Robert Storch is the Inspector General of the NSA. The NSA website says his duties include “to enhance the impact, the independence, and the transparency of the office’s work, including the launch of its independent public website, https://oig.nsa.gov, and the now-regular public release of unclassified versions of its Semiannual Reports to Congress and a number of reports and summaries.”
After the NSA recently “unusually” claimed no wrongdoing amid allegations that media personalities like Tucker Carlson of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson tonight, Storch is saying not so fast. According to Reuters, it’s not clear that this probe is directly related to Carlson’s claims of being spied on, but it’s very likely.
Storch wants to do a much deeper probe to find out what may have happened, and if there really was spying and leaking against Carlson and others in an illegal manner, based on our speculation of the situation. Storch was nominated by Obama in 2016 but also renominated by former President Donald Trump later on.
Storch put out a written statement, leaving much to be desired, but telling people part of what’s happening nevertheless, say that his office “is examining NSA’s compliance with applicable legal authorities and Agency policies and procedures regarding collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination activities, including unmasking procedures, and whether any such actions were based upon improper considerations.”
The Wall Street Journal did quote an unidentified source saying that this is in fact related to Tucker Carlson, according to Reuters.
Fox News is “gratified” to learn the alleged surveillance “will now be independently investigated,” a spokesperson said. “As we have said, for the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable.”
Reuters also reported: An NSA spokesperson said the agency “remains fully committed to the rigorous and independent oversight provided by the NSA Inspector General’s office.”
We previously reported on Tucker Carlson’s claims. He said a whistleblower from the NSA said he was in fact being spied on in a manner as to hurt him and possibly get him taken off the air. We wrote on June 28th:
On tonight’s show, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson posted shocking new information about what he claims is a shocking conspiracy. Carlson said an NSA Whistleblower claims his agency is monitoring Tucker Carlson’s electronic communications and is planning to leak them in order to ruin the show.
“The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on, that could only have come directly from my texts and emails. There is no other possible source for that information period. The NSA captured that information without our knowledge and did it for political reasons. The Biden Administration is spying on us and we have confirmed that.”
He went on, “this morning we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, asking for all information that the NSA and other agencies have gathered about this show. We did it mostly as a formality. We’ve also contacted the press offices at the NSA and the FBI. We don’t expect to hear much back. That’s the way that usually goes. Only Congress can force transparency on the intelligence agencies, and they should do that immediately.”
He went even further to highlight, “spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with Democracy, if they are doing it to us, they are almost certainly doing it to others. This is scary and we need to stop it right away”.
It remains to be seen what the end result of this inquiry or “probe” will lead to, but this is shocking, to say the least. The NSA will hopefully be either held accountable or provide full transparency as to what really happened. This is important to restore the trust in this organization that taxpayers fund.
We will do our best to bring updates as this unfolds. We anticipate Carlson himself will soon have commentary as it pertains to this news and what he thinks about these developments, so stay tuned for more.
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