At Senate hearings, the nation’s top intelligence officials testified that Russia interfered in our elections by hacking and propaganda.
By testifying, they are almost certain to be fired by Trump.
Trump said yesterday that he plans to cut and reorganize our intelligence agencies. He prefers to get his “intelligence” from his friends and FOX news.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So now we’re supposed to believe James Clapper who blatantly lied about NSA surveillance?
Anyway, skepticism is still called for. Nothing has been proven, it’s just the word of a bunch of leaders of intelligence agencies which have a long, long track record of lying to the American people.
https://www.thenation.com/article/is-skepticism-treason/
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Why not just trust the KGB? It will be Trump’s agency.
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My head just explodes trying to explain this to you. You are much, much smarter than this and this is so beneath you. I really don’t understand why this is so hard for you, other than you just don’t want to see. No one, most especially not me, said anything about trusting the KGB – don’t you see how nonsensical that is to even say that? The fact remains that Clapper is a known and proven perjurer. That really doesn’t matter to you? Would it matter if he were a Bush appointee? Of course it would.
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Dienne, you and Teump agree. Never trust the US government. Trust Putin.
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If I were to say, “If you don’t trust George W. Bush, you must trust Hugo Chavez,” I trust you’d understand how ridiculous that accusation is, correct? So why don’t you understand the same thing if Hillary or Obama or Clapper or whoever is substituted for Bush? Why is it, if you’re not with Hillary/Obama/Clapper/etc. then you have to be with Russia/the KGB/etc.? I can’t accept that you don’t understand this. You are not a simplistic thinker.
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So, Dienne,whom do you test? Whom do you believe? Why is The Intercept more credible than The NY Times? Is everyone lying except Assange? Why were his leaks directed only at Democrats? Are we better off as a nation with Trump in control?
I don’t think so.
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Dienne says “Why is it, if you’re not with Hillary/Obama/Clapper/etc. then you have to be with Russia/the KGB/etc.?”
Why is it that if you hate Hillary enough, you insist we must shut down any close look at what happened or dismiss every bit of evidence that there was one-sided hacking going on specifically designed to elect Donald Trump?
I’m sure there were people like you during Watergate insisting that you can’t trust the government so why even bother to hold hearings about pre-election dirty tricks that helped elect a man so many Americans voted for? What’s the big deal since at some time in the past someone else has done something wrong so no need to investigate this or believe it was anything but serendipity.
See, that’s where everything completely falls apart in your argument. We KNOW that there was hacking. And we KNOW that the hacking ONLY benefitted one candidate who just happened to have accumulated so many debts that no western bank would loan him money anymore and yet he certainly was getting funding from somewhere. But you don’t want to ask any questions about it.
What is your theory? Someone hated Hillary so much and adored Trump so much they wanted to hand the election to him? But that person with that expertise was just a guy in the basement of his mom’s house as Trump would have you believe?
The problem is that you can’t really come up with a rational theory of why it was ONLY Clinton. You either have to believe that the Trump campaign was run with so much upright integrity that there was nothing there or you have to believe that an insider in Hillary’s campaign decided that Donald Trump should win because he was a “safer” choice than Hillary or what? What exactly do you think happened? A group of brilliant Hillary haters/hackers who decided that Donald Trump was the best man for our country?
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Incidentally, I should clarify that he lied in a Senate hearing. Back in the days when the law applied equally to those at the top, that was known as perjury. If you want to believe the word of a known and proven perjuror, I don’t know what you wouldn’t believe.
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Not to worry, Dienne, Clapper will be replaced by Dan Coats
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Dienne
You will not see me defending NATO expansion or CIA interference in the affairs of other country’s nor NSA spying on Americans do you really believe that this was not Russian sponsored. By the way they were not wrong in Iraq . Bush cherry picked reports .
The more critical question is, what did Trump know and when did he know it? .
