Sunday, December 11, 2016

Did Russia interfere with U.S. elections? Trump - doesn't need facts. He truly believes that he knows more than the CIA


The simmering distrust between Donald Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies escalated into open antagonism Saturday after the president-elect mocked a CIA report that Russian operatives had intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help him win.

The growing tensions set up a potential showdown between Trump and the nation’s top intelligence officials during what some of those officials describe as the most complex threat environment in decades.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the Central Intelligence Agency had determined that Russia had intervened in the presidential election not just to make mischief but to boost Trump’s chances.

Trump’s reaction will probably deepen an existing rift between Trump and the agencies and raised questions about how the government’s 16 spying agencies will function in his administration on matters such as counterterrorism and cyberwarfare. On Friday, members of Trump’s transition team dismissed the CIA’s assessments about Iraq’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

“Given his proclivity for revenge combined with his notorious thin skin, this threatens to result in a lasting relationship of distrust and ill will between the president and the intelligence community,” said Paul Pillar, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center.

U.S. intelligence officials described mounting concern and confusion about how to proceed in an administration so openly hostile to their function and role. “I don’t know what the end game is here,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said. “After Jan. 20,” the official said, referring to Inauguration Day, “we’re in uncharted territory.”

Pillar added: “Everything Trump has indicated with regard to his character and tendencies for vindictiveness might be worse” than former president Richard Nixon, who also had a dysfunctional relationship with the intelligence community.

The tensions between Trump and spy agencies could escalate even further as dozens of analysts begin work on a project, ordered by President Obama, to deliver a comprehensive report on Russian intervention in the election before Trump’s inauguration in January.

Led by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., the investigation is aimed at reaching a definitive judgment about the Russian role in the election. Obama aides have pledged to make as much of the report public as possible once it is completed.

“We want to make sure we brief Congress and relevant stakeholders, like possibly state administrators who actually operationalize the elections,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters Friday.

But such a report could also pose a more complicated challenge for Trump, potentially pitting the entire U.S. intelligence community against a newly sworn-in president who has repeatedly denigrated their work.

The Post reported late Friday that the CIA had concluded that individuals with close ties to the Russian government delivered thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, including from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, to WikiLeaks a few weeks before the election. Intelligence officials have determined that Russia’s goal was to help Trump win, rather than simply undermine confidence in the election.

In a statement, Trump suggested that the CIA had discredited itself over faulty intelligence assessments about Iraq’s weapons stockpile more than a dozen years ago.

“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

The belittling response alarmed people in the intelligence community, which already had questioned Trump’s temperament and lack of national security experience. Despite mounting evidence over Moscow’s involvement in a hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump has consistently refused to entertain any doubts about the Russians’ role or about Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.

The president-elect has spoken admiringly of Putin in the past, calling him a stronger leader than Obama, and one of Trump’s former campaign managers had business associations with Russian companies.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” Trump told Time magazine of the Russians in a recent interview during which he suggested the accusations from the United States were politically driven.

Instead, Trump took direct aim at the professional spies charged with assessing what Clapper in September called the “most complex and diverse array of global threats” in his 53 years of service.[...]

Since his electoral triumph last month, Trump has attended only a limited number of intelligence briefings, and he appointed as his national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who was forced out of his job as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by Obama administration officials. [...]

Trump’s transition aides have explained his unwillingness to make time for more intelligence briefings as a consequence of his busy schedule building an administration and selecting Cabinet members. Vice President-elect Mike Pence has reportedly attended such briefings most days.

But Trump’s approach has contrasted with that of his predecessors, including Obama and George W. Bush, who attended multiple briefings each week leading up to their inaugurations.

In his statement, Trump emphasized that the election was over and vowed to “move on,” and he did not, as is his habit, react to the CIA story on social media in the hours after it was published.

46 comments :

  1. Time to check with Pollard on what's happening in the world.

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  2. Was it Clinton or Trump who exposed US secrets to all enemies theough intentional lack of security? Was it Clinton or Trump who practically gave away US uranium to Russia? Was it Clinton or Trump who prsented Putin with a mock reset button. Was it Clinton's boss Obama or Trump who left a power vacuum in the Middle East for Russia and its client Iran to exploit? Was it Democrats or Republicans who shed tears for the mass murderer Fidel Castro? Who if not Obama and Clinton organized arms-running in Libya to Al Qaida affiliates and then abandoned out operatives to die when things got hot? And who arranged to train our armed forces into a trans-gender social experiment?

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  3. The CIA under Obama has probably been corrupted just as the FBI has been and practically any other agency of the government.

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  4. I fear that Putin has total control over Trump. He could threaten to expose Trump's collaboration with Russian hackers.

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  5. Your nitpicking on any possible flaw in Trump is not paranoia?

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  6. I suggest you get new glasses - Trump's flaws are very far from being nit sized

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  7. You forgot the recent unusually hot and dry weather in Israel (for this time of year) and the fires right after Clinton's electoral defeat! Perhaps President Obama or Clinton were also responsible for this?

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  8. So why didn't you say anything about Obama's nits for 8 years? His are no smaller than Trumps's?

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  9. nope. Problematic but not like Trump

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  10. And that's why so many people in areas Obama carried in previous elections voted

    for Trump instead of Obama's designated successor?

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  11. In my opinion, your scale for balancing these things is totally warped.

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  12. The real uestion is why did they vote for President Obama twice - if he was so bad?

