Exclusive: New tests support the skepticism of U.S. intelligence veterans that Russia “hacked” the DNC’s computers, pointing instead to a download of emails by an insider, write ex-NSA official William Binney and ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
By William Binney and Ray McGovern
It is no secret that our July 24 VIPS Memorandum for the President, entitled “Was the ‘Russian Hack’ an Inside Job?,” gave rise to some questioning and controversy – nor was it a surprise that it was met with almost total silence in the mainstream media.
Former FBI Director James Comey.
The ongoing U.S. media campaign against Russia has been so effective that otherwise intelligent people have been unable even to entertain the notion that they may have been totally misled by the intelligence community. The last time this happened in 2003, after a year of such propaganda, the U.S. attacked Iraq on fraudulent – not “mistaken” – intelligence.
Anticipating resistance from those allergic to rethinking “what everybody knows” about Russian “meddling,” we based our VIPS analysis on forensic investigations that, oddly, the FBI had bent over backwards to avoid. In other words, we relied on the principles of physics and the known capability of the Internet in early July 2016.
We stand by our main conclusion that the data from the intrusion of July 5, 2016, into the Democratic National Committee’s computers, an intrusion blamed on “Russian hacking,” was not a hack but rather a download/copy onto an external storage device by someone with physical access to the DNC.
That principal finding relied heavily on the speed with which the copy took place – a speed much faster than a hack over the Internet could have achieved at the time – or, it seems clear, even now. Challenged on that conclusion – often by those conducting experiments within the confines of a laboratory – we have conducted and documented additional tests to determine the speeds that can be achieved now, more than a year later.
To remind: We noted in the VIPS memo that on July 5, 2016, a computer directly connected to the DNC server or DNC Local Area Network, copied 1,976 megabytes of data in 87 seconds onto an external storage device. That yields a transfer rate of 22.7 megabytes per second.
Recent Tests
Over the last few weeks, we ran three tests to determine how quickly data could be exfiltrated from the U.S. across the Atlantic to Europe.
–First, we used a 100 megabits-per-second (mbps) line to pull data from a one-gigabyte file to Amsterdam. The peak transfer speed was .8 MBps.
–Second, we used a commercial DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) to send the same one-gigabyte file to a commercial DSL in Amsterdam. The peak transfer speed was 1.8 MBps.
–Third, we pushed the same one-gigabyte file from a data center in New Jersey to a data center in the UK. The peak transfer speed was 12 MBps.
None of these attempts achieve anything close to the average rate of 22.7 megabytes per second evident in the July 5, 2016 download/copy associated with the DNC. In fact, this happens to be the speed typical of a transfer to a USB-2 external storage device. We do not think this pure coincidence; rather, it is additional evidence of a local download.
We are preparing further trans-Atlantic testing over the next few weeks.
Some researchers have noted that some partitioning of the data might have occurred in the U.S., allowing for a transfer to be made at the measured speed over the Internet, and that this could have made possible a hack from the other side of the Atlantic. One of our associate investigators has found a way to achieve this kind of data partitioning and later transfer.
In theory, this would be one possible way to achieve such a large-data transfer, but we have no evidence that anything like this actually occurred. More important, in such a scenario, the National Security Agency would have chapter and verse on it, because such a hack would have to include software to execute the partitioning and subsequent data transfer. NSA gives the highest priority to collection on “execution software.”
Must Americans, apparently including President Donald Trump, remain in a Russia-did-it-or-could-have-maybe-might-have-done-it subjunctive mood on this important issue – one that has been used to inject Cold War ice into relations with Russia? The answer is absolutely not. Rather, definitive answers are at hand.
How can we be so confident? Because NSA alumni now active in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) are intimately familiar with NSA’s capabilities and practice with respect to bulk capture and storage of fiber-optic communications. Two of us actually devised the systems still in use, and Edward Snowden’s revelations filled in remaining gaps. Today’s NSA is in position to clear up any and all questions about intrusions into the DNC.
In sum, we are certain that the truth of what actually happened – or didn’t happen – can be found in the databases of NSA. We tried to explain this to President Barack Obama in a VIPS Memorandum of Jan. 17, just three days before he left office, noting that NSA’s known programs are fully capable of capturing – and together with liaison intelligence services do capture – all electronic transfers of data.
Our Jan. 17 Memorandum included this admonition: “We strongly suggest that you ask NSA for any evidence it may have indicating that the results of Russian hacking were given to WikiLeaks.” … “If NSA cannot give you that information – and quickly – this would probably mean it does not have any.”
We also appealed to Obama in his final days in office to order the chiefs of the NSA, FBI and CIA to the White House and have them lay all their cards on the table about “Russian hacking,” and show him what tangible evidence they might have – not simply their “assessments.” We added, “We assume you would not wish to hobble your successor with charges that cannot withstand close scrutiny.” Having said this, we already were reaching the assumption that there was no real evidence to back the “assessments” up.
FBI: Not Leaning Forward
The FBI could still redeem itself by doing what it should have done as soon as the DNC claimed to have been “hacked.” For reasons best known to former FBI Director James Comey, the Bureau failed to get whatever warrant was needed to confiscate the DNC servers and computers to properly examine them.
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
In testimony to the House Intelligence Committee six months ago, Comey conceded “best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves.” And yet he chose not to. And his decision came amid frenzied charges by senior U.S. officials that Russia had committed “an act of war.”
But is it not already too late for such an investigation? We hope that, at this point, it is crystal clear that the answer is: No, it is not too late. All the data the FBI needs to do a proper job is in NSA databases – including data going across the Internet to the DNC server and then included in their network logs.
If President Trump wants to know the truth, he can order the FBI to do its job and NSA to cooperate. Whether the two and the CIA would obey such orders is an open question, given how heavily invested all three agencies are in their evidence-impoverished narrative about “Russian hacking.”
Let us close with the obvious. All three agencies have been aware all along that NSA has the data. One wonders why it should require a Presidential order for them to delve into that data and come up with conclusions based on fact, as opposed to “assessing.”
William Binney ([email protected]) worked for NSA for 36 years, retiring in 2001 as the technical director of world military and geopolitical analysis and reporting; he created many of the collection systems still used by NSA. Ray McGovern ([email protected]) was a CIA analyst for 27 years; from 1981 to 1985 he briefed the President’s Daily Brief one-on-one to President Reagan’s most senior national security officials.
Sonia, I assume the Gary you are addressing is me from a post I did back on the 20th. Here it is again.
“They may not have hacked the DNC but the Russians were involved in analytic processes to influence the election to gain electoral votes in the 4 key states by targeting marginal female African American Hillary supporters in counties that Silicon Valley companies IDed. The targets were bombarded by the phoney Russian generated “pizza gate” child porn ring story that Hillary & Podesta were supposedly running.”
For me, the bottom line is that as a Marxist I understand that the old SU & now Russia is pursuing the same geostrategic goals they always have. The “containment” of Russia from 1890 on was Britain’s foreign policy & the US inherited it in 1945. Why wouldn’t the Russians use Trump to neutralize the neo-lib & neo-con strategy of Balkanizing the SU/Russia to create US hegemony over Eurasia. The phoney RussiaGate story is only phoney to the extent that the US oligarchy is using the reality of Russian-American conflict to reignite the Cold War. “It is what it is” as they say. Only naive libs & ignorant right-wingers are confused by the whole process.
Apparently Comey got the same speech Loretta Lynch got on the tarmac about “his grandchildren”. When the Clinton’s threaten your grandchildren you either do as they ask, or commit suicide. Did Vince Foster have grand children?
This article states that “on July 5, 2016, a computer directly connected to the DNC server or DNC Local Area Network, copied 1,976 megabytes of data in 87 seconds onto an external storage device. That yields a transfer rate of 22.7 megabytes per second.” What is the original source of this information? I mean the real original source, not simply the prior article by the same authors, and how confident can we be in the veracity of the original info?
