CIA Says Soviets Helped Trump Win Election

[FORD]

What a horrible waste of stout.

[vandeleur]

Ha!

They should make the bottles extra big so it looks like you have little hands when you drink it

[Von Halen]

They should make the bottles extra big so it looks like you have little hands when you drink it

They should make the bottles explode in Liberals hands. Of course, it would have to be a large enough explosion to kill them, so nobody has to listen to their incessant whining anymore.

[vandeleur]

They should make the bottles explode in Liberals hands. Of course, it would have to be a large enough explosion to kill them, so nobody has to listen to their incessant whining anymore.

What's a liberal

[FORD]

What's a liberal

[cadaverdog]

What's a liberal

A liberal is a critter that claims it believes in democracy but only when it works in their favor.

[FORD]

[Seshmeister]

[FORD]

[Nickdfresh]

U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack
by WILLIAM M. ARKIN, KEN DILANIAN and CYNTHIA MCFADDEN

U.S. intelligence officials now believe with "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.

Putin's objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to "split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn't depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore," the official said.

Ultimately, the CIA has assessed, the Russian government wanted to elect Donald Trump. The FBI and other agencies don't fully endorse that view, but few officials would dispute that the Russian operation was intended to harm Clinton's candidacy by leaking embarrassing emails about Democrats.

The latest intelligence said to show Putin's involvement goes much further than the information the U.S. was relying on in October, when all 17 intelligence agencies signed onto a statement attributing the Democratic National Committee hack to Russia.

The statement said officials believed that "only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities." That was an intelligence judgment based on an understanding of the Russian system of government, which Putin controls with absolute authority.

Now the U.S has solid information tying Putin to the operation, the intelligence officials say. Their use of the term "high confidence" implies that the intelligence is nearly incontrovertible.

"It is most certainly consistent with the Putin that I have watched and used to work with when I was an ambassador and in the government," said Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.

"He has had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, that has been known for a long time because of what she said about his elections back in the parliamentary elections of 2011. He wants to discredit American democracy and make us weaker in terms of leading the liberal democratic order. And most certainly he likes President-elect Trump's views on Russia," McFaul added. Clinton cast doubt on the integrity of Russia's elections.

As part of contingency planning for potential retaliation against Russia, according to officials, U.S. intelligence agencies have stepped up their probing into his personal financial empire.

American officials have concluded that Putin's network controls some $85 billion worth of assets, officials told NBC News.

Neither the CIA nor the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would comment.

A former CIA official who worked on Russia told NBC News that it's not clear the U.S. can embarrass Putin, given that many Russians are already familiar with allegations he has grown rich through corruption and has ordered the killings of political adversaries.

But a currently serving U.S. intelligence official said that there are things Putin is sensitive about, including anything that makes him seem weak.

The former CIA official said the Obama administration may feel compelled to respond before it leaves office.

"This whole thing has heated up so much," he said. "I can very easily see them saying, `We can't just say wow, this was terrible and there's nothing we can do.'"

NBC News

[FORD]

[FORD]

[vandeleur]

Russia has responded to America expelling 38 diplomats for charges of spying and internet warefare by changing all the Whitehouse passwords.

[cadaverdog]

Since I'm not as rabid as some here when it comes to politics I've given Obama the benefit of the doubt on quite a few things including Obamacare but this is just stupid. As far as I know nobody has proved Russia has done jack shit.
Now I'm reading how Obama was compelled to punish Russia because he assumes Trump wouldn't. Meanwhile Putin has denied his advisers suggestions to react to Obama's sanctions while suggesting this is an attempt by Obama to screw with Trump.
Sounds like something Obama and the DNC would do.

[saint]

Since I'm not as rabid as some here when it comes to politics I've given Obama the benefit of the doubt on quite a few things including Obamacare but this is just stupid. As far as I know nobody has proved Russia has done jack shit.
Now I'm reading how Obama was compelled to punish Russia because he assumes Trump wouldn't. Meanwhile Putin has denied his advisers suggestions to react to Obama's sanctions while suggesting this is an attempt by Obama to screw with Trump.
Sounds like something Obama and the DNC would do.

This is something that strikes me as a european as strange. US has always treated communism as their worst enemy, but now all of a sudden Mr Putin is a god guy?