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Senate report criticizes Obama administration handing of Russia election meddling

 

The Obama administration “was not well postured” to combat Russian election meddling and was constrained in responding by a heavily politicized environment in a volatile election year and other factors that inadvertently aided Moscow, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report. Jillian Kitchener has more.

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan Senate report released on Thursday criticized the Obama administration for failing to react quickly or thoroughly enough to counter Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

 

The administration "was not well postured" to combat the meddling and was constrained in responding by a heavily politicized environment in a volatile election year and other factors that inadvertently aided Moscow, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report.

 

The findings are significant in that minority Democrats joined majority Republicans in criticizing the Obama administration's handling of what the panel and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a Russian operation to sway the presidential vote to then-Republican candidate Donald Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

 

Two Democrats - Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich - took the unusual step of appending to the report separate statements charging that the report lacked critical information on the Obama administration's decision to brief only eight senior congressional leaders on the Russian meddling.

 

"When the country is under threat, the government has a particular responsibility to provide all relevant intelligence to the full congressional intelligence committees," Wyden wrote.

 

The report determined that high-level White House meetings on the Russian operation were “atypically” restricted to a small circle of senior aides, excluding other key officials and subject matter experts.

 

The decision to restrict information about the Russian operation was a major theme throughout the 49-page report, the third issued by the panel on its investigation into Moscow's vote-meddling.

 

"The committee found that the decisions to limit and delay the information flow regarding the 2016 Russian active measures campaign, while understandable, inadvertently constrained the administration's ability to respond," the report said.

 

Russia has denied U.S. charges that it employed cyber hacking, disinformation, and other means to influence the election outcome in Trump's favor.

 

A report by former Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller into the Russian operation released in April 2019 found insufficient evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow in the election interference.

 

In a key finding, the Senate report said that the Obama administration's response to the Russian meddling was constrained by the heavily politicized environment in the United States and fears that public warnings would undermine confidence in the election outcome, "thereby inadvertently helping the Russian effort."

 

It also found that the administration was not properly prepared to counter the Russian meddling with "a full range of readily available policy options," and that the top White House national security advisors only learned of Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee's computers from news reports in June 2016.

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-07
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49 minutes ago, J Town said:

But . . . but . . . Russian meddling was supposed to be a hoax according to the current misadministration. You can't have it both ways. It either happened or it didn't (hint - it did).

It's been happening for years. But the phony story about it actually effecting the results are nonsense. So is the phony story about trump's being influenced by any Russians. 

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5 hours ago, howbri said:

The only Russia meddling was between Hillary and Putin when she paid for the fake Russian dossier after selling our uranium assets to Russia for cash for her "foundation". Hypocritical, corrupt windbag.

Right.  I'm sure you have a copy of the check Hillary wrote to Putin.

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" The administration "was not well postured" to combat the meddling and was constrained in responding by a heavily politicized environment in a volatile election year and other factors that inadvertently aided Moscow, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report. "

 

In other words, hindsight is 20-20. 

 

Now we know Russia has been interfering in elections, and will continue to do so.  What is this administration doing about it?

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17 hours ago, J Town said:

But . . . but . . . Russian meddling was supposed to be a hoax according to the current misadministration. You can't have it both ways. It either happened or it didn't (hint - it did).

J Town you are confusing meddling and collusion.  It is documented that the Russians had meddled in the election.  They had efforts that favored at times Clinton and at other Trump.  Some have theorized it was designed to throw discord into American politics which if that was its aim, it succeeded.  THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE that Trump colluded with Russia as part of any election meddling.  If there was any collusion it was between the Democrats and Hillary Clinton who paid through the law firm Perkins Coi for a dossier of dirt on Trump.  Perkins Coi hired Christopher Steele a former British spy who contacted Russian sources to write a dossier on Trump which was used by the FBI to get a FISA warrant to spy on Trump. 

