CIA: Senate briefed in September on Russian efforts to deliver a Trump victory

[Admiral Yi]

And yet, no one ever seems to remember Dubya looking into his eyes and seeing Putin's soul.

Everyone remembers that.

[The Brain]

Trump is looking into Putin's lower abdomen.

[CountDeMoney]

And yet, no one ever seems to remember Dubya looking into his eyes and seeing Putin's soul.

Everyone remembers that.

Didn't do anything about it, now did we?

[MadImmortalMan]

And yet, no one ever seems to remember Dubya looking into his eyes and seeing Putin's soul.

Everyone remembers that.

Didn't do anything about it, now did we?

I'm pretty sure the prayer vigils for Jesus to hold back the forces of Gog and Magog diffused that one.

[CountDeMoney]

So this is what it's like to be destabilized.  Sucks.

[Syt]

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/15/politics/monica-crowley-twitter-vladimir-putin-donald-trump/index.html

That time Monica Crowley tweeted that Putin should hack Clinton's emails

Washington (CNN) Donald Trump's pick for senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council once suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin should hack former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails.

In June, Monica Crowley tweeted a Daily Caller article that reported that the State Department wouldn't release Clinton's emails for 27 months.

She wrote in her tweet, "I guess Putin is going to have to do it."

Her message received criticism from followers on Twitter, who -- after her new role was announced -- wrote that a senior member of the National Security Council shouldn't advocate for Russia to hack emails.

The tweet was also resurfaced in light of Thursday's news that US intelligence shows the hacked emails during the 2016 election were carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, the equivalent of those used by the US National Security Agency. The use of the advanced tools suggests Putin was involved in the hacks.

This isn't the first time Crowley has faced criticism for her tweets. In October 2015, she tweeted what appeared to be a message of support for Trump's plan to build a wall between the US and Mexico with a photo of her standing next to what was left of the Berlin Wall, Crowley wrote, "At the Berlin Wall last week. Walls work."

An hour later, in an attempt to clarify her tweet, she wrote that critics "missed the point."

She wrote, "For those of you who have missed the point, this is what remains of the Berlin Wall."

The photo in the tweet shows a marker denoting the years during which the wall, a symbol of the Cold War and communist oppression, divided Berlin.

[Neil]

Well, I guess the Republicans now how foreign buddies in Europe too.  How nice for them.

[jimmy olsen]

Well isn't that lovely, wouldn't it have been nice if they had said something about this before the election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-blames-putins-personal-grudge-against-her-for-election-interference/2016/12/16/12f36250-c3be-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_clintonrussia-0755pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_te&utm_term=.8a3cd69a4386

FBI in agreement with CIA that Russia aimed to help Trump win White House

By Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima

December 16  

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are in agreement with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House, officials disclosed Friday, as President Obama issued a public warning to Moscow that it could face retaliation.

New revelations about Comey's position could put to rest suggestions by some lawmakers that the CIA and the FBI weren't on the same page on Russian President Vladi­mir Putin's intentions.

Russia has denied being behind the cyber-intrusions, which targeted the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. Trump, in turn, has repeatedly said he doubts the veracity of U.S. intelligence blaming Moscow for the hacks.

"I think it's ridiculous," Trump said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday," his first Sunday news-show appearance since the Nov. 8 election. "I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it. . . . No, I don't believe it at all."

At a "thank you" event Thursday night with some of her top campaign donors and fundraisers, Clinton said she believed Russian-backed hackers went after her campaign because of a personal grudge that Putin had against her. Putin had blamed Clinton for fomenting mass protests in Russia after disputed 2011 parliamentary elections that challenged his rule. Putin said Clinton, then secretary of state, had "sent a signal" to protesters by labeling the elections "neither free nor fair."

The positions of Comey and Clapper were revealed in a message that CIA Director John Brennan sent to the agency's workforce Friday.

"Earlier this week, I met separately with FBI [Director] James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election," Brennan said, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

The CIA and the FBI declined to comment on Brennan's message or on the classified intelligence assessment that CIA officials shared with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, setting off a political firestorm.

In the closed-door Senate briefing, CIA officials said it was now "quite clear" that electing Trump was one of Russia's goals, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

CIA and FBI officials do not think Russia had a "single purpose" by intervening during the presidential campaign, officials said. In addition to the goal of helping elect Trump, Putin aimed to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, intelligence officials have told lawmakers.

A few days after the Senate briefing, a senior FBI counter­intelligence official briefed the House Intelligence Committee but was not as categorical as the CIA briefer about Russia's intention to help Trump, according to officials who were present. The FBI official's more cautious presentation of the intelligence to the House panel left some Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the room with the impression that the FBI disagreed with the CIA.

