Yesterday, President Obama expelled 35 Russian “Operatives” from the Russian Embassy.
Is there any evidence those expelled are “intelligence operatives”? Any hard evidence Russia was behind the Hillary hacks? Any credible evidence that Putin himself is to blame?
The answers are No, No, and No. Yet, once again the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment.
Rush to Judgment
Something Stinks
The Rolling Stone comments Something About This Russia Story Stinks
In an extraordinary development Thursday, the Obama administration announced a series of sanctions against Russia. Thirty-five Russian nationals will be expelled from the country. President Obama issued a terse statement seeming to blame Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee emails.
“These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government,” he wrote.
The problem with this story is that, like the Iraq-WMD mess, it takes place in the middle of a highly politicized environment during which the motives of all the relevant actors are suspect. Nothing quite adds up.
If the American security agencies had smoking-gun evidence that the Russians had an organized campaign to derail the U.S. presidential election and deliver the White House to Trump, then expelling a few dozen diplomats after the election seems like an oddly weak and ill-timed response. Voices in both parties are saying this now.
Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham noted the “small price” Russia paid for its “brazen attack.” The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, said Thursday that taken alone, the Obama response is “insufficient” as a response to “attacks on the United States by a foreign power.”
The “small price” is an eyebrow-raiser.
Adding to the problem is that in the last months of the campaign, and also in the time since the election, we’ve seen an epidemic of factually loose, clearly politically motivated reporting about Russia. Democrat-leaning pundits have been unnervingly quick to use phrases like “Russia hacked the election.”
This has led to widespread confusion among news audiences over whether the Russians hacked the DNC emails (a story that has at least been backed by some evidence, even if it hasn’t always been great evidence), or whether Russians hacked vote tallies in critical states (a far more outlandish tale backed by no credible evidence).
As noted in The Intercept and other outlets, an Economist/YouGov poll conducted this month shows that 50 percent of all Clinton voters believe the Russians hacked vote tallies.
And reports by some Democrat-friendly reporters – like Kurt Eichenwald, who has birthed some real head-scratchers this year, including what he admitted was a baseless claim that Trump spent time in an institution in 1990 – have attempted to argue that Trump surrogates may have been liaising with the Russians because they either visited Russia or appeared on the RT network. Similar reporting about Russian scheming has been based entirely on unnamed security sources.
Now we have this sanctions story, which presents a new conundrum. It appears that a large segment of the press is biting hard on the core allegations of electoral interference emanating from the Obama administration.
Did the Russians do it? Very possibly, in which case it should be reported to the max. But the press right now is flying blind.
Maybe the Russians did hack the DNC, but the WikiLeaks material actually came from someone else? There is even a published report to that effect, with a former British ambassador as a source, not that it’s any more believable than anything else here.
We just don’t know, which is the problem.
We ought to have learned from the Judith Miller episode. Not only do governments lie, they won’t hesitate to burn news agencies. In a desperate moment, they’ll use any sucker they can find to get a point across.
Where the Hell is the Evidence?
‘I Can Guarantee You, It Was Not the Russians’
John McAfee, founder of the security firm McAfee Associates, says ‘I Can Guarantee You, It Was Not the Russians’.
The Joint Analysis Report from the FBI contains an appendix that lists hundreds of IP addresses that were supposedly “used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.” While some of those IP addresses are from Russia, the majority are from all over the world, which means that the hackers constantly faked their location.
McAfee argues that the report is a “fallacy,” explaining that hackers can fake their location, their language, and any markers that could lead back to them. Any hacker who had the skills to hack into the DNC would also be able to hide their tracks, he said
“If I was the Chinese and I wanted to make it look like the Russians did it, I would use Russian language within the code, I would use Russian techniques of breaking into the organization,” McAfee said, adding that, in the end, “there simply is no way to assign a source for any attack.”
Question of Patriotism
It’s not patriotic to accept accusations as facts, given US history of lies, deceit, meddling, and wars.
OT: If you have not checked out my photography website please do so: Mish Moments
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
To see how deep the rabbit hole goes, here’s a place to start. Fascinating:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YuLs9VIf55U
You just have to wonder if Eric Bravemen disappeared in a Patriot Act maneuver to cover up the Clinton Foundation fraud. Then there’s donald Trump that suddenly does not want to hurt the Clintons,,, “they are nice people”…. yeah, right.