Oops, I’m not sure if I provided the article link on my post? Can’t see till it’s authorized to publish.
My apologies, I’m a nincompoop, please find herewith the link:
Guccifer 2 and “Russian” Metadata Intel Assessment of the DNC hack by Steve McIntyre
https://climateaudit.org/2017/09/23/guccifer-2-and-russian-metadata/
Again, many thanks and friendly regards,
Sonia
Hi Gary and hello William,
I came across a very interesting article by Steve McIntyre:
GUCCIFER 2 AND “RUSSIAN” METADATA INTEL ASSESSMENT OF THE DNC HACK
Posted on Sep 23, 2017 at 2:35 PM
Here’s the link for your perusal: https://climateaudit.org/2017/09/23/guccifer-2-and-russian-metadata/
This is an excerpt of his conclusion:
If I encountered a document which had been most recently modified by a user using the pseudonym “J. Edgar Hoover”, I would not jump to the conclusion that the document originated with U.S. counter-intelligence or police. If anything, I would presume the opposite – that the username was satirical.
When a document is opened in Word for no purpose other than to change the default language to Russian and change the user name to ?????? ??????????, I would not jump to the conclusion that they had done so accidentally or attribute the subsequent exposure of “Russian” metadata to a sort of wardrobe malfunction. I would presume the opposite: that whatever I saw was being shown to me intentionally.
To the extent that exposure by mistake is being relied on for attribution of Guccifer 2 to Russian intelligence services, it is worthless as evidence and an embarrassment to the security firms and intel community who promulgate it.
As they say “The only thing that counts is the meta-data” & the #metadata debunks all Russian hacking claims into DNC.
Also found this simplified but articulate youtube video regarding the same meta-data:
https://youtu.be/_rEE2TviDS4
I’m looking forward to your reply.
Many thanks and friendly regards,
Sonia
I read a story months ago that identifies the same metadata information that concluded that it could only be an inside job due to the rate at which the transfer took place.
Why couldn’t the Russians have transferred the file to a friendly computer in the same neighborhood? Or uploaded it to the cloud?
Why assume they had to move it across the Atlantic?
Far from what initiated ORIGINAL investigation by N.Y. Attorney General; Trumps laundering of Russian Oligarchs illegal gains from Russia.
Too many toes , especially those of very powerful NY and connecged States Jewish mafia who hide behind orthodoxy, ethnicityprotectionsnd US guarantee of Religious Freedman IRS tax breaks, butlaundering .money is like inbred within US political systems.
HE’LL HILLARY, Bill and Cheseas some 70 interlocking titles as. Charity is no more thansame and infuence peddling; all off shore.
Just like ORIGINAL investigations into when Bill was governor and aided Hillary and Rose law firm bilked million s out of HUD, Both FHA’S AND laundering money through dummy concerns, one ofwhich turned a noninvestment into a $100,000 return in less than two months.
So what came of it, not of a BJ affair in White House or digging up trail of dead. But for lying to Congress .Are up of those of lowest morals in US.
Well it keeps low minded US interested and hanging onto all the soap opera events.
Of course for the Russians to “hack” they don’t have to get the material out of the country; only out of the building, and that is assiduously avoided by this cute little diversionary experiment. The internet is pervasive, the experiment is comically poorly conceived, and the premises are fallacious to begin with and give the appearance of chasing a conspiracy theory that is past pull date.
Who benefits from the continued pursuit of trying to inflate the difference between a leak and a hack? Why is it so important for former intel suits to try and cloud the issue when it is clear that the Russians could have done either exfiltration directly or through proxies that would lend deniability? Is it the same impulse that tried to convince everyone that HRC would be more warlike than DJT?
Where is our Angleton of the moment?
It’s obvious that Russia didn’t break into the DNC and get the email. Someone (Obama and Hillary) made up that story, then they pushed it using Brennan, Comey, Clapper, and others. The Big Story here is that lie and the people behind it. Has the GOP figured it out yet?
The likes of the NY Times have moved on from the hack to obstruction of justice and collusion. Even those claims seem to be dying out. Now it’s something about Russians buying ads on Facebook.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
The individuals guilty of deliberate wrong “assessments” of material which remains stored in
government possession ought to be exposed and pay for the crime of effectively misleading the
U,S. people.
https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/russia/
Information control has morphed to restrict public and private behavior and to deny unlicensed thoughts. Corporations, independent of the political process, not nations are involved; no one is exempt.
Would love to have FBI, CIA, NSA Charters revoked. World Peace would then be possible.
It appears that the FBI was also deliberately NOT looking for evidence of intent by Secretary Clinton’s massive breach of rules relating to un-secure handling of classified materials during her tenure at State, lack of such evidence being the justification Comey gave for not indicting for the numerous breaches. It appears they limited the initial investigation to two things: 1) whether classified materials had been transmitted or stored by non-secure means (answer: repeatedly and in substantial quantity), and 2) whether and by whom any unauthorized access to those materials had occurred (no conclusions announced, but maybe that was CrowdStrike’s job when it was hired by the FBI in August 2015 – to perform and contain the results of that inquiry). The FBI also strictly limited their inquiry into the time period during which Clinton was actually in office, apparently deciding NOT to look, or seek a warrant to look, for emails prior to her swearing in, even though the initial decision to create that server and the reasons for doing so, i.e., the intent, was likely to have been discussed prior to her taking office, and certain investigators had expressed strong interest in seeing those emails, likely sent on her Blackberry server. Careful reading of Peter Strzok’s letter to the Department of State, and declaration in a FOIA suit, and comparison of them to the detailed disclosures about his review the Abedin/Weiner laptop the week before the election in the New York Times on April 22, 2017, suggests that a trove of those Blackberry emails were on the laptop, but they only took into account those from and after the date of her swearing in.
Senator Grassley’s recent bombshell letter describing Comey’s drafting of Clinton’s exoneration speech long before she or her top aides were interviewed also details instances of those aides lying to FBI agents, and destroying evidence that had been subpoenaed and/or asked to be preserved by various Congressional committees.
As Harry Bosch would say, there’s “high jingo” on these investigations.
Anyone in here claiming pizza gate is fake please explain to me what “Do you think I’ll do better playing dominos on cheese than on pasta?” means.
Or, what “I think Obama spent about $65,000 of the tax-payers money flying in
pizza/dogs from Chicago for a private party at the White House not long
ago, assume we are using the same channels? ”
means.
It is already clear what will happen to this further proof that the Russian Hacking Lie was a lie. Not a mistake, a lie. A lie that did not have anything to do with Trump but with the coercion of Trump into war-footing with Russia, the coercion of Congress and the EU into (economic) war-footing with Russia, and the coercion of not only Americans but the global MSM-controlled populace (especially in Europe) into war-footing with Russia. It is all a lie, a demonstrable and proven lie, but the global MSM and the various governments of the various Western “democracies,” who add to this lie the Basic Lie that they are dedicated to free speech and truth, will continue to propagate this lie and the war-mongering attitudes and policies it engenders, without so much as a wink of pretense that they have bothered to look at the facts.
“Oh, where and how did it all start?” our survivors (if there are any) will ask, after the war starts. “How could we have been so stupid, so insane? How could we have let it happen?”
Given this is all true, does this account for the death of Seth Rich?
He died five days later.
Where is the any proof that ties the file that was created at 22 megabytes a second to a specific machine it was created on?
See earlier CN article by the VIPS showing file creation times separated by intervals yielding that transfer rate.
What did I miss in there as I didn’t see any proof in regard to what machine that the file was actually created on.
I’ll be the Devil’s advocate….
