William Binney
William Binney
NSA whistleblower William Binney spoke to RT about his recent meeting with CIA director Mike Pompeo, where they discussed accusations that Russia meddled in 2016 US presidential election by hacking the Democrats.

The meeting discussed the analysis by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) that the DNC documents were leaked in an 'inside job,' Binney told RT. Analysis of data transfer simply does not support the claim the documents were hacked by Russian agents, as leaders of the US intelligence community claimed in a January report.

"It was very clear it was a local download, because of the speeds and all," Binney said, explaining how his colleagues set up a test between a data center in New Jersey and another in the UK, and could not reproduce the download that took place on July 5, 2016.

The approximately 16 GB of data was downloaded in two bursts, totaling 87 seconds, with a 12-minute pause between them.

"It had to be done locally," Binney told RT.

The data logs and the speed test were the only concrete evidence available for examination, he pointed out. "Everything else is speculation, and agenda- and emotionally-driven assertions."

If the intelligence community had some factual evidence proving Russian hacking, that would be another matter, the NSA whistleblower said, but"so far they've produced nothing."

President Kennedy presented aerial surveillance photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis, Binney pointed out. Reagan presented Japanese radio intercepts of orders to shoot down the Korean airliner in 1983. No such evidence has been offered for the hacking accusation, though many lawmakers have described it as an act of war.

"They need to put up or shut up," said Binney. He said he does not buy into such claims without any factual evidence, "and that's basically what their situation is. They have zero evidence."

Mainstream media outlets have branded the VIPS analysis as a "disputed," "fringe," or "conspiracy," theory (Washington Post, NBC, and CNN respectively) while failing to apply the same level of skepticism to the US intelligence community narrative.

"To me, it basically shows the shallow weakness of [their] argument, when you have to throw labels at people" instead of looking at the evidence, Binney told RT.