Journalisten bombardierten Spicer am Donnerstag erneut mit Fragen zu der Affäre. Daraufhin erklärte der Pressesprecher, Trump halte an seinen Anschuldigungen fest, und zog einen jüngsten Bericht des erzkonservativen Senders Fox News heran: Darin wird Obama vorgeworfen, er habe zur Überwachung von Trump den britischen Geheimdienst GCHQ genutzt, um „keine amerikanischen Fingerabdrücke zu hinterlassen“.

Last week, Senator Wyden sent a letter to incoming Director of National Intelligence* Dan Coats, once again asking how many Americans are having their communications watched under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (which, again, is supposed to be used for foreign intelligence, but which we now know is regularly used to do surveillance on Americans).

In dem Bericht erklärte der Justizexperte und Kommentator Andrew Napolitano, der Sender sei von „drei Geheimdienstquellen“ darüber informiert worden, dass Obama die „Kommandokette“ verlassen habe, um das Abhören anzuordnen. Er habe weder die eigenen Geheimdienste NSA und CIA, noch die Bundespolizei FBI oder das Justizministerium genutzt. Stattdessen habe er sich an das GCHQ gewandt.

Die Antwort aus London zu den Vorwürfen fiel harsch aus.

Aktiver Livestream seit 55 Minuten

The flap with Britain started when Mr. Spicer, in the course of defending Mr. Trump’s original accusation against Mr. Obama, on Thursday read from the White House lectern comments by a Fox News commentator asserting that the British spy agency was involved. Andrew Napolitano, the commentator, said on air that Mr. Obama had used Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, the signals agency known as the GCHQ, to spy on Mr. Trump.

The GCHQ quickly and vehemently denied the contention on Thursday in a rare statement issued by the spy agency, calling the assertions “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous.” By Friday morning, Mr. Spicer’s briefing had turned into a full-blown international incident. British politicians expressed outrage and demanded apologies and retractions from the American government.

(…)

I AM SCREAMING.

Ein kurzer Handshake, Lächeln, Donald Trump ruft: „Sendet ein schönes Bild heim nach Deutschland!“ Zur Stunde empfängt der US-Präsident die Kanzlerin im Weißen Haus. Worüber reden die beiden?

No 10 has been assured the allegations would not be repeated, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said.

For decades, the government officially denied the agency even existed – long after this fact was public knowledge. And above all else, GCHQ never comments on stories.

Until now.

(25.11.2016) As Yui points out, the list of who has access to your records is laid out in Schedule 4 of the Act. „It‘s longer than you might imagine,“ he wrote.
Here‘s the full list:

– Metropolitan police force
– City of London police force
– Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996
– Police Service of Scotland
– Police Service of Northern Ireland
– British Transport Police
– Ministry of Defence Police
– Royal Navy Police
– Royal Military Police
– Royal Air Force Police
– Security Service
– Secret Intelligence Service
– GCHQ
– Ministry of Defence
– Department of Health
– Home Office
– Ministry of Justice
– National Crime Agency
– HM Revenue & Customs
– Department for Transport
– Department for Work and Pensions
– NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services
– Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service
– Competition and Markets Authority
– Criminal Cases Review Commission
– Department for Communities in Northern Ireland
– Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland
– Department of Justice in Northern Ireland
– Financial Conduct Authority
– Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
– Food Standards Agency
– Food Standards Scotland
– Gambling Commission
– Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
– Health and Safety Executive
– Independent Police Complaints Commissioner
– Information Commissioner
– NHS Business Services Authority
– Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
– Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board
– Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation
– Office of Communications
– Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
– Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
– Scottish Ambulance Service Board
– Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
– Serious Fraud Office
– Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust

(17.11.2016) civil liberties groups have long criticized the bill, with some arguing that the law will let the UK government „document everything we do online“.

It‘s no wonder, because it basically does.

(30.11.2016) Durch die Zustimmung der Queen ist mit dem Investigatory Powers Act eines der umfangreichsten Überwachungsgesetze nicht nur Europas in Großbritannien Gesetz geworden. Es erlaubt Überwachung in nie dagewesenem Umfang.

„We know that there is a very close collaboration between the UK and US intelligence agencies,“ said Javier Ruiz, policy director at the Open Rights Group. „There is nothing in UK law to stop GCHQ from conducting targeted interception of President Trump‘s communications before he became President – or even now.“

The source brought up the Flynn investigation after BuzzFeed News asked if clear evidence existed tying Trump to Moscow. The official then mentioned the FBI investigation into Flynn. It was not clear if the FBI’s probe was a counterintelligence investigation.

