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WASHINGTON – The Office of the Inspector General of the National Security Agency said on Tuesday it would investigate a claim by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson that the surveillance agency “was monitoring our electronic communications and planning to disclose in order to take this show the air.
The agency denied the allegation. The office of his independent watchdog, Rob Storch, said he was “conducting a review related to recent allegations that the NSA mis-targeted communications from a member of the US media.”
Mr Carlson made a frowning statement on his June 28 prime-time show, saying he learned of the matter through “a whistleblower in the US government.” The accusation echoed conspiracy theories put forward by former President Donald J. Trump, with whom Mr. Carlson is closely related, about a so-called deep state to bring him out.
“The NSA captured this information without our knowledge and did it for political reasons,” Carlson told viewers. “The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed it.
While the NSA rarely comments on allegations about its activities, the prosecution has sparked a rare public denial of the agency, which called it “bogus” and said that “Carlson was never a target of the agency’s intelligence and the NSA never intended to try to remove his antenna program “.
This carefully drafted statement, however, left open the possibility that the agency accidentally scanned some communications from or about Mr. Carlson while monitoring strangers for intelligence purposes, without intentionally targeting him in a conspiracy. infamous aiming to take his program off the air.
In early July, it emerged that Mr. Carlson had attempted to secure a meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. But in laying the charge, Mr. Carlson did not reveal to his viewers that he then contacted the Russian government through Kremlin intermediaries.
This context was important. If the National Security Agency, as part of routine foreign intelligence gathering, targeted a Russian linked to the Kremlin who interacted with Mr. Carlson, the agency would have incidentally collected communications between its target and the host of Fox News without attempting to intercept Mr. Carlson’s private messages and without monitoring what he said to anyone else.
Likewise, if the agency targeted a government official in Russia who spoke about Mr. Carlson’s outreach with the intermediary he had spoken to or someone else, then it would have gathered information about it. that Mr. Carlson was saying about it to such discussions about it.
After Axios reported on July 7 that Mr. Carlson had contacted Kremlin intermediaries about a possible interview with Mr. Putin, Mr. Carlson acknowledged this background to his viewers on his show that evening. But he then moved on to a new accusation, saying, “Yesterday we learned that sources in the so-called intelligence community told at least one reporter in Washington what was in these emails.
Under rules designed to minimize invasion of American privacy by national security surveillance activities, though the National Security Agency puts information about Americans in intelligence reports it shares with others agencies, it is supposed to “mask” the identity of Americans – such as replacing “US Person 1” for a name. But officials can use the names of Americans or request that their identity be disclosed, if it is necessary to do so. know to understand the information.
“I have been exposed,” Mr. Carlson said. “People in the building found out who I was, and then my name and the contents of my emails left that building at the NSA and ended up with a news organization in Washington.”
Claiming that he had “confirmed” his original accusation, Mr Carlson did not say whether the reporter he spoke with the day before was the author of the Axios report, Jonathan Swan.
Mr Swan’s report on Mr Carlson’s intervention in the Kremlin cited only “sources familiar with the conversations” and did not specify whether those sources were US government officials or others. aware. He said on Tuesday that he had indeed reached out to Mr. Carlson for comment the day before the article was published by Axios.
Mr Swan also said he only told Mr Carlson that he heard that the Fox News host attempted to set up an interview with Mr Putin at the time of his alleged motivational espionage. political, and Mr Swan said he did not tell Mr Carlson that someone described the contents of emails to him. Moreover, Mr Swan said, he gave Mr Carlson no indication of his sources.
A Fox News representative declined to say whether Mr. Carlson was referring to Mr. Swan.
In an earlier statement, Fox News separately said it was “satisfied” to learn of the Inspector General’s investigation and supported its star host’s description of the events, describing the alleged conduct of the National Security Agency as “rude. And “completely unacceptable”. Fox News also called the agency’s denial of targeting Mr. Carlson for surveillance and sought to remove his show as “extremely misleading.”
Michael M. Grynbaum contributed to New York reporting.
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