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  1. #1
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    https://www.theamericanconservative....the-dnc-files/


    The mantra in Washington, both within the media and the inside-the-beltway establishment, is that Russia actively “interfered” in the election and may have changed the outcome, but that is largely speculative. Since the line between possibly influencing or favoring a certain outcome and interfering has been rather difficult to discern, Russiagate has evolved into a seemingly never-ending inquiry that will likely produce nothing in terms of indictable criminality among the Trumpsters. The Russians for their part will likely be seen to have engaged important individuals in a foreign country to advance their own interests—something governments worldwide do.

    Indeed, the process itself seems to be backwards. Unlikely to be revealed is how the whole affair became a national-security issue in the first place. Who exactly stole the files from the DNC server and the emails from John Podesta? It would seem to me that appreciating how the theft of the do ents took place is crucial to understanding what has come to be called Russiagate. Demonstrate exactly what occurred and many of the other pieces will inevitably fall into place.

    At this point, all that is clearly known after more than a year of huffing and puffing is that last summer files and emails pertaining to the election were copied and then made their way to WikiLeaks, which published some of them at a time that was damaging to the Clinton campaign. Those who are blaming Russia believe that there was a hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server and also of John Podesta’s emails that was carried out by a Russian surrogate or directly by Moscow’s military intelligence arm. They base their conclusion on a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security on October 7, 2016, and on a longer assessment prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on January 6.

    Both government appraisals implied that there was a U.S. government intelligence agency consensus that there was a Russian hack, though they provided little in the way of actual evidence that that was the case and, in particular, failed to demonstrate how the information was obtained and what the chain of custody was as it moved from that point to the office of WikiLeaks. The January report was particularly criticized as unconvincing, rightly so, because the most important one of its three key contributors, the National Security Agency, had only moderate confidence in its conclusions, suggesting that whatever evidence existed was far from solid.


    If Congress were seriously interested in determining who did what to whom, it would have started with the theft of the information. The inquiry should have begun with the DNC server or servers where the information that was stolen was stored, but, oddly, the FBI was not allowed access. So whatever forensic insights that might have been obtained from the actual computers has never been collected or developed by federal law enforcement, which perforce relied instead on an assessment made by a DNC contractor, CrowdStrike, whose co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is a prominent critic of the Russian government. CrowdStrike ran its own investigation and inevitably blamed the Russians.

    If the FBI had moved quickly to do a forensic examination on the computers, information retained in the system presumably could have told investigators exactly who logged in and at what times. With that in hand, questioning of the individuals identified could have begun. Also, a thorough investigation would include obtaining a list of all those individuals who theoretically had access to the information that was stolen under the assumption that someone might have been using an associate’s password. Yet there is no indication that any questioning of those with access to the DNC system has occurred or is even being contemplated.

    A good investigation would also examine possible motive. Back in July there was little doubt that Hillary Clinton would win the election and it is far-fetched to think that the Russians would in even their wildest imaginings think that they could change the result. But that is not to say that they would not have been interested in weakening the Clinton presidency by surfacing evidence of a scandal. Nor is there any motive for then CIA Director John Brennan to do a hack and blame it on Moscow since he would have known that the information being released would damage his candidate, Hillary Clinton—but he might have thought that promoting the Russian connection would do even worse damage to Trump. It seems to me that likely motive also includes two other plausible possibilities: that someone took the information to sell it to a party who has not yet been identified, or that someone stole the information to get even either with the Democratic establishment or with individuals running the primaries and the convention.

    As there would have been only a limited market for the Clinton papers and their sale would be tricky and require developing contacts desirous of obtaining such information, revenge would seem to be the more likely explanation. But even there we know nothing as no names have surfaced as part of whatever has been passing for an investigation. DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was killed in a still unexplained “robbery attempt” in Washington on July 10, 2016, has been identified as a potential suspect by conservative media, but that possibility has been strenuously rejected by his family and others, and it does not appear that there has been any FBI follow-up on his case.

