Posted on 05/01/2019 2:47:49 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Then Brennan turned to an even more sensitive issue: Russia’s interference in the American election. Brennan now was aware that at least a year earlier Russian hackers had begun their cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee. We know you’re doing this, Brennan said to the Russian.
He pointed out that Americans would be enraged to find out Moscow was seeking to subvert the election and that such an operation could backfire. Brennan warned Bortnikov that if Russia continued this information warfare, there would be a price to pay. He did not specify the consequences.
This was the first of several warnings that the Obama administration would send to Moscow. But the question of how forcefully to respond would soon divide the White House staff, pitting the National Security Council’s top analysts for Russia and cyber issues against senior policymakers within the administration.
It was a debate that would culminate that summer with a dramatic directive from President Barack Obama’s national security adviser to the NSC staffers developing aggressive proposals to strike back against the Russians: “Stand down.”
Brennan spoke with FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the NSA, and asked them to dispatch to the CIA their experts to form a working group at Langley that would review the intelligence and figure out the full scope and nature of the Russian operation.
As these deliberations were underway, more troubling intelligence got reported to the White House: Russian-linked hackers were probing the computers of state election systems, particularly voter registration databases. The first reports to the FBI came from Illinois. In late June, its voter database was targeted in a persistent cyberattack that lasted for weeks. The attackers were using foreign IP addresses, many of which were traced to a Dutch company owned by a heavily tattooed 26-year-old Russian who lived in Siberia. The hackers were relentlessly pinging the Illinois database five times per second, 24 hours a day, and they succeeded in accessing data on up to 200,000 voters. Then there was a similar report from Arizona, where the username and password of a county election official was stolen. The state was forced to shut down its voter registration system for a week. Then in Florida, another attack.
At this point, a group of NSC officials, committed to a forceful response to Moscow’s intervention, started concocting creative options for cyberattacks that would expand the information war Putin had begun.
Michael Daniel and Celeste Wallander, the National Security Council’s top Russia analyst, were convinced the United States needed to strike back hard against the Russians and make it clear that Moscow had crossed a red line.
Daniel and Wallander began drafting options for more aggressive responses beyond anything the Obama administration or the US government had ever before contemplated in response to a cyberattack.
One day in late August, national security adviser Susan Rice called Daniel into her office and demanded he cease and desist from working on the cyber options he was developing. “Don’t get ahead of us,” she warned him.
The White House was not prepared to endorse any of these ideas.
Daniel and his team in the White House cyber response group were given strict orders: “Stand down.” She told Daniel to “knock it off,” he recalled.
Daniel walked back to his office. “That was one pissed-off national security adviser,” he told one of his aides.
At his morning staff meeting, Daniel matter-of-factly said to his team that it had to stop work on options to counter the Russian attack: “We’ve been told to stand down.” Daniel Prieto, one of Daniel’s top deputies, recalled, “I was incredulous and in disbelief. It took me a moment to process. In my head I was like, ‘Did I hear that correctly?'” Then Prieto spoke up, asking, “Why the hell are we standing down? Michael, can you help us understand?” Daniel informed them that the orders came from both Rice and Monaco. They were concerned that if the options were to leak, it would force Obama to act. “They didn’t want to box the president in,” Prieto subsequently said.
Obama ordred US Cybersecurity to stand down on Russian Hacking.
Comey knew this.
Brennan knew this.
Mike Rogers knew this.
there is ZERO proof the Russians hacked the DNC servers. The so-called Russian “tags” on the documents can be easily faked.
there are people who say it can only have been downloaded from the DNC servers directly via some kind of connected device.
The FBI never looked at the DNC servers (the DNC wouldn’t allow it). Mueller never looked at them either.
Because they needed to in order for the narrative about Trump colluding with Russia..remember in 2012 when Obama said he would be “More flexible” with Russia..he was preparing himself for the 2016 election, in case the Dem candidate lost..always planning ahead of time
Worst President ever
They didn’t want these underlings to spoil or stumble upon their plot. Brennan’s sloppy cover story falls apart under scrutiny.
Yeah, the Russians were interfering in our election. They just won’t to give up their fake story.
Russia is nothing more than a boogeyman man to justify even more of their ongoing effort to gain control of every aspect of Digital Life.
Let me guess, the NSA and CIA and FBI need even more tools and excuses for mass surveillance. And we are under constant Danger from foreigners I need to give up more civil liberties. Did I guess right?
PLEASE DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE 'RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE' NONSENSE WAS ANY WORSE THAN IT HAS BEEN OVER THE LAST FEW DECADES!
OBAMA'S CIA/FBI/DOJ NEEDED A COVER STORY OR EXCUSE TO ILLEGALLY SPY ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN SO THEY CONCOCTED THE 'RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE' LIE TO JUSTIFY THEIR CRIMES!!!
FREEPERS KNOW DAMN WELL THAT IT WAS SETH RICH WHO DOWNLOADED THE DNC EMAILS ONTO A THUMB DRIVE AND HE PAID FOR IT WITH HIS LIFE, SO...
Just more FAKE NEWS, folks.
The Russian tags on the servers no law enforcement ever looked at! Also don’t forget Vault 7 of WikiLeaks clearly displayed the Umbrage project where the CIA has collected tools and capabilities and techniques that give them the ability to make an intrusion look like it came from any country they wish.
This is fake news
I think it’s because it would have shown Biden’s involvement ($) with the Ukrainians.
By the way, DHS wants full control of election processes. That way they can keep us safe from Russians.
The same DHS that HACKED INTO THE GEORGIA ELECTORAL SYSTEM during the 2016 Presidential election?
This. One must always return to it for sanity.
I sense pretext building and attempted plausible deniability. Seems the spooks might be edging Obama toward the curb, here. Difficult to believe, too good to be true. So something else is afoot.
Rats turning on each other?
PING
That’s right. That’s Sundance’s theory.
There is a long road to travel before this truth is recognized.
Julian Assange could help sink this Russia hacking and interfering nonsense.
This is a story fed to Mother Jones by Brennan and his people.
Most of it is just obvious lies.
” edging Obama toward the curb, here. Difficult to believe, too good to be true. So something else is afoot.”
Our treasonous intel community wants DHS control over all State run elections, universal surveillance, and a big increase in their fascist partnerships with the telecoms and big tech to conduct mass domestic surveillance.
To achieve that they need a boogieman to protect us from.
And that is where “Russia” comes in.
David Corn and Michael Isikoff
Oh, well, how can we possibly question any of this? The good news is that more people read the blogs that humblegunner complains about for posting excerpts on Free Republic than read Mother Jones.
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