Category: Spies, Spy Allegations
NEWSWATCH: “French Cyber Security Leader: No Trace of Russian Hacking Group in Emmanuel Macron Campaign Leaks” – AP
“[Guillaume Poupard] … head of the French government’s cyber security agency [ANSSI], which investigated leaks from … #Macron’s election campaign, says they found no trace of a notorious #Russian #hacking group …. the Macron campaign hack ‘was so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone.’ … they found no trace that the Russian hacking group known as #APT28, blamed for other […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “What does Russia think about all this? ‘Washington has gone crazy.’ The Kremlin sees vulnerability in a new world order.” – Washington Post/ David Ignatius
“When Russian officials and analysts here talk about the U.S. investigation of their alleged hacking of the 2016 campaign, two themes predominate: They’re flattered that their country is seen as such a powerful threat, and they’re amazed that the United States is so preoccupied with the scandal. … * * * You might expect that Russians would feel embarrassed by […]
» Read moreVIDEO & ARTICLE: “Russian Banker Sees Trump Facing Witch Hunt in New Cold War” – Bloomberg
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Erik Schatzker, Jake Rudnitsky – June 1, 2017) [Video interview also at: bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-01/russian-banker-says-u-s-involved-in-witch-hunt-against-trump] U.S. politicians have turned an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the presidential elections into a witch hunt to settle domestic political scores, according to the head of Russia’s second-largest bank. “This is effectively a new Cold War,” VTB Group Chief Executive Officer […]
» Read moreThe “All 17 Agencies Agreed” Myth
Subject: The “All 17 Agencies Agreed” Myth Date: Fri, 26 May 2017 From: Jeffrey Carr <greylogic.carr@gmail.com> Founder, Suits and Spooks (suitsandspooks.com) Author, “Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld” (O’Reilly Media, 2009, 2011) The “All 17 Intelligence Agencies Concluded That Russia Is Responsible” Myth that originated with Hilary Clinton is wrong, has always been wrong, and was confirmed as wrong […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “The Trump-Russia Story Starts Making Sense. The Kremlin seems to have bet big on the willingness of U.S. intelligence agencies to leak.” – Wall Street Journal/ Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
“The Trump-Russia business is finally coming into clearer, more rational focus. Former Obama CIA chief John Brennan, in testimony this week, offered no evidence of Trump campaign cooperation with Russian intelligence. Instead he spoke of CIA fears that Russia would try to recruit/blackmail/trick Trump colleagues into being witting or unwitting agents of influence.”
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Fighting the Politicized, Evidence-Free ‘Collusion with Russia’ Narrative . The ‘Russian collusion’ scandal is manufactured – but like all good subterfuge, it is premised on a kernel of truth.” – National Review/ Andrew McCarthy
“… Democrats are not fighting for advantage. They are fighting to annihilate their opposition — not just the Trump administration but the Republican Congress. It is not enough to say they are not fighting fair. Everyone knows that. Look at John Brennan: as a national-security official throughout the Obama years, his principal job was to appease Islamist regimes and organizations. […]
» Read moreAndrei Liakhov: “Re: 2017-#98-Johnson’s Russia List/ My answer to the ‘prominent Washington expert'”
Subject: Re: 2017-#98-Johnson’s Russia List Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 20:01:47 +0300 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> My answer to the “prominent Washington expert”: Dear expert, you have not read the report correctly. [“Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”] The January report never stated unequivocally that Russia’s interference is an established fact. At most, to me, as to […]
» Read moreResponse by prominent Washington expert on Russia to JRL 2017-#95, 18 May 2017 [Re: U.S. #Intelligence, #Russia, #Hacking, U.S. Election]:
Response by prominent Washington expert on Russia to JRL 2017-#95, 18 May 2017: “I was surprised to read Prof. Robinson’s analysis on your Russia List. His analysis misses one rather central point, without mention of which everything else that he says instantly loses credibility. It is not leaks — what would the in-party do without leaks to blame? — that […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Why The Russia Investigation Matters And Why You Should Care” – National Public Radio/ Domenico Montanaro
