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WaPo: Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault

Tovarisc

Member
Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.

Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race.

But it went further. The intelligence captured Putin’s specific instructions on the operation’s audacious objectives — defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump.

At that point, the outlines of the Russian assault on the U.S. election were increasingly apparent. Hackers with ties to Russian intelligence services had been rummaging through Democratic Party computer networks, as well as some Republican systems, for more than a year. In July, the FBI had opened an investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. And on July 22, nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee were dumped online by WikiLeaks.
The material was so sensitive that CIA Director John Brennan kept it out of the President’s Daily Brief, concerned that even that restricted report’s distribution was too broad. The CIA package came with instructions that it be returned immediately after it was read. To guard against leaks, subsequent meetings in the Situation Room followed the same protocols as planning sessions for the Osama bin Laden raid.

It took time for other parts of the intelligence community to endorse the CIA’s view. Only in the administration’s final weeks in office did it tell the public, in a declassified report, what officials had learned from Brennan in August — that Putin was working to elect Trump.
Obama also approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russia’s infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow. The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.

In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy. It was a case that took almost no time to solve, traced to the Kremlin through cyber-forensics and intelligence on Putin’s involvement. And yet, because of the divergent ways Obama and Trump have handled the matter, Moscow appears unlikely to face proportionate consequences.

Those closest to Obama defend the administration’s response to Russia’s meddling. They note that by August it was too late to prevent the transfer to WikiLeaks and other groups of the troves of emails that would spill out in the ensuing months. They believe that a series of warnings — including one that Obama delivered to Putin in September — prompted Moscow to abandon any plans of further aggression, such as sabotage of U.S. voting systems.
But other administration officials look back on the Russia period with remorse.

“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” said a former senior Obama administration official involved in White House deliberations on Russia. “I feel like we sort of choked.”
The Washington Post is withholding some details of the intelligence at the request of the U.S. government.

In early August, Brennan alerted senior White House officials to the Putin intelligence, making a call to deputy national security adviser Avril Haines and pulling national security adviser Susan Rice aside after a meeting before briefing Obama along with Rice, Haines and McDonough in the Oval Office.

Officials described the president’s reaction as grave. Obama “was deeply concerned and wanted as much information as fast as possible,” a former official said. “He wanted the entire intelligence community all over this.”
and a lot more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...utin-election-hacking/?utm_term=.2dbdc48ebdae
 
Putin needs to pay for this, hard.
Before concerning yourself with the source, correct the result.
Given the staggering amount of evidence, the current election result should be considered void, a transition government should be put in place, and new elections should be scheduled for early (Jan//feb 2018)..
That's what a sensible approach is, but 'murica you're more concerned about punishment and retaliation than fixing the problem at hand...
 
Putin won.

Putin will only win if sanctions get lifted.

The EU is extending economic sanctions. They hacked Macron and failed miserably, they will try the same with Germany but there is no party that could get so many votes to help them lift sanctions.

His strategy is known now so everyone will react accordingly.

The US won't lift them especially not with all the Russia fuckery going on, for now.

While he won the sprint last year, he'll lose the marathon. Meddling this much in other countries reeks of desperation.
 

Kettch

Member
The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.

I guess that was a waste of effort.
 

Pixieking

Banned
HOW search failed to find that........

ffs :(

Not mad at you, pissed at my shitty searchfu on GAF and how it keeps having me post dupes even when I try search before posting.

lol... I know what you mean - I've started specially refreshing the first page of OT to make sure I'm not just posting a dupe. :D
 
I guess that was a waste of effort.
While Germany immediately put together a plan for a 10,000+ cyber security unit the USA will have to wait until 2020 at minimum (2024 if Trump wins again) just to begin making a plan. You just know that is the sign of a democracy on the emergency table. It wouldn't surprise me if China decides to throw their hat into the cyberwarfare ring come 2020 seeing as the USA just lies on it's belly for Russia.
 
Why reveal (to trump) there are cyber malware ready for use, that does not need his approval?

Is this a sort of obvious trap like he will read the story and immediately demand the IC withdraw all such malware from Russian infrastructure ?

And Mitch McConnell comes off like a dick. Again. If he had been told it was Germany trying to tilt things to Clinton he would have asked for a tactical nuke.
 

dan2026

Member
Russia successfully smashed a massive hole in America democracy and elected their own puppet lunatic.

Kinda incredible that they pulled this off so perfectly.
 