 

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Of course the Democrats who rail against any interference by a foreign government in our elections had no problem when Obama used taxpayer money to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu who he hated.  The USA has continually interfered in other countries elections.  Who do you think put up the governments in the past in Cuba, Iran, Afghanistan, Panama, Vietnam to name a few. 



https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/

Israel.JPG

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20 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

Of course the Democrats who rail against any interference by a foreign government in our elections had no problem when Obama used taxpayer money to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu who he hated.  The USA has continually interfered in other countries elections.  Who do you think put up the governments in the past in Cuba, Iran, Afghanistan, Panama, Vietnam to name a few. 



https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/

Israel.JPG

Fake assertion again.

There was no such intent by the Obama administration and no direct financing. They used a database one year after the grant expired. Moreover, the 2015 election was an early election which was not planned

 

"The report found no legal wrongdoing by the State Department, since the $349,000 in grants for OneVoice were used to further the Middle East process as intended. But shortly after Netanyahu called an election for 2015, the voter databases constructed with the grant money were activated for Victory 15, an unsuccessful effort to defeat Netanyahu.....

......Victory 15 used voter contacts and activists funded by the State Department grant for One Voice to oppose Netanyahu, the report finds, which was not prohibited because there was restriction on how the peace process infrastructure could be used after the grant expired in 2014."

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/state-department-grant-netanyahu-225414

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2 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:
7 hours ago, howbri said:

The only Russia meddling was between Hillary and Putin when she paid for the fake Russian dossier after selling our uranium assets to Russia for cash for her "foundation". Hypocritical, corrupt windbag.

Fake News

Not at all.  You'll find out soon enough.

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1 hour ago, Thomas J said:

J Town you are confusing meddling and collusion.  It is documented that the Russians had meddled in the election.  They had efforts that favored at times Clinton and at other Trump.  Some have theorized it was designed to throw discord into American politics which if that was its aim, it succeeded.  THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE that Trump colluded with Russia as part of any election meddling.  If there was any collusion it was between the Democrats and Hillary Clinton who paid through the law firm Perkins Coi for a dossier of dirt on Trump.  Perkins Coi hired Christopher Steele a former British spy who contacted Russian sources to write a dossier on Trump which was used by the FBI to get a FISA warrant to spy on Trump. 

 

Since Trump is claiming that election interference was coming from the Ukraine as well (which is true) the Dems/libs are using bastardized reasoning to mean that he's thereby denying Russian interference.  Twisting logic and then insisting it's true anyway even when confronted that they're wrong.

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Just now, candide said:

Which means there is currently no evidence. So It's fake news.

No.  Evidence exists yet you folks still don't want to accept it.  All I'm saying is that the evidence will eventually become so substantial that folks will no longer be able to deny it's existence any longer.

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21 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Since Trump is claiming that election interference was coming from the Ukraine as well (which is true) the Dems/libs are using bastardized reasoning to mean that he's thereby denying Russian interference.  Twisting logic and then insisting it's true anyway even when confronted that they're wrong.

No. Trump claimed the DNC hack was made by Ukraine, not Russia. (Crowdstrike is Ukrainian, the 'server's is in Ukraine, blah blah). This  ridiculous conspiracy theory is a clear attempt to deny Russian interference.

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24 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

No.  Evidence exists yet you folks still don't want to accept it.  All I'm saying is that the evidence will eventually become so substantial that folks will no longer be able to deny it's existence any longer.

Trump's tweets? 

Keep up with news...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-dept-winds-down-clinton-related-inquiry-once-championed-by-trump-it-found-nothing-of-consequence/2020/01/09/ca83932e-32f9-11ea-a053-dc6d944ba776_story.html

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/justice-department-expected-to-close-investigation-into-clinton-foundation-without-charges-report/

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48 minutes ago, candide said:

No. Trump claimed the DNC hack was made by Ukraine, not Russia. (Crowdstrike is Ukrainian, the 'server's is in Ukraine, blah blah). This  ridiculous conspiracy theory is a clear attempt to deny Russian interference.

