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Unmasking, Then And Now

Citizens have a god given(constitutional) right to be protected government snooping. Foreign nations not so much. So in course of authorized surveilance of foreign actors, the names of
American citizens should be hidden (masked). In the course of analyzing raw intelligence anlayzists are authorized ask for the identities of citizens swept up in the surveilance net. So when does the use of a legitimate tool of intelligence become political abuse of intelligence and an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, from John Solomon, Just the News [1]:

When my colleague Sara Carter and I broke the story in spring 2017 about a three-fold increase in the unmasking of Americans’ identities in spy intercepts during President Obama’s second term, the immediate fear was that a limited tool created for intelligence analysts had been become so widespread for political appointees that it might be used to target political enemies.

Those fears were realized on Wednesday when documents declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Ric Grenell and made public by two senators showed more than a dozen Obama political appointees sought to unmask more than two dozen intercepted conversations involving then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. And that occurred in just the two months between when President Trump won the election and he took office.

Call me a cynic.  However I hard pressed to view the likes of Suzan Rice and Joe Biden as intelligent analysts.  Possible pun noted for the latter.

One answer is when content of private phone calls finds their way in the pages of the Washington Post. More generally, when the lame stream media just ignore systematic abuse of citizen rights? The abuses, unmasking American citizens, both provide front page fodder and advance favored narrative, from Thomas Lifson, American Thinker [2]:

According to the Media Research Center, the broadcast television networks, still the largest source of news for the American public, virtually deep-sixed news of the exposure of the names of those spying on the incoming Trump administration. ABC and NBC’s evening news broadcasts totally ignored the story, while CBS slanted its coverage:

When do unmaskers, leakers and invaders of privacy, suddenly become concerned about privacy, from Monica Showalter, American Thinker [3]:

Former White House spin doctor Ben Rhodes isn’t taking acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell’s unmasking of Gen. Michael Flynn’s Obama administration unmaskers very well.

Answer, they concerned about privacy, when it is there privacy which is invaded, and when their role in a potential criminal conspiracy becomes exposed.