I will make this as simple as possible. Either Jim Clapper, the head of the DNI, is lying again or Barack Obama is lying or negligent. If the Russian Government, not just Russian hackers, but Vladimir Putin himself were behind obtaining and giving the DNC emails and the Podesta emails to Wikileaks, why did President Barack Obama wait so long to do something about such an egregious breach? Either he was told about this in October or the intelligence community failed to brief him or it is a lie. Only three possibilities.
Let me walk you through the timeline of events. It was Jim Clapper on 7 October 2016 who, courtesy of his position as the DNI, released the following:
“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
Let’s be clear what a claim of consensus in the Intelligence Community is supposed to mean. The National Intelligence Council is responsible for bringing together the views of the intelligence community on critical issues. Those views are communicated either via a written Estimate or a written Memorandum that was circulated among the various intelligence agencies. Each agency would have an opportunity to edit the draft–e.g., inserting new material or deleting existing language. At the end of the process the Estimate or Memorandum is in writing, or should be.
So what happened here? Did Clapper announce a consensus not based on any written product? Was there ever a genuine, written consensus on the matter?
This is important because it now appears, based on reporting last Saturday in the Washington Post, that the FBI has changed its views (if Clapper is telling the truth). The Washington Post reported the split between the CIA and the FBI:
Sitting before the House Intelligence Committee was a senior FBI counterintelligence official. The question the Republicans and Democrats in attendance wanted answered was whether the bureau concurred with the conclusions the CIA had just shared with senators that Russia “quite” clearly intended to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton and clinch the White House.
For the Democrats in the room, the FBI’s response was frustrating — even shocking.
During a similar Senate Intelligence Committee briefing held the previous week, the CIA’s statements, as reflected in the letter the lawmakers now held in their hands, were “direct and bald and unqualified” about Russia’s intentions to help Trump, according to one of the officials who attended the House briefing.
The FBI official’s remarks to the lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee were, in comparison, “fuzzy” and “ambiguous,” suggesting to those in the room that the bureau and the agency weren’t on the same page, the official said.
Last I checked, a “Judgement” of the intel community comes courtesy of the National Intelligence Council and is obtained by producing an Estimate or a Memorandum. In either case, there is a written document and the so-called intelligence community gets to “clear” on the document. In other words, they concur or they dissent. We all remember the dreadful National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that insisted Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Turned out the judgement was dead wrong, but even that document aired a few dissents. Just a reminder that even the intel community can be wrong.
And today we have an indignant White House insisting that the Russians intervened and stole the election because of the alleged Russian hacking.
The White House strongly suggested Monday that Donald Trump was the beneficiary of Russian meddling in the US election, pointing to Trump’s own ties to Russia as evidence of Moscow’s intentions.
“You didn’t need a security clearance to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyberactivity,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest during a briefing with reporters Monday. “The President-elect didn’t call it into question, he called on Russia to hack his opponent. He called on Russia to hack Secretary Clinton. So he certainly had a pretty good sense of whose side this cyberactivity was coming down on.”
I have one simple question. Why did Barack Obama not act on this information in October when the Intelligence Community supposedly had consensus? Surely Obama was briefed by his CIA briefer on the matter? Surely they told him of their certainty, knows way back in October, that Putin was out to get Hillary? Why did Barack Obama do nothing?
We learned on Friday that Obama has ordered the intel community to review/study the matter of Russian interference. Huh? Why do you need to study something he has supposedly been told by the entire intelligence community took place? That makes no sense. Instead, if the Russian Government really did this and we are really certain then Obama, as Commander in Chief charged with protecting America, should be looking to shore up our defenses and make Russia pay a price.
There are only two possibilities regarding the allegation that Russia interfered in the election of President. Either the head of the intelligence community, i.e., the DNI and, apparently, the CIA, are inserting themselves into domestic politics and making a false claim that there is consensus in the intel community when none exists and no document has been produced. Alternatively, if they, the Intel Community, did warn in writing about this matter in October, then we are faced with the fact that Barack Obama was briefed on this matter and decided to do nothing about it until belatedly ordering up a study. Which is it?
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