Is Bernie Sanders the Russian Hacker?

Update (July 30, 2016) : In one of the Democratic primary debates CNN's Anderson Cooper red-baited Senator Bernie Sanders when he said: "You honeymooned in the Soviet Union" — suggesting that Sanders is a commie without actually saying the word — and suggesting that Bernie was so in love with America's arch-enemy that he took his new bride to the U.S.S.R. (instead of Niagara Falls or the Bahamas) for their honeymoon.

In 1956, President Eisenhower launched a program that a decade later would be called Sister Cities International, a program that still in existence today. The idea was to promote peace and understanding through connections between cities in the United States and Russia. In 1988, Bernie's hometown of Burlington "sistered" with the Russian town of Yaroslavl, a city 160 miles north of Moscow. That was the same year Sanders married his second wife, Jane. In fact, the day after they married, they headed out to Yaroslavl. So, one could call it a "honeymoon" — and the pair have both done so — but only jokingly and in a sarcastic way. But the Sanders' had been in Russia on official government business — and the Sanders didn't go alone. There were 10 other people from Burlington who went with them. It was a trip dotted with diplomacy, official meetings and numerous interviews.

Since the DNC was hacked and Wikileaks released emails, we've learned that the DNC was actively working with the media to sabotage Bernie Sanders's campaign, essentially rigging the election. The Democrats have been trying to deflect blame by accusing the Russians of hacking their server and trying to interfere with U.S. elections -- as though the Russians were responsible for the content of those emails. They also have criticized Trump for encouraging Russia to hack government servers (and trying to tie Trump to Russia) because at a recent press conference Trump had sarcastically taunted Hillary Clinton by asking Russia for Clinton's emails. Now we've learned that the DNC's campaign and Clinton's servers were also hacked, and that the FBI warned Clinton a year ago about the vulnerability of her server. Now the FBI is investigating the hacks.

Which brings us back to Bernie Sanders. Because all throughout the primary the Clinton campaign and the media has labeled him as a "Socialist". So maybe Bernie is the infamous Russian hacker, and there really isn't' a mole inside the DNC. After all, remember when the DNC accused the Sanders campaign for breaching their data? --- // End Update

Was NGP-VAN data breach deliberate to benefit Hillary Clinton?

If so, the F.B.I. should immediately investigate.

NGP-VAN's data is used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — and by over 75 percent of the Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate; and almost all the Democratic state parties. In total over 1,700 Democrats, PACs and other organizations and corporations rely on data provided by NGP-VAN Inc. — including Senator Bernie Sanders for his Presidential campaign.

So if there was really a data breach, and it affects the democratic process that could affect national elections, then that should be a very big deal.

• NGP VAN, the vendor that handles the "master file" said a breach occurred last Wednesday while "a patch" was being applied to their software.
• The DNC has told Bernie Sanders' campaign that it will not be allowed access to the data again until it provides an explanation, as well as assurances that all Clinton data that was accessed by their campaign has been destroyed.
• Having Sanders' campaign cut off from the national party’s voter data is a strategic setback for Sanders — and could be a devastating blow if it lasts.
• The episode also raises questions about the DNC’s ability to provide strategic resources to other campaigns and state parties.

The Washington Post reports "officials said they were unlikely to ask for a criminal investigation". But why not? This could be another major scandal, much like Watergate, when there was the 1972 break-in at the DNC headquarters by members of the Nixon administration.

The FBI director James B. Comey (Obama's nominee, who is currently investigating Hillary Clinton's emails) should also investigate this NGP-VAN data breach. If there was wrong-doing, then someone should be held accountable. (I only say this because I'm confident that there was no deliberate wrong-doing by the Sanders' campaign.)

Let's also look at NGP-VAN Inc — which was created by the merger of NGP Software (NGP, founded by Nathaniel Pearlman) and Voter Activation Network (VAN, founded by Mark Sullivan). NGP-VAN provides the integrated campaign technology platform to Democratic campaigns, labor unions, and non-profit organizations.

Nathaniel Pearlman was chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Pearlman supervised the campaign’s IT director Bryan Pagliano, who later set up and managed Clinton’s private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. Pagliano was the one who pleaded the Fifth Amendment in a closed-door hearing at the House Benghazi Committee. All roads lead to China Clinton and/or the DNC and NGP-VAN

In October 2014 NGP-VAN launched their nonprofit arm EveryAction.

It seems very coincidental that, right on the heels of Bernie Sanders' campaign getting two major endorsements (from Democracy for America and the CWA union), something very suspicious happens — a "data breach" — and the timing couldn't have been any more perfect for the Clinton campaign, because it's also just right before the next Democratic debate — and just when Sanders is also leading Hillary in New Hampshire by 10% in the polls. A quinky dink? An unfortunate coincidence for the Sanders campaign? Or was it a very well-laid out strategically planned event?

The data systems vendor (NGP-VAN) that runs the Democratic technology platform dropped their firewall for a brief period Wednesday (Dec. 16), during which time they claimed data was accessed. According to DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda, NGP-VAN then alerted the pro-Hillary DNC about the issue Wednesday. Miranda said "all users on the system across Democratic campaigns were inadvertently able to access some data belonging to other campaigns for a brief window (CNN reported it is for 45 minutes)." The vendor (NGP-VAN) was instructed "to identify any users who accessed data, the actions they took in the system, and to report their findings to Party and affected campaigns."

