General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumstrueblue2007
(17,194 posts)That when a foreign national is under surveillance the person they may be interfacing with may be an American. If so the American is not automatically identified, instead being referred to as person 1, person 2 and so forth. In some cases, the person reading the report may feel the need tho know the identity of person 1 etc., for whatever reason. If so a request is made of the intelligence service and is reviewed by several 'committees'. If they agree to disclose the identity of person 1 etc. to the person making the request, this is considered to be an unmasking.
canetoad
(17,137 posts)And their calls, communications are gathered, the other people he communicated with have their names 'masked' ie are called Person 1, Person 2 ect.
Unmasking is revealing who Person A was talking to.
trueblue2007
(17,194 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,605 posts)1. Intel gathering on foreigners is in progress by, say NSA or other agency.
2. Some American citizen comes up, either as part of or subject of the conversation on the monitored line. It is illegal for any agency to monitor Americans without a FISA warrent. Even with the warrant, they typical brief officials with the name of the American "masked" by referring to them as "person #1" or such.
3. Someone, thinking they need to know who that was, sends a request to the agency that collected the intel to "unmask" the person in question and let them know the name. The agency evaluates the request and may or may not "unmask" the name, based on sensitivity of the investigation, among other things.
4. Most importantly, if the name is un-masked as requested, it is still classified and the requestor may not, by law reveal it to anybody who does not have proper clearance and need to know.
It's another Repub red herring. Entirely bullshit.
rainy
(6,088 posts)in conversations with foreign nationals but can be "unmasked" identified if the discussion is or may be criminal? Something like that
Kingofalldems
(38,425 posts)Or one of the many right wing think tanks.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)who was unmasked?
It's on the googles!
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)Americans are listed as something that doesn't give away their name in these recordings, but the info is available if you have reason to get it. If unmasked, only the person requesting info is given it.