My wife is English, so every Christmas we buy a festive firecrackers. Let me explain for those who aren’t familiar with British traditions. The cracker is a tube of cardboard wrapped in colored paper. When you pull it over the ends, she claps and disclosed. And inside the paper crown in honor of the visit of the three kings, and a small gift. This year, my firecracker pop and revealed, and I decided to blame it on Vladimir Putin.
In Facebook you can find a lot of stories about mishaps and misadventures, after which someone is bound inserts his commentary: “Putin did it”. Of course, it’s a joke, but it shows how ridiculous reach of mass media and American politics, demonizing Putin. All this criticism is mainly related to allegations of Central intelligence, which reported that Russia or one of her henchmen hacked into email accounts related to the presidential elections in the United States, and then used the stolen information.
First, the authors of these stories claimed that the Russian attempt to discredit the democratic institutions of the United States and cause damage. But then they turned into detailed stories about how Moscow secretly helping Donald Trump becoming President. Now someone says it’s Russian intervention, coupled with the public statements of the FBI Director James Komi (James Comey) played a decisive role in the defeat of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. These same people argue that to conduct such an operation ordered by Putin himself. Of course, if all this is true, then the problem becomes very serious, and calls for a thorough investigation into what happened have a reason.
First, the FBI did not agree with the still classified CIA report. But then counterintelligence convinced, and the conclusions from the report of the publicly supported Hillary Clinton and the White house. But it’s been three weeks since then, as the Washington Post reported the news, but conclusive evidence was never presented. No one has identified the hackers and have not found a connection between them and the Russian government, and especially President Vladimir Putin.
Of particular concern is the claim that to intervene in American elections, Putin ordered. As a former intelligence officer, I know that the most difficult task for the spy to understand the intentions of another person. Only people from the entourage of the President were able to access such critical information, but apparently neither the CIA nor any other Western intelligence agencies of such agent in Moscow. Most likely, the CIA, and now the White house is unsubstantiated based on the fact that hacking and the operation effects of this level could take place only with the approval of the President of Russia. Of course, this assumption is highly plausible, but it is impossible to prove, and without reinforcement by the facts it should not be considered more than speculation.
The detailed investigation of the alleged hacking attacks I saw on the pages of the online publication The Intercept. This portal came to the conclusion that the evidence of the Russian track is not enough. A little later the firm of cyber security raised the National Committee of the Democratic party (nkdp) to investigate ‘hacking’, concluded that the detected malware relative to other hacker programs, which the authorities of the Russian military intelligence is used in Ukraine. But this explanation is not very convincing, because once installed, the malware programs often take and use other attackers. In addition, the state intelligence Agency is unlikely to act rashly, leaving behind fingerprints, while it has a huge amount of hackers from the private sector, which can perfectly perform the work for him.
There are other plausible explanations. Former British Ambassador Craig Murray (Craig Murray) claims that met in Washington with a colleague one American who worked in the National Committee of the Democratic party and supplied him with information for transmission to WikiLeaks. Murray became the accomplice of Julian Assange, who, like the former Ambassador, has denied the involvement of Russia to receive posted on the website WikiLeaks. It is important to note that if this story is true, then it was leaked to the manner Snowden, organized, reportedly, a disgruntled supporter of Bernie Sanders, who was outraged by the machinations of NCDP against his person — and not hacking, which led to the disclosure. And even if the Russians or their hirelings hacked at the same time connected with the American election websites (which could be the case), this fact is of secondary importance compared to the damage caused by the whistleblower. Thus, here, the narrative changes significantly.
Of course, the White house could be ordered to disclose at least some evidence of Russian perfidy, to put an end to all this confusion. But it seems that it this option is not even considered. Perhaps President Barack Obama hesitates, not wanting to reveal intelligence sources and methods. But he needs to understand that the constant flogging of Russia will not remain without consequences, even if the President, Donald trump came to power, will be able to lower the degree of hostility towards Moscow.
Hunting for Russia has turned into a favorite sport of both parties in Washington. Predictably, its instigators were Republican senators, including John McCain and Lindsey Graham. But this case also deals with Chuck Schumer and some other leading Democrats — perhaps just in order to explain their electoral defeat, when it seemed that victory in their hands. There is no indication that in the new year, the situation will improve. You can see how predictable together Washington’s media and think tanks in their attempt to bait the Russian bear. Neoconservative Adanowsky the Institute published two articles under the headings “Putin is not a partner in the fight against terrorism and How President Obama can strike back at Russia.” And the American enterprise Institute published an article by Leon Aron, “don’t be a useful idiot of Putin.”
In the heat of the anti-Russian madness of the closet got the worst of idiots. Thus, the former acting Director of the CIA and adviser to Clinton on foreign policy Michael Morrell (Michael Morell) stated before the elections that Putin recruited trump, making it a “unsuspecting agent” of the Russian Federation. He also urged secretly to kill the Russians and the Iranians in Syria, to send a signal, and now claims that the alleged hacking with the participation of Russia was the “political equivalent of September 11”, and requires the same strong response. Morell mentioned a few measures he would take to place Obama, including the implementation of major cyber attacks, the imposition of devastating sanctions, as well as the supply of arms to Ukraine, and a boost to the others hostile to Moscow countries. In any case, his approach involves two essential elements. “First, we need to act openly, Must to be seen. A covert response will significantly limit the effect of containment and deterrence. If they are not visible, there’s nothing to stop the Chinese, North Koreans and Iranians, and therefore, such actions should be visible. Second, such actions must be meaningful from the point of view of Putin. He should feel pain, he must pay for what he’s done again and again. The rest of the world needs to see that it is meaningful and powerful action from the point of view of Putin, and therefore they have a deterrent and intimidating effect”.
It seems that Morrell forgets that an open attack on Russia using cyber or conventional military means equivalent to the beginning of the war, although in this case there is no irrefutable evidence that Moscow did something. Unfortunately, Morell is not alone in its desire to respond harshly of Russia, despite the fact that Washington and Moscow should be a common and very serious interest in preventing crises that could lead to escalation and a nuclear exchange. Those who most actively pouring out his wrath on Russia, is to stop and think, whether so it is important for them to know what happened with computers DNC … And although Putin’s Russia many do not like, pragmatic and prudent actions against even unpleasant, but influential leader of a foreign power, it’s better than the outbreak of a third world war.
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, now heads the non-governmental organization Council for the National Interest.