The intervals were discovered from the files metadata. It’s a pretty good method for determining the transfer rate by calculating the time differences between different file sizes. It’s pretty good, provided that the files metadata had not been edited. If it had been, all bets are off…
It seems that the hackers downloaded about 20GBs worth of emails, but they only released about 2GBs of it. They could have edited the files metadata for the purpose of implicating internal data transfers, or an inside job. Is it possible? Of course it is, especially when possible a state actor had been involved. They have unlimited resources to do just that…
PS: Downloading about 20GBs worth of emails, but releasing only 2GBs of it sounds about right. Most email servers have 80/20 ratio, 80% spam and 20% actual emails worth reading for someone…
As far as I can tell, there have been two arenas/rings added to this anti-Trump circus … that of Trump’s attempted obstruction of various investigations and that of Trump world financial irregularities/malfeasance/money laundering/influence peddling … The current breathless anticipation is that Manafort will turn state’s evidence in a plea bargain and the circus will focus on mind-numbing (and audience killing) financials. Trump and advisors have shown very little of the high-priced brilliant strategizing/ass-covering “without a trace” maneuvering that one might have expected from such a long term player, rather they seem to have left many embarassing breadcrumbs implicating themselves in attempts at improper influencing and, likely, selling/bartering of same …. iow, I think the DNC “hacking” will fade away as a legal matter now that they have achieved polling showing ridiculously high popular consensus
If I am not mistaken, President Putin runs for reelection next year. Will the United States interfere with or attempt to influence this electoral process? I know this is a stupid question. Of course, it will. The United States was very active several years ago insuring that Yeltsin was reelected. The opposite will be the case with President Putin. I am sure Consortiumnews will be keeping up with this. It will be a very interesting time. I can’t wait to see what happens.
My friend just told me a good one : “So much for a free press. We are freely oppressed.”
Same problem, mike, as yours after I posted my sarcastic derogatory comment. Got the “error message” or “could not be connected” to CN. Google is part of the deep state.
Now it’s reported that McCain and Graham are pushing to have RT register as a foreign agent so that US users can be denied access, obviously.
Fudmier, you’re right. It’s become controlled reality.
Watching “progressives” fall in line with McCain and Graham is terrifying … Sputnik seems to be first-up to be banned …
No one seems to notice the implication that our democracy and our people have “somehow” become so vulnerable to utter destruction and manipulation … Every nonaligned regime represents an existential threat these days …. that unreality is not a bug, it’s an exploitable mass delusion (a feature)
Criminal elements, or at least those with a purpose that does not reflect the will of the people of the governed nations of the world, have taken over and now control the information environment( that is, the governed people of the world are allowed to see or access only that information that has a political or economically targeted result).
This target behavior directed information controlled environment (TBD_ICE) extends much further than ..NSA; is broader and reaches further than USA and its fewer than 20 agencies and its more than 1000 contractors, and is controlled at its topside by an alliance of inter acting leaders who have subordinated themselves to the leadership of something as big as NATO. TBD_ICE is responsible for the massive military budget (70 Trillion) and the wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, Georgia, Ukraine and Iraq. TBD_ICE is centralized (federalized) within the span of control of the governorship of but one nation, and that nation is not the USA governed America.
The war for the survival of human rights, independent thought, and self determination has many fronts. The most active fronts at the moment involve access of ordinaries to the know-how of advanced technology and to information that is factual.
[The IC will use access controlled information and technology controlled information environment to create a manipulated information environment fantasy world . Everything the ordinaries will be allowed to learn about or see, will be made into a purpose driven, created fantasy (the Guy from mars used mind control weapons to cause voters intending to vote for poor Hillary to vote instead for Trump <= comic books here we come). Changing all history to fit a target need will be made simple.
Anyone else have trouble recently bringing up the CN site? I kept getting “Unable to connect with database.” And a blank screen beneath that. Cyber attack?
I had the same problem this morning.
The usual hair-splitting. It has to be “the Russian government” and the documents have to be “hacked” The accused must be acquitted of the charge of murder because it was alleged that he shot the victim whereas it has now been proved that he stabbed him! I don’t see what any of this changes.
No, the analogy would be of a person who has been accused (or even convicted) of shooting someone, and then it turns out that the victim had not been shot at all, but stabbed. Ergo there is no evidence against the accused.
And yes, of course “it has to be the ‘Russian government'”, or else the whole anti-Putin hysteria loses its foundation.
Personally, I think there are some rational bases for criticizing Binney & McGovern’s certainty about their proof, but you are simply evincing the mindless groupthink they are challenging.
Electric shock collars for all politicians and policy makers….tell a lie….receive a shock strong enough to piss your pants…..effective immediately
Without any interest by either Comey or Mueller in examining the DNC computer, it’s clear that Mueller’s investigation is a farce. By now, who knows where that computer is? Probably deep-sixed, like those CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald.
And Mme Clinton, who started the whole sorry episode, is not going away anytime soon.
This, from the “exceptional” nation that never has meddled in any other country’s affairs!
Just a few points:
1. USB 2.0 is right.
I’ve said in the past that they needed at least a USB 3.0.
2. MB/s vs Mbps
MB/s = Mega byte per second, Mbps = Mega bit per second. 1 byte = 8 bits. 1MB = 8Mbps. Because electronic device transfer rates are much faster than internet transfer rates, USB drives speeds are measures in megabytes, and internet upload/download speeds are measured in megabits.
3. Upload Speed vs Download Speed
Upload speeds are must faster than download speeds. When dealing with a hack from anywhere on the internet, the DNC’s upload speed would be the limiting factor. The fastest upload speed in the Northeastern US in 2006 according to PCMag was 6.41MB/s. (Google: pcmag speeds 2016)
Clearly, this is nowhere near the 22.71 MB/s needed for the NGP/VAN file.
Now that Israel’s Yinon plan to bust up the ME has been stalled in Syria, Israel will use her confederates in the MSM and Hollywood to keep up the assault on Trump.
To make all this heat go away, all Trump has to do is to ‘Shock and Awe’ Iran and the MSM and Hollywood will sing his praises.
Of course he could “shock and awe” the corrupt MSM a lot more easily.
I am sure Ray’s done his homework, but I do not follow his logic.
How did independent investigators conclude that DNC data was downloaded (presumably) within 87 seconds? Just to entertain a thought, if there was a hack that lasted for several minutes to hours, could a lower transfer rate support data transfer to Europe? How do we know that DNC computer was not compromised for an extended period?
Here’s how:
https://theforensicator.wordpress.com/guccifer-2-ngp-van-metadata-analysis/
And here:
https://disobedientmedia.com/2017/07/new-research-shows-guccifer-2-0-files-were-copied-locally-not-hacked/
Yes, file metadata can be analyzed to determine the file creation date, true. The analysis can be accurate, if and when the metadata has not been edited. If it had been, no metadata analysis is accurate…
The file metadata can be changed even in Windows. In UNIX based systems, such as Linux, it is even easier via the command line such this one:
“find -print | while read filename; do
# do whatever you want with the file
touch -t 201203101513 “$filename”
done”
In above, the file date would show up as 03/10/2012 03:13 PM in Windows. You could also use the “touch” command:
“touch -a -m -t 201512180130.09 fileName.ext”
Where:
“-a = accessed
-m = modified
-t = timestamp – use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] time format”
In above, the file date would show up as 12/18/2016 01:13 AM Windows.
If you’d want to modify more than a single file metadata with different timestamp each, you’d need to use and “if/the/else” statement.
The point is that, if the DNC server had been hacked, don’t you think that the hacker would change the metadata for the files and folders? If, I would have done it, the metadata would be the first I’d change to hide the actual date and time, when the files were taken and accessed to my liking.
I just disagree with the technical details that stated as proof that the files were not transferred over the network. For me, who worked in IT for a long time, the reference to the research that supposedly proofs local download to a USB device is on shaky grounds to say the least. Almost as shaky as that parrot’s statement of “The Russians did it”…
The propaganda that Russia is guilty of usurping our national election system and is responsible for the outcome of the last presidential election is a fraud. It is a huge fraud designed to distract all of us away from the real reasons that Donald Trump was elected.