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Yes, it drives me crazy when the press (and Hillary-haters) let Donald Trump get away with saying “but the CIA lied to us about Iraq”. No, the CIA was TRYING to tell the truth but the Bush Administration chose to use military intelligence that was happy to do whatever Cheney and his defense industry buddies wanted to pump up wishful thinking into “strong evidence of WMD”. The CIA opposed it which is why Valerie Plame was outed in the first place and message sent to the CIA to shut up.
Basically, Trump plans to model himself after Cheney and if the CIA won’t lie, they will make sure that they have a different so-called “intelligence agency” in their pocket.
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You need to pick a side, not hide under shallow-logic false equivalency. Yes US has done many crummy things, many of which were long hidden under veil of ‘natl security’ & classified docts. We know about most of it today thanks to more than a dozen congressionl investigations in the ’73-’85 & beyond– a function of democracy. Was Daniel Ellsberg secretly assassinated & Pentagon Pprs quashed as would have happened in USSR or under former KGB head Putin today? And who lied about Iraq WMD has been well-established: it was Cheney/Bush/ Rumsfeld, not CIA– conveyed to public via 2004 Senate report.
Sure, Clapper lied about the extent of NSA surveillance in 2013 & was thankfully outed by Snowden just 3 mos later. but it’s not cut & dried ‘lying’.I like this characterization: “Putting a man in a position of either lying to Congress or disclosing national security secrets, the fault there was with the senator [Wyden, who asked the Q, already knowing the A], not with Clapper,” said Bob Turner, associate director of the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia. “Clapper has a duty to protect secrets. I don’t see that as covering it up or lying to the American people. It was to keep enemies from knowing our capabilities.”
At least under our democracy we have a fighting chance at outing govtl bad deeds & subjecting them to public scrutiny.
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Thank you for this post.
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If Trump doesn’t want to believe US Intelligence officials, fine, he can have discussions with them and try to figure the whole thing out. But does he have to openly denigrate those officials and make them sound like incompetent idiots? Whose president is he? I find that particularly scary.
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Well stated!
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Mamie,
He has chosen a politician from Indiana to head up the intelligence agencies and curb them, downsize them. We will rely on the KGB for information in the future.
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“Whatever crack, fissure, they could find in our tapestry . . . they would exploit it,” said Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.
We have a lot more than a fissure in our tapestry; we have an uninformed, gaping orange hole soon in charge. He would rather tweet than listen to policy briefs.
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From the linked article:
“Clapper also called for a more aggressive counter-propaganda effort. “We could do with having a USIA on steroids,” he said, referring to the U.S. Information Agency.”
Anyone who isn’t chilled to the bone by that statement hasn’t read enough Orwell. What the hell is the U.S. Information Agency (any relation to the Ministry of Truth?) and why the hell would we put it on steroids?
By the way there’s a better term for “counter-propaganda”. It’s called, simply, propaganda.
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Don’t worry, Dienne, Trump is planning to downsize the CIA and put all National Intelligence under his direct control through his appointee Dan Coats.
No, I am not chilled by what the CIA might do. I am chilled by what Russia and Trump together might do. Putin is not my president. Nor is Trump. Putin put him there.
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Diane,
I AGREE with you. I am chilled by minority president-elect t—- and his “close” and weird relationship with Putin.
Maybe they both need to come out of the closet?
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I know I’m exceeding your comment limit, but please give me the courtesy of hearing me out anyway. Your link is to the Washington Post. In just the past six weeks WaPo has had to issue two very major and very embarrassing retractions on stories allegedly involving Russian interference in the U.S.: one about Russia allegedly hacking the U.S. electrical grid, the other was about Russia allegedly being behind an explosion of “fake news”. WaPo itself has admitted that the core claims of both articles are basically fiction. Of course, as always, WaPo took its time to issue its retractions and did so with as little attention as they could attract for doing so, after having driven traffic to their site to make the original stories go viral. This is not respectable journalism. I don’t care what WaPo’s reputation is (and, honestly, it’s not that great). Just being a major player does not make one reputable or reliable. Please consider getting your news from alternative sites in addition to mainstream news. If you parse out all the different news sources, you’ll start to see truth emerge – it really is out there, it’s just hard to find.
