Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified during a Senate hearing today that Russia was involved in cyber attacks and the dissemination of fake news during the 2016 U.S. election.
January 5, 2017

Those seventeen intelligence agencies that usually hate each other -- but in the case of Russian interference in our election -- agreed unanimously? James Clapper is the overseer for all of them. And that "unanimous" part impressed even him.

As he testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday morning, Clapper reaffirmed that Russia was involved in trying to disrupt the US Presidential election of 2016.

Senator Jack Redd asked, "Aspects of this Russian hacking was not just disseminating information they had exploited from computers, but also the allegations of fake news sites, fake news stories that were propagated. Is that an accurate -- or is that one aspect of this problem?"

Clapper replied, "This was a multifaceted campaign, so the hacking was only one part of it. And it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news."

Reed followed up and asked, "Does that continue?"

Clapper said, "Yes."

Reed continued, "Do you believe that they made little attempts to cover up what they were doing as a way to make a point politically?"

James Clapper wouldn't get into detail during this hearing because his agencies are giving Congress a report next week. But Clapper did say, "Without pre-empting the report, that's classical trade-craft that the Russians have long, long used to -- particularly when they're promulgating so-called disinformation, they'll often try to hide the source of that, or mask it to deliberately mask the source."

Today's hearing was billed as one that focused on foreign cyber threats to the United States, but in reality, it was held to expose what Russia did during the 2016 general election.

And it also served as a firm rebuke to President-elect Donald Trump's weird claims and critiques of the intelligence community -- that Russia had nothing to do with hacking the U.S. election.

I would expect a Twitter explosion from Trump, but he's been silent so far. Maybe he realizes this once that if he tweets it gives the hearing more attention.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon