U.S. President Barack Obama says he plans to take action against Russia and perhaps other nations:
December 16, 2016
U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States will take action against Russia or any other foreign government that tries to meddle in U.S. elections.
“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action. And we will,” the president told National Public Radio in an interview to be broadcast Friday morning.
“Some of it may be explicit and publicized, some of it may not be,” he said.
The CIA has concluded that Russian hackers broke into the Democratic Party computers to leak potentially embarrassing emails about the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign with the apparent aim of helping Republican Donald Trump win last month’s election.Officials: Putin knew
Top White House officials say such a thing could not have happened without Russian President Vladimir Putin’s involvement or direct knowledge. Moscow called the allegation “laughable nonsense.”
Obama told NPR there is still a “whole range of assessments” going on among U.S. intelligence agencies, and he is waiting for a final report on exactly who was involved and why they did it.
“But that does not in any way detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign,” Obama said.
Trump, however, has asked in a Twitter comment, “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
Obama declined to say whether he thought the Russian computer hacking cost Hillary Clinton the election. He said many factors can make the difference in a presidential vote, but there was no doubt it had an impact. …
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking with reporters, pointed to the U.S. intelligence community’s October assessment that “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.” He said the reference to “senior-most officials” wasn’t supposed to be subtle. “It’s pretty obvious,” he said. …
The White House has not suggested Clinton would have won the election absent the Russian hacking. However, the vast array of U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow hacked into computer accounts at the Democratic National Committee that helped oversee Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign and the computer of Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, to help Trump win.
WikiLeaks, without citing its source, released thousands of Podesta’s emails in the last month of the campaign, many of them revealing embarrassing in-fighting among Clinton aides, without any corresponding disclosures about the Trump campaign from accounts allegedly hacked at the Republican National Committee. http://www.voanews.com/a/obama-we-will-take-action-on-us-election-meddling/3638684.html
Before going further, realize that WikiLeaks has publicly and repeatedly stated that Russia was not the source of the materials it leaked.
Donald Trump tweeted this today:
Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?
Notice also the following:
December 16, 2016
(CNN)The United States must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/16/europe/russia-us-hacking-claims-peskov/
It should also be noted that the White House is not saying that the allegedly hacked and released documents were false. But it wants to retaliate against Russia.
The Bible teaches:
23 … be sure your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23)
1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3)
Is the government of the USA practicing hypocrisy about all this?
Notice the following article:
The CIA Is Accusing Russia Of Doing Exactly What The CIA Does
December 16, 2016
There’s a grim irony to this. The CIA is accusing Russia of interfering in our free and fair elections to install a right-wing candidate it deemed more favorable to its interests. Yet during the Cold War, that’s exactly what the CIA did to the rest of the world. …
In the post-World War II years, as Moscow and Washington jockeyed for global influence, the two capitals tried to game every foreign election they could get their hands on.
From Europe to Vietnam and Chile to the Philippines, American agents delivered briefcases of cash to hand-picked politicians, launched smear campaigns against their left-leaning rivals, and spread hysterical “fake news” stories like the ones some now accuse Russia of spreading here.
Together, political scientist Dov Levin estimates, Russia and the U.S. interfered in 117 elections this way in the second half the 20th century. Even worse is what happened when the CIA’s chosen candidates lost.
I don’t raise any of this history to excuse Russia’s alleged meddling in our election — which, if true, is outrageous. Only to suggest that now, maybe, we know how it feels. We should remember that feeling as Trump, who’s spoken fondly of authoritarian rulers from Russia to Egypt to the Philippines and beyond, comes into office. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-15/cia-accusing-russia-doing-exactly-what-cia-does
Let me also add that I have been indirectly told by a former US Navy Seal, in this decade the that he was involved in a variety of covert operations which greatly meddled in the affairs of foreign governments.
Furthermore, as most everyone knows, the USA has been highly engaged in cyber warfare. Notice a story from back in 2013 from the Washington Post as well as a story posted last year from Time:
U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Washington Post.That disclosure, in a classified intelligence budget provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, provides new evidence that the Obama administration’s growing ranks of cyberwarriors infiltrate and disrupt foreign computer networks.
Additionally, under an extensive effort code-named GENIE, U.S. computer specialists break into foreign networks so that they can be put under surreptitious U.S. control. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounted-231-offensive-cyber-operations-in-2011-documents-show/2013/08/30/d090a6ae-119e-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html
June 4, 2015
The Justice Department was looking for evidence of computer hacking schemes
The Obama administration expanded warrantless surveillance of Americans’ Internet searches, according to new National Security Agency documents released by Edward Snowden.
According to ProPublica, which obtained documents from Snowden, in 2012 the Justice Department authorized the NSA to search Internet cables on American soil without a warrant for evidence of computer hacking schemes originating abroad. http://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/
So, the USA basically violated its Constitution to conduct more warrantless surveillance of Americans’ Internet searches related to hackers as well as many international hacks.
Since in addition to the CIA and NSA, the USA has a ‘Cyber Command’ which has long been engaged in cyber warfare, it should come as no surprise that others are involved in such activities.
It should also be stated that US President Barack Obama, himself, directly attempted to publicly interfere with the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom earlier this year when he threatened to put the UK at ‘the back of the queue’ for trade talks if it voted for the Brexit (see BBC: What is the future for UK-US trade?).
Is not a threat against foreign voters more egregious as an alleged release of unclassified documents?
There certainly is hypocrisy in the USA regarding attempts at hacking and influencing elections.
As quoted earlier, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. The KJV has the following end time prophecy:
5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. 6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation (Isaiah 10:5-6, KJV).
It is important to note that on many matters, including its espionage, the USA is considered to be a hypocritical nation by the many, including many of the Europeans (see, for example, Germany most upset by USA espionage; there is also a related video Will USA Spying Help the Beast Power?) and others. Throughout the gospels, Jesus repeatedly condemned hypocrites (Matthew 6:2,5,16; 15:7; 16:3; 23:13-29; Mark 7:6; Luke 11:44; 12:1, 56). Hypocrisy was also condemned by various apostles (Romans 12:9; Galatians 2:13; 1 Timothy 4:2; James 3:17; 1 Peter 2:1).
Radio News Reporter: Bill Wedekind, USA.
