Governments spy to their advantage, and hacking is a method of spying. The U.S. government is a big-league hacker. Bloomberg reported this on May 23, 2013 in its article How the U.S. Government Hacks the World.
“‘When President Obama receives his daily intelligence briefing, most of the information comes from government cyberspies’, says Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush. ‘It’s at least 75 percent, and going up,’ he says.”
Moreover, we have reliable reports of aggressive U.S. computer weapons ready to be activated against Russia:
“U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia’s electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin’s command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News.”
Against this background, it is almost pure political grandstanding and seeking of political advantage when Obama orders a review of election-related hacking. As a staunch Democrat and party leader, he wants to keep his party as cohesive and vibrant as he can. The election issue and the notion that the election was stolen due to Russia, Wikileaks, fake stories, etc. is one way to do this.
When Graham and McCain get into investigations of their own, it’s not grandstanding. They view Russia as a deadly enemy. They worry about Russia dividing the EU and weakening NATO. Graham wants to encircle Russia with missiles, add troops to NATO, call Putin a thug, and impose heavy sanctions on Putin and Russia. McCain is dead set against Putin.
Their hostility to Russia and Wikileaks much prior to the election is well known. The idea of fake news helps keep their views alive and before the public. Blacklists of internet web sites play into their hands too, doing their work for them while they stay above the fray. Obama has already spoken out against fake news, but not against blacklisting web sites.
Obama, Graham and McCain know that the Russian influence on the election cannot be determined and that it was in all likelihood negligible. They know that Russia and the U.S. spy on each other, with hacking being one tool. They are demagoguing the election issue because this supports other items on their agenda.
12:19 pm on December 9, 2016
