This week on Capitol hill members of the house Committee on intelligence, questioned Director of the FBI James Komi (James Comey) and Director of the NSA Mike Rogers (Mike Rogers) about the surgery, which was held by Russian intelligence during the election campaign in the United States in 2016.
Was it Putin’s goal is to influence the outcome of the US presidential election? Or his goal was to undermine the faith in our electoral system and our democracy as a whole? To these and other questions need to be answered.
However, there is another equally immoral purpose, which Putin has pursued through its covert operations of influence, and it is also necessary to discuss and perform in the circles of the political leadership of the country. Putin’s goal was also undermining the authority and position of his old enemy, namely the us intelligence community.
Although the goals that Putin pursued through its “active measures” were diverse, I believe that one of the key strategic objectives that it set out to do from the beginning was to drive a wedge between the American intelligence community and the political leadership of the United States — not to mention the American public. Driving this wedge, Putin, most likely, assumed that our political leaders will impose new restrictions on the activities of the intelligence community of the United States, thus, giving the Russian President more freedom to maneuver in achieving its goals.
Over the past two weeks we learned about the three portions of information that, from my point of view, proving that Putin may already be winning.
First, on March 7 on the website Wikileaks was the largest portion of the secret documents, which contain detailed information about the potential and the hacker tools of the CIA. This leak caused a serious stir because she had to push on the idea that the CIA is able to apply these tools against Americans — given the wide availability of the products that the CIA can hack, namely Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Microsoft Windows and smart TVs from Samsung.
Actually you just have to read the tweets Edward Snowden to understand the true purpose of the publication of this batch of secret documents. And that purpose was to scare the American public.
Second, on March 20 at a hearing in the house Committee on intelligence, the Director of the Komi said that the Russian intelligence uses intermediaries to work with Wikileaks. It is worth paying attention, because Russian intelligence is a hidden work to influence the population of our country. It is easy to guess that the Russians can conduct their activities not only through Wikileaks.
Third, members of Congress are beginning to ask questions about the nature of the activities of the intelligence community of the United States. At the hearing on March 20, several members of the Committee, including Trey Gaudi (Trey Gowdy), raised the issue that the imminent renewal of section 702 of the act of covert surveillance for the purposes of foreign intelligence may be under threat: “We both know that this could turn into a threat to the renewal of section 702 in the fall of this year.”
Although the renewal of section 702 is irrelevant to the issue at hand (which was pointed out that Komi and later admitted Gaudi), it, nevertheless, you should pay close attention, because this shows how quickly and unexpectedly they can be mixed and then be questioned various aspects of the intelligence community of the United States in the framework of our discussions.
The FBI, the house Committee on intelligence and its counterpart in the Senate must continue the search for answers to all the questions that relate to “active measures” taken by Russia during elections in the United States. We can’t afford even the suspicion that a foreign power intervened and influenced the outcome of our elections.
However, we also should not lose sight of the real and immediate goal of Putin. He wants to hurt the community that daily is working against him, namely the intelligence community of the United States. It is very important that throughout the investigation process, members of Congress and the President always remembered it to otherwise inadvertently did not help Putin.
We should support the officers of our intelligence which we are, risking their lives. We need to find out what is the Russian intelligence in the United States and what are the goals of Putin. And, most importantly, we must not forget who is actually best divided and weakened America.
But, unfortunately, I fear that Putin has won because he has managed to further divide us.
Alex Gallo — senior researcher at the Center for strategic and international studies, who in the past worked for five years in the house of representatives Committee on the armed forces. He is a graduate of the Military Academy at West point, a combat veteran and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy school.
