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Former FBI Director Predicts Russian Hackers Will Interfere With More Elections (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times:
James B. Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., testified that the Russians had not only intervened in last year's election, but would try to do it again... Russian hackers did not just breach Democratic email accounts; according to Mr. Comey, they orchestrated a "massive effort" targeting hundreds of -- and possibly more than 1,000 -- American government and private organizations since 2015... As F.B.I. director, he supervised counterintelligence investigations into computer break-ins that harvested emails from the State Department and the White House, and that penetrated deep into the computer systems of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yet President Barack Obama's administration did not want to publicize those intrusions, choosing to handle them diplomatically -- perhaps because at the time they looked more like classic espionage than an effort to manipulate American politics...
Graham Allison, a longtime Russia scholar at Harvard, said, "Russia's cyberintrusion into the recent presidential election signals the beginning of what is almost sure to be an intensified cyberwar in which both they -- and we -- seek to participate in picking the leaders of an adversary." The difference, he added, is that American elections are generally fair, so "we are much more vulnerable to such manipulation than is Russia," where results are often preordained... Similar warnings have been issued by others in the intelligence community, led by James R. Clapper Jr., who has sounded the alarm since retiring in January as director of national intelligence. "I don't think people have their head around the scope of what the Russians are doing," he said recently.
Daniel Fried, a career diplomat who oversaw sanctions imposed on Russia before retiring this year, told the Times that Comey "was spot-on right that Russia is coming after us, but not just the U.S., but the free world in general. And we need to take this seriously."
Graham Allison, a longtime Russia scholar at Harvard, said, "Russia's cyberintrusion into the recent presidential election signals the beginning of what is almost sure to be an intensified cyberwar in which both they -- and we -- seek to participate in picking the leaders of an adversary." The difference, he added, is that American elections are generally fair, so "we are much more vulnerable to such manipulation than is Russia," where results are often preordained... Similar warnings have been issued by others in the intelligence community, led by James R. Clapper Jr., who has sounded the alarm since retiring in January as director of national intelligence. "I don't think people have their head around the scope of what the Russians are doing," he said recently.
Daniel Fried, a career diplomat who oversaw sanctions imposed on Russia before retiring this year, told the Times that Comey "was spot-on right that Russia is coming after us, but not just the U.S., but the free world in general. And we need to take this seriously."
Yup. Just like Bush had months of daily warnings of an impending attack but chose to do nothing. Which led to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Then Bush lied to the American people about the need to invade and occupy a foreign country which had nothing to do with the attacks, which led to the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers, over 250,000 Iraqi civilians and a $3 trillion+ price tag foisted on the American people.
Very Bush.
Y'know, I've watched as the left has argued the morality of Russia, in the Korean War (citing civilians killed by the US), in Iranian revolutions (never mentioning the KGB-supported power grab), in the VIetnam War (where they've taught forty years of history dividing the two sides into the good guys who the KGB supported, which conducted purges of the population after the war, and America), the various Central American communist parties, which are paragons of social justice until their economies collapse like Venezuela...
We even enacted a so-called peace deal with Iran where we released large amounts of money to them and the next _month_ suddenly Russia had the funds to bomb rebels in Syria at Iran's behest.
But suddenly, in the year 2016, after all that, it's important that we fight Russia, after giving them all those countries (never mind that they couldn't even hold onto the ones in Eastern Europe besides Belarus) and even giving (via Iran) the money to keep their Air Force afloat in bombs to drop on civilians.
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So the free world will fall apart if everyone in it knows the truth about their government? I find it interesting how US government justifies spying on their own citizens with "if you're doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide" and yet calls anyone who informs the people they serve with what the government does an enemy of the state. It's not like they hacked the personal sex videos of the Clinton, or some embarrassing comments made off-the-record; what they allegedly exposed were facts that have to do with her profession and potential corruption. I get that exposing those possibly affected the outcome of the election, but shouldn't the voters be entitled to know what the politicians they vote for actually do?
Dear Globalist elite, I expect Russia, China, Israel, UK, etc to snoop just like we do. If "interference" is their exposing your crimes, so be it. If you can't do the time (or handle the slime), don't do the crime. I do think all the noise today is to ignore the Seth Rich murder case, to marginalize or overthrow a legitimately elected president, and to avoid accountability for many crimes including treason.
