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Thursday, October 20

No evidence that Russians hacked US Democratic National Committee sites

There was discussion of the issue during Steve Cohen's 10/18 conversation with John Batchelor during the latest JBS installment of the 'New' Cold War. The consensus from IT sources Steve quoted is that if the hacking is done by a sophisticated state actor, it's technically impossible to trace to the source. 

Batchelor added that it's suspicious that Russian 'fingerprints' were left on the hack(s) given that real Russian hackers wouldn't leave fingerprints.

Steve also mentioned MIT professor. Theodore Postol's authoritative statements regarding the identity of the hackers, which Postol maintains is impossible to trace. 


He also makes the point that the US government is is using 'weasel language' when it 'reasons' that the hacking must be Russian because it's 'consistent with Russian motives.' 

https://audioboom.com/posts/5180372-tales-of-the-new-cold-war-biden-threatens-to-cyber-attack-putin-stephen-f-cohen-nyu-princeton-university-eastwestaccord-com-thenation-com

The discussion about hacking starts at the 13:00 minute mark on the JBS show podcast.

In short there is no evidence linking Russian actors with the DNC hacks. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Obama administration is using the claim of Russian hacking against the DNC as an excuse to as much threaten war with Russia. Much of Batchelor's discussion with Steve on October 18 was about just this issue.  

In a further exercise of weasel language the Obama Regime's claim that Russians were the hackers gave them an excuse to pressure Ecuador's government. NBC News broke the story last night just after 7:00 PM EDT:
Quiet pressure from the U.S. government played a role in Ecuador's decision to block WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from using the internet at Ecuador's London embassy, U.S. officials told NBC News.
"It was a bit of an eviction notice," said a senior intelligence official.
Ecuador's government said Tuesday it had partly restricted internet access for Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, who has lived in the South American country's London embassy for more than four years.
A source familiar with the situation says the Ecuadoran government has been frustrated with Assange and his presence at the embassy in London for months and has been considering how best to proceed.
The action came after U.S. officials conveyed their conclusion that Assange is a willing participant in a Russian intelligence operation to undermine the U.S. presidential election, NBC News has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials believe Assange knows he is getting the information from Russian intelligence, though they do not believe he is involved in helping plan the hacking, officials told NBC.
"The general view is he is a willing participant in the Russian scheme but not an active plotter in it. They just realized they could use him," said a senior intelligence official.
From that point on the report is quite strange, with other Obama administration officials denying that they pressured the Ecuador government. 

However, the NBC report is a model of sense next to the one Sputnik reported yesterday, Newsweek Journalist Claims US Intelligence Fed Him False Putin-Trump Conspiracy. This story is so convoluted that after reading it twice I still don't understand and refuse to keep trying. But for those who like London Sunday Times crossword puzzles here's the lede:
An error made by a Sputnik News editor has revealed shocking information that US intelligence agencies may actively be trying to manipulate the presidential election while also spying on Sputnik’s staff of US citizens.
Will at least some of this nuttiness subside once the U.S. presidential election is over? I hope so because it's giving weasels a bad name. Remember: weasels, as well as cats, fought armies of rodents that staged raids on granaries in ancient times.

Just think, all that hard work to save civilization ended up with today's American democratic campaign process and the media establishment.    

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