Russian Roulette

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It’s a curious tale, this Russian hacking spectacle. The US are wont to believe the Russians are involved. It would solve all their problems. It would solve the DNC’s problems. It would solve poor John Podesta’s problems, and it would certainly solve Hillary’s problems.

But the catalyst of all this, is surely Obama, who pointed the gun squarely at the Russians, and pulled the trigger. Click. His statement of intent was clear when he said “These data thefts and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government.”

It isn’t his party come January 20th. He has created a sea of waves for Trump to calm, and that course of action must take place soon, or a new digital cold age might be upon us.

Cyber security expert Jeffrey Carr, author of Inside Cyber Warfare has stated that a joint report released by the FBI and Homeland Security, titled Grizzly Steppe “adds nothing to the call for evidence that the Russian government was responsible.” Top level security execs have also labelled it “Fatally flawed”, and “poorly done.”

But it was the US that interfered in 1996 to help Boris Yeltsin win. And it was Hillary who paid protesters to interfere in the Russian elections in 2008. We have short term memories, when it suits us.

The reality here, is that Putin has never liked Hillary, and never liked Obama. And the key to Middle East resolution is through Russia, so perhaps it’s not such a terrible idea that Trump and Putin get along.

 

The Election Hack

President Obama has ordered a “full review” of what the CIA is calling Russian hacking in an effort to influence 2016 election results and hopes to have results of the report before leaving office.

“The President has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process” said Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter terrorism at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C., yesterday.

“We may be in – crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned and that’s what we’re go about doing”

The review, which was ordered earlier this week, will extend back t0 2008.

The intelligence community has firmly pointed a finger at Russia, but this ongoing review will look into potential hacks by “all foreign actors”, the White House has said.