Nowhere is there an argument that gerrymandering had some role to play. The media is silent on the major endeavor of republicans to gerrymander local districts. Why don’t they at least talk about the possibility that gerrymandering was responsible? Because they want to not talk about that possibility and they have invented a boogeyman to distract us.
How about electronic black box voting machines which leave no paper trail and which have been banned in other countries? Why has there been no investigation into that?
How about James Comey’s reopening of the Server Gate investigation which was concluded with no evidence that Hillary Clinton violated national security laws by conducting communications on an unsecured file server which was a common practice with many officials including her predecessor?
How about all of the domestic fake news spewing from the main stream media in an attempt to vilify Hillary Clinton?
How about the fake news proliferated by the republican campaign and close Trump supporters like the pizzagate propagandists from inside the circle of Trump aides?
How about the estimated three billion dollars in free advertising that the media gave Trump free of charge in order to extort money from the republican Super PACs?
Are we going to look past all of the last minute voter laws that states enacted and all of the other domestic sources of election interference including James Comey’s last ditch efforts to throw the election for Trump in a massive propaganda campaign to cover up all of that in favor of a monolithic propaganda effort to blame some foreign devil for the result?
Certainly the answer is clear enough that the propaganda has forbidden any other conclusion. Certainly the propaganda has omitted any other evidence other than the forgone conclusion that it was the Russians.
We see in the complete assumption and conclusion and the resulting investigation that a herd mentality was established early on which created a lock step uniform blaming of the Russians without any evidence and which ignored all other evidence. The question is why?
I can say why. They had the motive of lots of money to be made from the recent Supreme Court decisions which rolled back 100 years of campaign finance reforms and returned the US election process back to the age of the Robber Barons. Citizens United vs. FEC and McCutcheon vs. FEC opened the floodgates of dark money in politics and the media cleaned up by putting the straw man named Donald Trump as a means to get the bidding war among the republican Super PACs going full steam.
There is no other conclusion than there is a gaping hole left from the Supreme Court decisions which allows the recipients of unlimited campaign donations (the media) to clean up and reap huge profits by playing the parties against each other.
Trump was just bait pure and simple. The main stream media cleaned up as republican SuperPACs poured all their money to defeat him.
After they lost the primaries and Trump was guaranteed the nomination the media turned to promoting him for president in a further attempt to gain more wealth from the Clinton campaign.
We really do not need any foreign devil to account for what happened. We have only to look at the motives and the opportunity of our main stream propaganda fake news press to find out who the guilty party is. It’s the media.
We can’t fix it as long as we are convinced that some foreign boogeyman across the ocean is responsible. That is the desired outcome of the press. They don’t want anybody to catch a whiff that there may be domestic reasons for the election results. They have to protect their little secret way of manipulating elections to maximize their profits. Constitution and Democracy be damned. The media is focused on preserving their power and their ability under the law to extract the maximum amount of cash from campaigns and that is what they will do.
Have you seen any news coverage about Citizens United of McCutcheon vs. FEC? Of course not. Why would they tell us about the giant pile of cash they now have access to?
It might make us angry that the major media corporations (all five of them) have decided to sell our democracy out from under us thanks to the Supreme Court.
The media has a great gig going and they surely do not want to publicize the fact that they reaped huge profits from putting Trump out in front of all challengers. But they did it. They did it for money. They did it for power and control and now they are trying to cover their tracks with a giant propaganda lie that it was the Russians that hacked the election.
So much diversion and distraction ginned up by the media to hide their own culpability by blaming a foreign nation. It is unprecedented. But then again so is all of the money they made and all the money they stand to gain in future elections as long as they can keep the sheep in the dark.
I’m sure this narrative may seem a stretch for some but I would ask if it is just coincidence that just one election cycle after the Supreme Court decisions which effectively ended a century old ambition of many congresses to limit the poisonous effects of corporate money in politics that we would arrive at today where like some tin pot dictatorship we look to foreign devils for the cause of our inexplicable election results?
I think the answer is clear. There is no coincidence. There is only cause and effect.
Fix Dmitri Alperovich first. His CrowdStrike’ “analysis” was fraudulent through and through. Alperovich is a criminal and should have been placed in a federal prison already
Oops. I forgot motive and opportunity. The media had motive and opportunity to create the paper tiger / straw man of Donald Trump in order to cash in on the elimination of one hundred years of campaign finance reforms by the Supreme Court. The poor republicans were checkmated. Fail to cough up the cash and they would lose but even if they did pony up, the media would just double down on supporting Trump in an effort to get more cash in the form of advertising.
We really need to get clear on the present danger of the media’s motives and their opportunity to influence our elections in the light of the recent Supreme Court decisions to wipe campaign finance laws off the record. They have every motive and a clear opportunity to play the parties for their financial gain.
Of course they are not going to talk about it. They have every reason not to talk about it just as they have every reason to distract all of us to looking to blame Russians for the results of the election.
Robert Mueller’s investigation will be a farce if he focuses on just the possibility that Russia had an influence on the last election. That will be the proof in the pudding that the conservatives can distract us aided by our media to spin the story. There are clearly many other possible reasons that the election was influenced other than the Russians.
To the extent these other reasons are not explored, we will see the corrupt hand of government and the media.
The “investigator” refuses to interview a direct actor; Assange, even though he has offerred to testify. Pretty much says it all.
I just doubt that the MSM is a free and independent agent, seeking bottom-line profit wherever it may lay. I still believe they are just one of the many major tools in the toolbox (or Portfolio) of Oligarchy, made easier to control (by the Oligarchy) through a long campaign of mergers & acquisitions, resulting in a handful of big Corporations; and also K-street lobbying and bribing of politicians to change laws in favor of the Oligarchs’ plans for stealthy “command & control” (with owned MSM always supplying plausible deniability), and even sponsoring of pols with “feet-of-clay” to insure ability to blackmail them, should they refuse bribes. The Oligarchs are financiers, some with family lines going back to oligarchs of the late Roman Empire era. They have extensive experience of running Empires behind a facade of “Thrones” and Rulers of various sorts.
Why the “Russia did it” theme? Russia is one of the BIG prizes still outside the control of the Oligarchs of the Trans-Atlantic Empire…5th incarnation of the Roman Empire, after:1). Rome, 2). Eastern Rome/Byzantine 3). Venice/Holy Roman Empire 4). Anglo-Dutch financier Empire of the East India Trading Companies managing Empire for the respective Crowns.
And how to accomplish all of this is the topic of discussion in Bilderberger and other such-like meetings.
Not sure what media you were watching after Trump got the Republican nomination, but the media coverage I saw was almost all negative towards him. They were stumping the hardest for Hillary.
CitizenOne – “After they lost the primaries and Trump was guaranteed the nomination the media turned to promoting him for president in a further attempt to gain more wealth from the Clinton campaign.”
I don’t know what media you were watching and reading, but in my opinion (and stats have even been published proving this), the media were shredding Trump on a nightly basis. I mean, they were chewing him up and spitting him out. To me, it is a miracle Trump was elected at all. Had the media had an ounce of fairness and objectivity, Trump would probably have won by much more.
People do not like Hillary Clinton because they do not trust her.
The old adage, supposedly coined by Phineus T. Barnum, that there is no such thing as bad publicity, may well be applied in the case of Thrump. But that alone was hardly sufficent, in itself, to have him elected. Hillery Clinton’s candidacy clinched the election for Thrump. She was the worst possible canditate for the Democratic Party and she is still obviously so shocked by her defeat that she, like the Ancient Mariner, is condemned to repeat for eternity, to anyone that will listen, her sad tale of woe.
You may recall that the Ancient Mariner in the poem discovered a deeper wisdom in the end about his relationship to “all creatures great and small.” Unfortunately Hillary’s hubris prevented her from learning squat from her electoral voyage.
