- Dec 25, 2008
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A lot of the hearings I've seen about this have been a lot of politicians pissing on each other's legs, but they had a hearing that was more meat and potatoes, discussing details of what happened and how.
The sad thing is that Trump calls this all fake news because he is so insecure in his election win that he thinks this reality diminishes it. Have to wonder how effective counter-measures will be when the president is too crazy to accept the reality of the Russian attack and formulate policy to deal with it in future? Maybe he is just hoping for more Russian help next election? An 80,000 vote margin deciding his victory is probably small enough he feels he could use the help.
If nothing is done, obviously Russia will be back for a repeat. Ironically, since Trump appears to have been neutered so far in any attempts at weakening sanctions on Russia, they may help the Democrats campaign next outing if they think they stand to be in a better position with them. I tend to wonder if they truly were after policy more positive for their interests with their actions, they must have known it would be detected and recognized. I think it's more likely their goal was to further erode America's failing democracy and cause chaos and weaken America's position globally, something Trump was obviously going to and has been doing.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-06-21-12-46-48
Salient points:
The sad thing is that Trump calls this all fake news because he is so insecure in his election win that he thinks this reality diminishes it. Have to wonder how effective counter-measures will be when the president is too crazy to accept the reality of the Russian attack and formulate policy to deal with it in future? Maybe he is just hoping for more Russian help next election? An 80,000 vote margin deciding his victory is probably small enough he feels he could use the help.
If nothing is done, obviously Russia will be back for a repeat. Ironically, since Trump appears to have been neutered so far in any attempts at weakening sanctions on Russia, they may help the Democrats campaign next outing if they think they stand to be in a better position with them. I tend to wonder if they truly were after policy more positive for their interests with their actions, they must have known it would be detected and recognized. I think it's more likely their goal was to further erode America's failing democracy and cause chaos and weaken America's position globally, something Trump was obviously going to and has been doing.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-06-21-12-46-48
Salient points:
- The Russians "used fake news and propaganda and they also used online amplifiers to spread the information to as many people as possible," Bill Priestap, the FBI's top counterintelligence official, told the Senate Intelligence committee.
While he said the Russians had conducted covert operations targeting past American elections, the internet "has allowed Russia to do so much more" than before. But, he added, the "scale and aggressiveness" was different this time, with the primary goal being to sow discord and aid the candidacy of Republican Donald Trump, the eventual winner.
"I believe the Russians will absolutely try to continue to conduct influence operations in the U.S.," which will include cyberattacks, Priestap said.
- Jeanette Manfra, Homeland Security undersecretary for cybersecurity, said there is evidence that 21 state election systems were targeted, but she told the Senate intelligence committee she couldn't disclose the identities of the states because that was up to the states. Last September, DHS told The Associated Press that hackers believed to be Russian agents had targeted voter registration systems in more than 20 states.
- And while Johnson said Russia did not "through any cyber intrusion alter ballots, ballot counts or reporting of election results," he said he was "not in a position to know whether the successful Russian government-directed hacks of the DNC and elsewhere did in fact alter public opinion and thereby alter the outcome of the presidential election."
Johnson also said he was not happy that he learned well after the fact that the DNC's computer systems had been hacked. He said he became aware of the compromise "sometime in 2016," and that when he pressed his staff on whether the DHS had been sufficiently proactive to help identify the intruders and patch vulnerabilities, the answer wasn't reassuring.
"The FBI and the DNC had been in contact with each other months before about the intrusion, and the DNC did not feel it needed" Homeland Security's assistance at that time.
He also said he wasn't aware that the FBI had opened a counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. But he said former FBI Director James Comey would not have undertaken such a probe lightly and without a basis for doing so.