“… a question asked at Tuesday’s House Intelligence Committee hearing about the Russia investigation with former Obama CIA Director John Brennan caught our attention: ‘Please tell my constituents, my neighbors, why they should care — and not just in Washington, D.C., but in Washington state and Texas and Connecticut and points in between — and why should they care, and […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Media prepare for chance that Trump-Russia probe reveals ‘nothing'” – Washington Examiner/ Eddie Scarry
“Some in the news media who have been intensely critical of the Trump administration are now anticipating a potentially anti-climactic end to the investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia, as even Democratic leaders are admitting they have seen no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to interfere with the election. … warnings [from Democratic politicians] have prompted some of Trump’s […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Trump Feels ‘Hamstrung’ in Ability to Work With Moscow, Adviser Says; #McMaster says president told #Russians he wants to move beyond ‘all of the #Russia news’ to address issues such as the fight against ISIS” – Wall Street Journal/ William Mauldin
“… Trump wants to confront Russia over its actions in Ukraine and Syria and cooperate with the country to fight against Islamic State …. Democrats and other political critics have attacked … Trump for continuing to seek close engagement in Moscow as officials are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. … Trump has denied any campaign collaboration with Moscow and dismissed […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”
Twitter May 9, 2017 Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?” [live feed of tweet also should embed below; tweet also viewable at: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/861713823505494016] The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Putin has paid no price yet for interfering in the domestic affairs of democracies. He wont stop until he does pay.” – Michael McFaul, @McFaul
(Michael McFaul – @McFaul – Twitter – May 6, 2017) “Putin has paid no price yet for interfering in the domestic affairs of democracies. He wont stop until he does pay.” [embedded live tweet should load below, or click here: twitter.com/McFaul/status/860684830417182720] Putin has paid no price yet for interfering in the domestic affairs of democracies. He wont stop until he […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “FBI’s Comey: Russia is ‘greatest threat of any nation on Earth’ to U.S. democratic process” – CNBC/ Jacob Pramuk
“#FBI Director James #Comey told senators Wednesday that #Russia remains involved in American politics, saying he thinks the country poses the ‘greatest threat’ to the U.S. political process of any in the world. During a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham – a foreign policy hawk – asked Comey ‘what kind of threat’ Russia presents ‘to the […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “How the Russia Spin Got So Much Torque” – Common Dreams/ Norman Solomon
“… Soon after #Clinton’s defeat, top strategists decided where to place the blame. ‘Within 24 hours of her concession speech,’ the authors report, campaign manager Robby Mook and campaign chair John Podesta ‘assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: Transcript of AP interview with Trump (excerpt re: CrowdStrike)
[In an interview with AP, dated April 24, 2017, with an indication that it apparently took place Friday, April 21, 2017, President Donald Trump commented on Democratic National Committee cybersecurity problems and computer contractor CrowdStrike.] TRUMP: They [Democratic National Committee] shouldn’t have allowed it to get out. If they had the proper defensive devices on their internet, you know, equipment, they wouldn’t […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Behold the Master Conspirator; Adam Schiff and Carter Page have in common cluelessness and ambition” – Wall Street Journal/Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
