Aug. 3, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
20:53
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| Thank you. | |
| Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents. | |
| Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party. | |
| He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws. | |
| So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again. | |
| If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots! | |
| You are in the right place! | |
| This is the movement for you! | |
| You ever watch this guy on television? | |
| It's like a machine. | |
| Matt Gaetz. | |
| I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet. | |
| Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state. | |
| They aren't really coming for me. | |
| They're coming for you. | |
| I'm just in the way. | |
| Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Firebrand, where we focus on the issue of espionage, spying. | |
| Now, there are plenty of hybridizations and permutations of this model, but here's how you should think about three different categories of spies. | |
| The first are those who work for a foreign government exclusively for the benefit of that foreign government. | |
| Frequently, this model is used by the Chinese, where the spies are captive. | |
| They don't spy for other countries. | |
| They don't sell information to other countries. | |
| They have it for the benefit of their government. | |
| They're well paid, well resourced, they have tradecraft, and they are there to subvert the interests of Americans in favor of the dominance of some foreign entity. | |
| Very dangerous. | |
| It's what we saw with Fang Fang. | |
| The second major category are those who work for foreign governments for the sake of marketing their particular espionage elsewhere. | |
| This is something done frequently by the Cubans. | |
| The Cubans spy on the United States a great deal, but not always just for the benefit of Cuba. | |
| Frankly, it's a small island Caribbean nation that doesn't have the influence even in Latin America that they once did. | |
| So, they use their tradecraft, they spy on America, And then they sell that information to our adversaries, to state actors, non-state actors, terrorists, cartels. | |
| Whoever is willing to pay. | |
| Now, these types of spies aren't just worried about information regarding the country that employs them. | |
| They have a far wider breadth than the model that I previously described more frequently used by China. | |
| So they're looking for everything and they're there to transmit that information in a way that frequently has the maximum amount of pain for our country and our interests. | |
| The third The independent broker, the free agent. | |
| This is probably the most dangerous type of espionage, but these are the folks who collect intelligence and information and simply work for no one. | |
| They are contractable. | |
| Sometimes they get contracted for a specific project. | |
| Sometimes for a specific piece of information. | |
| Sometimes they go and acquire the information on their own and then try to use that in concert with other interests in order to build a narrative, build cases, bring people down. | |
| This is the model we saw from Christopher Steele in the Russia hoax. | |
| Now, in all of these circumstances, you see a common thread. | |
| Tradecraft. | |
| They have to have the ability to get information so that they can build up those who are paying them and so they can take us down. | |
| So I'm always very interested in the different tools that allow spies to be able to engage in their profession. | |
| I want to make sure that we're protected against the worst kind. | |
| And in that light, I have an important update regarding the Pegasus software frequently used by all three types of spies that I've just described. | |
| Recently, I had the opportunity to question the Assistant Attorney General for National Security in the House Judiciary Committee. | |
| He did not want to play ball. | |
| He did not want to answer questions, particularly regarding tools of espionage. | |
| I pushed hard On a few serious issues, and one of those was Pegasus. | |
| Now, if you've been keeping up with this podcast, the name Pegasus may ring a bell. | |
| To give you a quick recap, Pegasus is a Trojan horse spyware program created by the Israeli cyber arms company NSO Group. | |
| Pegasus works by exploiting flaws in a device's code through what is called zero-day exploits. | |
| These exploits are flaws in the target device's code that are unknown by its producer, like Apple or Samsung. | |
| Pegasus takes advantage of these exploits through zero-click technology, meaning the operators of Pegasus can get into your device without you even knowing, without you even making a mistake on your end, like clicking a bad link. | |
| Remember, we used to be told that good digital hygiene meant that you didn't fall for spear phishing or anything to get you to click on something if it's not coming from a known source. | |
| But with Pegasus, After infiltrating your advice, the software is capable of reading texts, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking. | |
| They can even turn on the target device's microphone and video camera, harvesting information from all apps, including peer-to-peer apps like WhatsApp and Signal. | |
| Once they're in, they have total control of your phone, And a lot of control over you. | |
| Certainly they'll see all the data and information that you are reviewing or passing or analyzing. | |
| So everyone from Israeli and Arab intelligence agencies to Mexican cartels and even our own FBI and CIA have been using Pegasus. | |
| You can bet it isn't being sold and used that responsibly. | |
| But that's old news. | |
| Today we have new developments that you need to know about. | |
| In a rare show of good judgment, and due to the NSO groups, just like obviously shady practices, they've been blacklisted by the United States government for acting contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. | |
| Imagine that. | |
| No American company is allowed to do business with NSO Group. | |
| And for that reason, they are struggling in some financial ways. | |
| By the way, just about every major tech company in much of the federal bureaucracy acts contrary to the national interests of our country. | |
| So the fact that NSO Group that makes Pegasus is being singled out Well, that ought to tell you something. | |
| They are up to no good. | |
| That technology is bad and dangerous and frequently falls into the wrong hands. | |
| Frankly, I would suggest that it falling into the U.S. government's hands is a bad thing. | |
| But it gets better. | |
| The New York Times has very recently reported that an American defense contractor called L3 Harris has been caught trying to purchase Pegasus. | |
| Now, how would that happen when the makers of Pegasus, the NSO Group, have been blacklisted? | |
| And so, L3 Harris spilled the beans. | |
| They have said, according to the New York Times reporting, that they were being encouraged and supported by American intelligence officials to go buy this product that had been blacklisted and was illegal. | |
| Allegedly, these officials told L3Harris that they would support a deal if certain conditions were met. | |