If you are alleging vote frauds, very simple. Liberals, Democrats and Rinos have pushed insecure voting and counting methods for years. I would welcome traceable, simple paper based systems with voter ID.
Given any honest efforts, the Russians don't worry me. But you do.
With the massive surveillance in place, if you can't immediately produce hard evidence, SHUT THE F*** UP and go away!
I hear that Israel has some influence in US elections too.
Bush had months of daily warnings of an impending attack but chose to do nothing.
The intelligence provided the president is shared with congressional leaders, and as I recall was not what the intelligence community refers to as 'actionable intelligence' - there was nothing specific to act on.
You want to play the blame game, what about Clinton's siloing of the intelligence bureaus that prevented the field reports of the middle-eastern flight school students that had no interest in learning to take off or land, but only in controlling a plane once airborne from ever being investigated?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fb...
Ken
He's most pissed that he was being shitcanned while on the other side of the continent. No chance to clean up his office, shred stuff, etc.
I'm OK with him not being able to clean up his office, shred stuff, etc. - when you or I do it it's called 'destroying evidence'.
Ken
I think China is a hundred times more of a threat than Russia. Russia grandstands. They want attention. China doesn't want attention. ... Because they're an actual threat. They manipulate information, they manipulate currencies, they have tons of spies and the largest group of hackers on the planet. 27% OF ALL ATTACKS come from China, and as much as 47% can be tracked back to China. This is not a fucking joke. This is the calm before the storm. China has the largest standing military (over a MILLION MORE than the USA). For all the "military-industrial-complex" people harp on the USA (and it's warranted) 99% of the public has no idea how big a threat China is becoming.
And manipulating the election? China does that too in both the US and the UN. Google it.
We've also had tons of ACTUAL state secrets "leaked" and straight up SOLD to China. Not this "war in iraq"/"poor civilians got shot" shit that's just a PR blunder. ACTUAL secrets that represent tens of BILLIONS of dollars and decades of US research that ends up overseas. Like ultra-high resolution modern radar systems. We're paying for it, and they're benefiting from it.
Here's a report from 2017 that China is reaching "near parity with the West's military." That should horrify you. China does not give two shits about your civil liberties or peace among nations. They've been the sole reason North Korea hasn't been bombed into dust. Why? Because it's in their best interests.
http://www.businessinsider.com...
Russia is a freaking distraction. An underdog. China is a resting giant quietly growing a military capable of conquering new territory.
I don't think I've ever seen someone argue the morality of any particular country that they didn't live in. It seems like you may be conflating people's desire to avoid war and the involvement of foreign nations in wars.
I also don't think we should be fighting Russia but we should be defending ourselves from all forces that seek to mislead the public, both foreign and domestic.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Nutsign detected: vague non-specific claims with "Google it" instead of providing links to corroborating evidence.
SO far they claimed Russia hacked the 2016 election ...
Really? The only ones I have seen make that claim are pundits on Fox News and Breitbart trying to defend their 'Dear Leader', the greatest negotiator of all time. Most of the rest of the media claims the Russians hacked the DNC and used carefully timed leaks of that information in an attempt to influence the voting behaviour of the US electorate.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Republicans who were communicating with Russians who were being monitored had their conversations picked up. There was no "active wire tapping and spying on a republic candidate for president". None. Zero. Claiming that is like getting busted at a sweep of a whorehouse and then whining that "they" are out to get you.
The biggest threat in the world is actually USA, they are the only country that has troops all over the world.
Look at you here making up your own history.
The Left had a problem with US actions during the revolutions in Iran because we overthrew a democraticaly elected government and installed a dictator. When the Iranians found out they went apeshit which is how we got the modern day Iran and all of the problems that come with it.
The Left has had a problem with the vietnam war because of lives lossed and the fact that both the French and Americans knew that the communists would win any election that was put forward so not only were our actions antidemocratic they were doomed to failure.
Finally, the American Left has never been a fan of the South American nations you mention in any real mainstream way. ("Oh but Bernie said something nice about Venezuela once!" Shutup)
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I've always wondered, if the Iraqi people had the choice to go back in time and keep Saddam and his progeny instead of what they have now, would they? At the time they seemed very happy when he was removed.