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The testimony by the Director of National Intelligence was not limited to the Washington Post. It was public testimony.
Russia hacked the American election. Trump is Putin’s president. Yours too? Not mine.
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So you can’t even acknowledge that the source of the “Russia planting fake news” story has been completely debunked? You’re so obsessed that Russia has to be up to something, so you’re willing to believe anything. Clapper has a documented history of perjury. The CIA has a documented history of not only lying, but assassinations, regime changes, covert wars, disaster and destruction on an unfathomable scale. The FBI didn’t even bother to examine the DNC’s hacked servers ( http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/the-fbi-reportedly-never-examined-the-dncs-hacked-servers.html ). Yet still you’re willing to trust anything the government tells you, as long as it’s a Democratic government.
It’s just sad, Diane, that you of all people refuse to open your eyes. Opening your eyes once was what made you the great education leader you are. Don’t close them again.
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Was The NY Times story debunked? Are our intelligence agencies all liars? Is Trump right? Why are you defending this fascist?
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Dienne, are you Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway? Dr. Ravitch is VERY patient with you.
You work for law firm and you cannot assess keenly the character of a con man and his sly associates. If possible, you can let readers in this website to know your law firm and its leadership.
I just have a good guess that you work under Reinhold Richard “Reince” Priebus’ command. May
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You’ve never said whether or not you’re a teacher, but if you are, I weep for your students. Your logic, not to mention your reading comprehension, is very poor. Never, ever, not once have I defended Trump or his character. What I have said, over and over and over again, is that the fact that Trump is a conman (and, let me be clear, he is), does not, repeat NOT mean that anyone else is trustworthy. Look at documented facts, not just what you’re told to believe. The FACT is that there is no proof the Russians hacked the election. All we have is the word of the heads of a number of intelligence agencies, all of which have histories of lying (and worse) and motivation to lie this time. If they want to be believed, all they have to do is release some of the actual evidence. I’m really not that hard to convince. But I’m not a sheep either.
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Dienne,
Every day there is more evidence that Outin elected Trump. I hope the CIA invites you and Trump for a private briefing.
You sure sound like you are saying exactly what Trump is saying. I can read.
Please don’t insult May King. The FACT is that you are willing to believe Trump but not the intelligence agencies, which are nonpartisan. You sound hysterical in your determination to discredit anyone who says the elections were hacked. The fact of the hacking is indisputable. The fact that the hacking was intended to help Trump and hurt Clinton is indisputable. The only question at issue is whether the hacking was done by the Russians or someone else.
The possibility that it was the Russians terrifies and enrages you. Why?
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Two further points, then I’m done. First, no, as I’ve said over and over and over and over, yet you STILL refuse to hear, no, I DON’T trust Trump. It is only small minds that believe that not trusting one person means you must trust someone else. That’s simply not true, and under other circumstances you would understand that. Again, I’ll refer you to my example above. You don’t trust GWB, so that must mean you trusted Hugo Chavez, right? Of course not. Inane even to say that, isn’t it?
And also, no, the possibility that it was the Russians does not terrify or enrage me. Again, I’ve said it over and over and over, yet you STILL refuse to hear. I’m certainly open to being convinced. I’m skeptical but not hostile to the idea. Do you understand the difference? If, for instance, I told you there’s a ninth planet out beyond Neptune (not Pluto), you would probably want to see what evidence I have for that assertion, right? Does that make you hostile to the notion? Would that mean that you are “terrified” or “enraged” by the notion? No, merely skeptical. Same thing here.
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Dienne, you don’t trust the overwhelming consensus of 17 intelligence agencies that Putin hacked our election. That’s not my opinion. You prefer to believe that everyone at the top level of our government who has seen the evidence, including Obama, is lying. No whistle blowers. I don’t hate my government as much as you.