Iceland in 16 Days: Day 5, East Fjords – Bakkagerði
https://mishmoments.com/2016/12/30/iceland-in-16-days-east-fjords-bakkagerdi/
Impressive photography portfolio. I had no idea.
As someone wrote on another forum – “Inauguration Day needs to get here already. I’m tried of the foreplay and ready to start getting f***ed.”
What, Obama didn’t already make you incontinent?
The gullibility and ignorance of the typical media lapdog is appalling, and whores like McCain and Graham will use them shamelessly to promote their twisted, warmongering agenda. The same old story, over and over again.
Not gullibilty, but complicity
I have a problem understanding why the powers that be can’t understand the widening gap between their on podium statements and the average persons view.
Are they hoping to brainwash, or really believe it, or just leaving a video record for posterity that might sway historical interpretation of the current time?
No problem if they deliver proof.
Read 1984. It will explain EVERYTHING.
Net control very likely in Europe soon with public administration of the web/content. Might at least help reduce the unemployment rate.
Looked over the 2016 Bilderberg attendees too. MSM attendees interesting vs political bias they exhibit.
Whoever thinks there aren’t people behind the scenes with a plan is naive and woe betide anyone upsetting that plan.
Unemployment rate read last refuge from the official economy. Not the alt. web that takes away motivation, it is a pressure valve for people who find the official direction nothing short of insulting. The majority of social media users won’t be distracted.
Noticed zh on Italy for you if you had not picked it up
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-30/italy-urges-europe-begin-censoring-free-speech-internet
A little OT, but how many people realize that Israel (less than half the population of the former Palestine) has taken complete control of ALL water and has decreed that 3% of that water may be directed to the Palestinians!
Over ten million get running water for 12 hrs a week, while in Israel (borders move every day as the world says nothing) there are no water restrictions… zero! So, while Palestinians struggle to live in hot barren desert conditions (food and medicine is also denied… children die of treatable cancer often as medication is blocked), a 5 min drive away millions of gallons are used to create a green, lush paradise for the Jewish Masters!
Did you know US laws were changed in 1968 to allow “Dual Citizens” to be elected and appointed to government positions… and today many of the top posts are citizens of Israel and America… WTF?
Trump needs to make a daily dose of Red Pills the law
Oops… the 10M fig is a bit high but it’s at least double the Jewish population, yet they get 97%… this is slow moving genocide yet it’s never even acknowledged
Syria is about gas pipelines. Corporations want to profit from the gas pipeline through the region and wr the people are supposed to send our children to war over it and pay taxes tpbsupport the effort. Rissia wants pipelines fro their cointry under the Black sea and Irans pipelines to the north. The US is supporting Qatar pipeline and LNG from our own shores to the EU.
Some rumours Obama to be considered for UN role and Cameron NATO.
I prefer the rumor that Obuma scored the lead in Hurt Locker II.
Did you hear? Pope Francis to name Obama a saint!
It’s been said that on average Americans are like mushrooms – “Keep ’em in the dark and feed ’em shit!”
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/obama-russian-agent/ri18343
Ha ha ha. It is Trump that is the Russian tool, maybe the real Manchurian candidate!
“It is Trump that is the Russian tool, maybe the real Manchurian candidate!”
How is Hillary’s Russian reset button doing these days? How much uranium did she arrange to be sold to Russia? How is Obama’s freedom to maneuver with the Russians after the 2012 election, doing these days?
Who is being a tool?
Keep handing the establishment the rope, but not the hood.
“These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government,” (Obama) wrote.
And THAT, from what I’ve read in OPEN literature (obviously) about what is known by our cyber threat intel community, read on tech sites, and seen on the outstanding documentary program CyberWar about the Eastern European hacking community, is a OUTRIGHT BLATANT LIE.
Note he avoided the phrase, “slam dunk”…
NOTE that he may actually believe that because that is what he may have been TOLD, just as Bush was told there were WMDs in Iraq, but as I’ve pointed out, the clumsy errors allowing the malware to be so very EASILY traced back to “supposedly” Russia are beyond belief for any state-sponsored outfit, especially a Russian effort.
