Pointing the Finger

The editors of the Wall Street Journal echo the point about the Russian indictments I’ve been making, in their case pointing the finger at the CIA:

The indictment also makes us wonder what the Obama Administration was doing amid all of this. Where were top Obama spooks James Clapper and John Brennan ? Their outrage became public only after their candidate lost the election. If they didn’t know what was going on, why not? And if they did, why didn’t they let Americans in on the secret? President Obama sanctioned Russia for its meddling only after the election.

The difference between the FBI and the CIA is that the FBI has an affirmative responsibility for dealing with domestic espionage while the CIA is proscribed from such efforts.

They also make the following prescription:

he indictment’s details underscore Russia’s malicious anti-American purposes. An authoritarian regime spent tens of millions of dollars to erode public trust in American democracy. As Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) put it Friday, “Putin’s shadow war is aimed at undermining Americans’ trust in our institutions. We know Russia is coming back in 2018 and 2020—we have to take the threat seriously.”

All of which makes the White House reaction on Friday strangely muted. Its statement understandably focused on the lack of collusion evidence and made one reference to “the agendas of bad actors, like Russia.” But given how much Russia’s meddling has damaged his first year in office, Mr. Trump should publicly declare his outrage at Russia on behalf of the American people. The Kremlin has weakened his Presidency. He should make Russia pay a price that Mr. Obama never did.

with which I concur.

13 comments… add one
  • CuriousOnlooker Link

    What price can we make Russia and Putin pay? Do we want to start a shooting war, that’s about the only tool the US has left.

    In case anyone forgot; tensions are already very high; Russia is just coming out of a 2 year recession that US sanctions contributed to.

    Russia did not just randomly decide to be hostile to the US, it was a reaction to perceived meddling in their near abroad in Ukraine and Georgia and their own 2011 election. When 80% of Russians continue to support Putin; sanctions won’t change Russian incentives or motivations.

    I am of two minds; yes we ought to be more aggressive to foreign aggression; but in Russia’s case changing her motivation requires lowering tensions and figuring out a durable solution to the Ukraine and other flash points in her near abroad.

  • Just to be clear I think that our activities should be targeted at our own behavior not Russia’s. If the problem is social media companies, start restraining social media companies. Wherever the problem is, deal with it.

  • Modulo Myself Link

    The Russian troll factory had been reported on. If the FBI didn’t read Adrian Chen’s article in 2015 in the Times, that’s on them. The question is what should the FBI do. Does cybersecurity mean that the comments sections of a newspaper need to be protected as well as electrical grids? I can see many practical reasons for not having security agencies out there looking for foreign trolls amidst the legit trolls.

    Also, Mitch McConnell was fighting the Obama administration the entire way. Obama and the FBI should have told him to go to hell, but the Republican party knew that the Russians were interfering and they were basically for any help they could get. So I’m guessing there’s no investigation of the FBI forthcoming. Also, what sane person would accept this job from Donald Trump? Unless you tell a fat idiot exactly what he wants to hear, suffer massive character assassination. Sounds perfect…

  • CuriousOnlooker Link

    If Obama had asked Mitch McConnell with the lines, “we need your help, we will publically admit we screwed up in meddling with Ukraine, now Russia are F***ing mad and can do a lot more then we thought, let’s get this out there and start a congressional investigation. And oh yeah, the Democratic campaign is working with the Ukraine government to dig up dirt on Trump”, maybe Mitch McConnell would have been a lot more helpful.

    Which it really boils down to is how much is this about scoring partisan points and how much is it about the chasity of American elections?

  • Roy Lofquist Link

    Horseshit.

    The Russians have been actively messing with us since 1919 when C. E. Ruthenberg founded the Communist Party USA in New York City. If the Russians hadn’t tried to mess with the 2016 election we’d be wondering what the Hell they were up to.

    All the troubles that “Muh Russia” has caused for Trump are deliberate actions of the opposition headed by the Clintons who have personally benefited to the tune of millions of dollars from Russia.

  • walt moffett Link

    While I’d like to see a ad salescritter in jail for aiding and abetting, doubtful that will happen. A bit of bluster, putting Russia on double secret probation seems the only options left if we want Russia at least neutral while the Middle East/Iran, the DPRK et al are on the stove.

  • jan Link

    “The Kremlin has weakened his Presidency. He should make Russia pay a price that Mr. Obama never did.”

    IMO, the POTUS would serve his own presidency better by personally accentuating the amount of turmoil created by Russia, not only during the 2016 election, but in continuing to impose confusion and political animosity during his first year in office. This would put the spotlight more on a common enemy, Russia, rather than his partisan naysayers, the dems.

    At least for me, the right/left feud is becoming too vicious and polarizing, promising an outcome that will be of little good to anybody, no matter what their party affiliation or ideology happens to be.

  • steve Link

    I strongly suspect Russia has been doing stuff for many years, they just got caught this time. So have we for that matter. Not sure what Obama should have done since revealing what Russia was doing would have also made it clear that they were, at the time, working against Clinton. That would have been seen solely as partisan by half of the country.

    Like above, not sure what sanctions you have in mind. Not much we can do to directly hurt Russia. What level of certainty do you want to achieve before we start acting against social media companies? Do we really have the tools to stop a small troll group? This strikes me as all too similar to trying to stop the lone terrorist. We can rant about it, but the acts we would need to take to stop it would not be tolerated by anyone.

    Steve

  • All of the activities in question took place in 2014-2016, steve. Either they’re of vital concern or they aren’t. If they were known about (which they were) but aren’t of vital concern, well and good. If they are of vital concern now, why weren’t they of vital concern when they were going on?

  • Roy Lofquist Link

    The only way they would be of concern is if the FBI bothered with them. There was a time when I was with a crew that bopped around the Middle East and Africa. Whenever we hit town the OIC would have a meeting with the local CIA guy in an out of the way restaurant or watering hole. The CIA guy was really just an embassy clerk delivering personal mail that had caught up with us. It gave the locals something to do. We used to play a little game of “spot the tail” when the Captain left the hotel.

  • CuriousOnlooker Link

    Here’s a random list of things Americans could do to reduce incentives and means for other countries to interfere in our elections.

    1. Ban dual citizenship
    2. Ban campaign contributions from any individual, organization or corporation that reports on tax returns it has income or financial assets overseas
    3. Replace social security with a modern biometric id
    4. Require secure ID verification to open a social media account
    5. Prohibit the further expansion of NATO

  • I’d support all of those and in fact have mentioned all of them at one time or another here.

  • CuriousOnlooker Link

    I’d quip those ideas are less popular in DC and in political commentary circles as Jeb was with Republican primary voters.

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