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Dienne
And I read all of those online websites that the Post smeared . I agree that our Mainstream Media has all too often participated in fake news that pushes the desired narrative of their owners.
But here is a little clue, want a pirated copy of software type it in to your browser with the word crack and tell me the language on the site. When US official wanted to get an upper hand in cyber warfare. They grabbed accused American hackers to spearhead the effort. Russian hackers is an old internet story. The new story, is they have a new employer.
So why is it none of the hacks were directed at Trump or any other Republican. You don’t find this disturbing. The fat kid on his bed is just as likely to attack either party. and he doesn’t need Assange to put it out there.
But at this point it goes beyond hacking because on every issue this piece of SH#@ is dangerous. Not only are minority groups , labor, Public School teachers and children, as well, millions of elderly Americans who already have seen their security diminished in for a long term disaster,. . The Democracy itself is in danger from a man and a party that can only but with rare exceptions be described as FASCISTS.. Look no further than the actions on voter suppression and how they reacted in North Carolina I have hated every Republican since Nixon . Would not have shed a tear if most democrats disappeared. But never did I fear the actions of any of them in terms of the American Democracy. I never had a reservation about attending a demonstration not even after Kent State. Or even moderately confronting police for misconduct. Which there was plenty of at Occupy rally’s.
I do now.
So there is an old labor saying that applies here at this point.
Which side are you on Dienne, which side are you on. ?
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Dienne
Greenwald is critical of the Washington Post et al for good reason He is critical about Washington group think escalating tension with Russia the old Military Industrial war .
At no point in this article or the Democracy now interview does he deny that Russia was behind the hack. He also sees Trump as a threat to Democracy who has to be blocked . His point is it will not happen with propaganda pieces that bring the Wa Post or the NYT in the realm of fake news putting them on par with rag journalism.
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Greenwald has never confirmed or denied that Russia was behind the attacks. He has repeatedly said we don’t have evidence and that we can’t blindly take the word of those who have lied before. Like me, Greenwald is more than willing to be convinced by evidence. But, like me, he hasn’t seen any evidence to convince him, because the government hasn’t released any yet.
And, yes, yes, yes, Trump is a threat to democracy. Greenwald knows that. I know that. But that doesn’t mean the Russians hacked the election. It doesn’t mean that Hillary was a better option. I’m utterly baffled how I can keep explaining this, other than to repeat what I’ve said so many times: Trump = bad does not mean that Hillary = good or that the Russians hacked the election. If this weren’t such a partisan issue, you’d be able to see that.
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The Russian hacking is not a partisan issue. Unless you are Trump.
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Forget it, Dienne: I’m afraid you’re never going to convince people that The Russia didn’t steal the election, since believing so is much more comforting than reflecting on the political and policy errors made by the Democrats over the past thirty years, and what is required to overcome them.
If both sides of the political aisle are fact free zones, each in their own toxic, deluded way, then we really are screwed, since this discussion detracts from efforts to organize and mobilize (something the center left is increasingly incapable of doing) against the right wing takeover of the country.
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Michael,
It is not up to me to tell the Democratic party what their errors were. They will figure it out without me. I’m damn sick and tired of people beating up on Hillary. That’s just cruel. There’s an old saying that you don’t kick a man when he is down. It applies to women too.
Hillary is over. But Putin is not. The Russians put a useful idiot in the White House to ruin our government. That’s today’s and tomorrow’s news. We may be hearing more about Melania. Her father was a Communist party official. Does that sound far-fetched? No more far-fetched than Donald Trump–Trump!– picking a cabinet of rightwing crazies to run the nation, destroy the climate, and do maximum damage.
Keep kicking Hillary if you want. But not here.
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And where, precisely, did I kick Hillary in my previous comment?
