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Russian Arrested in Spain 'Over US Election Hacking' (bbc.com)

Spanish police have arrested a Russian programmer for alleged involvement in "hacking" the US election, BBC reported Monday, citing local press reports. From the report: Pyotr Levashov, arrested on 7 April in Barcelona, has now been remanded in custody. A "legal source" also told the AFP news agency that Mr Levashov was the subject of an extradition request by the US. The request is due to be examined by Spain's national criminal court, the agency added. El Confidencial, a Spanish news website, has said that Mr Levashov's arrest warrant was issued by US authorities over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Trump's campaign.

20 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Trump by GeoDirk · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Or to word it in a more objective way: over suspected "hacking" that help expose the corruption in Hillary's campaign.

  2. Can someone explain what the Russians hacked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's assume they got all the DNC mail and released it. How was that hacking the election? Hacking the election would be changing votes in a database.

    If someone finds out that a candidate murders babies, I would prefer they release it...and not be arrested for "hacking the election".

  3. Reminder: "Hacking" was mere illumination by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only way "Hacking" affected the election was that things Hillary and the DNC said in private became public. So I don't think it makes a lot of sense to claim the election was really "hacked", it's just the more you know about what Hilary really thinks the less likely you are to vote for her.

    In the same vein every major newspaper was trying for a year or so to "hack" the election with negative stories about Trump, most of which turned out to be false... so that was actually a lot worse than the Russians simply illuminating the truth.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Reminder: "Hacking" was mere illumination by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Bakers dozen of rape accusations who all showed up for an October surprise, and then poof gone!

      His previous wife had her rape accusations removed rather quickly, and she made hers LONG before Trump showed any political ambitions. In the case of the ex-wife her sudden change of heart was probably down to a financial pay off.

      The more recent women accusing Trump of sexual assault all reported getting dozens of death threats and had negative encounters with Trump's vigilante storm troopers on the streets. It's no surprise they are quieter now.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Reminder: "Hacking" was mere illumination by backwardsposter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "election hacking" is a very disingenuous way to refer to what happened. Everyone is treating it like votes were fraudulent, when what really happened was fraudulent activity was exposed via hacking. This should actually be a good thing.

      But the truth doesn't matter as much as the narrative.

  4. Bigger hack by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The biggest hack to support Trump was to put Hillary forward as a candidate.

    1. Re:Bigger hack by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hillary being the Democrat candidate was just party politics as usual. I think the hack was to get a completely non-viable candidate trumped (ha) up as the Republican candidate to pave the way for the coronation of Her Hillaryness. Note how NBC News sat on the "Grab the Cat" video all through the primaries, when it might have done some good, in order to ("Oh, *please* let it be Trump!") spring it as an October Surprise.

      Also, note the utterly absurd way the "debates" were handled. The immoderators (deliberately?) steered the "debates" in such a way as to dumb them down into ridiculousness, which plays to Trump's strengths, such as they are.

      I think the biggest factor in Trump's win is that the attitude of Hillary and most of the Democratic Party, which is basically "How dare those unwashed nobodies in flyover country fail to show proper gratitude that their betters are willing to take up the burden of running their lives for them?!?", doesn't really play well in those parts of the country they show such open and complete contempt for.

  5. Re:Amazing the speed of the Russian/Trump shills by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    So "posting shit Hillary doesn't like" and "lying on social media" are now state sponsored hacking?

  6. Can't we all just get along?!?!? by mtmiller100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and find some common ground... like the fact that Hillary and The Donald are BOTH scumbags who don't deserve to be president?

    1. Re:Can't we all just get along?!?!? by Archtech · · Score: 1, Insightful

      and find some common ground... like the fact that Hillary and The Donald are BOTH scumbags who don't deserve to be president?

      And right there you have the issue with the USA as a "liberal democracy". How can it be a liberal democracy when the "democracy" part gives voters the choice between a vile rich callous selfish lying warmonger and a vile rich callous selfish lying warmonger? And how liberal can it be when absolutely no one in the senior ranks of the government - or of either major political party - is in the least liberal?

      I use the word "liberal" in its original and correct sense:

      liberal
      n adjective
      1 respectful and accepting of behaviour or opinions different from one's own. Ø(of a society, law, etc.) favourable to individual rights and freedoms. ØTheology regarding many traditional beliefs as dispensable, invalidated by modern thought, or liable to change.
      2 (in a political context) favouring individual liberty, free trade, and moderate political and social reform. Ø(Liberal) relating to Liberals or a Liberal Party, especially (in the UK) relating to the Liberal Democrat party.
      3 (of education) concerned with broadening general knowledge and experience.
      4 (especially of an interpretation of a law) not strictly literal.
      5 given, used, or giving in generous amounts.
      n noun
      1 a person of liberal views.
      2 (Liberal) a supporter or member of a Liberal Party, especially (in the UK) a Liberal Democrat.

