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US Intel Officially Blames the Russian Government For Hacking DNC (theverge.com)
It's official, the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Homeland Security has blamed Russia for stealing and publishing archived emails from the Democratic National Committee in July. Wikileaks released over 19,000 emails and more than 8,000 attachments from the DNC in what was "part one of [their] new Hillary Leaks series." The Verge reports: "The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts," the statement reads. "We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities." The release also mentions recent reports of attempted intrusions into voting systems in 20 different states, but says there is not yet enough evidence to attribute those attacks to the Russian government. Despite the acknowledged threat, the DNI says digital attacks are unlikely to directly alter election results. "It would be extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion," the statement reads. "This assessment is based on the decentralized nature of our election system in this country and the number of protections state and local election officials have in place." "Nevertheless," it continues, "DHS continues to urge state and local election officials to be vigilant."
This is part of why things like Stuxnet are potentially bad. Even if you use a weapon for a cause that is just or good, each new introduction ups the ante. It is pretty clear that the US and its allies use of hacking and similar tools (I refuse to say "cyberweapons" because we're not yet in a dystopian scifi novel) has emboldened other actors to use them also. If the US instead put in nearly as much resources into making things secure as it does into breaking into things, the situation would look very different, and everyone would benefit.
What if it's just people inside the DNC who are sick of the corruption? What if there are people inside the DNC who wanted Bernie to win and were angry when the DNC conspired to steal the primary election from him?
What if the Russians aren't hacking the FBI, the NSA the DNC etc and it's all just people who are disgusted with the corruption? If the Russians were stealing secrets from these groups, you'd expect them to keep quiet rather than causing a ruckus that would result in increased scrutiny and heightened security.
Knowing Hillary's dirty secrets and holding them would be terrific for blackmail. Leaking them to the public weakens her as a candidate and removes the material from future usefulness. My guess is that it's good samaritans rather than foreign spies.
If it weren't for the Russians, the DNC and the Clinton camp would have gotten away with voter fraud in the primary! Oh, no one cares. Nevermind.
...said pretty much every country in South America and the middle east that have had the U.S. government interfering in their elections for decades.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
But weren't we going to build a wall and have them pay for it?
No, wait, that was for the other evil invaders...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's a tradition. For almost 25 years we were looking for a new enemy, but why bother when the old one works so well? Never change a running system.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In front of a PC coding in C?
Wow it's almost as if you had all these references waiting for an article like this. Who does that? ... he asked knowingly
Just like no one cares we are loosing billions of billions of dollars to tax evasion. We have the proof, Panama papers anyone?.. Only thing that matters in the US anymore is corruption.
This is pretty strong evidence that the Obama regime is blaming Russia for everything regardless of whether or not there are any facts to support their claim.
I don't care if they blame bigfoot. The information released was still damning of the corruption inside the DNC. Fuck the DNC. They don't deserve any votes for burning Bernie.
Whether the Russians had anything to do with it is irrelevant until people start acknowledging the appalling corruption that the hacks revealed. That should be first and foremost in the discussion. Whether it was the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, or Klingons doesn't really matter. That piece of information takes second priority to that fact that our elections are rigged.
Good God, why is this so hard to understand?
Gawd man, do you ever take a break? If this happened to the GOP, the Press would use it against Trump all day long, and three times during the debate. In fact, they are already trying to blame Trump for it.
Instead of trying to blame Trump, they should be looking right at DWS (who was in charge) and Hillary, and trying to tie it to Hillary's Homebrew basement dwelling server.
And quite frankly, it shouldn't matter the "who" did it. The fact that it did happen, and everything looks so awful for the DNC and Clinton Campaign because of it, it should be news all day long, but somehow it doesn't matter as much as some chick from 20 years ago that Trump said "mean things" about.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Wait, the US Government is accusing another government of attempting to influence an election by exposing wrongdoing?
That's bizarre.
I suppose if the press was doing its job instead of being Democratic spear-carriers we wouldn't need some other country to do the press' work for them.
The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.
There's not a whole lot of evidence there. It would be interesting to know what sort of things Russia has done in Europe and Asia.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The evidence is an IP address coming from a Rusky VPN provider. That's all.
It's not like the Clinton campaign doesn't have a partner in the executive branch. See also: All the other things she's given a pass on that others have gone to prison for.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Don't worry, man, most people do understand, they're just getting their records corrected.
It's always Russia, because we still haven't definitively settled the dick-measuring contest left over from World War II. It's hard to measure while the two main contestants (and new challenger China) keep simultaneously participating in pissing contests and counting notches after fucking other countries.
The metaphor's getting a bit strained, but the bottom line is that it's a mess that hasn't been resolved in the last century. America was doing great in the 20's, horribly in the 30's, then somewhat stabilized after WWII. Meanwhile, Russia was doing decently in the 20s, badly oppressed in the 30s, then pretty unstable (but pretending otherwise) after WWII until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. After that, there have been several factions fighting for power, and one of the more aggressive factions has taken control, now looking to solidify Russia as the main superpower of the world.