Bernie Sanders' campaign's national data director, Josh Uretsky, was accused of breaching data for Hillary Clinton's campaign and then fired by his campaign. But Uretsky told CNN Friday morning that he was not trying to access Clinton voter data. He said instead that he was just trying to "understand how badly the Sanders campaign's data was exposed" by the software error: "We knew there was a security breach in the data, and we were just trying to understand it and what was happening." He added that to the best of his knowledge, "nobody took anything that would have given the (Sanders) campaign any benefit."

Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs said, "That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was fired immediately." But it's very odd that he also said, "Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns. At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor. [NGP-VAN]. Unfortunately, yesterday, the vendor once again dropped the firewall between the campaigns for some data. After discussion with the DNC it became clear that one of our staffers accessed some modeling data from another campaign."

CNN reports that the DNC is currently working with the campaigns and the vendor to more fully understand the extent of the breach — and to ensure that this isolated incident doesn't happen again. But it's still not clear how or why NGP-VAN's firewall had failed in the first place (and why again). Did the Chinese hack their system? Did Bernie Sanders' campaign have anything to do with the breach? Or was the whole thing a set-up? Was any of Bernie Sanders' data also breached? Could the owners of the data company be working on behalf of Hillary Clinton — even without her knowledge?

I am not by any means a conspiracy theorist, but the timing and everything else about this incident is just "too good" for Clinton. The Democratic National Committee (who limited the Democratic primary debates to favor Clinton) has now suspended Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign's access to the DNC voter database after the party organization said Bernie's campaign was able to take advantage of a software "error" to access Hillary Clinton's confidential voter information.

Note, it was "able to take advantage", but didn't necessarily say they actually did take advantage. It seems the Clinton campaign could have also taken advantage ... unless, if they were alerted ahead of time, and then took no action at all — and that NGP-VAN had deliberately allowed the firewall to fail as "bait" for the Sanders campaign, knowing they would investigate to protect their own data.

Rosalind S. Helderman, Anne Gearan and John Wagner at The Washington Post was the first to report the incident.

Josh Uretsky (Sanders' data director) said, “We investigated it for a short period of time to see the scope of the Sanders campaign’s exposure and then the breach was shut down presumably by the vendor [NGP-VAN]. We did not gain any material benefit. Sadly, the DNC is relying on an incompetent vendor who on more than one occasion has dropped the firewall between the various Democratic candidates’ data."

DNC spokesman Luis Miranda said in a statement: "The DNC places a high priority on maintaining the security of our system and protecting the data on it. We are working with our campaigns and the vendor to have full clarity on the extent of the breach, ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again.”

Wait a minute — "To ensure it never happens again?" — after it's already happened before, and was reported? Why didn't the DNC make this statement the last time the firewall went down? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? It suspiciously appears as though NGP-VAN Inc was baiting the Sanders campaign on behalf of the DNC, who was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign (with or without the knowledge of the Clinton campaign). The FBI should investigate.

Stu Trevelyan, the head of NGP-VAN, said, "It was isolated incident that was fairly short in duration. By lunchtime it was resolved.” So, it was no big deal?

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, declined to comment. But if the Clinton campaign really believed the Sanders campaign was guilty of dirty politics, then where was their outage?

This morning (at 7:40am PST) on CNN — the cable news station that usually ignores Bernie Sanders — they briefly reported on the incident, then immediately discussed a new poll that showed 59% of Sanders voters would be OK if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee. At 8:06am PST CNN again reported on the incident. The headline on the screen read: "Sanders Campaign Breaches Clinton Private Data". At 9:36am PST CNN again reported this incident (just as though it was a Trump rally).

At about 10am Bernie Sanders' campaign manager (Jeff Weaver) made a LIVE statement (that Fox News, CNN and MSNBC aired) and took questions from the press. He is asking for a "full and independent audit" of this supposed "breach", and accused the DNC of withholding their own data "hostage", and threatened to go to federal court this afternoon — saying the DNC is hindering the Sanders' own investigation of this incident and said the DNC "stole" Bernie's data. (I will update with links in the comment section.)

DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz (who limited the Democratic debates to benefit Hillary Clinton) was then interview by Wolf Blitzer on CNN. She said the DNC is initiating their own "independent audit", and says the Sanders campaign is only offering "bluster", and then made an analogy of the Sanders campaign breaking into someone's house, and then asking for access to house after the burglary. As was expected, she denied that the DNC was doing anything to help Hillary's campaign, or to hurt Sanders campaign. We'll be waiting for the "independent audits", but in the mean time, the F.B.I. should investigate.

I would bet the house that this incident was intentionally contrived by the DNC to slow down the momentum of Bernie Sanders campaign, because the "powers that be" are afraid Bernie will be our next President.

The Democratic political consultant Joe Trippi was Howard Dean’s campaign manager in 2004. Dean's political action group (DFA) just endorsed Bernie Sanders. That had to have really pissed off the establishment Democrats within the DNC machine. Dean’s former campaign manager said in a interview: "Both party establishments are pretty good at making sure that a candidate who isn’t of the establishment doesn’t make it ... A lot of the rules and things are set up to stop insurgent candidates ... The entire Democratic establishment would come out of the woodwork to stop Bernie Sanders from being the nominee."