Note that the user info for TWO BILLION Yahoo email accounts was stolen and they left no traces which then led the FBI to conclude that it must have been “state sponsored.”
Any government that claims a right to secrecy over its affairs is going to use lying as a policy.
Snowden says that it is auite easy to trace the source of the hackers.
We are left with two basic options. Either they are simply stupid or their is a larger agenda at hand.
I don’t believe they are stupid.
They have been setting fires all around this election for months, none of them effective by themselves, but ALL reinforcing the general notion that Trump is unfit and illegitimate.
I do not believe this is just random panic and hyperbole. They are “building” something.
Well, it is an established and accepted fact that Richard Nixon was a very intelligent guy. None of Nixon’s detractors ever claimed he was stupid, and Nixon won reelection easily.
Tricky Dick was just a tad “honesty challenged”, and so is Obama. They were/are both neo-keynesians, both took their sweet time ending stupid wars started by their predecessors even after it was clear the wars were pointless.
Then again, I doubt Obozo is as smart as Nixon. Soros is clearly the puppeteer controlling what Obama does. Soros is now freaking out that his fascist agenda has been exposed.
This is what is must have been like being a Soviet Citizen in 1989 or so. The official media was openly laughed at because its lies were so preposterous.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/did-russia-tamper-with-the-2016-election-bitter-debate-likely-to-rage-on/
Excerpt:
“While security companies in the private sector have said for months the hacking campaign was the work of people working for the Russian government, anonymous people tied to the leaks have claimed they are lone wolves. Many independent security experts said there was little way to know the true origins of the attacks.
Sadly, the JAR, as the Joint Analysis Report is called, does little to end the debate. Instead of providing smoking guns that the Russian government was behind specific hacks, it largely restates previous private-sector claims without providing any support for their validity. Even worse, it provides an effective bait and switch by promising newly declassified intelligence into Russian hackers’ “tradecraft and techniques” and instead delivering generic methods carried out by just about all state-sponsored hacking groups.”
WORSE than “delivering generic methods carried out by just about all state-sponsored hacking groups.” It should have said “by just about anyone using ‘in the wild’ malware tools.”
2015 Bilderberg. Looking down the attendees and subjects covered. Interesting some of the main anti-Brexit groups had representatives there, suggests HC picked for 2016 US election, Cyber-security and etc.
Look at the key topics. How they all helped define 2016.
So many current intertwined themes.
Little people upset the apple-cart?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/bilderberg-chooses-hillary-clinton-for-2016/5454829
“We just don’t know…”
The Russians probably have a lot of information about USG employees, contractors, etc, via hacking, recording, etc than Wikileaks. But, as a general rule, intelligence agencies do not dump it into the public domain because you don’t want a potential adversary know what you know about him lest he investigate and close off the means of obtaining that information.
The leaks came from elsewhere.
One of the leakers is dead, we know that.
Smells like a “false flag” operation, like the USA/NATO Operation Gladio in Europe. McCain and the War Hawks have had it out for Russia for a long time, and the Neo-cons have been closing in on the borders of Russia for some time. What will be interesting is when Trump meets with the CIA/NSA et al. for intel briefings on the alleged hacking. Hopefully, Trump will bring along VP Pence, Mad Dog and the other Marine generals (appointees) for advice. I suspect that the “false flag” nature of the hacking excuse will be evident and revealed as the pretext for the Neo-con anti-Russia agenda moving forward.
The CIA it is now widely believed was part of the Deep State behind the JFK assassination when JFK took an independent view, so Trump will need the USA Marines on his side. McCain is the real thug, and an interferer in foreign elections (Kiev) and seems to have no real scruples. After Victoria Nuland brags about the USA spending $5 billion to overthrow the elected Ukraine government, how these Russia-phobes have any credibility is beyond me. Just shows that the consolidation of the media into a few main propaganda outlets under Bill Clinton (who also brought the Neo-cons into foreign policy dominance) has reached its logical apex. The Swamp is indeed a stinking, Corrupt miasma. Perhaps the Clinton Foundation and nascent Obama foundation feel it in their financial interests to nurture the misma. Cha-ching, cha-ching. Money to be made in demonizing Russia.