As I’ve stated numerous times on this blog, despite not being a fan of Hillary or Bill Clinton, I voted for her and urged others to do likewise. I also referred with disgust to the the misogyny and cruelty she’s been subject to over the years. But none of that changes the clearly demonstrable fact that she was a weak and flawed candidate whose advisers had her run a stunningly flawed campaign, and that Trump’s election largely represents the failings of the Democratic Party over many years, failures that she and her husband are complicit in.
It also doesn’t change the fact that, despite the still unproven accusations about Russian interference with the election (which may yet be proven, though I have my doubts since the NSA has the capability to track and identify said hacking, and has revealingly not done so), it’s irrelevant to the needs of the moment, which demand a coherent and non-hysterical response in this country to the frightening dilemmas we face.
How many times must we be subject to hysterical claims of some evil Other who is going to destroy us, when it should be clear that the Enemies – class warfare from above, racism, sexism, imperial appetites, rampant consumerism – are much closer to home?
Rest assured, the overwhelming likelihood is that this sorry, deluded episode will join all the others that led us into folly: brutal Huns bayoneting babies in WWI, Soviet spies in the public schools and elsewhere (post WWII Cold War), Tonkin Gulf, Iraqi soldiers killing Kuwaiti babies, Saddam’s WMDs… ad infinitum and ad nauseum.
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It is just a thought. In any battle field, bad and incompetent General will never have support from GOOD and LOYAL soldiers. Yes, this incompetent General and all blinded faithful soldiers will be captured and tortured by enemies.
However, in all realistic aspects, leaders need to be intelligent, NOT sly or treacherous; to be considerate, NOT manipulative; to be transparent, NOT DARK secret; to be experienced and knowledgeable; NOT amateur and shallow.
Educators should be divergent and ONLY follow the spirit of humanity and civility. Educators should not obey BAD command or corrupted legal system that is organized by SCHEMING party.
In short, commoners (parents and students) can be blinded faithful and act like sheep, BUT conscientious educators and conscientious law makers need to be bright and act like shepherd (counselors, teachers). Back2basic
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Hello Diane and all,
I strongly suggest that anyone who is curious about what is really going on with the whole “Russia did it” red-baiting corporate media frenzy watch (or read) this interview with the highly respected journalist Glenn Greenwald from today’s (1/5/17) DemocracyNow! show.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/5/glenn_greenwald_on_dearth_of_evidence?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=71c7a950a0-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-71c7a950a0-190192341
It is so utterly telling that when Julian Assange released damaging information about the Republicans during the Bush administration Iraq war scandal, the Democrats LOVED him. But when he then releases damaging information about the Democrats, suddenly they say he is the devil. – Its also amazing to me that Assange has been saying for months that it was NOT the Russians who gave him the Podesta emails, but Democrats and the coprporate media don’t seem to care. Not to mention the horrifying record of the USA (Via the CIA) having regularly interfered in so many elections and conducted so many coups all over the world. So, its ok for the USA to do exactly what it accuses other countries of doing….because….well…just because!?! Is that ok with you!?! I mean for crying out loud, the Obama administration got caught red handed listening in on Angela Merkel’s top secret emails!! (and thats the least of what the NSA and CIA have done!). Wow, the hypocrisy is astonishing. I really hope smart people use their vast intellect to see through what is a clear manipulation of their emotions. It only serves the agenda of the power elite. The obvious hysterical red-baiting is so…..1950. Glenn Greenwald nails it!
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Daniella Liebling,
You’ve nailed every single right wing talking point in your post and it reads almost word for word what the pro-Russian trolls are posting everywhere.
First of all, you pretend that it isn’t the Russians but at the same time you obviously don’t believe that for a minute since you then say “but America does it too.”
I am sure Russia and other countries try to spy on the US. No one cares that they got the e-mails. They care about the PROPAGANDA effort to use those e-mails as well as plant completely false news stories all over the internet to smear one candidate as a criminal and liar so that the other candidate — who IS a criminal and liar but who is in debt to Putin and his favored billionaires — can win.