Officials close to the FBI and the CIA now say that lawmakers had misunderstood Comey's position. "The truth is they were never all that different in the first place," an official said. Similarly, officials said
, Clapper and Brennan saw the intelligence the same way.

Earlier this week, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a Trump supporter, wrote to spy chiefs to demand briefings on the Russian meddling.

But Clapper responded that he wanted to first complete a review of all available U.S. intelligence, as directed by Obama.

Brennan tried to talk to Nunes several times about the dispute. But officials said the congressman didn't take his calls until after he issued a statement Wednesday asking intelligence leaders to "clarify press reports that the CIA has a new assessment that it has not shared with us."




Officials disputed the statement, saying Nunes had been fully briefed on the intelligence.

"In recent days, I have had several conversations with members of Congress, providing an update on the status of the review as well as the considerations that need to be taken into account as we proceed," Brennan wrote in his message to CIA staffers. "Many — but unfortunately not all — members understand and appreciate the importance and the gravity of the issue, and they are very supportive of the process that is underway."

Brennan wrote to the CIA workforce, officials said, to reassure them in the face of accusations from Trump supporters that intelligence was being politicized.

In a statement, Nunes said: "We have not received any information from Intelligence Community (IC) agencies indicating that they have developed new assessments on this issue. I am alarmed that supposedly new information continues to leak to the media but has not been provided to Congress."

In one of the last news conferences of his presidency, Obama defended his administration's response to the Russian hacking and vowed to "send a clear message to Russia" that its meddling was unacceptable.

"I think we handled it the way it should have been handled," he said of the hacking investigation and the lack of a formal accusation of blame until a month before the election. "We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence."

Obama was referring to an Oct. 7 statement by Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson publicly blaming Russia for hacking political organizations, a clear reference to the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic officials.

U.S. officials said an earlier draft of the Clapper-Johnson statement singled out Putin by name for authorizing the influence operation. But before the final statement was made public, Putin's name was removed "so it wouldn't be provocative," one official said. Instead, the statement blamed "Russia's senior-most officials."




At that time, Obama said, the U.S. intelligence community "did not attribute motives" to Russia's decision to intervene in the election.

"Imagine if we had done the opposite," he said Friday. "It would have become immediately just one more political scrum. And part of the goal here was to make sure that we did not do the work of the leakers for them by raising more and more questions about the integrity of the election right before the election was taking place — at a time, by the way, when the president-elect himself was raising questions about the integrity of the election."

At Friday's news conference, Obama did not directly point the finger at the Russian president. But he came close to doing so by saying: "Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin."

[alfred russel]

Well isn't that lovely, wouldn't it have been nice if they had said something about this before the election.

Neither the FBI nor CIA has opined on an extremely active yet also extremely annoying online pro Clinton propaganda campaign originating from South Korea. Those with knowledge of the activity note that while it likely had little impact on voters, any effect was likely pro Trump due to a backlash from its extremely annoying nature. They also indicated a belief that the originator of the propaganda is really stupid and needs to be punched.

[mongers]

Well isn't that lovely, wouldn't it have been nice if they had said something about this before the election.

Neither the FBI nor CIA has opined on an extremely active yet also extremely annoying online pro Clinton propaganda campaign originating from South Korea. Those with knowledge of the activity note that while it likely had little impact on voters, any effect was likely pro Trump due to a backlash from its extremely annoying nature. They also indicated a belief that the originator of the propaganda is really stupid and needs to be punched.

Though ideally. kicked in the nuts.

[Valmy]

There was plenty of evidence and rumors of Russian support for Trump during the election. Anybody who could or would be concerned about that already took that into consideration.

[CountDeMoney]

What Obama Said to Putin on the Red Phone About the Election Hack

A month later, the U.S. used the latest incarnation of an old Cold War communications system — the so-called "Red Phone" that connects Moscow to Washington — to reinforce Obama's September warning that the U.S. would consider any interference on Election Day a grave matter.

This time Obama used the phrase "armed conflict."

"International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace," said part of a message sent over the Red Phone on Oct. 31, according to a senior U.S. official. "We will hold Russia to those standards."

[Syt]

Meanwhile, in the Old World:

The heads of the FPÖ, including Strache and former presidential candidate Hofer, recently traveled to Moscow where they met high ranking officials of Putin's United Russia party and signed a treaty of cooperation, covering topics like "educating the youth in patriotism and the joys of labor." Further, they agree to keep each other briefed on the current situation in their respective countries.

All parties criticize the FPÖ trip, while the FPÖ says they act as neutral mediators to promote peace and understanding.

[The Minsky Moment]

Just cannot fathom how people--and Republicans, of all people--can give such high approval ratings for a thug gangster and chauvinistic strongman like Putin, formerly of the KGB.   

So Republicans hate bike riding but like gay fantasy porn?

[jimmy olsen]

Lovely

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.

We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.