Quote:
Originally Posted by pghquest
Our own intelligence agencies, in particular the FBI, doesnt backup that narrative..
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Wrong.
<<The FBI has high confidence the Russian government hacked U.S. Democratic Party groups and the personal e-mails of political operatives, according to a person familiar with the findings, a development sure to heighten tensions between Moscow and Washington.
The federal investigation into the hacks has expanded based on evidence that other Democratic-affiliated groups were targeted in addition to the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That includes the likelihood that personal e-mail accounts of party groups and officials were breached, according to the person, who asked not be identified in order to speak about an ongoing investigation.
“High confidence” is a phrase used by intelligence agencies to signal near-certainty, so the findings, which haven’t been publicly released, underscore the extent to which the Russian government has been found to have spied on this year’s U.S. presidential elections.>>
FBI Said to Have High Confidence Russia Hacked Democrats - Bloomberg Politics
Even the Wall St. Journal reports that U.S. intelligence officials are confident that the Russian government is behind the hacking attacks aimed against the Clinton campaign.
<<Last week, U.S. intelligence agencies said they are confident senior Russian officials had directed such activities, and that the stolen data was then leaked publicly through Wikileaks, an online persona called Guccifer 2.0, and a website called DCLeaks.com.>>
FBI Suspects Russia in Hack of John Podesta Emails - WSJ
Posters attempting to deny the conclusions of the FBI and Homeland Security apparently want these agencies to detail their counter-hacking methods and capacities, ignoring that this could easily compromise future U.S. security.
Even Republican members of the Homeland Security Committee, who are privy to the intelligence analysis of the DNC hacks, believe that the Russians are responsible and are appalled by the implications of foreign meddling in the U.S. election process.
<<“Today was just the first step,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Homeland Security Committee. “Russia must face serious consequences. Moscow orchestrated these hacks because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin believes Soviet-style aggression is worth it. The United States must upend Putin’s calculus with a strong diplomatic, political, *cyber and economic response.”>>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...b66_story.html
Interfering in foreign elections is nothing new for the Putin dictatorship, as noted in the above article.
<<Russian hackers have used hacking and other techniques to influence public opinion in Europe and Eurasia, it noted. On the eve of a critical post-revolution presidential vote in Ukraine in 2014, for instance, a digital assault nearly crippled the website of the country’s central election commission.>>
Putin is relatively immune to counter-measures as he has eliminated Russia's independent media and even the democratic election of provincial governors, who are now effectively appointed by Putin. That's why all knowledgeable Americans are appalled by Trump's apparently uniformed and deferential comments about Putin and his policies.
<<Tula’s leader seemingly appeared from out of nowhere, and his biography revealed that his main credential was 15 years of service as Mr. Putin’s personal bodyguard. Governors in Russia are formally elected by the residents of each region, but the complex nominating process and the election commissions, which are controlled by the Kremlin, allow the president to make anyone he wants a governor, including someone who had never set foot in the region, even as a tourist.
Deep local roots are not a prerequisite for a governorship in Russia today. Stavropol, a strategically critical territory in the Caucasus, is governed by Vladimir Vladimirov, a bureaucrat from the distant Yamal Peninsula who organized Mr. Putin’s famous flight with the cranes. (Four years ago, when visiting Yamal, the president flew a hang glider at the head of a flock of Siberian cranes, guiding them to their winter migration.) >>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/op...ns-russia.html
Donald Trump is the closest thing to a pro-Putin sycophant that Putin could hope to become President of the U.S. So it's not surprising that he would authorize unprecedented efforts to promote the Trump candidacy.
Don't Trump supporters know any of this? If Trump supporters cherish even minimally democratic values, why would they tolerate any American politician who promotes an anti-democratic dictator, a former KGB agent, who has wreaked havoc on his nation and the world?
This also has been Trump's pitch to the American people regarding his support of an American policy deferential to Russia that has generated bipartisan dismay and dismissal:
<<Americans should vote for Donald Trump as president next month or risk being dragged into a nuclear war, according to a Russian ultra-nationalist ally of President Vladimir Putin who likes to compare himself to the U.S. Republican candidate.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a flamboyant veteran lawmaker known for his fiery rhetoric, told Reuters in an interview that Trump was the only person able to de-escalate dangerous tensions between Moscow and Washington.>>
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pu...ar-war-n665376
Trump's claim of ignorance is disproved by his own admissions and business dealings with Russia.
<<Agalarov said he and Trump signed an agreement to build a Trump Tower in the heart of Moscow — at least Trump’s fifth attempt at such a venture. And Trump seemed energized by his interactions with Russia’s financial elite at the pageant and a glitzy after-party in a Moscow nightclub. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,” Trump bragged to Real Estate Weekly upon returning home.>>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...html?tid=a_inl
The cascade of denial among Trump supporters of state-sanctioned Russian hacking to influence the U.S. electoral process also ignores Trump's substantial financial involvement with Russians.
<<“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Trump’s son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”>>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...html?tid=a_inl
Trump clearly is motivated to promote his business franchise in addition to his candidacy. The former goal clearly motivates his deferential treatment of Putin and Russian oligarchs, resulting in Trump's ridiculous statements about the Ukraine, NATO, and Syria.
Auditors are taught to investigate around the computer, to take the big picture. With Trump, we see a man ingratiating himself to one of the world's most aggressive and anti-democratic dictators, a man who destroyed the Russian democratic revolution and has subverted the advance of democracy and self-determination globally. The Russian effort to advance Trump's campaign would clearly be consistent with the goals and historical transgressions against democracy practiced by Vladimir Putin.