As I said before the election, WHOEVER WINS will be privately sequestered to a darkened room by a couple of Men in Black. There will be no words spoken but a simple viewing of the Zapruder film will take place.
When it’s over, the lights will come on and the electee will discover themselves alone in the room. An 8×11″ manila envelope (perhaps a larger one may be used these days) will be seated on the chair next to them. The contents will be a garbled mess but will instruct you to locate a document that will be in the desk drawer in The Oval Office on Inauguration Day. That document will decipher the garbled mess you got the day you watched Zapruder in silence by yourself.
At that point, YOUR INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE CLEAR. You will begin getting introduced to people of immense importance, even though nobody seems to quite know who the heck they are. They are agents of the Deep State and they will make themselves perfectly clear. In ensuing days, you will begin to appreciate why Obama played as much golf as he did.
“As I said before the election, WHOEVER WINS will be privately sequestered to a darkened room by a couple of Men in Black. There will be no words spoken but a simple viewing of the Zapruder film will take place.”
Simply, fiction.
“The CIA it is now widely believed was part of the Deep State behind the JFK assassination when JFK took an independent view…”
All the circumstantial evidence pointed to Oswald. No one has ever proven otherwise, in over 50 years.
After 50 years of being propagandized by conspiracy book writers, it isn’t surprising that anything is widely believed at this point. The former curator of the 6th Floor Museum, Gary Mack, believed there was a conspiracy, but over time came to realize that it was Oswald, alone.
“EXCLUSIVE. Teen in basement reveals how he hacked DNC files, evidence of Russian groom surfaces.
A private file created by R.T.W. and released by associates after his capture gives intriguing details on his hacking activity as well as his motives. Apparently, at work in the basement of his family home, he became drawn in to the shadowy world of government espionage after receiving an unsolicited email bonus voucher from his favourite fast food outlet. He recognized immediately that the portal for the code registration and discount delivery application was false as it was in Russian language. One tab offerred free download of a translation application to help foreign customers and required that security systems be disabled during installation as they were likely to misread the foreign code. So started a long and profound relationship between R.T.W. and the online assistant ‘Annushka’ , with ever greater rewards being offered in return for ever more complex instruction sets, to the point that R.T.W. was given IP addresses and had to actually figure out the coupon code by himself, where Annushka would afterwards direct him virtually to which folder he would find his fries, soft drink, or whatever other reward might be on offer. Whenever he accessed an unhelpful file mature content would appear on his screen ‘to discourage him’ and help him in the right direction, a method that was rewarding and kept R.T.W. very busy. As election approached he started to receive large amounts of Russian paraphernalia by post, all unsolicited. Main Russian philosophical volumes were apparently found unread in a corner upon his capture, Russian telephone directories, and pages of un-decypherable coded Russian text that R.T.W. claims by his own account to have been perplexed at receiving. He also claims Annushka warned him just before the federal agents captured him by typing ‘ Not worry R., friends come say hello now, they take you to safe place, you agree with all for them eh, then Annushka be waiting on your screen like before sooner’. ”
Source: SwenEkaf Mirror Service.
Spasimov, he strike again.
When liberal Rolling Stone questions the Obama/DNC propaganda, you know for certain that they have lost even their base supporters (the ones that can still think). The BS has just gotten too stupid.
Why is the WSJ strongly supporting Obama here but also saying he waited way to long to make this move? I don’t always agree with them nor do I with you. Ok I haven’t read the comments but would only say that when Vladimir Putin the once leader of the KGB becomes a preacher and starts criticizing the West for abandoning its Christian roots, it’s moral dignity, that for me doesn’t just stink, it raises red flags all over the place. I think Trump and some of the rest of u r being set up here-like lambs to the slaughter. Mish your naïveté here surprises me!
The Russians are coming!
Russia a country of 170 million surrounded by NATO military bases and 800 million people in the EU and USA is the threat? The US alone spends 12 times as much on its military annually than Russia. It’s not Russia invading and overthrowing secular governments in the Muslim world.
Germany takes back its gold from US. Finally, after the Fed Res refused an audit request.
http://www.pravdareport.com/business/finance/27-12-2016/136521-gold-0/
…and all this time I thought they were only “tapering” off their gold storage hoard. Might there be Deutschmarks being secretly printed up in the event the euro collapses for good?