Trump never made the claim that the DNC was hacked by Ukraine.  As far as evidence goes this is about as close as you'll come to the truth for now.

 

This link shows a reprint of the Memorandum to the President in which VIPS shows evidence that the emails could not have been hacked.

 

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Was the “Russian Hack” an Inside Job?

 

We also have Julian Assange stating that the emails were leaked and that the source was not a foreign government or entity.

 

We also have word from Obama himself, given in his final press conference on January 20, 2017.  At the 18:17 mark he goes on to state: “conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard about the [Democratic National Committee] DNC e-mails that were leaked.

 

 

CrowdStrike, the outfit brought in by the DNC to examine the servers, were the ones who came up with the claim that the servers were hacked.  The FBI was denied access to the servers.  Mueller's team never bothered to perform their own forensics and, unbelievably, relied only on a redacted draft report from CrowdStrike.  Neither did team Mueller have any interest in questioning Assange himself.  To the contrary they were more than willing to attempt to implicate Assange in the hacked email conspiracy.

 

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London in August 2017 and met with Assange.

 

“By now, everybody knows that this idea that Trump was colluding with the Russians in order to get them to do things like steal the DNC emails and then release them through WikiLeaks, the public knows that’s just total baloney,” Rohrabacher said. “I knew the one man who could prove that it was all baloney was Assange. So I went to see him in London, and he confirmed for me that the Russians did not give him the DNC emails.”

 

The entire narrative was, as I believe we will all soon find out, created out of whole cloth for a reason.  In the meanwhile keep believing what you want to believe.

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19 hours ago, Chiphigh said:

It's been happening for years. But the phony story about it actually effecting the results are nonsense. So is the phony story about trump's being influenced by any Russians. 

How do you know it didnt effect the results.

 

Do you think the russians did it just for a giggle.

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52 minutes ago, candide said:

Trump in the memo summary talked about Ukrainian company, owned by an Ukrainian, said the server was in Ukraine, etc. And then he asks Z to investigate in UKRAINE. He repeated the same ridiculous claim in November on fox news: 

President Trump: “The Democrats, a lot of it had to do, they say, with Ukraine. It’s very interesting. It’s very interesting. They have this server, right? From the DNC, Democratic National Committee. The FBI went in and they told them, ‘Get out of here. You’re not getting it. We’re not giving it to you.’ They gave the server to CrowdStrike or whatever it’s called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian.

 

And to support this ridiculous conspiracy theory you cite an obscure website (you did not even dare to show the name), while the FBI and the DOJ have acknowledged the Russian origin of the hack. ????

Nice try.  You said that Trump said that the Ukrainians hacked the DNC server.  But you didn't bother correcting yourself.

 

The website link provided only the actual text of the Memorandum to the President.  No article.  I tried to find the document elsewhere but could not.  The source in this case doesn't negate the facts.  The source here merely hosted the document.  I cited the Memorandum as evidence, not the source.  And you full well know that.  Are you in interested in facts or not?  Or do you simply want to make the source rather than the facts an issue so that you don't have to deal with the facts?

 

No government ABC agency or otherwise has ever provided proof of a "Russian hack."  They don't even know how it was accomplished.  I've provided information to show how no one in the government wants to do a forensic analysis given the seriousness of the charge.  Why?  Don't you find that odd?  Is it because a true forensic analysis would prove that the servers weren't hacked?  How do explain the fact that the Mueller team was willing to accept only a redacted draft report from CrowdStrike?  Or the fact that it was CrowdStrike and not the Mueller team who determined what information they could access?  How do you explain the fact that Obama himself stated "DNC emails that were leaked"?  Why didn't you address that point?

 

I understand you are perfectly willing to believe something or someone without proof.  That's your business.  Not me, thanks.

 

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1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

Nice try.  You said that Trump said that the Ukrainians hacked the DNC server.  But you didn't bother correcting yourself.

