Since January, political and media observers have been inundated with a narrative of consensus across the nation’s federal intelligence apparatus regarding a story-line of the Russian government’s Russian hacking in the U.S. election, essentially undermining the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s administration by framing the president as a benefactor of a political subversion operation directed by a foreign adversary. Proponents of the narrative often frame Trump and his political allies as co-conspirators with the Russian state.
This narrative and story-line are largely built on a declassified report publicly published on January 6, in the Obama administration’s final days. Entitled, “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution,” the report was produced by three intelligence bureaucracies. Left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times (NYT), and NPR, however, repeatedly and falsely claim the report reflects consensus across the entirety of the federal government’s “seventeen intelligence agencies.”
At a May 7th hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Terrorism, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made a point to correct the false record made ubiquitous by left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media. He specifically stated that the intelligence report was published by three intelligence bureaucracies, not seventeen.
The January report, jointly produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Intelligence Council (NSC), drew conclusions from intelligence it claimed was provided by the CIA, FBI, and NSA.
However… neither CIA, FBI, nor NSA; at any time, place, or circumstance had the opportunity or reality of investigating or examining any data, equipment, or empirical evidence in order to draw their conclusion.
The FBI never examined the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) computer servers during its investigation into Russian attempts to interfere in the presidential election.
The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (D.C.) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the DNC claims; FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers – the FBI claims; the DNC refused access to the servers, as such… No U.S. intelligence agency has performed its own forensic analysis on the alleged hacked servers. No U.S. agency has irrefutable evidence that any DNC server was hacked, breached, or compromised.
The FBI’s official statement claims that the DNC refused to turn over the servers, and therefore, the bureau, CIA and NSA relied on analysis done by the third-party security firm CrowdStrike, which was contracted to investigate the breach; by and for the DNC.
In lieu of substantive evidence provided to the public that the alleged hacks which led to Wikileaks releases of DNC and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta’s emails were orchestrated by the Russian Government, CrowdStrike’s bias has been cited as undependable in its own assessment, in addition to its skeptical methods and conclusions. The firm’s CTO and co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with openly anti-Russian sentiments that is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who also happened to donate at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.
In 2013, the Atlantic Council awarded Hillary Clinton it’s Distinguished International Leadership Award. In 2014, the Atlantic Council hosted one of several events with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took over after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in early 2014, who now lives in exile in Russia.
So, the false narrative, flat-ass lie, fake news, bullshit phenomenon continues with flourish. What was trade craft is now standard operating procedure for mainstream media. After all, the fourth estate has become far more successful in developing human assets than our intel agencies. Clandestine communications, back channel negotiations, information sharing and comparing… these are now the weaponized ordinance of the media.
If you say if loud enough, and often enough, and with tone and conviction… people will believe anything. The Clinton’s have been wagging that dog for decades.