Yes, read George Lakoff on how — even bad publicity — make “Godzilla” bigger, stronger, tougher … The Clinton campaign, making it “all-about” Trump and the despicables actually enhanced the cachet of Trump voters being rebels and “brave” free-thinkers.
The polite “consensus” rock was moved and the long silenced reality of American racism saw light and — fed by this paradox of “brave truth-telling” became stronger … Still, the prior comfortable quiet, the silence of denial and avoidance, probably wasn’t “better” or more healthy … Bandaids have been ripped off, scales have fallen from eyes … and suddenly we have “progressives” demanding censorship and government interventions. This is very likely to get more stark in the next year, particularly as “progressives” have embraced the anti-Russian hysteria and are likely to be easily persuaded into militarism sold by the same propagandists.
Please explain how gerrymandering had any impact on a national election where the popular vote determines the winner of the state? 30 states voted for Trump and gerrymandering has nothing to do with it.
Hillary is this you?
I have only ONE question. Why doesn’t Julian Assange reveal who his source was? This would put an end to the Russian narrative NONSENSE. The survival of our world depends on it. So WHY?…
Why don’t you try sending something to Wikileaks? I mean, go through the process? I did so once, before Iraq War II, and the process is quite clear. One is sending an ANONYMOUS tip. It is stripped of all identifying material, visible and invisible, and then routed anonymously through several servers around the world before it arrives in front of a Wikileaks volunteer. No one at Wikileaks can determine the origin. The volunteer decides whether it merits further work. What I sent was deemed worthy, and it was duly published, to good effect. Wikileaks has published millions of pages of information about all sorts of subjects deemed to be of public interest, things the public should know, but which embarrass the prevailing powers. Of course, I can’t ‘verify’ the technical parts of the process, but in all these years, no-one has been able to refute one word of the claims Assange makes about his organization or his methods or his technical expertise.
Bottom line is, if the material arrived via the internet, dark or not, he has no way of identifying the source. If it arrived by sneaker net, and it was delivered personally, he ‘might’ be able to identify the source. But, if he knew the source personally, he ‘certainly could’ verify the source. But even in that case, why would he reveal it, and why do you expect him to? To betray his source would nullify all trust in him and Wikileaks from then on. Do you think the MSM would believe him or publicize his claims any more than now, when he has clearly stated that Russia was not an actor in e-mailgate?
Assange has categorically stated that Russia did not send him the files, which infers that someone did physically deliver the USB stick to him, and that he knows and trusts that person. Why would he betray the person who trusted in him in turn? Do you honestly believe that it would make any difference to the warmongers, other than that they would silence the leaker as soon as they learned the identity of him or her—to whom we owe many thanks for revealing the truth?
Ames Gilbert – Excellent post.
” Do you honestly believe that it would make any difference to the warmongers, other than that they would silence the leaker as soon as they learned the identity of him or her—to whom we owe many thanks for revealing the truth? ”
Yes, you are right.
I thought it was said that there was a physical handoff of the data in DC. Of course we’ll likely never know the truth either way.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/14/craig-murray-says-source-of-hillary-clinton-campai/
Kelli – one of the reasons Julian Assange gets information sent to him IS because he protects his sources. I would submit that he must continue to do this. Plus, if Assange did reveal his source, the elite would find some way to discount him, anyway. Liars and unethical people have nothing to lose, but Assange does.
William Binney and Ray McGovern said in the article:
“All the data the FBI needs to do a proper job is in NSA databases – including data going across the Internet to the DNC server and then included in their network logs.”
The powers that be already HAVE all the information they need. They just need to divulge it to the American public, but for some reason they don’t want to do this. Why? What are they trying to hide?
I would hate to be accused of something (like hacking into some computers) while knowing that my accuser possesses the very evidence that could possibly acquit me, but they’re refusing to be forthcoming with that information. This is criminal.
Thank you, William Binney and Ray McGovern, for this excellent article.
backwardsevolution: The FBI did not ask for or check the computers at DNC at the time Hillary- Podesta Email leaks were reported. It immediately debunks the whole Russia-Gate case. And it should be apparent to any one with even slight brains that FBI itself is a part of it, this whole Russia-Gate Nonsense.
Trump’s victory completely unhinged the Ruling Establishment – the Zio-Neocons. Their dreams for hegemony over the entire planet are in jeopardy. Look at the latest maneuver – this committee to investigate Russia headed by Rob Reiner, and the TV ad by Morgan Freeman. It is surreal.
They are desperate. They are trying to pick up a fight with Russia. Only God knows where it is going to end.
Dave P. – yes, you are right, this new ad by Morgan Freeman just shows their desperation. I agree with all of your points. How stupid do they think we are?
Shortly after Wikileaks released the DNC emails DNC staffer Seth Rich (who had access to the emails) was murdered. Assange then intimated that the emails were obtained from Rich and offered a $20k reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer. https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2017/05/murdered-democratic-party-staffer-seth-rich-sent-dnc-emails-wikileaks/
But that is not to say that the Russians did not try to influence the election through Facebook ads and dissemination of dirt on Hillary through shills, etc. – tactics that the Russians use to try to influence elections in other democratic countries.
Not that I believe the hack explanation, but I wonder whether the speed consideration is really compelling evidence against a Russian hack. That is, VIPS notes the difference in speed between transferring across the Atlantic (1.8 Mbps to Amsterdam; 12 Mbps to UK)) and the 22.7 Mbps that was apparently necessary to transfer the 1976 MB in 87 seconds. On this basis VIPS concludes that it was not possible for a Russian to hack the DNC computer. However, is it not possible for someone in Europe to command a computer outside the DNC but in the US to hack in and do the transfer? And if so, would this method allow for the transfer to occur at 22.7 Mbps?
I don’t believe the hack explanation either, nor do I believe in the numbers presented in the article referenced research….
I’ll use the short version of the transfer rates, as indicated below:
mbps = Mb/s
MBps = MB/s
First of all, the 1,976 MBs, or roughly 2 GBs, isn’t really that much to downloads nowadays. As you eluded to, the actual hack could have taken place from a US home computer with high-speed internet access of 100 Mb/s or more, or ~10 MB/s. Downloading a 2 GBs file would have taken about three-four minutes. Taken the file from a home computer to anywhere could have taken days, weeks, etc., if the remote location had DSL line for example.
The transfer speeds quoted by the article are incorrect. Here are some of the actual transfer rate and conversions between mbps and MBps. Let’s start with the bit and byte relation:
8 bits = 1 Byte (Capitalizing the letter b is necessary to differentiate between the bit and the byte, with network transfer rates)
Let’s continue by converting 100 Mb/s, basically dividing by 8, to MB/s
100 Mb/s / 8 = 12.5 MB/s
The article states .8 MB/s transfer rate for the 100 Mb/s line to Amsterdam. The actual line speed for the .8MB/s is 6.4 Mb/s, yes, multiplying the MB/s by eight gives you the Mb/s:
.8 MB/s x 8 = 6.4 Mb/s
Interestingly, the data transfer between the New Jersey and UK data centers was 12 MB/s. By now, you know what’s coming. Yes, let’s divide the file size by this transfer rate that gives you the time it takes to actually transfer the file:
1,976 / 12 = 2.74444
Let’s round it up and call it two minutes and 45 seconds. And that for a 100 MB/s line…
For most hackers, especially state actors, it is not unusual to have 200 – 250 MB/s line. Provided that the DNC network supported the same speed, downloading ~2GBs file would have taken less than a minute and a half.
I am also certain that the USB 3 device and not USB 2 was used. The latter one’s write transfer rate seldom reaches 10 MBps, much less 22.7 MBps. And there are other issues with your technical details, related to data transfers numbers….
