The National Security Agency (NSA) is keeping it blunt with Fox New host Tucker Carlson, who’s been accusing the agency of spying on him in a conspiracy to get him kicked off the air.
Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air
They further stated that they do not know if he is intelligent at all.
“We made a very straightforward claim: NSA has read my private emails without my permission,” the Fox News host said. “Tonight’s statement from the NSA does not deny that and instead it comes with this non sequitur: Tucker Carlson has never been an intel target.”
In a hypothetical, @emptywheel pointed out that, had Tucker been in communication with a legitimate NSA target, I’ll use an FSB operative as an example, his e-mails to the target could have been swept up as part of that investigation.
Not, I suppose, that he’d wish to contextualize it in that way.
Snowden ?
The idea that a federal agency has been watching Tucker Carlson for months is patently absurd!
Nobody could stand to watch that crap for more than five minutes.
Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency
Nothing to target
Aw shucks, Tucks.
Tucker’s become a blowhard bullyboy since he became numero uno at FOX news. Once you reach number one the only way left is down.
The delusions of grandeur that Carlson suffers from are both awesome and pathetic.
This morning I read the comments on Gizmodo. His viewers believe him.
I don’t think they’re reading his e-mails myself. I think they look for suspicious words like “loufah”, then take action.
What about the vegetables that walk among us?
Tucker Carlson = Stupid Preppie Disaster
@emptywheel entertains a hypothetical theory that Tucker might not lie? Why? He’s been lying for last 20+ years on tv. That’s his ONLY job.
I actually think it is highly likely that the NSA has read his emails, not as a target, but as the recipient of communications from foreign targets. The thing about assets is that they often don’t realize they are an asset.
In similar fashion, it wasn’t the FBI’s fault that the Russians they were monitoring all had ongoing relationships with The Rump.
@emptywheel’s operative theory was that, “…given that Carlson is a liar who has recently been spewing conspiracy theories that are whack even for him, my default assumption is that he’s lying.” (The Republican PCLOB Cover-Up of NSA's XKEYSCORE Use Is More Troubling than Tucker Carlson's Claims To Be Surveilled - emptywheel)
The hypothetical was a suggestion of an alternative that accounts for the allegations provided. (ed.)
Gee, when does the Fox News “out the whistleblower campaign start”?
And that’s how NYC has been successfully selling all those bridges in Brooklyn.
No intelligence, no target.