More Susan Rice News that apparently is not "News"

Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morrell: “Senior Officials In The U.S. Government … Can Go Back To NSA And Ask, ‘Who Is That Person?’ They Have To Have A Good Reason For Asking That Question.” Former acting CIA Director Michael Morrell noted that, “The unmasking of the names of U.S. persons happens all the time.” Morrell explained that “Senior officials in the U.S. government” can view intelligence reports “and ask, ‘who is that person?’ They have to have a good reason for asking that question, and they have to explain that reason to NSA. Once the request is made, NSA says yes or no. … And when that gets approved, it only gets approved for the individuals who specifically requested the unmasking. It is not unmasked broadly.” From The Cipher Brief’s March 23 interview:

TCB: What about the issue of “masking,” which Chairman Nunes talked about at length?

When incidental collection gets gets disseminated, the identity of the U.S. person is usually – but not always – redacted, or masked. If it’s anybody but a senior most official of the U.S. government, it is masked. It’s masked by saying, “U.S. person 1, U.S. person 2, U.S. person 3,” depending how many U. S. officials were referenced in the disseminated report.

So [a report], in the first type of incidental collection might say something like “intelligence target, in a conversation with another intelligence target, talked about U.S. person 1.” They don’t name the person.

Or, in the second type of incidental collection, a report could say “intelligence target, in a conversation with U.S. person 1, said the following.”

That’s for most U.S. persons. But, for the senior most people in the U.S. government, like the President of the United States and probably the President-elect of the United States, they don’t mask those names. You see intelligence reports all the time with foreign intelligence targets having a conversation about the President of the United States, and the President is not masked to be U.S. person 1 or U.S. person 2. The President is just said to be the President of the United States.

It is quite possible that these are some of the reports that Chairman Nunes saw. And there would be nothing inappropriate about that.

TCB: It does raise the question of unmasking U.S. persons – although Congressman Schiff says Nunes told him most of the names were masked, but Nunes was able to figure out for himself who it involved. Is there anything irregular or improper here?

MM: The unmasking of the names of U.S. persons happens all the time too. And, the unmasking is a whole different process.

Senior officials in the U.S. government, when they see one of these intelligence reports that say U.S. Person 1 or U.S. Person 2, can go back to NSA and ask, “who is that person?” They have to have a good reason for asking that question, and they have to explain that reason to NSA. Once the request is made, NSA says yes or no. There’s only a small number of people at NSA — I think [NSA]Director Rogers said 20 the other day on the Hill — 20 people at NSA can actually approve an unmasking. And when that gets approved, it only gets approved for the individuals who specifically requested the unmasking. It is not unmasked broadly. [The Cipher Brief, 3/23/17]