Then, of course, there are all of Russia's allies that have caches of Soviet weapons, and the ongoing corruption that allows them to get more. Even if "hurt America" weren't Russia's intent, there's enough belligerence in Russia's government that most conflicts can be traced back to some Russian office.
On the American side, we've done little to discourage such saber-rattling. In a burst of benevolence, we've helped overthrow oppressive government regimes, only to be pulled back by our own isolationist factions, leaving a power vacuum that attracts more oppressive dictators. We also tend to be vindictive, highlighting the Russian connections when a bad guy gets a delivery of shiny new weapons.
It's all very complicated, and has several symptoms of an ongoing cold war. Russia makes a public affair about our insecure elections, we make a public affair about their corrupt government. We build new weapons that could threaten Russia, they steal designs and threaten us. It's a stupid dance, and this is just another turn.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Now I dont like Putin or the rest of his cleptocracy either, but always pointing to Russia as the bad guys when it is convenient, instead of when it has been proven (or at least shown beyond reasonable doubt) will and already does lead to a desensitivization effect.
The more often it is claimed "Russia did X" without reasonable evidence, the less believeable it will become, until the day when they really do something monstrous and no one will belive it. See the myth about Germanys extermination camps in WWI vs. their actual extermination camps in WWII which were at first disbelieved by many when the first reports appeared.
Already here in Europe we see the first effects of this: Most people are more inclined to believe whatever RT (aka. the Ministry of RussianTruths) tells them instead of facts. Particularly when it comes to anything refugee or Ukraine related.
I think there's three parts to the case:
1) There are multiple attacks against many targets, meaning multiple talented individuals working together, suggestive of a state actor.
2) A lot of the tools had been used in other hacks, hacks which had a clear strategic benefit to Russia. (It's not clear how easy it would have been for other groups to have obtained these tools)
3) The half-hearted denials from Russia are kinda Putin's MO. Officially Russia has nothing to do with them, but he wants to make sure people know Russia has the capability.
There's one big doubt for me, and that's Guccifer 2.0. Putin having his intelligence service claim to be a guy from Romania who is carrying the mantle of a guy best known for guessing password reset questions... it's not exactly something that inspires awe. I'd expect the front to be something more bad-ass like a Russian equivalent to Anonymous.
Then again if Guccifer 2.0 was real he has some real technical chops. When looking at the original Guccifer I'd sooner expect him to spit in contempt and say "Ha! This is what a real hacker does!", not to pay homage by becoming his successor.
I stole this Sig
Wait...so Obama and the Dems havetheir panties in a bunch because Russia (supposedly) just did pretty much what Yahoo just did at the behest of the Obama and the Dems.
WTF?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
That's rich. With all the whining and hand-wringing about not trusting electronic voting machines since the Bush administration, we already know many cannot be audited and leave no paper trail of ballots cast by voters.
Yeah, they can't because we simply won't know if they did.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Imagine if there was a coup in Mexico from a pro-Russia party and supported by Russia. Do you think the US would only send a few soldiers and annex a small part of the country? Compared to the US, Russia is a saint. Oh, and by the way, if you take the time to learn about the history of Crimea, you'll realize it was always Russian. People who live there consider themselves as Russian. That's why the referendum in Crimea was overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia.
Are you really that stupid? Do you understand the qualitative difference between the American government operating on American soil and the Russian government operating on American soil? You believe there is a moral equivalence?
Let's put it this way: If a cop kills a guy in the US, there might well be a discussion about excessive force, over-policing, etc etc. But if a Russian agent kills a guy in the US, it becomes a very different discussion and much different by degree. Don't you agree?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Trump will build a firewall and get the Russians to pay for it.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Can't fix willful ignorance.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Yeah there is a difference, our own government spying on us is far more offensive than a foreign government. I have no problem with our government spying on Russia, in fact I expect it.
Wait a minute. The story was EXACTLY THAT when people were complaining about spying. Government stooges on this site would respond with "well, it's okay to spy on other nations. They do it all time. It's their job."
But when it's USA being spied on (hypothetically, these russia claims are complete bullshit).. whoa ho ho, now it's "act of war", "rally the troops" time.
Fucking hypocrites.
Are the same people that bugged Merkel's phone bitching about the DNC hack? It's not like the DNC is a government agency. It's a political party or as I like to call it, one of the two mafias that rig elections in this country.
RNC establishment exists, but is confused and conflicted
There was a lot more visible establishment Republican opposition to Trump than DNC opposition to Bernie, and I'm pretty sure a hack of the RNC would have revealed a lot of dirt as well. But it didn't happen, so we can only speculate.