 

The website link provided only the actual text of the Memorandum to the President.  No article.  I tried to find the document elsewhere but could not.  The source in this case doesn't negate the facts.  The source here merely hosted the document.  I cited the Memorandum as evidence, not the source.  And you full well know that.  Are you in interested in facts or not?  Or do you simply want to make the source rather than the facts an issue so that you don't have to deal with the facts?

 

No government ABC agency or otherwise has ever provided proof of a "Russian hack."  They don't even know how it was accomplished.  I've provided information to show how no one in the government wants to do a forensic analysis given the seriousness of the charge.  Why?  Don't you find that odd?  Is it because a true forensic analysis would prove that the servers weren't hacked?  How do explain the fact that the Mueller team was willing to accept only a redacted draft report from CrowdStrike?  Or the fact that it was CrowdStrike and not the Mueller team who determined what information they could access?  How do you explain the fact that Obama himself stated "DNC emails that were leaked"?  Why didn't you address that point?

 

I understand you are perfectly willing to believe something or someone without proof.  That's your business.  Not me, thanks.

 

Trump talked about Ukrainian company owned by a rich Ukrainian, and the server in Ukraine (all fake allegations), and asks for an investigation in Ukraine. So according does not mean he alledges that Ukrainian did it? He does not mean it was not the Russians? 

 

What is in the VIP memo has not been proved, and is even not approved by all members.

If you want to have fun with this one, you can read this. Good luck!

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/a-leak-or-a-hack-a-forum-on-the-vips-memo/#independent-review

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57 minutes ago, candide said:

Trump talked about Ukrainian company owned by a rich Ukrainian, and the server in Ukraine (all fake allegations), and asks for an investigation in Ukraine. So according does not mean he alledges that Ukrainian did it? He does not mean it was not the Russians? 

 

What is in the VIP memo has not been proved, and is even not approved by all members.

If you want to have fun with this one, you can read this. Good luck!

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/a-leak-or-a-hack-a-forum-on-the-vips-memo/#independent-review

Trump never said what you claim he said.  Come on, candide!  Are you purposely being misleading?  It's extremely difficult to not get the call text right so it makes me wonder.

 

Here's the exact text from the transcript:  "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it."

 

No mention of CrowdStrike being a Ukrainian company.  No mention of CrowdStrike owned by a Ukrainian.

 

In my original post I stated:  "As far as evidence goes this is about as close as you'll come to the truth for now."

 

Notice the qualifier?

 

And this is from the article you linked to (bolded emphasis mine):

 

The most recent VIPS memo, released on July 24, whatever its technical merits, contributes to a much-needed critical discussion. Despite all the media coverage taking the veracity of the ICA assessment for granted, even now we have only the uncorroborated assertion of intelligence officials to go on. Indeed, this was noticed by The New York Times’s Scott Shane, who wrote the day the report appeared: “What is missing from the public report is…hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack…. Instead, the message from the agencies essentially amounts to ‘trust us.’”

 

You believe that Russia hacked the DNC server while being presented with zero hard evidence.  I mentioned this to you in my previous post:  I understand you are perfectly willing to believe something or someone without proof.  Would it be accurate for me to say that you trust the government's word implicitly?  As in "trust us"?  Well, I don't.

 

And where are your counterpoints for all the other points I made?  For instance, why in the h3ll would the Mueller team, tasked with investigating Russian election interference and an historic and dire charge that the President colluded with Russians, refuse to insist on performing their own forensic analysis?  Why would they simply accept a redacted draft report from CrowdStrike?  Why would they allow Crowdstrike to dictate to them what data the Mueller team could see?

 

Why has no government ABC agency or otherwise produced hard evidence?  Why do they still not know how the DNC breach was performed and how the transfer was made?

 

And the final question, how could they possibly conclude it was a Russian hack given that they obviously lacked so much hard evidence?

 

Come now, candide.  You're quick on the draw to label it all conspiracy theory.  Without ever providing hard evidence or solid reasoning to back up your claim.

