THIS WILL BE A SHORT Steemit post, because the key issue can be dealt with quickly and simply. The FBI'S FISA application to intercept the communications of Carter Page, President Trump's sometime campaign aide, has just been released.
It has caused a great deal of excitement online, because right there, on page one, in black and white, the FBI states that Mr Page is a Russian agent (pic below). No "ifs", no "buts." It's the Federal Bureau of Investigation saying it, in a sworn court application, so you can take it to the bank.
Surely, that settles it. The FBI wouldn't invent something like that, would they? No, the very idea -- of course they wouldn't! But would they perhaps exaggerate it a teensy bit, to give their application a bit more "oomph" and show the court they mean serious business? On page four of the application, we read the following (pic below).
See that highlighted word? That's not indicative of a fact. It's indicative of a suspicion. The FBI only suspects that Carter Page is a full-fledged Russian agent, in the pay of the Kremlin. Well, they can think whatever they want, but no matter how hard they think it, that won't make it a fact.
OK then, perhaps the FBI didn't mean Mr Page is a bought-and-paid spy. Perhaps they meant that he was simply "aiding and abetting" the Russian state while working for Donald Trump. That would fall within the FBI's definition of "agent." Page nine of the FISA application (pic below) brings us down to Earth with a painful "bump."
There's that word again (highlighted). You don't need it explaining.
A Classic PsyOp Tactic
SO, THE FBI STATED SOMETHING as a proven fact on page one of the FISA application, then gradually retracted that claim over the following pages. This can only have been intended to give the application a sense of urgency and importance. In fact, given recent controversies over FISA, what it actually shows is the FBI playing fast and loose to get authorisation for what would otherwise have been a very unpromising project.
Standard psychological operations procedure: make the claim as bold as possible because no-one ever remembers the correction.
The FBI made it up. That's all there is to it. The End.
You can read all 412 pages of this nonsensical application here (PDF)
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Addendum:
15 hours after the above was published on Steemit, President Trump came out and attacked the FISA application, calling it "illegal" because it "misled the courts." So Steemit just scooped the President!