Despite that incorrect numbers, in my view, this was an internal job and had nothing to do woith hackers…
The numbers in the article are solid enough. Your argument is that the line speed may have exceeded 100Mbps for a PC in the US. That depends upon the lowest speed link in the path, how busy it was, etc. That link was likely in the DNC LAN or its router, but we do not know. Probably it was not especially fast, handling ordinary emails and files.
Presumably the FBI and NSA have all of that data. Plenty of people know enough to understand whatever data they have, so its concealment appears to be politically motivated. Probably they know that a network link from the DNC would not have been fast enough to explain the transfer rate, or they would have told us otherwise.
While it is true that the actual transfer rates between end points are dependent on number of factors, mainly on the internet connections for the end points, I disagree. The DNC mail server’s connection to the Internet could be private connection (billed by the size of connection), usage based billing, etc., the nominal transfer rate is probably in the range of 100 Mb/s. I’ve managed Internet connected email servers and despite what you believe, an email server is bandwidth hungry.
But my main point was that article’s stated numbers that did not state issues between the end point. It simply stated the line speed as 100 Mb/s and the actual transfer rate of .8 MB/s between the end points. And that’s just not true…
You either have the 100Mb/s line speed, or you don’t. If your transfer rate .8MB/s, you did not have the 100Mb/s line speed, but it does not mean the hackers could not have that.
The article states that for the first test (apparently a simple home or office connection):
“First, we used a 100 megabits-per-second (mbps) line to pull data from a one-gigabyte file to Amsterdam. The peak transfer speed was .8 MBps.”
This could be stated more clearly because, as you note, a 100 Mbps line if dedicated to the one user and if no other traffic and if the slowest link in the path, could at 100% efficiency support about 12 MBps. But this was presumably just a test of a typical home connection with slower links in the path, other traffic, and not perfectly efficient, and so just reached the lower rate.
The point is not a technical flaw but rather a point of clarification in the presentation.
“The ongoing U.S. media campaign against Russia has been so effective that otherwise intelligent people have been unable even to entertain the notion that they may have been totally misled by the intelligence community. The last time this happened in 2003, after a year of such propaganda, the U.S. attacked Iraq on fraudulent – not “mistaken” – intelligence.” As someone who was paying attention to the media in 2003, I remember the only ones being misled by the “intelligence community”–that is the neo-con elements pushing the wmd narrative–were the neo-cons not in on the con. Most of the public and much of the mainstream media had LOTS of doubts on the Iraqi links to 9/11. This is not the same situation as now.
I noticed in public reports of Obama’s last speech (following the VIPS memo to him) that he referred to the transfer of DNC files as a leak, not as a hack.
When it occurred, I then thought that ‘Pizza Gate’ may have been done by the same group who got behind the WaPo announcing our nation was plaqued by ‘Fake News’. I recall both themed events happened around, or within the same news cycle. I think the Pizza Gate episode gave Hillary more points than it took away, because the story went to such an extreme that’s it’s vagueness of sources left the public to believe that Pizza Gate was a story meant to hurt Hillary…poor Hillary.
What is startling is seeing this new campaign of demonizing Putin, and his interference in our American Elections. I can only urge you to go to their site ‘Committee to Investigate Russia, and listen to Morgan Freeman warn you how a retired KGB officer sabotaged our American Democracy, and this isn’t no movie script. Yeah run for the theater exits, because the Ruskies are coming to get ya….I wonder if the movie will be in 3D?
Advisory Board
Max Boot Military Historian and Foreign Policy Analyst
James Clapper Former Director of National Intelligence
Norman Ornstein American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar
Rob Reiner Director, Actor, and Activist
Charles Sykes Conservative Commentator
That’s the advisor board for ‘the Committee to Investigate Russia’.
Make no bones about it, this hate Russia campaign is the real deal. I don’t know why, but it is. Trust me, there will come a time that more people like Rob Reiner will have wished that they had not been so mean spirited over Putin. In case these studio liberals hasn’t noticed Russia and China aren’t necessarily losing on the world stage. If anything the move by many nations is underway to exchange minerals away from the US Dollar reserve. The earth never sets still, and situations do change, and like Rev Wright once said, ‘the chickens do come home to roost’. Besides these hyped up publicity rants accusing Putin ad campaigns never come with any real evidence anyway, so what’s the deal? It’s like a big budget Madison Avenue false flag ad campaign.
Here’s an easy piece to read about the threatening decline of the U.S. Petrodollar.
http://theantimedia.org/petrodollar-under-attack/
The country is falling apart and the authorities require many enemies to keep the public supporting the trillion dollar a year racket called the National Security State and they’ve gotten desperate. Eventually the stunning assortment of Big Lies will end in utter incoherence. Fortunately for us the factions within the Deep State are still fighting it out underneath the sheets–this, btw, started in earnest during Obama’s second term and Trump was the gasoline on this fire. This seems to be leading towards a period of political fragmentation in Washington and the population as a whole. I don’t even see a theoretical solution to any of this mess. One hopes that the finance oligarchs might pipe up and mention that we ought not to move too far in the direction of major war because it would be bad for business. The American people, frankly, don’t give a damn either way as long as they can continue to play with their toys.
We the American people can only hope that some day eventually an FDR will spring up amongst their elite class, and reach down to help pick up all the boats of the poor souls who suffered their oligarchical reign.
You make a good observation Chris, to the internal bureaucratic war being fought, for which has been probably going on for at least the last 3 years noticeably from the tidbits of news leaks which has revealed so. Obama went up against something from within the Pentagon with the Dier Ezzor U.S. Jet fighter attack, and more than once, if you recall, Kerry was sent back to Vienna by Obama to get it right with the P5+1 conference, and that’s just what we know. I do picture some pretty tough stuff going down between the bureaucracy and the executive office, and I feel it safe to say that the bureaucracy is winning…they have the corporate media.
In some ways I think the American public is held uselessly at bay, and that that apathy is probably befitting to the power of the population over their corporate welfare masters and mistresses. Usually I see things half full, and so I hope that the next generation is more than qualified to turn this ship of ours around…we will see.
Russia is growing organic food now. I believe that one day we will all be begging them for some real food.
You, my wife & me, and my daughters, would look forward to that day when we Americans finally put our foot down and demand we get real food on the shelves of our grocery chain..really. I cannot for the life of me understand to why we Americans put up with the whole idea of GMO. Talk about straying too far away from the Garden. Any garden, Eden, or otherwise is a far cry from what we should be ingesting into our system when we chow down with chemically laced food. The sad part is, hardly anyone is talking about it in our MSM. All the rumble of conversation is hiding out in the alternative internet media, and this revolution against GMO food is a huge issue. Stay on it Cookie. Joe
Climate change is also taking nutrients from our food.
Clearly, the Big Lie must stand regardless of the numerous facts hacking at its base to fell it, just as with all the Big Lies that came before. IMO, this Big Lie contains more potential destructive power than all of North Koreas nukes. If only the curtain could be pulled back for the entire populace to see!
Terry Gross had Hillary Clinton on for an interview regarding her new book a few days ago. Listening to Hillary, she still says with a tone of deep conviction that Russia conspired to rig the election against her by hacking her emails, based on everyone’s intelligence sources. There is not the slightest trace doubt in her mind whatsoever that her information was solid, despite it having been soundly refuted by now. It’s amazing how convincingly she lies. It’s something you have to hear to believe.
I would ask whether any of these pathological liars has ever, at any time, stated: “I was wrong. I made an error.” Same with Trump. When did he admit error? I say “pathological” because there is a sense of insanity in these persons as they cling to what they cannot think about or challenge.
NOT a fan of expresident Carter but I do give him credit for one, and only one, time he stood up and spoke like a man: That was after the military botched the Iran Hostage RESCUE MISSION.
While all his advisors, including leaders of both Houses who advised using military, all of them and the CIA said no sweat to what used to be the jOint Chiefs to privates all were pointing out guilt in others, including chopper manufacurer that is until Carter manned up and said; “The Failure of mission rest upon his shoulders, and not others because he ordered it.