We don’t even know how much they interfered with the voting itself since there is clear evidence that voter rolls in some states were hacked and the Russians and Trump are desperate to shut down any real recount.
Well done, “Daniella” troll! But go somewhere where the gullible people who believe Donald Trump will save us all read. Or go to the many appointees of Trump who are in bed with the Russians. I’m sure they are more than willing to repeat every Putin talking point you posted.
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And you, NYCPSP, have fled to the usual coward’s way out of red-baiting. Anything that disagrees with your position is automatically
“pro-Russia” and “right-wing”, which is laughable because if Greenwald were any further left he’d fall off the edge of the world. Anyway, since when is “rignt-wing’ equivalent to “pro-Russia”??? Good lord what a twisted world the propagandists have wrought!
Dismissing people as “trolls” without bothering to actually argue their points is the worst form of silencing and it’s contemptible.
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Dienne,
You can’t “red bait” by acknowledging that Russia elected Trump. Russia is BOT red anymore. Russia is a kleptocracy and Outun and his pals are capitalists.
Trump is Putin’s president. Why do you find that so hard to understand? Putin is not “red.” Putin is a dictator and a kleptocrat.
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It’s depressing and unfortunately will only get more vile with a selfish, greedy, raving maniac nut case in charge.
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Yvonne,
I share your contempt for this man. The American people were taken for a ride by a fraud, a con man, and a liar.
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And, the two-party system sucks and is totally broken. I still don’t think the DNC “gets it.” The DNC moved right and was arrogant. The GOP fell off the cliff and is nuts and arrogant.
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Several quick points:
First, the CIA did not miss the fact the Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. But certain people in the VIA (like CIA Director George Tenet) bent to the will of Dick Cheney et al and issued the nonsensical “slam dunk” directive. The media and the general citizenry — and according to academic studies, especially those who watched Fox news — bought the lie. And make no mistake it was a lie. An incredibly costly lie that we’re all still paying for. The intelligence agencies of other countries, and certainly those of Russia, did not miss the fact the the American public can be fairly easily duped.
Second, the hacks happened, and Russian intelligence agencies were behind them. That’s not just all of the American intelligence agencies agreeing on it, it’s also been confirmed by private companies and contractors and verified by individual experts. For example, CrowdStrike “linked malware used in the DNC intrusion to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency…The FBI, which has been investigating Russia’s hacks of political, privately has concluded the same…the CIA and other intelligence agencies concluded that one of Russia’s aims was to help Donald Trump win the election through a campaign of ‘active measures’ that included the hacking and dumping of emails onto public websites…The GRU was key to this operation…The other group that hacked the DNC also works for Russian intelligence.” A CrowdStrike technical report is here:
Click to access FancyBearTracksUkrainianArtillery.pdf
Other private companies have endorsed CrowdStrike’s conclusions, which – again – are agreed to by all US intelligence agencies. A Finnish company, F-Secure, has released a report on one of the Russian agencies, termed APT20 or ‘The Dukes’, and calls it an”organized cyber-espionage group that has been working for the Russian government since at least 2008 to collect intelligence in support of foreign and security policy decision-making.” Another security firm, FireEye, has released a report on the other identified Russian hacker, APT28, and it concludes that “APT28’s work is sponsored
by the Russian government.” Thomas Rid, professor in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, who focuses on technology and cyber-warfare, put it this way:
“the evidence is so rich that there are only two reasons not to accept it — one, because you don’t understand the technical details, or because you don’t want to understand it for political reasons… It’s really not controversial that we’re looking at a major Russian campaign.”