A gold backed DM, supported by physical bullion held onsite in Frankfurt.
An orderly withdrawal of US troops from postwar bases as NATO closes up shop. Will the last American to leave please take in the flag?
I am sure pussydeplorable is very patriotic and would be the first to report someone for bullying her with words even though she needs daddy or momma to have her change her account name. What a putz.
Assange stated long before the Russian fake story for the snowflakes to believe this is why they lost after trying all other avenues of trying to explain away Hillary’s loss did not work, and after trying to get the electoral college to change their votes did not work, so they can point the finger at everyone else besides the Dem offering a criminal for president. Assange stated it was a democrat insider that was found dead 1500 feet from his home assassinated. Yes assassinated with two bullets to the head. Assange even offered a 20k reward to find the killer and nothing has happened to date as it was a professional job. People have already forgotten about this because they refuse to believe Hillary lost. Now lets take a look at the DNC hacks.
First and foremost, no one in the DNC or Dems at large have denied or stated the emails were false. Funny how that works.
Hacking the DNC does not mean whoever did the hacking, hacked the election, period. The hacker leaked truthful damaging information on how the Clintons and the DNC colluded to steal the election from Bernie. Information was leaked from truthful emails Hillary deliberately tried to destroy after the investigation was started, along with two servers that had the hard drive smashed and destroyed. Many do not even know how many smart phones were destroyed but estimate upward of 120 phones all done after she was told to turn it all over.
I am glad the truth came out.
No one made Hillary call all Trump supporters despicable names like deplorable or Nazis. She did that all by herself because she had a temper tantrum and nothing more. This swayed a lot of voters to vote for Trump.
Even good ole Bill told her she needed to think about the working class of this country only to be rebuffed and she sided with the meritocracy.
While the Dems try to point fingers at every turn to everyone but Hillary people are just stupid enough not to question their government! How stupid are we going to become to take our government’s word as gospel? I forget who coined the term but part of the quote stated voters need to be informed and question everything.
If I remember correctly the CIA claimed their intelligence sources came from unspecified ‘allies’. It seems rather crucial to establish who these allies actually are. If it were Germany that would be one thing, however it is more than likely to be the Ukraine. The Ukranian government have been trying to drive a wedge between the West and Russia for years for their own political advantage. If I was Trump then when I took office I would want an extremely thorough investigation into the activities of the CIA by a third reliable party.
Don’t be stupid. The Russians did it. CNN reported it, so it must be true.
Supporting -EXACTLY- the points I’ve previously made here:
Russian Hackers Said To “Penetrate US Electricity Grid” Using Outdated Ukrainian Malware
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-31/russian-hackers-said-penetrate-us-electricity-grid-using-outdated-ukrainian-malware
Excerpt:
But was it really Russian meddling? After all, how does one prove not only intent but source in a world of cyberespionage, where planting false flag clues and other Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) meant to frame a specific entity, is as important as the actual hack.
Robert M. Lee, CEO and founder of cybersecurity company Dragos, which specializes in threats facing critical infrastructure, also noted that the IOCs included “commodity malware,” or hacking tools that are widely available for purchase.
He said:
1. No they did not penetrate the grid.
2. The IOCs contained *commodity malware* – can’t attribute based off that alone.
Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
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Where the hell is the evidence?
So if Obama had actually produced evidence that the Russians had hacked Hilary’s illegal, unprotected email setup in her Chapaqua basement/closet … how would that change the ***content*** of the emails? It wouldn’t.
Obama is failing to convince the world that Russia is a bunch of whistle blowers on his corrupt regime. All of the emails detailing corruption and fraud are true (unchallenged), however Obama wants to suggest they were obtained illegally from an illegal email server? That is Obama’s bullshit defense for the corrupt behavior?
And as “proportional retaliation” for this Russian whistle blowing, Obozo is evicting 35 entertainment staff from the Russian embassy summer camp?
I doubt Hollywood or San Francisco has the integrity to admit they backed the wrong loser when they supported Obozo… but they should think about their own credibility after January 20th. Anyone who is still backing Obozo is just too stupid to tie their own shoes much less vote