#AMQuickie
Two former intelligence officials have made some pretty stunning allegations: that Federal agents sent to quell protests in Portland Oregon also engaged in a classified cell phone cloning operation that aimed to lift information off of protesters phones.
#LEFTISBEST
According to @thenation, the DHS has not come clean about this.
Details of the operation are still classified, but @kenklippenstein reports that it included interceptions of protesters phone calls by either the DHS or other federal agencies involved, like the DOJ.
While this would be a shocking weaponization of unwarranted surveillance against citizens exercising first amendment rights, it’s not exactly hard to believe.
The Washington Post previously reported that the DHS’s intelligence division was building out dossiers on prominent journalists covering the protests in Portland, and then refused to answer congressional inquiries about them.
Additionally, one of the anonymous former officials said DHS’s intelligence wing asked for volunteers to go to Portland, and very few hands raised.
The former official said “...you only do that if you don’t have the ability to order someone to go, probably because it’s illegal.”
It’s unclear when, or if we’ll get an understanding of the full scope of the federal government’s actions in Portland.
It’s even more unclear whether there will be any consequences for the people responsible.
» Federal Agencies Tapped Protesters’ Phones in Portland via @thenation thenation.com/article/politi…
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