The National Security Agency (NSA) picks up and records almost all electronic communications, thereby effectively wiretapping telephone conversations, email, and practically everything else we send out electronically. When a FISA court permits "unmasking" of American citizens, that universal wiretapping capability can be used to spy on their conversations. It now appears that an elaborate plot was crafted to generate phony accusations of dirty ties to Russia that would be used to get a FISA court warrant to "unmask" members of the Trump campaign, and thereby enable spying on that campaign. We do not know how many members of that campaign were "unmasked" (i.e., spied on), but there are suggestions that the list ended up quite long.

I suspect that we are in the process of uncovering the worst political scandal in American history, in which the most fearsome tool of federal government spying was turned against the Trump campaign. A cabal manipulated events behind the scenes to subvert the legal safeguards that are supposed to prevent such an abuse.

Bit by bit, evidence is leaking out connecting the members of that cabal at senior levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI with shadowy operatives in the private sector.

Merely keeping track of everyone so far compromised is a challenge that casual news-consumers will not bother with with the necessary focus. The rest of us – those who care deeply about preserving the Republic bequeathed to us by the Founders – can catch up by reading Victor Davis Hanson's up-to-date account of the web of backdoor relationships in the Mueller probe.

The latest revelation, uncovered by James Rosen of Fox News and largely ignored elsewhere in the media, is particularly damning.

A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump "dossier" had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than have been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official's wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election. Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr's duties – including whether she worked on the dossier – remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.



Mrs. and Mr. Ohr.

The words "conspiracy theory" frequently are used to denounce those who see covert organized activity, so the task of gaining media attention and public understanding is all the more challenging, especially given the level of ridicule that is certain to be launched by the rest of the media seeking to protect the legacy of the Obama administration and prevent a triumph for supporters of Trump.

Drawing lines and boxes on a chart is all well and good, and necessary to untangle the hidden ties that have been uncovered among the players in this cabal. But to really get the public to focus, we need vivid symbols that have resonance, that show evil intent. Richard Nixon knew this when he seized upon a detail uncovered in the Alger Hiss communist conspiracy in the upper ranks of the State Department – an investigation that launched his political career into national prominence.

Nixon dramatized and publicized the name "Pumpkin Papers" for secret State Department documents and

... rolls of 35 mm film [that] were found wrapped in waxed paper inside a hollowed-out pumpkin on Whittaker Chambers's Maryland farm. In response to a HUAC subpoena, Chambers on the evening of December 2, 1948 dramatically led two HUAC investigators to the patch, where the film had been placed by Chambers only the previous day.

The catchy, alliterative trademark of "the Pumpkin Papers" became the handle by which the entire conspiracy could be understood by the broader public. They stood as proof that something nefarious was underway, something that caused people to hide from discovery.

Chambers was a repentant conspirator who turned over state's evidence. So far, no member of the cabal has been turned, but with leak investigations underway and felony charges possible, we may yet see a cooperating witness or witnesses. Former FBI and DOJ folks don't tend to do very well among members of the prison population, after all.

What we do have now is a fact, a resonant symbol, that catches the attention of casual news consumers – something that obviously indicates secrecy was necessary to cover up nefarious activities.

I leave it to Sundance and Conservative Treehouse, those incredible sleuths of publicly available information, to present the stunning little detail so compelling that even the fertile mind of spy novelist John Le Carré could not top it.

Mrs. Nellie Ohr was not only a Fusion GPS contracted employee, but she was also part of the CIA's Open Source Works, in Washington DC (link) Both Mr. and Mrs Ohr worked on a collaborative group project surrounding International Organized Crime. (pdf here) Page #30 Screen Shot Below But wait, it gets even better. A month after Hillary Clinton hired Fusion GPS (April 2016) to sub-contract retired British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write the opposition research report "the Trump Russia Dossier", Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr applied for a HAM radio license (May 23rd 2016); a communication tool that would allow Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele the ability to communicate outside the normal risk of communication intercepts. Keeping in mind, both Bruce and Nellie Ohr's subject matter skill-set within the DOJ would provide them with a comprehensive understanding of how to network and communicate with international actors outside the traditional risk of communication intercepts. In short, Mrs. Nelli Ohr would know that using HAM radio frequencies would be a way to avoid the risk of U.S. intelligence intercepts on her communications. The Clinton Campaign hired Fusion GPS in April 2016. Fusion GPS then sub-contracted retired British Intel MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write the Russian Dossier. A month later, May 23rd 2016, Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr gets HAM radio license. So are we to believe it's COINCIDENTAL? All of a sudden, a 60(ish)-year-old woman decides to use a HAM radio the month after contracting with Christopher Steele for a Russian opposition research dossier on Donald Trump?

So this shadowy spook who has been spying most recently on international organized crime syndicates, and who is helping use the NSA surveillance capabilities against the Trump campaign, resorts to an obsolete technology dating from a century ago to communicate and not be captured by the very surveillance system they are subverting.

That is evidence of intent. Unless Mrs. Ohr can point to a history of fascination with ham radio – maybe she built a Heathkit rig in the 1960s or '70s? – this resort to radio looks like tradecraft – the stuff of spies.

The ham radio license could be the pumpkin papers of our time. I want pictures of her broadcast facility.