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Senate Intelligence Committee leaders: Russia did interfere in 2016 elections
Trump can tweet "hoax" all he wants, but the US intelligence community (FBI/CIA/NSA) and now the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee are all in agreement that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election through various means ... server/computer hacking, data dumps (Wikileaks/Guccifer 2.0/DCLeaks), 24/7 troll facilities, social media campaigns (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram), probing state registration databases, and Russian international-media disinformation (RT/Sputnik/TASS).
It is impossible at this time to quantify the degree as to how much, if at all, this multi-faceted meddling influenced the election. But Moscow is not investing such resources and spending precious rubles on intrusion/influence programs that they believe cannot yield positive results. Think of it another way. Russian-intelligence hackers are currently probing/mapping pathways to digitally enter and seize control of such critical US infrastructure facilities as nuclear plants, critical electric-grid control junctions, massive electrical step-up/step-down transformers, hydroelectric dams, pipeline control facilities, etc. We can consider the Russian 2016 election meddling efforts in much the same way. These efforts weren't intended to massively subvert the election. The Russian probes were intended to get the lay of the election-land, test campaign security, determine if campaign aids can be influenced, reinvent Western journalism as fake news, and initiate chaos and divisiveness among the American electorate (stoke racial/ethnic divisions, ramp up anti-immigration sentiment, sow mistrust of all Muslims, etc.) Some of these Russian efforts were only partially successful and other efforts far exceeded the Kremlin's wildest expectations. You can bet the farm that the Russian GRU/FSB intelligence services are pouring over the 2016 election data to better 'shape the battlefield', and plan deeper and more intense venue's of attack in 2018 and really crank it up for 2020.
By Karoun Demirjian
October 4, 2017
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R/NC) left, and Vice Chairman
Mark R. Warner (D/VA) hold a joint news conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday largely endorsed the findings of the intelligence community that Russia sought to sway the 2016 U.S. elections through a hacking and influence campaign, and they called for a “more aggressive, whole-of-government approach” to ensure future elections are not similarly compromised. “There is consensus among members and staff that we trust the conclusions of the ICA,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee’s chairman, said at Wednesday news conference, referring to the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia was behind hackings of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign director John Podesta’s email account and had attempted to exploit public opinion by sowing false information, much of it through fake social media accounts. Burr also said that “the issue of collusion is still open” and would not be resolved until the committee’s work was done. He said that a deadline for the committee was the looming start of the 2018 primary season. “We’ve got to make our facts, as it related to Russia’s involvement in our election, before the primaries getting started in 2018,” Burr said.
The committee has lately been focusing on the role social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter played in the dissemination of false or misleading ads and stories planted or otherwise backed by Russian operatives. Warner said that the tech giants were beginning to take the issue of Russian meddling more seriously and that the committee was “seeing increasing levels of cooperation.” “I was concerned at first that some of these social media companies did not take this threat seriously,” Warner said. “I believe they are recognizing that threat now.” The committee recently received over 3,000 ads from Facebook detailing the content of measures Russia had purchased to appear on the platform during the election. Burr added that the committee would not release the content of those ads, though he added that the committee would be “fine” with any of the social media companies choosing to release the content of documents and other information they had turned over to the committee themselves.
Trump can tweet "hoax" all he wants, but the US intelligence community (FBI/CIA/NSA) and now the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee are all in agreement that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election through various means ... server/computer hacking, data dumps (Wikileaks/Guccifer 2.0/DCLeaks), 24/7 troll facilities, social media campaigns (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram), probing state registration databases, and Russian international-media disinformation (RT/Sputnik/TASS).
It is impossible at this time to quantify the degree as to how much, if at all, this multi-faceted meddling influenced the election. But Moscow is not investing such resources and spending precious rubles on intrusion/influence programs that they believe cannot yield positive results. Think of it another way. Russian-intelligence hackers are currently probing/mapping pathways to digitally enter and seize control of such critical US infrastructure facilities as nuclear plants, critical electric-grid control junctions, massive electrical step-up/step-down transformers, hydroelectric dams, pipeline control facilities, etc. We can consider the Russian 2016 election meddling efforts in much the same way. These efforts weren't intended to massively subvert the election. The Russian probes were intended to get the lay of the election-land, test campaign security, determine if campaign aids can be influenced, reinvent Western journalism as fake news, and initiate chaos and divisiveness among the American electorate (stoke racial/ethnic divisions, ramp up anti-immigration sentiment, sow mistrust of all Muslims, etc.) Some of these Russian efforts were only partially successful and other efforts far exceeded the Kremlin's wildest expectations. You can bet the farm that the Russian GRU/FSB intelligence services are pouring over the 2016 election data to better 'shape the battlefield', and plan deeper and more intense venue's of attack in 2018 and really crank it up for 2020.
