@blatham,
blatham wrote:Quote:A united front of top intelligence officials and senators from both parties on Thursday forcefully reaffirmed the conclusion that the Russian government used hacking and leaks to try to influence the presidential election, directly rebuffing President-elect Donald J. Trump’s repeated questioning of Russia’s role.
That's all true. Clapper went on to say that the evidence they have of this is extensive and convincing, though he added that revealing any details of it would compromise the sources and harm future intelligence gathering.
In effect he added emphasis to what the President has allready said with the suggestion that new details will not be forthcoming. So what does this all mean?
Apparently Russia is the source of the hacked DNC/Podesta e mails that were leaked via Wickileaks or another route. It is logical to assume their intention was to add to the election turmoil in the U.S. , but beyond that there is only speculation. How serious is this? Is this a new and outrageous act on the part of a foreign power?
The answer is no - such things have long been common. The extensive propaganda campaign and efforts to influence both politicians and public opinion by the UK was a major factor in getting this country into WWI, something that was objectively not in our national interest. This was repeated in the lead up to WWII. From the late 1920s thru about 1980 the USSR financed the operations of the American Communist party, and the work of numerous writers, and propagandists in this country, plus a few union leaders. It wasn't until late in the Cold war that we took action to limit their activities, and even that is still a contentious issue in our history.
How serious were the effects of these DNC/Podesta leaks? Did the leaks, which revealed the evident (or at least undisputed) facts that the DNC conspired with candidate Clinton during the Democrat primary and with her campaign, and some media outlets to leak planned moderator questions for TV debates with Trump, significantly effect the election result? In the first place the leaks merely added confirming evidence to issues that were already on the table based on other sources and which had already been widely reported. In the second, I know of no evidence suggesting any material effect on voting patterns, though this will likely remain a disputed matter.
I believe the most significant element of the Russian hacking (If indeed we have consistent truth here) is
the undiscussed but obvious fact that a Russian intelligence operation that hacked the DNC e mail server during the campaign, almost certainly had also hacked Hillary Clinton's well known (to them) e mail server during the years of her service as Secretary of State and afterwards. That fact is also likely known by Mr Clapper and the intelligence community, though oddly they haven't commented on it.
Finally there is (1) the very odd contrast between Obama's continuing passivity and silence as Russia attacked and/or seized Armenia, Crimea and Ukrane and threatened the Baltic states, and his rather emotional and intense reaction to this matter; and (2) the equally odd fact that no one in the administration or the intelligence community has seen fit to address the obvious connection between the Russian hacks of the DNC and the almost certain hacks if the Hillary Cinton e mail server - a possibility both have previously denied. Both matters merit further inquiry and explanation.
