Why some U.S. ex-spies don't buy the Russia story

[TalkRadio]

In 2003, when a number of former intelligence professionals formed a group to protest the way intelligence was bent to accuse Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a sympathetic column quoting the group's members. In 2017, you won't read about this same group's latest campaign in the big U.S. newspapers.

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been investigating the now conventional wisdom that last year's leaks of Democratic National Committee files were the result of Russian hacks. What they found instead is evidence to the contrary.

Unlike the "current and former intelligence officials" anonymously quoted in stories about the Trump-Russia scandal, VIPS members actually have names. But their findings and doubts are only being aired by non-mainstream publications that are easy to accuse of being channels for Russian disinformation. The Nation, Consortium News, ZeroHedge and other outlets have pointed to their findings that at least some of the DNC files were taken by an insider rather than by hackers, Russian or otherwise.

The January assessment of the U.S. intelligence community, which serves as the basis for accusations that Russia hacked the election said, among other things: "We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release U.S. victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks."

VIPS instead surmises that, after WikiLeaks' Julian Assange announced on June 12, 2016 his intention to publish Hillary Clinton-related emails, the DNC rushed to fabricate evidence that it had been hacked by Russia to defuse any potential WikiLeaks disclosures. To this end, the theory goes, the DNC used the Guccifer 2.0 online persona to release mostly harmless DNC data. Guccifer 2.0 was later loosely linked to Russia because of Russian metadata in his files and his use of a Russia-based virtual private network.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-10/why-some-u-s-ex-spies-don-t-buy-the-russia-story

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

It was an inside job and Seth Rich sure as hell was shut the fuck up...





... and now the Democrats and deep state are happily destroying any chance for healthy relations with Russia, because it damages President Trump.

 

[TalkRadio]

It was an inside job and Seth Rich sure as hell was shut the fuck up...





... and now the Democrats and deep state are happily destroying any chance for healthy relations with Russia, because it damages President Trump.

My favorite quote from the article...

VIPS instead surmises that, after WikiLeaks' Julian Assange announced on June 12, 2016 his intention to publish Hillary Clinton-related emails, the DNC rushed to fabricate evidence that it had been hacked by Russia to defuse any potential WikiLeaks disclosures.

 

[phrodeau]

OK, so much for that one tiny part of the Russia thing.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The rest of the iceberg was created by John Podesta and the press attempted to prove it was true...

 

[Colonel Hogan]

My favorite quote from the article...

My favorite quote from the article:

That doesn't, of course, mean the group is right when it finds the expert analysis by Forensicator and Carter persuasive. Another former intelligence professional who has examined it, Scott Ritter, has pointed out that these findings don't necessarily refute that Guccifer's material constitute the spoils of a hack.

VIPS's record of unruly activism might have devalued its theories and conclusions in the eyes of mainstream journalists. Ray McGovern, a VIPS founder who used to prepare and deliver White House briefings at the Central Intelligence Agency, has been removed from Hillary Clinton's events for protesting her policies. While the group was right about Iraq in 2003, that doesn't mean it's right about Russia in 2017, with some of its members' intelligence work now long in the past.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

... in the eyes of mainstream journalists...


Democrat stenographers pursuing an agenda.

 

[Colonel Hogan]

... in the eyes of mainstream journalists...


Democrat stenographers pursuing an agenda.

I devalue their theories and conclusions on the basis that they're not in the intelligence business anymore. They don't know shit.

And somebody's going to tell me that the DNC fabricated evidence that implicated Russia and, in so doing, fooled the NSA and CIA counterintelligence????

Talk about 'fake news.'