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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 5 april 2017
Obama aide denies using intel to spy on Trump advisers
JULIE PACE national security adviser
AP White House Corre- Michael Flynn and Russia’s
spondent ambassador to the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Su- surfaced in news reports
san Rice, Barack Obama’s before the inauguration.
national security adviser Flynn was fired after it be-
and the latest target for came clear that he misled
Donald Trump’s embattled Vice President Mike Pence
defenders, firmly denied and others about the con-
on Tuesday that she or oth- tent of those discussions.
er Obama officials used se- Rice denied that she had
cret intelligence reports to leaked details about Fly-
spy on Trump associates for nn’s call, saying, “I leaked
political purposes. nothing to nobody.”
“Absolutely false,” Rice de- The U.S. official said Rice’s
clared. Trump-related requests
The White House has were discovered as part of
seized on the idea that a National Security Council
the Obama administration review of the government’s
improperly surveilled the policy on “unmasking” —
Republican during and af- the intelligence commu-
ter the November election nity’s term for revealing
— an accusation Demo- Americans’ identities that
crats say is just another red House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., arrives for a closed-door would otherwise be hid-
GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 4, 2017.
herring thrown out to dis- (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) den in classified reports.
tract attention from inves- The review was prompted
tigations of Russian interfer- behalf of Trump.Presiden- er cast Rice’s handling of days of Obama’s term as by a belief that there were
ence in the campaign on tial spokesman Sean Spic- intelligence in the waning suspicious, although he did inefficiencies in the current
not detail what he found procedures and concerns
to be inappropriate. over a policy change
“The more we find out made in the closing days
about this, the more we of the Obama administra-
learn there was something tion, according to the of-
there,” Spicer said. ficial, who insisted on ano-
According to a U.S. offi- nymity in order to disclose
cial, Rice asked spy agen- the sensitive information.
cies to give her the names In January, the Justice
of Trump associates who Department and intel-
surfaced in intelligence ligence officials agreed
reports she was regularly on new rules giving more
briefed on. Rice’s official U.S. agencies access to
role would have given her raw information picked up
the ability to make those abroad by the National
requests for national secu- Security Agency. Privacy
rity purposes. advocates have raised
Rice, in an interview with concerns that the new
MSNBC, acknowledged rules — which are yet to be
that she sometimes asked fully implemented — would
for the names of Ameri- lead to the information be-
cans referenced in reports. ing shared too broadly.
She would not say whether The unmasking review was
she saw intelligence relat- led by Ezra Cohen-Wat-
ed to Trump associates or nick, the NSC’s senior di-
whether she asked for their rector of intelligence. Co-
identities, though she did hen-Watnick has clashed
say that reports related to with the CIA and was on
Russia increased in the final the verge of being moved
months of the presidential out of his job until Trump
election.The Trump White political advisers Steve
House has been particular- Bannon and Jared Kushner
ly incensed that intercept- stepped in to keep him in
ed conversations between the role.q
