The computer intrusions: Clapper’s false testimony
The following is the 17th in a series of excerpts from my New York Times bestseller “Stonewalled,” which recounts the government intrusions of my computers. More excerpts to follow. Links to previous excerpts are below.
Everything Patel has found serves to confirm my January source and analysis. Patel tells me that only a few entities possess these highly specialized skills. One of them is the U.S. government. I already know this from Number One. But now CBS knows it, too. And it will all be in his final report to the network.
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On June 15, 2013, Isham telephones me after work and asks me to meet him the next morning in his Washington office. When I arrive, I enter his office to discover not only Isham but also CBS News president David Rhodes from New York. Isham closes the door and I sit. Rhodes and Isham take turns telling me Patel has completed his final forensics report more than four months after he began investigating. They say the report confirms the computer in- trusions in some detail. I’ve been living with the knowledge for five months, but getting CBS management officially on the same page is a positive step. Their mood is markedly different than in the past few weeks. They’re smiling and appear happy. They tell me this is all good news in the sense that they now have solid, documentary evidence from their own independent expert. They say they’re “a thousand percent” behind me in all matters of support and in pursuing the perpetrator(s). I don’t know what seems to have turned them around, but they say that they also think we should begin covering this as the news story that it is. They hand me a piece of paper containing a brief statement that’s been prepared for public release as soon as our meeting ends:
A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had exe- cuted commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data. This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion. CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.
The next morning, CBS This Morning briefly interviews me about the case. It’s generating a great deal of interest and requests for inter- views from other news media. The only non-CBS entity that the com- pany wishes me to speak with is Bill O’Reilly from The O’Reilly Factoron FOX News. I fly to New York and appear on his evening program.
Meanwhile, during this very same time period, Senator Wyden stokes the embers of another controversy that would keep the Obama administration set back on its heels. He accuses Director of National Intelligence James Clapper of not giving a “straight answer” to the Senate Intelligence Committee three months before.
“Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hun- dreds of millions of Americans?” Wyden had asked Clapper at the March 12, 2013, hearing.
“No, sir,” Clapper replies, quickly shaking his head and pressing the fingers of his right hand against his forehead, almost shielding his eyes from making direct contact as he looks down, up, down, up, down, all inside of about two seconds.
“It does not?” Wyden repeats, eyebrows raised.
“Not wittingly.” Clapper continues shaking his head and begins stroking his forehead with the four fingers. “There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect—but not wittingly.” Clap- per looks up and down fifteen times, by my count, in the span of that brief answer.
Call it a mistake, a misunderstanding, or a lie—depending on your viewpoint—but Clapper’s testimony was wrong. The whole world now knows what Senator Wyden, with his access to classified information knew, when he posed the question: NSA programs col- lect data belonging to hundreds of millions of Americans from U.S. phone call records, online communications, and Internet companies.
Now Wyden wants public hearings “to address the recent disclo- sures” and says “the American people have the right to expect straight
answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives.”
You might think everyone would agree that giving bad informa- tion to Congress, under oath, is improper.
But this is Washington.
Clapper’s defenders say that Wyden “sandbagged” him. That by asking a loaded question at a public hearing, Wyden forced Clapper to either tell the truth, thus divulging top-secret information, or tell a lie.
The sandbag argument doesn’t stand up, factually. Wyden says he sent the question to Clapper’s office a day in advance of the hearing so that he’d be prepared for it. In any event, Clapper should have been able to produce a better and honest answer. In 2006, then–attorney general Alberto Gonzales apparently did when asked a similar ques- tion at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Rather than mislead or divulge secrets, Gonzales found a third option. He told Congress: “The programs and activities you ask about, to the extent that they exist, would be highly classified.”
To be continued…
Read excerpt #1 here: The Computer Intrusions: Up at Night
#2: Big Brother: First Warnings
#3: The Computer Intrusions: Disappearing Act
#4: The Incredible, Elusive “Verizon Man”
#5: I Spy: The Government’s Secrets
#6: Computer Intrusions: The Discovery
#7: Notifying CBS About the Government Computer Intrusions
#8: The MCALLEN Case: Computer Intrusion Confirmed
#10: Revelations in the Government Computer Intrusion
#12: Obama’s War on Leaks
#13: The Computer Intrusions Become Public
#14: The Govt. Computer Intrusions: Word Spreads
#15: My Computer Intrusion and the National Connection
Read excerpt #1 here: The Computer Intrusions: Up at Night
#2: Big Brother: First Warnings
#3: The Computer Intrusions: Disappearing Act
#4: The Incredible, Elusive “Verizon Man”
#5: I Spy: The Government’s Secrets
#6: Computer Intrusions: The Discovery
#7: Notifying CBS About the Government Computer Intrusions
#8: The MCALLEN Case: Computer Intrusion Confirmed
#10: Revelations in the Government Computer Intrusion
#12: Obama’s War on Leaks
#13: The Computer Intrusions Become Public
#14: The Govt. Computer Intrusions: Word Spreads
#15: My Computer Intrusion and the National Connection
#16: “URGENT” dispatch to CBS after the computer intrusions forensically confirmed
#17: Clapper’s False Testimony
Original source: https://sharylattkisson.com/2019/01/04/the-computer-intrusions-clappers-false-testimony/
See comments at original source: https://sharylattkisson.com/2019/01/04/the-computer-intrusions-clappers-false-testimony/#comments