Just makes the Democrats look like whiners on top of being idiots. They should never have put what leaked in writing let alone email. Now they are complaining Russia took advantage of their incompetence.
Having a corrupt administration is bad
Having an incompetent corrupt administration is worse
Having an incompetent corrupt administration that that blames everyone else is Venezuela
I don't know dude. The Democrats nominated a woman so venal that she makes Nixon look like a sweetheart. Sure you hate bible thumpers but I don't really care for corrupt life long politicians who are so full of contempt for the American people that they tell one fucked up half ass lie after another with that smarmy look on her face like "who are you peons to question me, you are all dirt under my feet." You have every right to vote for the cunt but I have every right to despise her. Yeah Trump is no fucking prize I know but compared to that he don't look half bad. It's a shitty election year.
Whether the Russians had anything to do with it is irrelevant until people start acknowledging the appalling corruption that the hacks revealed. That should be first and foremost in the discussion. Whether it was the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, or Klingons doesn't really matter. That piece of information takes second priority to that fact that our elections are rigged.
The corruption in the DNC is a problem, and I hope that the registered Democrats will look at it seriously and bring reforms to their own party.
However, it doesn't make the origin of the hack irrelevant. We are now in the general elections and it should be a worrying fact to the American people, both Republicans and Democrats, that a foreign power is trying to influence our elections.
Good God, why is this so hard to understand?
We get it, and God has nothing to do with it.
Nice to see the Trumpies out in full support of a foreign country directly tampering in a US Election, regardless of the fact that if we just let this go the next time will be even worse. The very idea of a foreign country interfering in our elections is an affront to our very democracy and a direct and present threat. But partisan people like you think it's no big deal because it hit the other guy.
The next time it happens it might hit your side, think about that. And because of people like you our country won't have reacted this time so we will have directly encouraged the next attack.
Let me let you in on something, this is a direct attack on our country. I'd be as outraged if it had happened to the green party or libertarian party. We cannot stand by and allow foreign countries to start tampering in our elections. We should respond directly to this attack, even if that involves a kinetic attack against the source.
Wait a minute. The story was EXACTLY THAT when people were complaining about spying. Government stooges on this site would respond with "well, it's okay to spy on other nations. They do it all time. It's their job."
But when it's USA being spied on (hypothetically, these russia claims are complete bullshit).. whoa ho ho, now it's "act of war", "rally the troops" time.
Fucking hypocrites.
You missed part of the Pope's argument. It is a serious violation, because the Russians (or others) made the Democrats look bad.
If someone did this same thing against the Republicans, or against a Republican administration, poperatzo would support it.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Also witness the conflating of DNC's behavior with democracy itself. These leaks exposed anti-democratic machinations from the upper echelons of a major political party, and politicians along with everyone who has a microphone or a press credential are trying to convince us that this constitutes "interference" in our democratic process.
INTERFERENCE
Think about that for a moment. We are actually being told that those who expose anti-democratic behavior are a threat to our democracy, rather than those who carry out that anti-democratic behavior. It boggles the mind.
What's truly offensive is the press is unwilling to show even a speck of skepticism, and in fact is very enthusiastically repeating this to all of us as if we're dumb.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
The very idea of a foreign country interfering in our elections is an affront to our very democracy and a direct and present threat.
You call it "an affront to our very democracy", I call it karma. Just be thankful they did it via cyber attacks instead of insurgencies and drone strikes.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
He was raised on movies like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... where spies mostly were engaged in talking enemies into total boredom with main character only doing a single kill in course of entire series. Compare that to James Bond whose body count is in thousands..
The problem is that with great cost to everyone in 1990s Russia pretty much caved in to all demands of all nations on earth are that were even remotely western-like no matter how silly those demands were. But US and other morons still keep treating Russia like threat and tend to plot death of everyone who is even tangentially related to Russia or former Soviet Union which makes all this cave-in absolutely worthless in the first place. So no matter who will be in power in Russia, it will be becoming more and more hostile to US and other clowns like them in the future.
Spying is perfectly fine. Releasing the info you got from spying in an attempt to sway a foreign election is not.
Why not? Why is it wrong for the Russians to tell the truth to American voters?
You aren't outraged?
Because the Republicans haven't collaborated with Putin's efforts to poison the democratic process in the US?
The left is bizarre to me. They're incensed about the leaks, about something naughty Trump said, but read Hillary's emails that she funded the moderate beheaders in Syria so Israel would be happy with a nuclear Iran and now we've got 400k dead, ISIS, and the migrant crisis threatening to destabalize Europe and they're totally cool with that. I do not get it. I mean, I get why the media and the political classes do it: money. But I have no idea what your average left-leaning voter gets out of this.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
A hack of the RNC would likely reveal that they tried to do to Trump what the DNC did to Bernie, they just failed. Or rather, Trump beat them because he fought back, unlike Bernie who rolled over. All that this would do is confirm what Trump has been saying, that the system is rigged.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.