    I honestly believe that we the public will never know who stole the Clinton and Podesta emails unless Julian Assange of WikiLeaks chooses to come clean on the issue, which is unlikely. In fact, Assange, who has denied that it was the Russians, might not know whom he was dealing with. If a sophisticated intelligence agency was somehow involved it could have used its own recruited assets as interlocutors, pretending to be who they were not. A well-constructed cover story could have easily fooled Assange. A capable spy agency would also have run its operation replete with red herrings while using cut-outs to break the transmission belt of the information so the theft could not plausibly be traced back to it, or to its sponsoring government.

    The fact that more than a year of inquiry has gone by without anyone inside the DNC IT system being investigated suggests that whatever happened has been buried so deep that it will never surface. Even now, it might pay some dividends for the FBI to examine the DNC server, but there is virtually no pressure from anyone to make that happen. Certainly the FBI has given no indication that it has a clue about what took place and is content with attributing it to the Russians, particularly since that seems to be the conventional wisdom. Blaming the theft and what happened subsequently on Moscow is both convenient and comforting because no American cons uency gets offended and it means you don’t really have to annoy anyone but Vladimir Putin.

  2. #2
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
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    Nah, Pavlov has a dailybeast article that says all of this is a lie

  3. #3
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    Nah, Pavlov has a dailybeast article that says all of this is a lie
    Lol funny cause there are no assumptions or conclusions in this article which makes it

  4. #4
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    Nah, Pavlov has a dailybeast article that says all of this is a lie
    What is your source saying Crowdstrike was hired to destroy the DNC server, Chris?

  5. #5
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    Trump just flip-flopped and now says it was Russia.

    lol hater

    lol Chris

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    .

  7. #7
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    lol Chris still with the *ding*

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  9. #9
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    He edited out the tweet he put in the other thread.

  10. #10
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    TSA




















  11. #11
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    lol jeff

  12. #12
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    jeff quoted sundance

  13. #13
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    Not saying Russia did not hack it but there is not enough solid evidence

    Also the fact that FBI never really treated as criminal investigation raises lots of flags

    For example when supposedly North Korea hacked Sony Pictures, they treated it as a criminal onvestigation and requested and got access to all of Sonys servers

  14. #14
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    Not saying Russia did not hack it but there is not enough solid evidence

    Also the fact that FBI never really treated as criminal investigation raises lots of flags

    For example when supposedly North Korea hacked Sony Pictures, they treated it as a criminal onvestigation and requested and got access to all of Sonys servers
    It was a counterintelligence investigation.

  15. #15
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  16. #16
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  17. #17
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    Paul Sperry BREAKING NEWS!

  18. #18
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    Paul Sperry BREAKING NEWS!
    same guy who said IG would be making criminal referral in the clinton report.

  19. #19
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
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    What is your source saying Crowdstrike was hired to destroy the DNC server, Chris?

  20. #20
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    same guy who said IG would be making criminal referral in the clinton report.

  21. #21
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    Yes I knew they sent an “image” of the server, other sources say just a thumb drive from the server

    Thats insane as NSA spying software can be installed ON THE HARDWARE

    Im sure Russians have capability to do this.

    I also was aware Crowdstrikes tops had close ralations to Obama peeps

    All this shows is there is no way in the US public has been given any evidence that it was the Russians

  22. #22
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    One more thing I dont get:

    Trump has ALL the security clearances possible. So howcome FBI was not able to sit him in anroom and show him and explain to him ALL the evidence?

  23. #23
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    You never answered.

    lol Chris.

  24. #24
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    One more thing I dont get:

    Trump has ALL the security clearances possible. So howcome FBI was not able to sit him in anroom and show him and explain to him ALL the evidence?
    1) Trump wouldn't be able to understand it.

    2) Trump doesn't actually care because he's simply regurgitating conspiracy theory talking points his cult members eat up.

  25. #25
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
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    Yes I knew they sent an “image” of the server, other sources say just a thumb drive from the server

    Thats insane as NSA spying software can be installed ON THE HARDWARE

    Im sure Russians have capability to do this.

    I also was aware Crowdstrikes tops had close ralations to Obama peeps

    All this shows is there is no way in the US public has been given any evidence that it was the Russians
    Its looking more like China tbh

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