Aktuell: GCHQ versteht gar nicht, wie jemand auf die Idee kommen könnte, sie hätten Trump abzuhören geholfen!1!!

Aber echt mal! Was für eine absurde Vorstellung!!1!

Mit der neuen EU-Verordnung für die Polizeiagentur Europol sollen die Bundespolizei, der Zollfahndungsdienst und alle 16 Länderpolizeien künftig direkt auf Analysedatenbanken in Den Haag zugreifen können. Dies geht aus dem „Gesetz zur Änderung des Europol-Gesetzes“ hervor, den die Bundesregierung gestern im Entwurf veröffentlicht hat.

Hintergrund ist die Änderung der Rechtsgrundlage für Europol, wonach die Agentur nach dem Lissabon-Vertrag nunmehr vollends vergemeinschaftet ist. Der Europol-Ratsbeschluss von 2009 wurde deshalb durch eine EU-Verordnung ersetzt. Sie regelt die Informationsverarbeitung nicht mehr systembezogen für die verschiedenen Europol-Datenbanken, sondern definiert verschiedene Verarbeitungszwecke. Außerdem wird der Kreis der Zugriffsberechtigten auf weitere Behörden vergrößert. Mit Einschränkungen ist sogar der Vollzugriff möglich.

– Just before Sean Spicer was to take questions from reporters, Senate Intelligence Committee chiefs affirmed a lack of evidence for wiretapping
– ABC News‘ Jon Karl attempted to question Spicer about their statement and similar comments that were made yesterday by heads of the House Intel panel
– In a long dressing down, Spicer pointed to a March 14 Fox & Friends broadcast and quoted Judge Andrew Napolitano
– Napolitano said he had three sources telling him that Obama used Britain‘s GCHQ intelligence agency to spy on Trump
– GCHQ said the claims are ‚utterly ridiculous and should be ignored‘

Last, on Fox News on March 14th, Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement. “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He 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 is that? It’s the initials for the British Intelligence Spying Agency. So simply, by having two people saying to them, ‘the President needs transcripts of conversations involved in candidate Trump’s conversations involving President-elect Trump,’ he was able to get it and there’s no American fingerprints on this.”

Putting the published accounts and common sense together, this leads to a lot.

Q So, Sean, are you saying that despite the findings, the bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee —

MR. SPICER: No, they’re not findings. There’s a statement out today. They have not begun this — as you know, yesterday, or two days ago, the Department of Justice asked for an additional week. So the statement clearly says that at this time, that they don’t believe that. They have yet to go through the information. The Department of Justice, as you know, has not supplied this.

But I’ve just read off to you — it’s interesting, when the New York Times reports —

Q I let you do that whole long answer. Can I just ask my question?

MR. SPICER: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Q Okay. So are you saying that the President still stands by his allegation that President Obama ordered wiretapping or surveillance of Trump Tower, despite the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee says they see no indication that it happened? Does the President still stand by the allegation?

MR. SPICER: No, but — first of all, he stands by it, but again, you’re mischaracterizing what happened today.

Sources have told me that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so GCHQ — a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our constitutional norms — has the digital versions of all electronic communications made in America in 2016, including Trump’s. So by bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints.

Angela Merkel steht vor einer der schwierigsten Reisen ihrer Kanzlerschaft. Wurde die erste Begegnung noch wegen Schnee verschoben, wird sie Donald Trump nun in Washington kennenlernen. Im Wahljahr ein heikler Balanceakt.

Abdel Rahman konnte nicht angeben, welche Luftwaffe die Angriffe flog.

KORREKTUR-HINWEIS In APA022 vom 17.03.2017 muss es im Titel und im ersten Satz richtig heißen: Angriff bei Moschee (nicht: Angriff auf Moschee) bzw. Angriff auf ein Ziel bei einer Moschee (nicht: Angriff auf eine Moschee)

Laut US-Armee steht die Moschee aber noch.

U.S. forces struck an al Qaeda meeting in Syria, killing several suspected terrorists, and are investigating reports that civilians were killed or injured in a nearby mosque, military officials told NBC News on Thursday night.