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  13. Perhaps Putin wants to make America great again?

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  14. Not a single member of the CIA said that Russia was involved! Wow, so what's next - furthering "CIA reports" of killing clowns and satanic abuse???

    Again, no active member of the CIA has gone on record to suggest a Russia connection!

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  15. The important question is why Trump is so quick to dismiss the allegations out of hand, instead of recommending a full investigation into the matter, as McConnell, McCain, and other Republicans have done.

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  16. It was a CIA report that says there was a connection

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/mcconnell-supports-inquiry-of-russian-hacking-during-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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  17. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/donald-trump-cia-michael-flynn.html?ribbon-ad-idx=8&rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article

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  18. The US interferes in many foreign elections. Why should Russia be any different?
    The US eavesdrop s on many world leaders (netanyahu, Merkel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, even the queen of England. Above were recent revelation s of just the past few years). Why should Russia (or Israel, Germany, England, other countries be any different?)

    As for trump, why shouldn't he take advantage?

    Besides, all this was disclosed before election day, the voters took this into

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  19. Even that NYT article says the FBI is not convinced.

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  20. Russia is not accused of mere eavesdropping

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  21. Its an assessment based on evidence

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  22. 10 reasons that the Russian interference claim is a scam

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/12/cia-russian-hacking-story-sham/

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  23. Not so clear.

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  24. Neither was US / Israel.

    Eavesdropping and giving it to wikileaks. Wlikileaks denies it came from Russia. And two people were arrested in Ukraine for hacking these political sites. Ukraine is not friends of Russia. Not evidence.

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  25. Because the Republicans didn't / couldn't run someone serious against him. (Those two people were a joke. They didn't even put up a serious campaign )

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  26. The justification for Trump to dismiss it because after all "he won by the largest landslide in history" is also not clear

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  27. it would be considered evidence in court and even the Republican leadership thinks it needs to be pursued. As opposed to Trump's claim that it can't be and that it is irrelevant and after all he won so we need to get on with life. rather weak!

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  28. If you read this article:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/11/us/politics/cia-judgment-intelligence-russia-hacking-evidence.html?_r=0

    You will see that there is no dispute in the intelligence community or Congress that the Russians were behind the hacking leading up to the elections. The only question is why? The CIA has CONCLUDED that from analysing the EVIDENCE that it was to help Trump. It is now up to the CIA to convince congress.

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  29. A pariotic american citizen may or may not disapprove of america interfering in other countries elections, BUT he will NEVER DEFEND other countries interfering in the american elections. It is surprising and worrisome that BREITBART is publishing such an unpatriotic defence of Putin's Russia.

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  30. This report shows the hysteria of the progressive media to make something out of nothing.

    http://matzav.com/watch-sean-spicer-takes-on-msnbc-reporter-over-russian-hack-claims/

    It's funny that you ignore all the essence of the previous posting which points out the ridiculous nature of the bogus hack claim while focusing on one very minor point which in no way defends any hacking or interference.

    Breitbart wants to make America great again after it suffered tremendously recently under the radical progressive administration of Barack Obama

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  31. your concept of hysteria and "out of nothing" is nothing but bizarre. The Republican leadership has publicly stated that they are concerned. Why? are they too dumb to know what you "know". I assume that you consider a concern for Russia under Putin is also hysteria because after all he admires Trump and by definition anyone who admires Trump is one of the good guys. Trumps twitter fit about a polite and dignified criticism made after a Broadway show is normal - but a wide consensus of concern about Russian hacking is hysteria.

    Trump's supporters have their own version of English

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  32. What leadership? Do you mean fool McCain and Grahamnesty? Ben Shapiro has shown that there is no substantive issue here at all.

    Your views seem to be firmly based on the extreme Leftist indoctrination you must have received while acquiring your doctorate in psychology. 99% of your sources such as Garrison Keillor and the discredited New Your Slimes are pure Leftist ideologues and promote all the anti Trump fiction that's fit to invent and not fit also.

    All the MSM media are trying to blow up this total non issue.

    If it were an issue, why weren't they concerned when thousands of government employees private information was hacked? The incompetent in charge of those records had to be forced out of her dramatically failed job.

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  33. The intelligence agencies disagree on the Russian issue

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/13/top-intel-office-not-on-same-page-as-cia-regarding-russia-hack-assessment.html

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  34. Disagreed whether this was simply hysteria?

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  35. What's nonsensical about it? The falsely blown up furor about a minimal involvement of Russia is nonsense.

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  36. minimal?! A little bit of sin is alright? Are you an American citizen or Russian?

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  37. According to the most recent Economist/YouGov poll, the net favorability rating of Putin Republicans has increased by 40% since the election. So it looks like they are following Trump in his march toward a dictatorship.

    https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ro9rimrce9/econTabReport.pdf

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  38. To be fair, you are the one showing signs of indoctrination. Given your willingness to dismiss this issue without waiting for the findings of the investigation.

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  39. Thankfully we are just emerging from the dictatorship of the Left under Obama.

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  40. No one is claiming that the Russians had any material impact on the election. Spying and hacking between countries is common although frowned on. What type of activity beyond the normal did Russia engage in?

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  41. If you read the articles I posted you would know!

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  42. From the frying pan right into the fire, perhaps?

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  43. From the swamp into fresh sweet air.

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  44. Trump is not talking about fresh air but rather pollution from coal

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