© Chicago Tribune
DNC and Podesta emails were leaked, not hacked, op-ed writers say.It has been several weeks since the
New York Times reported that "overwhelming circumstantial evidence" led the
CIA to believe that Russian President
Vladimir Putin "deployed computer hackers" to help Donald Trump win the election. But the evidence released so far has been far from overwhelming.
The long anticipated
Joint Analysis Report issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the
FBI on Dec. 29 met widespread criticism in the technical community. Worse still, some of the advice it offered led to a very alarmist
false alarm about supposed Russian hacking into a Vermont electric power station.
Advertised in advance as providing proof of Russian hacking,
the report fell embarrassingly short of that goal. The thin gruel that it did contain was watered down further by the following unusual warning atop page 1:
"DISCLAIMER: This report is provided 'as is' for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within."
Also, curiously absent was any clear input from the CIA, NSA or Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper. Reportedly, Mr. Clapper will get a chance tomorrow to brief an understandably skeptical Donald Trump, who has called the briefing delay "very strange," even suggesting that top intelligence officials "need more time to build a case."
Mr. Trump's skepticism is warranted not only by technical realities, but also by human ones, including the
dramatis personae involved.
Mr. Clapper has admitted giving Congress on March 12, 2013, false testimony regarding the extent of NSA collection of data on Americans. Four months later, after the Edward Snowden revelations, Mr. Clapper apologized to the Senate for testimony he admitted was "clearly erroneous." That he is a survivor was already apparent by the way he landed on his feet after the intelligence debacle on Iraq.
Comment: There is a lot of trouble brewing in Venezuela: