In this special episode of Firebrand, we focus on three types of spies: Chinese, Chinese spies, independent brokers, and the "free agent" spied on the United States by the Deep State. We also discuss a new update to the Pegasus spy software used by the Israeli company NSO.
00:06:43.000No American company is allowed to do business with NSO Group.
00:06:47.000And for that reason, they are struggling in some financial ways.
00:06:51.000By the way, just about every major tech company and much of the federal bureaucracy acts contrary to the national interests of our country.
00:06:58.000So the fact that NSO Group that makes Pegasus is being singled out, well, that ought to tell you something.
00:07:18.000The New York Times has very recently reported that an American defense contractor called L3 Harris has been caught trying to purchase Pegasus.
00:07:28.000Now, how would that happen when the makers of Pegasus, the NSO Group, have been blacklisted?
00:07:38.000They have said, according to the New York Times reporting, that they were being encouraged and supported by American intelligence officials to go buy this product that had been blacklisted and was illegal.
00:07:50.000Allegedly, these officials told L3 Harris that they would support a deal if certain conditions were met.
00:07:57.000And among these conditions was a demand that NSO Group's stash of zero-day exploits be made available and sold to Five Eyes intelligence members.
00:08:07.000If you haven't heard of Five Eyes, that's the intelligence sharing agreement between the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
00:08:15.000Now, the implications of this are huge.
00:08:18.000Here's my questioning of the DOJ's National Security Division official.
00:08:24.000And just watch the faces on his handlers behind him as I ask these questions.
00:09:44.000Whether or not our own government used a private company as a cutout to go buy spying software that deprives people's rights.
00:09:51.000And what you're saying is I'm not going to get a yes out of you and I'm not going to get a no out of you because you're just not going to tell.
00:09:57.000You don't think the American people deserve to know that?
00:09:59.000I'm not aware of the facts that you're asserting.
00:10:08.000So you should be able to tell me whether or not anyone who works at the National Security Division was out there trying to goose some private company.
00:10:22.000One of the tools also used by the intelligence community is FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
00:10:33.000And some authorities there allow our spies, our government officials to gather data, to listen in on calls,
00:10:42.000intercept signal intelligence if they're looking into someone who's a foreigner on foreign soil.
00:10:49.000But the Americans that get caught up in that, they're seeing their civil liberties, their constitutional rights deprived.
00:10:55.000Now there have been a number of reviews regarding how the FBI and the Department of Justice are using FISA.
00:11:01.000And it turns out, they're breaking a lot of their own rules.
00:11:04.000The most recent inspector general report showed that every file that was looked at had problems with it.
00:11:10.000In some cases, the backup materials that are required under the Woods procedures were entirely missing.
00:11:16.000And in four cases, the errors were so egregious that it was easy to see how the judge evaluating whether or not to grant the surveillance request could have made a different decision.
00:11:31.000My colleague, Congressman Louie Gohmert asked questions about this to a senior National Security Division official at the Department of Justice.
00:11:40.000It's a fair question to know, in general, not specific cases, is the FISA court, has it been used to get orders to investigate January 6th?
00:11:55.000So, again, I'm not familiar with the order that you referred to a moment ago.
00:12:57.000And then they threatened her boss that he could go to prison for covering for her.
00:13:02.000Is there any order from any court that allows the DOJ or the NSA to monitor text messages of American citizens?
00:13:17.000You know, obviously there are court orders, whether they come from federal courts, not the FISA court, or the federal FISA court, that authorize, pursuant to law, search warrants and surveillance.
00:13:32.000Yes, but search warrants under the Fourth Amendment have to describe with particularity the things to be searched or seized.
00:13:46.000And so when you have no probable cause to go after somebody in Kilgore, Texas, then, you know, we'd heard about, oh, gee, there's software to look for specific words that allow you to go after anybody that hasn't committed crimes.
00:14:04.000We really need to know how widespread that is.
00:14:10.000It's just really important to point out, sir, that the way the law works is that the federal judge, a federal FISA court judge, will only approve an order based on probable cause that an individual is an agent of a foreign power.
00:14:25.000Mr. Olsen, we have proof that's a lie.
00:14:30.000Mr. Raskin is recognized for five minutes.
00:14:33.000It is deeply troubling to me to see these exquisite powers and authorities and technologies that normally we would intend to keep America safe to be directed at our adversaries being slyly acquired against American law by some of the people that a lot of Americans are concerned about most.
00:14:56.000People in our own government using politics to weaponize the national security apparatus against our fellow Americans.
00:15:04.000I will get answers on this Pegasus issue.
00:15:07.000And if they won't provide them to us, well, we're going to subpoena records.
00:15:13.000When Republicans have control of the Congress, we must fervently defend people's civil liberties, civil liberties that both parties have been far too willing to violate in times of crisis.
00:15:39.000It will absolutely help us get our content to more people.
00:15:43.000And always know that you can leave us comments in the comments section on your listening platform, on Rumble, on YouTube, on Getter, on Twitter.
00:15:51.000We take a look at those and it helps inform what topics we choose to cover and what secrets of the swamp we expose for your benefit.