      DERIVATIVES
              liberalism noun
              liberalist noun
              liberalistic adjective
              liberality noun
              liberally adverb
              liberalness noun

      ORIGIN
              Middle English (originally in sense 'suitable for a free man' hence 'suitable for a gentleman'): via Old French from Latin liberalis, from liber 'free (man)'.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
  7. Re: over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Tr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Yes, as we learn that Donald Trump is a foreign agent beholden to Vladamir Putin's KGB I think we can all agree it was worth losing our country to a foreign government to keep Hillary from being President.

    When we ponder the implications of Donald Trump's subservience to a hostile foreign government, it's important to remember that Hillary Clinton sent emails.

    Emails! Can you believe that?! She sent emails.

    Bring on the Russian puppet - We can't have a Clinton presidency!!

  8. Absurd by Archtech · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What ridiculous nonsense! Everyone knows Putin did it.

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
  9. Re:There's more than the DNC hack ya know by loonycyborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I for one am a Russian, and I frankly don't care who wins on american elections. It's obvious to me that this whole story is made up to whitewash Hilary's fuckups in her campaign that alienated people so much that they voted for the designated "joke candidate". However the very idea that associating something with Russians can automatically vilify it seems very insulting and ridiculous to me.

  10. Re:MOD: Please Fix article title by CajunArson · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Sorry, those facts are racist because they don't repeat the narrative that Slashdot's so-called "editors" want to spoonfeed to a certain segment of what little is left of the readership around here.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  11. Re:There's more than the DNC hack ya know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There's mounting evidence that Russia hacked voter rolls and shared them with people involved with the Trump campaign.

    I hear many people say this, and no one will point to any actual evidence. Show some evidence, or admit you have nothing but paranoid ravings.

    The theory being the data was used to target ad buys and campaigning. It would explain how Trump ran such a stellar campaign with so few resources.

    Surely you can see how weak a case that is. Trump ran ads. People listened to the ads on both sides, and decided to vote. You want to override their choice because you allege that the choice of advertising market was optimized by someone you don't like. Even if that is true, Russia saved the Trump campaign some money avoiding running ads that that would have no effect. Are you seriously going to pretend that saving Trump a few bucks on ads is a reason to overturn an election?

    I don't like the idea that a Russian propaganda machine helped choose our president.

    The plot you alleged isn't even a serious issue, and you have no evidence it is true.

    Maybe you feel different. Maybe you're one of those Russians.

    Of course you assume anyone who disagrees with you is conspiring against you. It allows you to avoid listening to what they say, and realizing that you have no evidence for a conspiracy theory that makes no sense.

    I genuinely hope you get the professional help you so clearly need. Until you do, please stay far away from a voting booth.

  12. Re: over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Tr by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Putin overplayed his hand, and misjudged just how recalcitrant Congress really is over Russia. Maybe Putin misjudged the US political system (he certainly wouldn't be the first Russian ruler to do that), and just assumed that Trump's cooing sounds and his installment in the White House would just erase seven decades of deep distrust between the Washington and Moscow. Maybe he knew it, but Trump was his best shot. Whatever the case may be, Trump is in a political position now where he has no choice but to pick up the anti-Russia stick and pound it loudly. The fact is that outside of a few Congressmen like Nunes, Trump actually has few real devotees in Congress, and it's clear Congress has absolutely no intention of permitting the Administration to jump into bed with Putin.

    Enter Assad's gas attack, which gives Trump the cover he needs to basically switch teams. Whether it's a serious change of heart or not has to be seen, but I'm thinking that right now in the Kremlin Putin and his aides are actually generally worried that they may have aided an actual real-live warmonger to get into the Oval Office. And maybe that's not a bad thing. Russia has largely assumed since Putin's rise to power that the US is going to steer clear of any elevated tensions, and has seen itself able to do what it pleases from the effective seizure of South Ossetia to the out and out annexation of Crimea, and of course, going into Syria to make sure Assad stays in power regardless of any other circumstance. Now it actually has to wonder what the Command-in-chief of the most powerful military machine in history might do. For once, Putin is the one knocked off balance.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  13. Re: over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Tr by Dread_ed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He was asked to hand over the tapes. He should have wiped them first, you know...like with a cloth.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  14. Re: over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Tr by MightyMartian · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The Administration certainly feels it does, including the radar tracking data showing where the attack originated from. But I get it, you've bought into the "Russia is a wonderful country and USA bad bad bad!"

    Don't really care what you think. The ASsad clan have been murdering bastards for decades, and Russia, who was supposed to be the guarantor that Assad's chemical weapons were taken out of commission is left makign lame excuses about how some rebel gas cannisters got blowed up reall good.

    Face it, Russia is on the losing end of this one, and Putin knows it, so cash your Kremlin checks while you can.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  15. Re: over suspected "hacking" that helped Donald Tr by Hylandr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This would not be the first time a major news outlet altered the text and headline of an article. Slashdot has been known to do it also.

    Curious development.

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  16. Re:There's more than the DNC hack ya know by GNious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, you are correct. Thanks for the correction. I am terrible at reading maps in Russian.

    That's OK - Even Russian military have repeatedly failed to read their own maps, and accidentally wandered into Ukraine.