Only political figure of note as President to admit to a mistake.
This when any American with an ounce of brains, especially exmilitary, knew the Military was to blame
Truth be told, Hillary was abducted by Aliens from some far off planet where the populations leaders are friends with Mitt Romney, and well anyway these Aliens were double agents working not only for Mitt but for Vladimir Putin behind Mitt’s back. Hillary now suffers PTSD from these episodes of abduction, so we should not be to gloating over her loss to Herr Donald, and making fun of her strange remarks…it’s not her speaking, Putin made the Aliens install something into her brain, the poor woman is alienated or something like that. Funny thing is on the Russian streets of Moscow, this is all common knowledge…he, he, Amerika. If you don’t believe just ask Rob Reiner.
The latest I heard on Hillary is that she is thinking to challenge the validity of the election she lost. How thick does the rind of exceptionalism mixed with money and power have to get? This out-of-my-way attitude probably will not lead on well.
If there was ever any doubt that Hillary was planning on starting a war with Russia that should be completely remedied by now.
She’s a sociopath so lying for her is easier than telling the truth.
It’s nice to hear from William Binney on the subject of his expertise. It would be even nicer if the intelligence community involved would acknowledge his advice and heed his recommendations.
I was remiss in not noticing Ray McGovern co-wrote the article…thank you both for keeping us posted!
Today’s articles link toward the Red Scare menace pursued by the US over a span of many decades. With Vietnam it was “the domino theory.” We were meant to believe the loss of Vietnam would mean more of the creeping adventurism to take over the world of “those commie bastards.” This indoctrination was so powerful it entered the genes and into the current generation of American sheep with the same false justifications. What we have now is another surge in this indoctrination rooted in fear and hysteria instead of cool reasoning, such as Binney and McGovern offer us here in this analysis.
We have learned in recent days, as with Mike Whitney at Counterpunch, that Rep. Rohrabacher is now being turned away by Gatekeeper General Kelly–that is, prevented from accessing Trump with a classic evastion that Rohrabacher’s information should go to “the intelligence agencies.” Spy novels cannot script what’s happened any more efficiently. Rohrabacher can somehow facilitate to Trump proof, via Assange, that the Russians did it meme is a hoax. I believe Assange has not asked for anything in return for this possibility. Even if Trump is aware of this development, and in spite of his earlier caterwauling about the phony Russian story, he has been tamed and neutralized, tail between his legs, bark though he may at official demons. The plain, stark truth is the intelligence agencies are as corrupt as the rest of the system. As with Vietnam and the domino theory it will take decades for this falsity to be revealed and acknowledged, as indeed the shame and disgrace of Vietnam was finally acknowledged in this country, including within the military. The effort to dig, expose, and keep digging must continue.
M Whitney on Rohrabacher blocked by Kelly from reaching Trump on info re Assange and who hacked/leaked re the election
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/19/rohrabacher-vs-the-machine/
Bulldonkey.
Rohrabacher approached Assange back in August with a deal in mind that if he got Trump to give Assange a pardon, with Assange release information about the source of the leaked emails. Not clear if he got that assurance from Assange and Rohrabacher supposedly told Trum then that he may have interesting information.
So it’s a quid pro quo …. maybe … if Rohrabacher can first convince Trump to give the preemptory pardon before any information is actually known or given by Assange ….
The Russian election influence story, by the way, doesn’t depend on who hacked the Clinton emails .. no matter how much Hillary would like to believe that. The email hack isn’t any less of a distraction than Trump’s ‘lock her up’ nonsense was.
Follow the money.
This is the MSM view, the craven seeking of pardon by Assange. Not so. Look deeper.
JM – we don’t know what Rohrabacher discussed with Assange. We’re just speculating. Still, he should be able to pass important information onto the President, if he has it. He shouldn’t be just told by Kelly to take it to the intelligence people, the very people who didn’t even investigate the DNC servers.
the email hack wasn’t even a hack. according to people close to assange. no matter. the whole point was that podesta and co had to run defense for themselves and hillary. and if one can give them credit where credit is due, you have to give it to them.
they were able to attach this scandal to the villification of russia that started(well, long ago really), in earnest, after us intentions in syria started and russia pushed back. the russians were starting to grumble with the targeting of lybia but it was not a country with a history of being in their sphere of influence.
does anyone remember the the bad press russia was getting during the olympics in sochi?
all smoke and mirrors…..
D5-5 – Your comments : “Even if Trump is aware of this development, and in spite of his earlier caterwauling about the phony Russian story, he has been tamed and neutralized, tail between his legs, bark though he may at official demons.”
It seems to me that Trump has been neutered so well already that it is possible, in the very near future, he may also start blaming the Russians for meddling in U.S. Elections. If he does not, they will work on him a bit more. Sometimes he even elicits sympathy when he speaks – like at U.N. – they write for him and he read it there as he has been told to do.
This is a quote from John Steppling’s article “Are you Now or Ever Have Been, a Secret agent of Vladimir Putin” in Counterpunch on March 6, 2017:
“The deep state doesn’t want The Donald. Honestly, Im not sure why, but they don’t. And they are teaching him to heel. Sit, roll over, piddle yourself, and we might let you stay. If not, well, see what happened to that chump Flynn. Or worse, those lesser humans like Qadaffi…son of a Bedouin sheep herder, or Saddam, the CIA enforcer contracted to rid his country of commies and other undesirables. Or Aristide, a slum priest. Or Milosevic. Or now Assad. ”
Who does not love life? Especially Trump, with all the good life he has.
“The role of media as officialdom’s trusted gatekeepers had been declining in influence for years, but the 2016 election served as the real wakeup call for a discredited establishment. Control of mass consciousness had been lost. This realization is at the root of all hysteria surrounding fake news and the intense drive to push the “Russia did it,” via state funded media and Facebook meme. The end goal of this narrative is to somehow get information back under control of the gatekeepers in order to keep alternative views hidden. The rabble must be silenced, lest it get too powerful.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-21/future-will-be-decentralized
I for one do not place any blame, PROVEN they did, attempt to influence our electoral mis-process, We been f’n around in their political, social, Industrial and cultual being for over 60 years.
AIPAC WHICH IS NO MORE THAN A POLITICAL ARM OF ISRAEL, as is the vast majority of voting dual citizenship Judaic community, and they have their testicles around every Americans nuts and tickling the clits as well, from military science to political science and let’s not forget religious studies. In every University or College of higher learning.
YET we kiss Israeli butts and worship their holier than Holy stolen nation.
Oldest rule in world , you f with me then do not be surprised if I try to f you up in return.
US populace beensittinv on lazy and cowardly butts letting Mommy and Daddy statist take care of them for so long they no longer recognize what child abusers are those parents.
They may not have hacked the DNC but the Russians were involved in analytic processes to influence the election to gain electoral votes in the 4 key states by targeting marginal female African American Hillary supporters in counties that Silicon Valley companies IDed. The targets were bombarded by the phoney Russian generated “pizza gate” child porn ring story that Hillary & Podesta were supposedly running.
HE’LL HILLARY AND PODESTA ARE PORN, WHEN IT COMES TO MORALITY OF ANY SORTS.
@ Gary: “… the Russians were involved in analytic processes to influence the election to gain electoral votes in the 4 key states by targeting marginal female African American Hillary supporters in counties that Silicon Valley companies IDed.”
Got some links to evidence establishing that fact?
Gary’s comment is so absurd I thought it was a joke.
Apparently, you don’t read deeply or far enough to stay on top of this story. Do your own research. I don’t post anything that isn’t a legit source.
So…what’s your source, hoss?