Third, the media have been – to a large degree – up on this story. For example, The Atlantic noted this:
“Putin’s regime has been embarked for some years now on an opportunistic but sophisticated campaign to sabotage democracy and bend it toward his interests, not just in some marginal, fragile places but at the very core of the liberal democratic order, Europe and the United States…The leading element of this has been RT (Russia Today)…Added to this is a vast network of Russian trolls—agents paid to spread disinformation and Russian propaganda points by posing as authentic and spontaneous commentators…What began as a preposterous effusion of fake news reports spreading panic, for example, about an Ebola outbreak in the U.S., morphed into something more sinister, sophisticated, and profoundly consequential: a dedicated campaign to discredit Hillary Clinton and tilt the U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump…”
And the NY Times reported this:
“the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks…In the months before the election, it was largely documents from Democratic Party systems that were leaked to the public…Trump has repeatedly cast doubt about any intelligence suggesting a Russian effort to influence the election.”
FiveThirtyEIght noted that “we can say two things: (i) Americans were interested in the Wikileaks releases, and (ii) the timeline of Clinton’s fall in the polls roughly matches the emails’ publishing schedule…”
And The Wall Street Journal reported this:
“Friends and associates said few U.S. citizens are closer to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin than Mr. Tillerson, who has known Mr. Putin since he represented Exxon’s interests in Russia during the regime of Boris Yeltsin.”
Here’s how David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter put it, and his rendition ties the strings together:
“the outline of the case is no mystery…Democratic and Republican Party servers were hacked by foreign agents, yet the Moscow-friendly folks at Wikileaks somehow only obtained the contents of Democratic servers…Meanwhile, Donald Trump ran a campaign that seemed almost designed to please Russian President Vladimir Putin…The campaign then rewrote the Republican platform in ways sure to please Putin. Trump selected as his principal foreign-policy adviser a retired general previously paid by Russia’s English-language propaganda network, RT…Trump himself publicly urged the Russians to do more hacking of his opponent’s email…Trump endorsed Putin’s war aims in Syria…He suggested he would not honor NATO commitments against Russia…He condoned the invasion and annexation of Crimea…Do Americans really need secret information from the CIA to discern the pattern here?”
Yeah, the rubes got duped. By Russian intelligence agencies. Democratic values and principles were undermined. Big time.
A recent poll (Economist/YouGov) found that “Once a story is believed, it seems to stay believed…half of [Trump] supporters still think that it is at least probably true that [Obama] was born in Kenya. And in the U.S. as a whole, a majority believes that in 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that the U.S. never found…”
A democratic republic is only as good as its citizenry.
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Trump is doing what JFK promised to do after the Bay of Pigs, but hiring better protection for himself, breaking up Intelligence.
CIA said that invading iraq was a “slam dunk”, time for house cleaning.
Clapper is known to perjure himself before Congress and he has problems with the testimony from Assange, but not bugging all citizens and our allied leaders.
We need a 3rd party and Trump, like him or not, is providing it, as “both parties”
look to a cold war again.
Pineing over Hillary is dysfunctional.
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It is hilarious to see Republicans joining hands with Russia and celebrating the Trumping of our national intelligence.
At last, we can depend on the KGB for our information! Way to go Joseph Mugivan.
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To Dienne and readers who are with Dienne:
I am very simple with the principle of the spirit in humanity and civility.
In the principle of all aspects in life, experience, knowledge, intelligence, and kindness will help people of all walks of life to distinguish the difference between the transparency and the secrecy, between the honesty and the treachery through actions and verbal expression.
In short, in any dangerous situation, people need to choose the BEST survival choice for themselves, their immediate family members, their neighborhood, their state, their nation and the last, their allied countries.
I would take this opportunity to sincerely praise Dr. Ravitch’s virtue in patience. This is to confirm to Dienne that I am ESL teacher with patience, and two years being as a TA in math subject. It is a pleasure to teach students who love to learn with the principle of learning. It is a pain in the neck to teach students who only learn what they want to learn PLUS disrespectful behavior.
I am sorry to see Dienne who adamantly presents her illogical expression. It seems to me that Dienne would prefer to live with fascism more than corrupted capitalism where she has lived all of her life. Grass is always greener on the other side. May
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