CBS News is reporting that American intelligence officials have said that it is likely that Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in the hacking of DNC emails:
American intelligence officials say they are convinced that Russian hacking of our presidential election was approved by President Vladimir Putin. Sources confirm to CBS News they believe Putin was aware of attacks that began in July of last year.
An official investigation is still going on. But this is the first time the hacking that plagued the Democratic National Committee until Election Day has been linked to Putin, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.
The hacks were so widespread and sustained over such a long period of time that U.S. Intelligence sources say it could not have been carried out without the knowledge of senior levels of the Kremlin. CBS News has learned that investigators believe the initial cyberattack involved thousands of malicious emails aimed at the U.S. government, military and political organizations.
It is unclear whether this represents new information or is a more forceful restating of information previously disclosed.
At The Intercept Sam Biddle remarks:
The gist of the Case Against Russia goes like this: The person or people who infiltrated the DNC’s email system and the account of John Podesta left behind clues of varying technical specificity indicating they have some connection to Russia, or at least speak Russian. Guccifer 2.0, the entity that originally distributed hacked materials from the Democratic party, is a deeply suspicious figure who has made statements and decisions that indicate some Russian connection. The website DCLeaks, which began publishing a great number of DNC emails, has some apparent ties to Guccifer and possibly Russia. And then there’s Wikileaks, which after a long, sad slide into paranoia, conspiracy theorizing, and general internet toxicity, has made no attempt to mask its affection for Vladimir Putin and its crazed contempt for Hillary Clinton. (Julian Assange has been stuck indoors for a very, very long time.) If you look at all of this and sort of squint, it looks quite strong indeed, an insurmountable heap of circumstantial evidence too great in volume to dismiss as just circumstantial or mere coincidence.
But look more closely at the above and you can’t help but notice all of the qualifying words: Possibly, appears, connects, indicates. It’s impossible (or at least dishonest) to present the evidence for Russian responsibility for hacking the Democrats without using language like this. The question, then, is this: Do we want to make major foreign policy decisions with a belligerent nuclear power based on suggestions alone, no matter how strong?
I continue to believe that we should have a bipartisan commission investigating this.
Be nice to read a report that will give us the facts instead of the current whispers from unknown sources, conjecture, wild mass guessing, partisan spin and Wroth waxing Jennings.
Wouldn’t it?
Wiki says that they got the emails directly from a DNC insider. No Russians were involved.
We should have an investigation as an expose on shoddy cyber security practices, and why Obama previously thought it unworthy of investigation, but not as a political exercise. I hold out little hope for any illumination from an inquiry, as that’s not the point of raising the issue today.
Based on the press reporting I’ve seen, it doesn’t appear that the intel community has direct evidence of Putin involvement. It’s judgments based on unknown evidence, but the judgements are probably accurate. It would be surprising if Putin was not at least informed (thereby given tacit approval) about cyber operations against the US and especially those targeting internal politics.
Not that I think it matters. Putin is Russia’s leader and therefore he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his government. It’s doubtful we’ll ever know his level of personal knowledge or involvement with any degree of certainty but that’s ultimately of limited relevance to any US response.
I was born in Moscow and old enough to remember even Stalin’s times. There was no stronger pretext for putting someone in jail than to say that he is an American or Japanese, British, capitalist agent. The proof? The proof was that Pravda said so.