Russian election hacking 'wildly successful' in creating discord - former U.S. lawmaker

By Scott Malone

 

       

James Clapper testifies to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on “Russia’s intelligence activities" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Russia succeeded in its goals of sowing discord in U.S. politics by meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which will likely inspire similar future efforts, two top former U.S. voices on intelligence said on Tuesday.

 

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers agreed at a panel at Harvard University that Russia likely believed it had achieved its goals and could attempt to repeat its performance in elections in other countries.

 

"Their purpose was to sew discontent and mistrust in our elections they wanted us to be at each others' throat when it was over," Rogers said at the panel at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "It's influencing, I would say, legislative process today. That's wildly successful."

 

Congressional committees have been investigating the issue since U.S. intelligence agencies in January concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of Democratic political groups to sway the election toward Republican Donald Trump. Moscow has denied any such meddling and Trump has been dismissive of the intelligence suggesting Russian involvement.

 

Clapper said that Russia had long sought to influence U.S. voter behaviour but discovered it could be far more effective at a lower cost by using social media to spread misinformation.

 

"This is the most assertive, most aggressive and most directly impactful of any engagement that they have had in our elections," Clapper said at the event, in Cambridge, Massachusetts just outside Boston. "They have to regard what they did as a huge success. They've been doing it in France and they'll do it in Germany."

 

Russia has also denied attempting to influence France's presidential election.

 

Rogers maintained that he did not believe that Russia had specifically attempted to boost Trump's chances of victory.

 

"They saw the same polls that we did," Rogers said. "Some notion that the Russians knew that Trump had an opportunity to win this thing more than U.S. public pollsters thought, I find ridiculous."

 

The congressional probe on whether Russia attempted to influence the election in favour is not the only investigation into relations between Moscow and the Trump administration. The Pentagon has also launched an investigation into whether Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, accepted money from foreign entities without the required approval.

 

Clapper is set to testify to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter next week.

 

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-03

                  FBI's Comey has already stated publicly that Russia actively sought to influence the US prez election in Trump's favor.  The press corps keeps using phrases like; 'it's mysterious' and 'doesn't make any sense.'  Did they ever read 'The Emperor's New Clothes' story written H.C. Andersen?

 

               THERE IS NOTHING MYSTERIOUS about the WH cover-up.   And, all the crapola that's coming down the tubes about Trump/Russia connections DOES MAKE SENSE.  IT MAKES A WORLD OF SENSE.  Here's the sense:  Trump wanted to get elected no matter what.  Russia wanted Trump.  They worked together, and "it was successful" (as mentioned in the OP).   

 

                        Here's what else is not mysterious and which makes sense:   Republican-led Congressional committees are dragging their feet.  They want to cover-up (and deflect and obfuscate and lie) nearly as much as Trump's buddies in the WH.  There is no mystery about it.  It's clear as day.   Crooks covering for other crooks is as old as prostitution.

 

 

 

what a load of BS.

2 minutes ago, wombat said:

what a load of BS.

what's BS?  what Trumpsters are hiding or.....?

1 hour ago, wombat said:

what a load of BS.

 

Please elaborate.

1 hour ago, wombat said:

what a load of BS.

True, they didn't mention that there are two grand jury indictment hearings proceeding at this time.  Expect the indictment of Michael Flynn to come down within the next week.  He failed to disclose payments he received to lobby for Russian and Turkish interests.  He may have also violated the Logan Act by negotiating with Russia over the sanctions related to Ukraine, prior to Trump becoming POTUS.  The other grand jury indictment involves Rudy Giuliani.  Giuliani assisted with the sale of arms to Iran through Turkey.  Both Flynn and Giuliani requested immunity in exchange for testifying against Trump and both requests were turned down.  As the public starts to pay attention, pressure will build in the GOP to oppose the cover-up, and save the political future of the party by abandoning Trump.

2 hours ago, wombat said:

what a load of BS.

LESS THAN ONE HOUR AFTER the Trump 'p*ssy grabber' tape was aired, Wikileaks released Democrat's emails:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/dec/18/john-podesta/its-true-wikileaks-dumped-podesta-emails-hour-afte/

1:03 PM:

 

1:32 PM:

 

Trump was already in way earlier - JULY 27, 2016:

 

Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails

"Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, and encouraged them to publish whatever they may have stolen"
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html?_r=0

 

Meanwhile, has the Putin-Trump break-up/charade 'created' enough illusion of distance so they can get back to lifting sanctions soon? Note Yates is testifying today that the Whitehouse was informed that Flynn was lying & compromised when he said he did not talk about lifting sanctions with the Russians, yet Trump claimed he knew nothing (yeah right...)
 

Bottom line - when the timing is right, look for another charade ala a 'sudden thaw' in Russia/US relations and a return to normalcy followed by a review of said sanctions:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 20179 yr by sujoop

It's too depressing to read about Cambridge Analytica, Giles-Parscale, Spectrum Health, et al., along with some Americans and Russians,  were so easily able to manage.

 

Thanks go to Facebook as well.

 

It's almost as if Paige Jennings (fictional character from The Americans) found her calling later in life.

57 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

It's too depressing to read about Cambridge Analytica, Giles-Parscale, Spectrum Health, et al., along with some Americans and Russians,  were so easily able to manage.

 

Thanks go to Facebook as well.

 

It's almost as if Paige Jennings (fictional character from The Americans) found her calling later in life.

"Controlled by the people behind the alt-right hub Breitbart News - Cambridge is principally owned by the billionaire Robert Mercer, a Trump backer and investor in Breitbart. Stephen K. Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman who (was) Mr. Trump’s senior White House counselor, served until last summer as vice president of Cambridge’s board."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/cambridge-analytica.html

 

"Mercer introduced Farage to Cambridge Analytica, according to Andy Wigmore, communications director of Leave.EU, the Brexit campaign championed by Farage."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/04/nigel-oakes-cambridge-analytica-what-role-brexit-trump

 

Did Cambridge Analytica influence the Brexit vote and the US election?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/04/nigel-oakes-cambridge-analytica-what-role-brexit-trump

 

"The Trump campaign has hired Ted Cruz’s former data-analysis firm, Cambridge Analytica—and in doing so, it has connected itself with a British property tycoon, Vincent Tchenguiz, and through him with the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a business associate of Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who resigned last week. It would be hard to find a better example of why the ownership of the companies that collect data on the American electorate matters."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trumps-data-analytics-company-allow-russia-access-research-pj-wilcox

(is this why formerly 'lyin Ted' is again BFF with Trump?)

 

After working for Trump’s campaign, British data firm eyes new U.S. government contracts:
"Michael Flynn also served as an advisor to the SCL Group in 2016 and one of his advisors is now serving as a lobbyist for them."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-working-for-trumps-campaign-british-data-firm-eyes-new-us-government-contracts/2017/02/17/a6dee3c6-f40c-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?

 

At the end of the day, Trump, Farage, Le pen, are all playing along to Russia's strategy to fracture the West, weaken our institutions and sever our economic unions. All this engineered on the backs of dangerous nationalism, sending the world back to the 1930's. Putin must be laughing his as* off at how well this is going and at being greatly aided by naive westerners who favour these dangerous clowns.

Edited May 3, 20179 yr by sujoop

6 hours ago, iReason said:

 

Please elaborate.

They can't without trolling. LOL