Pixieking

Banned
While Germany immediately put together a plan for a 10,000+ cyber security unit the USA will have to wait until 2020 at minimum (2024 if Trump wins again) just to begin making a plan. You just know that is the sign of a democracy on the emergency table. It wouldn't surprise me if China decides to throw their hat into the cyberwarfare ring come 2020 seeing as the USA just lies on it's belly for Russia.

I said this a little over a month ago, in PoliGAF:

I'm tempted to say that the EU takes this [US withdrawing from Paris Accord] as a sign that it's time to move towards a federal "United States of Europe", with closer integration in things like military, policing and energy creation and use. If it does, then it's likely the Western world order will be led by Germany, with China being their major East Asian partner. That contrasts with the post World War 2 power-couple of the US and Japan.

There is absolutely no way that China doesn't already have a plan for pushing itself as a cyberwarfare ally of the West. In terms of world affairs, Russia is too dangerous a country to ally with, and whilst they're focusing on the US now, there's no guarantee they won't look to doing something in/against China in the next 5 years. Probably make noises about an independent Tibet, I would think, as it would be a good way to destabilise Chinese efforts in the region, whilst looking like a Good Guy to the dumber people in the West (Jill Stein and Susan Sarandon, say).
 
They don't have a hope with China
Russia is a minnow with nukes and only knows how to screw with democracies.
China is laughing at all this it accelerates her plan to be pre-eminent. China can get on with pouring money and know-how into the developing world while the fractured west struggles with its little demon, Putin.

(Off topic - china just killed its live streaming economy. All those social media stars earning a fortune, cut off at the knees).
 
How did that happen?

The article says they got sick of censoring them so they ordered the platforms like weibo to ban it. And they will.
China would not put up with any inbound Russian internet trickery. Not that they have an electoral process that can be screwed with. But putin wouldn't dare meddle with Chinese language fake news the control is too tight.
 

Deepwater

Member
Obama is a little bitch-made after reading all this.

Obama&Co: yeah this hacking stuff is serious but I'm sure Clinton is gonna win so ehhh

Everybody on 11/9: 😨😨😨😨😨
 
Obama is a little bitch-made after reading all this.

Obama&Co: yeah this hacking stuff is serious but I'm sure Clinton is gonna win so ehhh

Everybody on 11/9: 😨😨😨😨😨

Did you read the article?
He tried but the GOP pulled the same shit that got the Supreme Court seat held open for a year waiting for the black man to be evicted.
 

Deepwater

Member
Did you read the article?
He tried but the GOP pulled the same shit that got the Supreme Court seat held open for a year waiting for the black man to be evicted.

Considering I paraphrased directly from the article, take a guess?

He was too scared of appearing to play politics in what should have been a priority 1 national security incident. And then conceded to the GOP leadership RE: the response (in his usual fashion) because he didn't want to rock the boat.
 
Did you read the article?
He tried but the GOP pulled the same shit that got the Supreme Court seat held open for a year waiting for the black man to be evicted.

"I'm really worried about the GOP saying mean things about me, better say nothing about this monumental attack on American democracy by outside forces."

Honestly we failed Obama but Obama failed us, too. He took a risk on keeping it quiet for fear of implied consequences and now because of that we have to deal with real ones.
 
Obama will always be the caver in chief for me. His presidency got off to a bad start when he let Glenn Beck influence his hiring process.
 

Z3M0G

Member
11diplo_web2-master768.jpg
 

WedgeX

Banned
I feel like Trump voters would not have cared or would not have believed Obama, if the Jade Helm conspiracy theorists are any indication.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Putin will only win if sanctions get lifted.

The EU is extending economic sanctions. They hacked Macron and failed miserably, they will try the same with Germany but there is no party that could get so many votes to help them lift sanctions.

His strategy is known now so everyone will react accordingly.

The US won't lift them especially not with all the Russia fuckery going on, for now.

While he won the sprint last year, he'll lose the marathon. Meddling this much in other countries reeks of desperation.
The current administration doesn't give a fuck. Their stance on this is the Russia stuff doesn't exist, and they have a good relationship with Russia. They'll lift them because they have the power to do so and there is little to no recourse for them.
 
I feel like Trump voters would not have cared or would not have believed Obama, if the Jade Helm conspiracy theorists are any indication.

Exactly. People voted Trump because the either despised Hilary, or despised Mexicans, Gays, etc etc. They believe everything that comes out of Trumps mouth, all he'd have to do is say "Fake news" and Trump/Russia means nothing to his voters. Theres an insane cult of personality around Trump that seemed to start off as a joke, possibly on 4chan (as there really does seem to be a massive crossover audience for Trump with 4chan posters, T_D is basically 4chan but solely dedicated to Trump), and it just snowballed and now the snowball is bigger than the fucking planet.
 