| And among these conditions was a demand that NSO Group's stash of zero-day exploits be made available and sold to Five Eyes intelligence members. | |
| If you haven't heard of Five Eyes, that's the intelligence-sharing agreement between the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. | |
| The implications of this are huge. | |
| Here's my questioning of the DOJ's National Security Division official. | |
| And just watch the faces on his handlers behind him as I ask these questions. | |
| Take a look. | |
| Did anyone at the National Security Division encourage L3 to purchase Pegasus? | |
| So I'm not aware of anything about that matter. | |
| So I'd I don't know. | |
| Oh, you are, because people who work with you have come and briefed us on it. | |
| And I'm citing, of course, here the New York Times article. | |
| Defense firm said U.S. spies backed its bid for Pegasus spyware. | |
| So Pegasus is the most exquisite spying software in the world. | |
| It's zero click. | |
| It can get at people's phones. | |
| It's been used to target politicians, journalists, dissidents in some places. | |
| Here you have L3 saying that they were encouraged to go buy it from the National Security Apparatus. | |
| It's very important, under oath, for you to tell me whether any of those people were at the National Security Division. | |
| So, you know, I'm sure you can appreciate it. | |
| I don't have any information about the public reporting. | |
| I'm aware of public reporting relating to that, but I don't have any other information. | |
| No, no. | |
| So what you're saying, is that a yes or is that a no? | |
| Because we're going to find out eventually. | |
| I'm not going to comment any further. | |
| Wait a second. | |
| Whether or not our own government used a private company as a cutout to go buy spying software that deprives people's rights, and what you're saying is, I'm not going to get a yes out of you, and I'm not going to get a no out of you, because you're just not going to tell... | |
| You don't think the American people deserve to know that? | |
| I'm not aware of... | |
| The facts that you're asserting. | |
| You know what Pegasus is? | |
| I'm not aware of the facts that you're asserting. | |
| You know what Pegasus is? | |
| Yes, I definitely have heard of Pegasus. | |
| Okay, so you should be able to tell me whether or not anyone who works at the National Security Division was out there trying to goose some private company to go buy it for you guys to use. | |
| Did you or did you not? | |
| I'm not aware of any facts that relate to your question. | |
| I think you are. | |
| One of the tools also used by the intelligence community is FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. | |
| And some authorities there allow our spies, our government officials, to gather data, to listen in on calls, to intercept signal intelligence if they're looking into someone who's a foreigner on foreign soil. | |
| But the Americans that get caught up in that, they're seeing their civil liberties, their constitutional rights deprived. | |
| Now, there have been a number of reviews regarding how the FBI and the Department of Justice are using FISA. | |
| And it turns out they're breaking a lot of their own rules. | |
| The most recent Inspector General report showed that every file that was looked at had problems with it. | |
| In some cases, the backup materials that are required under the Woods procedures were entirely missing. | |
| And in four cases, the errors were so egregious that it was easy to see how the judge evaluating whether or not to grant the surveillance request could have made a different decision. | |
| It's a terrible cover-up. | |
| My colleague, Congressman Louie Gohmert, asked questions about this to a senior National Security Division official at the Department of Justice. | |
| Take a listen. | |
| It's a fair question to know, in general, not specific cases, is the FISA court, has it been used to get orders to investigate January 6th? | |
| Again, I'm not familiar with the order that you referred to a moment ago. | |
| Well, it was leaked. | |
| I think it was WikiLeaks. | |
| And that's what was so shocking to so many of us. | |
| And look, the abuses occurred during the Bush administration, the Obama administration. | |
| There were some in the Trump administration. | |
| I feel sure it's still going on. | |
| We need to know the extent of that. | |
| Well, let me ask you about a case. | |
| In Kilgore, Texas, a lady there working for a private oil company got a text from her nephew. | |
| He had been looking through the FBI pictures and said, you recognize anybody in this picture? | |
| And it looked similar to her, and she did a LOL, you know, gee, that looks like me, don't turn me in. | |
| A couple of days later, two FBI agents show up at her place of business demanding to know where she was on January 6th. | |
| She was in Kilgore, Texas. | |
| And then they threatened her boss that he could go to prison for covering for her. | |
| Is there any order from any court that allows the DOJ or the NSA to monitor text messages of American citizens? | |
| Obviously, there are court orders, whether they come from federal courts, not the FISA court, or the federal FISA court, that authorize, pursuant to law, Yes, but search warrants under the Fourth Amendment have to describe with particularity the things to be searched or seized and That's not happening. | |
| That has not been happening. | |
| And so when you have no probable cause to go after somebody in Kilgore, Texas, then, you know, we'd heard about, oh, gee, there's software to look for specific words that allow you to go after anybody that hasn't committed crimes. | |
| We really need to know how widespread that is. | |
| Can you give us an answer? | |
| Is that being used? | |
| It's just really important to point out, sir, that the way the law works is that the federal judge, a federal FISA court judge, will only approve an order based on probable cause that an individual is an agent of a foreign power. | |
| Mr. Olsen, we have proof that's a lie. | |
| The gentleman's time has expired. | |
| It has not been followed. | |
| Mr. Raskin is recognized for five minutes. | |
| It is deeply troubling to me to see these exquisite powers and authorities and technologies that normally we would intend to keep America safe, to be directed at our adversaries, being slyly acquired against American law by some of the people that a lot of Americans are concerned about most, the people in our own government using politics to weaponize the national security apparatus against our fellow Americans. | |
| I will get answers on this Pegasus issue. | |
| And if they won't provide them to us, well, we're going to subpoena records. | |
| We're going to get the documents. | |
| When Republicans have control of the Congress, we must fervently defend people's civil liberties. | |
| Civil liberties that both parties have been far too willing to violate in times of crisis. | |
| So we'll stay on the case. | |
| We'll keep you posted. | |
| Until then, make sure you are subscribed to our podcast. | |
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| Thanks for being with us. |
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