoted Mr Napolitano as saying: "Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command."

He said Mr Obama "didn't use the NSA, he didn't use the CIA, he didn't use the FBI and he didn't use the Department of Justice, he used GCHQ.

"What the heck is GCHQ? That's the initials for the British spying agency. They have 24/7 access to the NSA database."

A GCHQ spokesman said: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president-elect are nonsense.
"They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."

**Seshmeister** · 03-17-2017, 10:13 AM

What a bunch of muppets.

**Nickdfresh** · 03-17-2017, 01:32 PM

More like fuckpuppets...

**Terry** · 03-19-2017, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Seshmeister

From BBC

US will 'not repeat' claims GCHQ wiretapped Donald Trump

The US has agreed not to repeat claims the UK's communications intelligence agency wiretapped Donald Trump during the presidential election campaign.
GCHQ rejected allegations made by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, that it spied on Mr Trump, as "nonsense".

No 10 has now been assured by Mr Spicer he would not repeat the accusation.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said it had been made clear to US authorities the claims were "ridiculous and should have been ignored".
GCHQ also rejected the allegations as "utterly ridiculous". The unusual move by the agency to comment on the news came after Mr Spicer cited claims first made on US TV channel Fox News earlier this week.

Mr Trump said that Trump Tower in New York was under surveillance, but has provided no evidence for the claim.

The allegations of GCHQ involvement were initially made by former judge Andrew Napolitano.
Mr Spicer quoted Mr Napolitano as saying: "Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command."

He said Mr Obama "didn't use the NSA, he didn't use the CIA, he didn't use the FBI and he didn't use the Department of Justice, he used GCHQ.

"What the heck is GCHQ? That's the initials for the British spying agency. They have 24/7 access to the NSA database."

A GCHQ spokesman said: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president-elect are nonsense.
"They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."

It's sort of odd to see these public comments rebuking Trump's claims by various former and current intelligence agency officials, odd in that normally such people don't make public comments about much of anything.

Odd, but not surprising, because we have such a foolish blowhard (with no sense of discipline or self-control) in the Oval Office now.

Trump just keeps doubling down on the essence of his nature. Is he hoping if he makes enough specious claims and throws enough shit at the wall it will distract from newly energized journalists digging into the nature of his various business ventures, his taxes of the last decade and the unfolding Russian connections?

**FORD** · 03-19-2017, 01:02 PM

Majority Report did a hilarious bit on this one...

Start listening at about 8 minutes in.

**Terry** · 03-19-2017, 05:38 PM

Sure, if you take Spicer's statement at face value, it would seem serious enough to warrant a 2nd look, if not an investigation.

I mean, a judge going on a major cable-news outlet claiming three intelligence sources told him Obama was using British intelligence services to spy on Trump? On the face it if, it sounds credible enough.

Then you start to peel back the layers of the onion, and you find that the judge is in fact a former judge who has been retired for over 2 decades. Then you find that he has been employed as a tv commentator for the bulk of those 2 decades by either Fox News or Fox's parent corporation. Which makes sense, because the former judge made his GCHQ claims on the Fox News Channel. The former judge is also a believer of 9/11 Truther Theories.

Once the particulars of the career, beliefs and current employment of the 'judicial source' who made those claims on Fox News are contextually understood, Spicer's comment comes off as yet another instance of Trump watching Fox News and taking it as gospel. Which Trump clearly must, since the Presidential intelligence briefings he receives aren't to be trusted because a) they are the product of the bureaucratic 'deep state', and they b) in many instances probably conflict with Trump's Fox-Sponsored worldview, mostly because government agencies and non-Fox News outlets who report things contrary to that worldview are...wait for it..."fake news."

Such a wonderfully circular logic, and down the rabbit hole into Alex Jonestown we go.

I mean, how many times in how many instances has Spicer, when questioned about lack of veracity pertaining to a variety of Trump's tweets, fallen back on the feeble "This is what the President" - not "Donald Trump" mind you, but "the President" as if the office he holds makes him immune from spreading disprovable nonsense - "believes."

"This is what the President believes."

The other bizarre aspect of all these Trump tweets is how reliant Trump is on tv news for getting his information, as if Trump already isn't in perhaps the prime position in the world, with perhaps more informational non-cable tv news resources literally at his command than anyone else in terms of data-gathering agencies. Yet he's tweeting and saying one dubious easily debunked thing after another, citing one non-credible internet source after another as the origin, then claiming "duh, I'm just repeating what I saw on tv! I saw it on the internet!"

I mean, to be fair, the silly rationales Spicer provides are by no means any less so when any other Trump advocate provides them. It all starts from the top, and when bullshit is coming from the top, surrogates massaging it as it rolls downhill usually can't manage to make it smell any better. It would take real talent to do that. Neither Spicer, Conway, Huckabee or Priebus combined have enough talent to make Trump's turds smell like roses.