If they had such an option they would probably want to return to a point in time to prevent Bremer from disbanding the Iraqi army and delaying Iraqi's from taking control of the government. These two decisions by Bremer, a career diplomat who served numerous administrations, essentially started the insurgency and created an opportunity for al-Queda in Iraq.
The generals and the White House had originally planned on using the Iraqi army to maintain security and law and order; and getting elections going as soon as possible to create a new constitution and government.
The problem with Iraq wasn't really the invasion, it was the occupation that followed.
The Russians have been interfering for decades, hell in Europe the Green parties received huge amounts of funding from the Soviets back in the day. In the 90s the Chinese were working hard to funnel money secretly to the Clinton campaign.
And despite all the interference all the US intelligence agencies agree. There is no evidence that votes were tampered with; nor the outcomes of the election changed.
And even from Hillary, there is no dispute that the damaging emails were fake, merely that they were stolen.
The job of an Intelligence Agency is to gather the data, process it to gain intelligence, and present it to those who need to know. When you gather too much you bury the agencies so they can't process it to generate useful intelligence. America is spending too much effort on spying (data) and not enough on intelligence gathering. You have all the pieces but can't do anything with it.
The point seems more that the current president Donald J Trump only came to power with the assistance of foreign powers that have no regard for the actual wishes of the people of America, and indeed, seek to harm the nation. That's the takeaway - that his recent actions in attempting to stifle the probe into the relationship between members of his campaign team and the Russians is symptomatic that they, or he personally, put ambition ahead of the nation, and there is a strong potential that he (or they) should be impeached, indicted, and then spend time in federal prison.
There is no reason to think his replacement would be better. The US Government has a long history of overthrowing other countries governments, and it never turns out better. Ex. Iran led to islamic extremists ruling Iran, Iraq led to ISIS.
In addition, the anti-Obama posts are a related form of propaganda. First, they imply that whatever Trump is doing is OK because Obama was worse. Besides being factually incorrect (i.e. lying) it is nonsensical because two wrongs do not make a right. Imagine a presidential campaign run the on the slogan "Not as terrible as the last time". That would not get anyone elected, so why is it being brought up now?
Attacks on Obama by Trump trolls are also disinformation intended to undermine people's belief in the integrity of the political process. It's another classic propaganda technique that the Russians like to use. Not that they are the only ones who do this, but it is a favorite, just like their use of poison as an assignation technique.
Are there individuals on the internet who are doing this deliberately on behalf of the Russian government. The answer is absolutely yes. Intelligence sources have said so on multiple occasions. Additionally there is a vast amount of home grown propaganda generated by the US right wing. Fox "News" presents slightly less crazy distortions of reality, but online and radio media outlets spew deranged concepts that are a full on propaganda storm. They are now doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Russians without any overt cooperation.
The short version: the US right is a threat to democracy and Putin and his crew are very happy about it.
Why is Snark Required?
Russian interference in the affairs of a sovereign nation? Really? Let's compare that to the king of manipulators- the USA. Ask any insider in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East or Germany or Russia ... The USA is there, with the carrot and the stick, arranging weapons contracts, CIA connections, generous bribes, commercial alliances, and assuring that the 'right' people win elections. Maybe the US has achieved a level of subtlety and control over the press that makes these activities seem less significant, but you can bet that they are well supported with our tax dollars.
...omphaloskepsis often...
One might also mention that Russia has just recently discovered that American's reliance on online media is an awesome way to influence elections and to a magnitude they could never have before.
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Except that Even Comey stated clearly in response to repeated questions that there was no evidence that they were able to alter a single vote. They did not hack the election. They may have hacked the DNC and DCCC, and penetrated several state election board systems, but there is no evidence they were able to actually change any votes.
In regards to altering the outcome, all they did was publish the dirty laundry of Hillary and the DNC.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
It's also worth pointing out one of the main aggravating factors... the ridiculous length of a typical US election cycle gives hackers the luxury of taking time to build up sophisticated attacks.
Cut the election cycle back to something sane, like 2-3 months, and a lot of this vulnerability disappears.
Not that I expect to see it happen. In fact, I sorta expect to see the exact opposite.
Log in or piss off.