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Trump never said what you claim he said.  Come on, candide!  Are you purposely being misleading?  It's extremely difficult to not get the call text right so it makes me wonder.

 

Here's the exact text from the transcript:  "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it."

 

No mention of CrowdStrike being a Ukrainian company.  No mention of CrowdStrike owned by a Ukrainian.

 

In my original post I stated:  "As far as evidence goes this is about as close as you'll come to the truth for now."

 

Notice the qualifier?

 

And this is from the article you linked to (bolded emphasis mine):

 

The most recent VIPS memo, released on July 24, whatever its technical merits, contributes to a much-needed critical discussion. Despite all the media coverage taking the veracity of the ICA assessment for granted, even now we have only the uncorroborated assertion of intelligence officials to go on. Indeed, this was noticed by The New York Times’s Scott Shane, who wrote the day the report appeared: “What is missing from the public report is…hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack…. Instead, the message from the agencies essentially amounts to ‘trust us.’”

 

You believe that Russia hacked the DNC server while being presented with zero hard evidence.  I mentioned this to you in my previous post:  I understand you are perfectly willing to believe something or someone without proof.  Would it be accurate for me to say that you trust the government's word implicitly?  As in "trust us"?  I don't.

 

And where are your counterpoints for all the other points I made?  For instance, why in the h3ll would the Mueller team, tasked with investigating Russian election interference and an historic and dire charge that the President colluded with Russians, refuse to insist on performing their own forensic analysis?  Why would they simply accept a redacted draft report from CrowdStrike?  Why would they allow Crowdstrike to dictate to them what data the Mueller team could see?

 

Why has no government ABC agency or otherwise produced hard evidence?  Why do they still not know how the DNC breach was performed and how the transfer was made?

 

And the final question, how could they possibly conclude it was a Russian hack given that they obviously lacked so much hard evidence?

 

Come now, candide.  You're quick on the draw to label it all conspiracy theory.  Without ever providing hard evidence or solid reasoning to back up your claim.

 

 

Pathetic try.

Quote from Trump's phone call to Fox & Friends in November 2019 (so much later than the call with Z and after plenty of time to get accurate information about it):

“A lot of it had to do, they say, with Ukraine,” Trump said. “It’s very interesting. They have the server, right? From the DNC, Democratic National Committee. The FBI went in, and they told them, 'Get out of here, we’re not giving it to you.' They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it’s called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian, and I still want to see that server. You know, the FBI has never gotten that server. That’s a big part of this whole thing. Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?

 

So, according to you, Trump is not trying to target Ukrainians, and hence whitewash the Russians? He did not say It's a Mexican company, right? He did not call the Mexican President to investigate about it, right?

 

By the way, from which country does this conspiracy theory originates (Russia)? Who was the first to diffuse it in the US (Manafort)?

https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-ukraine-joe-biden-russian-disinformation-election-tampering/

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15 hours ago, candide said:

Pathetic try.

Quote from Trump's phone call to Fox & Friends in November 2019 (so much later than the call with Z and after plenty of time to get accurate information about it):

“A lot of it had to do, they say, with Ukraine,” Trump said. “It’s very interesting. They have the server, right? From the DNC, Democratic National Committee. The FBI went in, and they told them, 'Get out of here, we’re not giving it to you.' They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it’s called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian, and I still want to see that server. You know, the FBI has never gotten that server. That’s a big part of this whole thing. Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?

 

So, according to you, Trump is not trying to target Ukrainians, and hence whitewash the Russians? He did not say It's a Mexican company, right? He did not call the Mexican President to investigate about it, right?

 

By the way, from which country does this conspiracy theory originates (Russia)? Who was the first to diffuse it in the US (Manafort)?

https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-ukraine-joe-biden-russian-disinformation-election-tampering/

More about the origins of the Crowdstrike ridiculous  conspiracy theory.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/us/politics/ukraine-russia-interference.html

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