Gary-
It is ridiculous to think that Russia was behind pizza gate. Show me some hard evidence, instead of innuendo spewed by the likes of Rachel Madcow. Hillary lost because people don’t like her. She lies every time she opens her mouth. She is a warmonger and a shill for the globalists. She called blue collar workers she should have been trying to win over “deplorables”. She stayed with a philandering scumbag husband (who preyed on an intern his daughter’s age) instead of divorcing him. She sandbagged (with the help of the DNC) the democratic candidate that would have beat Trump by a landslide. Rather than look in the mirror, they attempt to place the blame on the evil Ruskies. And apparently you’re dumb enough to buy it.
Wow, yes! I’m too tired to write the truth you just wrote. Also, pizza gate came from WikiLeaks, so I believe every word of it.
Perfect comment/reply to Gary who seems to be delusional!
I want what you’re smoking thinking socialist Bernie would have won in a landslide. So you think lying to people telling them you’ll give them free this and free that when we can’t afford it would have won the election? While half of America is dumb (as evidenced by them voting Hillary), I don’t think they are that dumb to think socialism would ever work in a country of 320M when it has never worked on any scale anywhere.
Bernie would have (at best) returned us to FDR style (highly regulated) capitalism. It sure worked in the ’50’s and 60’s, the decades I grew up in. Bernie had the support of many independents, who were kept from voting in the primaries. Many of Trump’s votes were protest votes against Hillary. Bernie had very enthusiastic and large crowds at his rallies. He funded his entire campaign on small donations. We will never know for sure, but I suspect Bernie would have trounced Trump. As for affording free this and free that, I suspect it all depends on how you cut up the pie. We certainly manage to somehow afford the largest military budget on the planet.
FAR STYLE?
As I recollect the corporates made billions, from agricultural to mineral extraction. Construction firms to destruction products, Railroads to airlines, ALL in Partnership with government.
At wars end hundreds of thousands of females in every industry were aid off so men could have jobs.
Those more than “Nationalizing of Idustrial and government programs were beginning of rise of economy that today shows US is actally owned by the 2%ers.
NOT just material goods as for instance they own those who now have student loans until they reach the ever expanding retirementge limit.
Socialism will not, nor does not, end the avarice, greed and power of station by those that hold office within that political system.
Human nature is not by nature altruistic.
Just mouthing socialism without thinking out all the variances that there can be.
Under socialism you can have dictatorial powers by those who manage the system, as they will eventually demand conformity by limiti my LIBERTY and Freedoms. As they gradually and shrink to eliminAtion of say articles 1-10 of our Bill of Rights into no more than identity politics that makes it more important to not disturb the state.
Some had best read closer to what .any people’s rights are In those supposedly Socialist stTes.
Did the people’s of those states vote to receive re s and hundreds of thousands of i.mivrants that now threatentheir nation s culturAl roots.
Nation s that on the sly aided and individuals profited from US .was. murdering spree.
I doubt that there are enough Intelligent people in the US thAt cannot run own lives yet this k governments of people staffed by their peers can do it.
Well, we’re getting “free wars,” aren’t we? The United States has enough money to guarantee health care for every living American, for free college tuition to all who want to attend college, for clean water systems throughout the country, for an upgrade in the entire infrastructure and the electrical grid in the country, and even funding a Universal Basic Income for every American. Unfortunately, we are spending over the next decade more than 8 trillion dollars to maintain US military bases and installations operating in 130 foreign countries, and building weapons, bombs, bombers and “upgrading” nuclear weapons to maintain our position as the “#1 military in the world.” And what, exactly has THAT accomplished for us the past 20 years? Free indeed.
The misrepresentation of socialism and the planted paranoia around it are the principle reason this country has no real political process, the result of a hundred years or so of propaganda and suppression in favor of a national ideology.
Socialism: why do you keep using that word? I do not think that it means what you think it means. Seriously, though. Just just because some countries have had the word socialist in their name doesn’t mean that they actually were.
Trump & Trump Junior both admitted they were up to their necks with Russian investments. You shouldn’t need a source for that.
Russia was involved in “analytic processes”, you say? Narratives about pizza gate, too? And what degree of confidence do you have in these “assessments” ? When it’s disinformation you’re peddling, there can be no credible evidence, and you’ve supplied none.
Jared Kushner admitted in Fortune Mag that he consulted Silicon Valley’s Libertarian Paypal inventor to get the Trump campaign up to speed with analytics in order to run the Trump campaign. The Russians couldn’t ID the specific counties in Wi., Mich., Ohio & Pa. without help from Kushner’s analytics consultants.
That makes PERFECT sense. Now I understand how the KGB meddled in the U.$. election.
I wonder if the U.$. has done that to anyone..? Anyone in Europe perhaps..? Maybe France? http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/02/wikileaks-exposes-cia-interference-french-presidential-elections-president-obama/
I’m interested in how the German election is going at the moment. http://www.thegoldwater.com/news/1784-Wikileaks-VAULT7-Set-To-Release-Wiretapped-Communications-Of-Merkel
You’re so naive to think that if someone indicts the Russians for influencing the election that it somehow means we would agree with US imperialism & its actions overthrowing elections.
Proof, please.
Or at least a link to a reputable source that I can check out and which in turn leads somewhere convincing.
Or it didn’t happen (Occam’s razor).
Thanks.
I found the source why can’t you. Quit reading only what you want to hear.
Is this the best the “experts” at Atlantic Council could come up with re “Russian meddling?” Still relying on your fraudster Dmitri Alperovich and idiot Eliot Higgins?
Got evidence of all this?
Of course, I just described it.
Oh yes, that’s why Hillary Clinton lost the election. Thanks for reminding us.
You’re welcome.
That’s right but you forgot that they are also trying to steal your bodily fluids. What a numpty!
I would love to see the source for this Gary
Gary, that was sarcasm, right? o.0
(I have to ask, it’s hard to tell anymore.)
Could forgive folks for believing child porn charges when we all witnessed David Brock trolls spamming Bernie FB pages with child porn in an attempt to get them shut down.
The pizzagate incident surely cost credibility points for whoever did it. What folly, to barge into a pizza restaurant, and attempt to shoot your way into the basement of a building that had no basement, to find child prostitutes. If you want to find child prostitutes, go no further than the nearest Mexican enclave.
Evidence?
Good luck getting anyone in DC to admit they lied, or ever did anything wrong ever.
OOPs , that’s “dig” not dog. sorry
Doggedly digging for the truth?
DOGGEDLY DIG FOR THE TRUTH?
snoop, doggy, dogging for the truth….
Dog works. Woof.
I thank God daily that there are still people out there who dog for the truth. Thank You!
Yes, William Binney and Ray McGovern have done an excellent service in their analysis and letters.
The presentation needs a reason that the 100 Mbps trans-Atlantic test line is standard, likely, or maximum performance, at least for the DNC LAN.
The public is certainly doing a lot of begging for info from NSA/FBI/CIA which is necessary to public policy making, and getting nothing but propaganda and excuses. It would be nice to know why we are told nothing about the DNC servers, the Awan group’s capabilities, actual data movements from DNC, etc.
But keeping the public guessing is necessary to the Russia-gate purpose of distraction.
Russia-gate = Israel-gate, a smokescreen to conceal zionist control of the DNC and US mass media, which was revealed at the same time.
i would agree and say that these two guys have more integrity than almost everyone who has ever written on the subject. especially binney.
funny how most of those pulitzer winners resemble the misdeads of pulitzer himself…..
Well said and spot on Sam! I truly hope americans, and the rest of the world for that matter, wake up sooner than later that pro-israeli zionist are pulling many of the strings and need to be completely purged from our lands.
“But keeping the public guessing is necessary to the Russia-gate purpose of distraction.
Russia-gate = Israel-gate, a smokescreen to conceal zionist control of the DNC and US mass media, which was revealed at the same time.”
Absolutely yes. That goes for the anti-BDS legislation as well. It’s all determined with no media scrutiny whatsoever. And now we have the NFL. Just keeps on getting weirder.