Friday, 2 December 2016, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Seven Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee in an "unprecedented" three sentence open letter to President Barack Obama obtained, shown and read verbatim yesterday to viewers by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow urged the President to declassify further intelligence concerning Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election so that the information can be disclosed to the American people. The senators apparently were familiar with the classified information but disclosed nothing in their short open letter which concluded by stating they would follow-up with specifics to President Obama through "classified channels" and thanking him for giving his attention to this important matter. The Republican senators on the committee declined to sign the letter.
To date there have been rare direct public statements by two U.S. intelligence agencies before the election those being the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security specifically placing blame for cyberattack hacking interference attempts directed at the U.S. election as being perpetrated by the Russian state including particularly by targeting both the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton then feeding stolen and possibly altered emails through Wikileaks for internet release specifically to damage Ms. Clinton's campaign to the benefit of now President-elect Trump's campaign.
Following the election Admiral Michael Rogers director of the National Security Agency delivered an emphatic public statement again emphasizing that to a certainty Russia was the state party responsible for attempts and/or interference with the U.S. election. Admiral Rogers gave the strong impression that he meant to warn the public that it should take the Russian threat seriously which has not necessarily been the case to date doubtless not helped as Mr. Trump largely has conveyed a lack of confidence or concern or even interest in the intelligence he has been provided on matters of national security in his position as President-elect.
Also as previously reported here in an earlier post a "top official" with the "administration" provided on condition of anonymity for undisclosed reasons a brief written statement devoid of any detail but "defending the integrity" of the election. The warnings of intelligence officials now augmented by the senators' letter to President Obama strongly suggest that the White House is downplaying some matter of significant concern including by withholding information necessary for the American people to grasp its gravity. Nor has further information been forthcoming as to the unusual somewhat cryptic uncharacteristic quiet threat with a slight smile by Vice-President Biden during an interview before the election that the United States was going to (presumably) retaliate for cyberattack interference with the presidential election or possibly anything else assessed as an attack against U.S. interests essentially "in an appropriate manner in a time and a place of our choosing."
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul briefly interviewed in the video link below when informed of the senators' open letter to the President said that such an action was to his knowledge "unprecedented". Although not being privy to the classified information at issue as he has been out of the government for a couple years and now is a professor at Stanford University he stated that just given the fact that these senators had felt it necessary to take such an unprecedented action as the open letter urging the President's disclosure of some classified intelligence was "deeply disturbing" and indicative of something quite consequential of which the American people have not been apprised. Senator Wyden of Oregon who apparently was the lead senator on the letter would provide no information whatsoever about the letter nor to what it referred. Readers interested in more information can go to the first link below which shows an MSNBC video about this matter of about ten minutes length.
Readers can go to the second link below if interested in more broader background on Russian covert influence efforts that a "senior intelligence official" yesterday told Reuters have been increasing in Europe in recent years as part of a larger campaign against the United States and other Western nations seeking to disrupt and discredit democratic institutions, nations and alliances such as NATO as well as noting the coordinated efforts of these nations to monitor and respond to these threats, including as described by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a September 2016 letter to Congress just made available to Reuters on 2 December 2016 asking that Congress not attempt itself to probe Russian covert influence attempts as there already are ongoing coordinated efforts with other nations with these efforts underway best left to U.S. and partner intelligence agencies to avoid duplication of effort and not risk disruption of already developed coordination between these nations' intelligence agencies.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/senators-seek-to-declassify-info-on-russia-role-in-us-election-822587459996
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-russia-idUSKBN13R2GB?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29
Copyright 2016 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
To date there have been rare direct public statements by two U.S. intelligence agencies before the election those being the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security specifically placing blame for cyberattack hacking interference attempts directed at the U.S. election as being perpetrated by the Russian state including particularly by targeting both the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton then feeding stolen and possibly altered emails through Wikileaks for internet release specifically to damage Ms. Clinton's campaign to the benefit of now President-elect Trump's campaign.
Following the election Admiral Michael Rogers director of the National Security Agency delivered an emphatic public statement again emphasizing that to a certainty Russia was the state party responsible for attempts and/or interference with the U.S. election. Admiral Rogers gave the strong impression that he meant to warn the public that it should take the Russian threat seriously which has not necessarily been the case to date doubtless not helped as Mr. Trump largely has conveyed a lack of confidence or concern or even interest in the intelligence he has been provided on matters of national security in his position as President-elect.
Also as previously reported here in an earlier post a "top official" with the "administration" provided on condition of anonymity for undisclosed reasons a brief written statement devoid of any detail but "defending the integrity" of the election. The warnings of intelligence officials now augmented by the senators' letter to President Obama strongly suggest that the White House is downplaying some matter of significant concern including by withholding information necessary for the American people to grasp its gravity. Nor has further information been forthcoming as to the unusual somewhat cryptic uncharacteristic quiet threat with a slight smile by Vice-President Biden during an interview before the election that the United States was going to (presumably) retaliate for cyberattack interference with the presidential election or possibly anything else assessed as an attack against U.S. interests essentially "in an appropriate manner in a time and a place of our choosing."
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul briefly interviewed in the video link below when informed of the senators' open letter to the President said that such an action was to his knowledge "unprecedented". Although not being privy to the classified information at issue as he has been out of the government for a couple years and now is a professor at Stanford University he stated that just given the fact that these senators had felt it necessary to take such an unprecedented action as the open letter urging the President's disclosure of some classified intelligence was "deeply disturbing" and indicative of something quite consequential of which the American people have not been apprised. Senator Wyden of Oregon who apparently was the lead senator on the letter would provide no information whatsoever about the letter nor to what it referred. Readers interested in more information can go to the first link below which shows an MSNBC video about this matter of about ten minutes length.
Readers can go to the second link below if interested in more broader background on Russian covert influence efforts that a "senior intelligence official" yesterday told Reuters have been increasing in Europe in recent years as part of a larger campaign against the United States and other Western nations seeking to disrupt and discredit democratic institutions, nations and alliances such as NATO as well as noting the coordinated efforts of these nations to monitor and respond to these threats, including as described by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a September 2016 letter to Congress just made available to Reuters on 2 December 2016 asking that Congress not attempt itself to probe Russian covert influence attempts as there already are ongoing coordinated efforts with other nations with these efforts underway best left to U.S. and partner intelligence agencies to avoid duplication of effort and not risk disruption of already developed coordination between these nations' intelligence agencies.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/senators-seek-to-declassify-info-on-russia-role-in-us-election-822587459996
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-russia-idUSKBN13R2GB?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29
Copyright 2016 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
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