“… Schiff and … Page are fitting sharers of the stage in this episode, with a certain indefinable insubstantiality in common. … Page attached himself to Candidate Trump, promoter of better relations with Russia, after apparently spending the past decade – since leaving a junior job with Merrill Lynch in Moscow – seeking to insert himself in energy deals in Russia in hopes, […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Cybersecurity experts who were first to conclude that Putin hacked presidential election ABANDON some of their claims against Russia – and refuse to co-operate with Congress” – The Daily Mail (UK)/ Alana Goodman
“… the first expert company to make a link between the #DNC hacks and the #Kremlin is facing a damaging series of questions over its credibility …. #Cybersecurity firm #CrowdStrike has had to retract portions of a report supporting its allegations of #Russian #cyberattacks – and is also refusing to address #Congress about its findings on Moscow’s #election hacking. CrowdStrike […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “What Does Obama Think of the Russia Story? The only reasonable conclusion: Not much.” – Wall Street Journal/JAMES FREEMAN
“… Schiff … and Maddow are convinced [of] … more than circumstantial evidence of collusion between the … Trump campaign and the Russian government. But … Obama doesn’t see it that way, judging from … comments before and after leaving the White House. It’s a reasonable guess [Obama] has seen more relevant intelligence on this issue than they have. * * * … the Trump White House […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “What Devin Nunes Knows. Team Obama was spying broadly on the incoming administration” – Wall Street Journal/Kimberley Strassel
“We’ve known since early February that a call by former national security adviser Mike Flynn to the Russian ambassador was monitored by U.S. intelligence. … Flynn’s name was revealed and leaked to the press, along with the substance of his conversation. … Nunes’s own intelligence sources informed him that documents showed further collection of information about, and unmasking of, Trump transition officials. … […]
» Read moreThe latest proof that Russia hacked the U.S. election in 2016 …
The latest proof that #Russia hacked the US election in 2016: Eugene B. Rumer Senior Fellow and Director Russia and Eurasia Program Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the U.S. National Intelligence Council Testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence March 30, 2017 “I am convinced that Russian intelligence services, […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Russia experts paint sinister picture of meddling in U.S. election” – AP
“Russian experts painted a sinister picture of Russian meddling in the 2016 election Thursday, telling the Senate intelligence committee about fake news, cyber trolls, smear campaigns and even slayings they say could have ties to the Kremlin. The hearing focused on tactics Moscow is thought to employ in spreading disinformation to influence the opinions of Americans and U.S. policy. There […]
» Read moreInterfax: SBU cannot yet confirm ex-Duma deputy Voronenkov’s killer was FSB agent
KYIV. March 30 (Interfax) – The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is continuing to investigate whether Pavlo Parshov, who killed former Russian State Duma deputy Denis Voronenkov, was an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). “This has not yet been proven in the case of Parshov. We are now working [to establish] whether he really was an FSB […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Russia-gate’s Unasked Questions; Comey’s testimony settles nothing” – The American Conservative/Philip Geraldi
“… If the #FBI began its investigation of team #Trump in late July – after the nomination process but before the election – and the Trump campaign office was located in Trump Tower, doesn’t that confirm that Donald Trump is right when he insists that his office was ‘wiretapped’ during the summer even if his word choice was not apt? […]
» Read moreCyber Firm Rewrites Part of Disputed Russian Hacking Report
(Voice of America – voanews.com – Oleksiy Kuzmenko and Pete Cobus – WASHINGTON, March 25, 2017) U.S. #cybersecurity firm #CrowdStrike has revised and retracted statements it used to buttress claims of #Russian #hacking during last year’s American presidential election campaign. The shift followed a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank. In December, […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Leakgate Finds Its Joe McCarthy; On Trump-Russia links, Rep. Schiff tries to fool the public with randomness” – Wall Street Journal/HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.
“… Schiff, a former prosecutor, … should know better than to treat ‘circumstantial evidence’ as a synonym for guilt by association. There isn’t room to detail the fantastically trivial basis for his portrayal of Trump pilot fish Roger Stone as an intimate of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and alleged hacker Guccifer 2.0, or the utter fatuity of his attempt to place pilot […]
» Read moreWhy the Comey Hearing Was Frightening to a Russian
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – March 21, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. Monday’s hearing on Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election and the alleged contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin yielded inspiring news for […]
» Read moreCyber Firm at Center of Russian Hacking Charges Misread Data
(Voice of America – voanews.com – Oleksiy Kuzmenko, Pete Cobus – WASHINGTON – March 21, 2017) [Text with links here voanews.com/a/crowdstrike-comey-russia-hack-dnc-clinton-trump/3776067.html] An influential British think tank and Ukraine’s military are disputing a report that the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has used to buttress its claims of Russian hacking in the presidential election. The CrowdStrike report, released in December, asserted that […]
» Read more“How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing …”
How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing: Congressman Will HURD: Have you been able to — when did the DNC provide access for — to the FBI for your technical folks to review what happened? FBI Director COMEY: Well we never […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Notes From the House Select Intelligence Hearing on Russia; In one of the most anticipated congressional hearings in years, James Comey and Mike Rogers took turns saying nothing” – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi
[DJ: To be contrasted with Michael McFaul’s enthusiastic minute-by-minute Twitter feed at @McFaul] “The hearing on Russia’s involvement with the American electoral process began with an army of reporters swarming ’round the committee heads: Republican chair Devin Nunes of the Fresno area, and Democrat and ranking member Adam Schiff of Los Angeles. … The two witnesses were top dogs from […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Down the conspiracy rabbit hole” – Washington Post/Charles Krauthammer
“We learn … from Tuesday’s spectacular WikiLeaks dump that among the CIA’s various and nefarious cybertools is the capacity to simulate intrusion by a foreign power, the equivalent of planting phony fingerprints on a smoking gun. … Washington [is] caught up in one of its periodic conspiracy frenzies. Actually, two. One, anti-Trump, is that he and his campaign colluded with Russian […]
» Read morePutin Aims to Undermine Western Democracies With Election Meddling, Experts Say
(Voice of America – voanews.com – Ken Bredemeier – March 9, 2017) WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin is single-handedly trying to undermine democracy in the United States and Europe and rupture their decades-old NATO alliance by meddling in their elections, foreign affairs analysts and Estonia’s former president told a congressional hearing Thursday in Washington. One of the experts, Peter […]
» Read moreTRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] Meeting of Federal Security Service Board
(Kremlin.ru – February 16, 2017) Vladimir Putin took part in an annual expanded meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Board to discuss the FSB’s results for 2016 and the priority tasks for ensuring Russia’s national security. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. These annual FSB Board meetings give us a chance to meet and not only thoroughly analyse […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “It’s the Russians! … or Is it? Cold War Rhetoric in the Digital Age” – ICIT/James Scott
“…. Western systems lack the security and resiliency to withstand foreign compromise. Moreover, Incident Response techniques and processes are not comprehensive or holistic enough to definitively attribute an incident to a specific threat actor from the multitude of script kiddies, hacktivists, lone-wolf threat actors, cyber-criminals, cyber-jihadists, hail-mary threats, and nation-state sponsored advanced persistent threats (APTs), who all possess the means, […]
» Read morePresident Trump’s Boris Yeltsin Moment
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – February 15, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. President Donald Trump is irritated about the media furor surrounding the departure of his national security adviser. “The real scandal here is that classified information is […]
» Read moreInterfax: Claims of Snowden’s possible extradition to U.S. absurd – Russian Foreign Ministry
MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed reports by several media organizations on the possibility that Russia could extradite former CIA employee Edward Snowden to the United States as a ‘gift’ to new U.S. President Donald Trump as absurd. “The Russian side has already commented at various levels on the absurdity of such a claim,” Russian […]
» Read moreInterfax: Lifting of some restrictions from FSB confirms Trump’s intention to normalize relations with Russia – former FSB Director Kovalyov
MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s decision to drop some restrictions imposed earlier on the issuance of licenses and permits to export computer technologies to Russia shows that the Donald Trump administration is consistent in its efforts to normalize cooperation with Russia, Nikolai Kovalyov, a State Duma deputy and former head of the Federal Security […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “German intelligence finds no evidence of Russian meddling; But authorities warned Russia has been on a ‘confrontational path’ since 2014 and its media is ‘hostile.'” – PoliticoEU/ESTHER KING
“A year-long investigation into potential Russian interference with German politics has failed to uncover evidence of Kremlin-backed meddling, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Monday. German intelligence authorities found no concrete proof of disinformation campaigns targeting the government and have decided against publishing the 50-page report to avoid further straining relations with Moscow, according to SZ. …”
» Read moreCatching up on the Russian interference in the election story
Read Masha Gessen in the New York Review of Books: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/01/09/russia-trump-election-flawed-intelligence/ Also the work of cyber security expert Jeffery Carr at Medium: https://medium.com/@jeffreycarr The work of Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-greenwald/ A few interesting facts. NSA had only “moderate confidence” rather than “high confidence.” And NSA is the only group that could have hard evidence of a Russian connection. […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “U.S. Lawmakers Want Documents on Russia Election Probe” – Reuters
“The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee called on the Trump administration … to provide them with … documents related to the investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The request may be an effort to avoid a repeat of an unusual document access arrangement made between the Senate Intelligence Committee and CIA to review information related to enhanced […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Russian tech expert named in Trump report says US intelligence never contacted him” – McClatchy/KEVIN G. HALL, TIM JOHNSON
A #Russian venture capitalist and tech expert whose name and company are mentioned in the now-notorious document alleging connections between the Donald #Trump campaign and Russian #hackers says no #intelligence officers have ever contacted him about the accusations, which he says are false. * * * #XBT, owner of Dallas-based enterprise-hosting company #Webzilla, is run by a successful Russian tech […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Intelligence panel chair asks why Democrats denied FBI access after Russian hacking (excerpt)” – McClatchy/ANNA DOUGLAS
… [Senator Richard] Burr wanted to know why the Democratic National Committee didn’t give the FBI direct access to servers and devices that had been compromised in a cyberattack. FBI Director James Comey told Burr the agency and its investigators had made ‘multiple requests at different levels’ for access to DNC infrastructure and John Podesta’s devices for the purposes of […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them” – New York Times/Andrew Higgins
“… steeled by a dozen years in the Soviet gulag, decades of sparring with the KGB. and a bout of near fatal heart disease … Bukovsky, a tireless opponent of Soviet leaders and … Putin of Russia, is not a man easily put off his stride. But he got knocked sideways when British police officers … informed him that they […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Why Are the Trump Allegations Hanging Around When They Haven’t Been Substantiated?” – Lawfare/Susan Hennessey, Benjamin Wittes
“What is one to make of the apparent inability of press and government alike to verify the allegations in the Trump dossier combined with the cache of documents’ apparent staying power? The unverified allegations against Donald Trump are not just salacious, they are specific. These are facts which should be verifiable as either true or false. …”
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Comey: DNC denied FBI’s requests for access to hacked servers” – The Hill
“The FBI requested direct access to the … DNC … hacked computer servers but was denied, Director James Comey told lawmakers …. The bureau made ‘multiple requests at different levels’ … but ultimately struck an agreement with the DNC that a ‘highly respected private company’ would get access and share what it found with investigators. ‘We’d always prefer to have […]
» Read moreSix Problems With U.S. Intel on the Russian Hacks
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – January 9, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. [from Facebook: January 9, 2017 Andrew Kuchins Andrew Kuchins is Senior Fellow and research professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Russia’s D.N.C. Hack Was Only the Start” – New York Times/Robby Mook
“… I saw it firsthand in July, when I was asked about the first wave of stolen documents …. “
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Russian Media Chief Dismisses U.S. Report on Propaganda Efforts” – Wall Street Journal
Head of RT news channel calls American intelligence assessment on election interference ‘comedy hit of the year’
» Read moreVIDEO: Russia’s election intervention is ‘new reality, new weapon’
(PBS Newshour – January 7, 2017) [Click here for transcript] On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a meeting about the intelligence report released this week that concludes the Russian government tried to influence the U.S. election. To break down what is in the report and what to expect, senior national security reporter at The Wall […]
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