Realyst

Member
Great article. This is definitely gonna have to be a three-season HBO series once this drama is all over.

I hate that the Obama administration didn't have precogs tell them that Trump would win the election if they didn't act like politics and the integrity of the democratic process didn't matter. That, plus partisanship reared its ugly head from republicans in congressional leadership roles, as well as shitty state representatives (the SoS in Georgia).

The interesting part of the article is that we currently have a bomb waiting to go off in Russia, as soon as they determine when it would be best to activate it (maybe around the next Russian presidential election, or once Trump is impeached/resigns).
 

Cagey

Banned
A response isn't about getting voters to reject one candidate and favor another. Come on.

America's response is about not fucking standing for a historical enemy committing covert acts of war against us.

That's why Obama's response was weak and why the current administration is so terrifying in allowing this to pass.
 

Realyst

Member
Thanks Obummer. Chickened out at the wrong time.
I wouldn't call him "chicken" for this, because really no one in his administration (nor the Intelligence community, even) thought that the GOP would play politics with this revelation of Russian meddling. McTurtle was, most likely, the main one blowing this stuff off. Maybe because he has a clear conflict of interest?
 
And yet a significant of American's think this was all not real.
Twenty years from now those idiots will look back and realise how stupidly blinded they were in the name of Emperor Trump.

Obama's hands were tied too. If he came out with the Russia attacks he would have fed the Trump narrative of a rigged system to his acolytes.

This whole thing is rather insane.
 
I wouldn't call him "chicken" for this, because really no one in his administration (nor the Intelligence community, even) thought that the GOP would play politics with this revelation of Russian meddling. McTurtle was, most likely, the main one blowing this stuff off. Maybe because he has a clear conflict of interest?

I get why he did it. I just completely disagree. His duty is first and foremost to the American people and he failed us by not bringing this to light.
 

Morts

Member
The assumption that Trump couldn't win caused so many bad decisions.

And now half the country is cool with all of this, because he'll sign their laws.
 
OléGunner;241614393 said:
And yet a significant of American's think this was all not real.
Twenty years from now those idiots will look back and realise how stupidly blinded they were in the name of Emperor Trump.

Obama's hands were tied too. If he came out with the Russia attacks he would have fed the Trump narrative of a rigged system to his acolytes.

This whole thing is rather insane.

Who cares? What were they going to do, revolt?
 
Who cares? What were they going to do, revolt?

I just mean it could've looked like him interfering in the political process to nearly half the country, so his position was understandably tough.
Clearly that's what Barack thought too because he didn't bring it up until the end of the year iirc.

But yeah sure I agree, he should've just come out with all the info earlier on, consequences be damned.
 

Lowmelody

Member
Peaceful transition of power
Peaceful transition of power
Peaceful transition of power
Peaceful transition of power
Peaceful transition of power

Repeating it enough makes it all ok. Like laudanum.
 

Zyae

Member
Considering I paraphrased directly from the article, take a guess?

He was too scared of appearing to play politics in what should have been a priority 1 national security incident. And then conceded to the GOP leadership RE: the response (in his usual fashion) because he didn't want to rock the boat.

lol...


He would have looked like he was interfering in the election. Especially with the Loretta Lynch stuff.
 

capslock

Is jealous of Matlock's emoticon
It was a no-win situation, and with the exception of Laden, Obama's default mode is to not make bold moves, so not really surprised.
 

UCBooties

Member
I sympathize with those who view Obama as a disappointment. His great flaw was his need for bipartisanship and it took him far too long to see the modern Republican Party's opposition to him as the existential threat it was.

But I do think that speaking openly about this was a no-win situation for him. It would have been perceived as election meddling because we now have a propaganda system dedicated solely to advancing right-wing causes and about half of our voting population believes whatever that propaganda system pushes out. I think he was trying to preserve democratic norms and hoping that the country could institutionally and covertly resist the attempts of foreign influence.

I think he probably thinks that getting openly involved would have caused even greater damage, possibly even undermining the entire election process and faith in a peaceful transition of power. As always, Obama had too much faith in the better angels of American citizens. He was wrong, and he failed.

What a terrible decision to have to make and live with.
 

99Luffy

Banned
So all that stuff about how fraud in the voting system was impossible or extremely negligible was just fake news?
 
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