The Russian Collusion Witch Hunt

In an interview of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange by Fox News Sean Hannity that aired on Jan. 3, 2016, Assange said he didn't get the hacked DNC and Podesta emails from the Russian government, as John Brennan of the CIA claimed. Brennan had lied under oath and spied on the Senate — and he also said Trump was a Russian spy and traitor. So how can you believe him?

But in 2018 Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals anyway (who can't be extradited to the U.S. for prosecution). So this was seen as mostly a symbolic gesture — maybe because Mueller didn't want the $34 million investigation of Trump to look like a TOTAL waste of time.

But after almost a 2-year investigation, on March 24, 2019 after the release of the Mueller report, President Trump was completely exonerated of any ties to Russian "collusion" -- but a partisan and bitter Mueller didn't exonerate Trump for obstruction of justice.

In his interview with Sean Hannity, Assange was asked: "So in other words, let me be clear ... Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?"

The Australian founder of the whistle-blowing website, who has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London [since 2012], responded: "That's correct. We’re unhappy that we felt that we needed to even say that it wasn’t a state party. Normally, we say nothing at all. We have a strong interest in protecting our sources, and so we never say anything about them, never ruling anyone in or anyone out. And so here, in order to prevent a distraction attack against our publications, we’ve had to come out and say ‘no, it’s not a state party". Stop trying to distract in that way and pay attention to the content of the publication."

Assange also revealed that WikiLeaks also received about three pages of information to do with the [Republican National Committee] and that Donald Trump [during the campaign], but it was already public somewhere else.

Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan (who is a close associate of Assange), had dismissed the CIA's claims that Russia was the source of the emails as "bullshit". So the accounts by Murray and Assange had directly contradicted the story advanced by John Brennan's CIA.

On December 9, 2016, The Washington Post reported on a "secret assessment" by the CIA, which concluded that Russian intelligence hacked the Democratic National Committee's servers and that of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, specifically to help Trump win the presidency.

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter. Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances. (*

* Besides the cable TV networks CNN and MSNBC, Jeff Bezo's Washington Post was instrumental in pushing this fake Russian-Gate / Russian Hoax conspiracy theory

Craig Murray said: "I know who leaked them. I’ve met the person who leaked them, and they are certainly not Russian . . . it's an insider. It’s a leak, not a hack; the two are different things. If what the CIA is saying is true, and the CIA’s statement refers to people who are known to be linked to the Russian state, they would have arrested someone if it was someone inside the United States. America has not been shy about arresting whistle-blowers and it’s not been shy about extraditing hackers. They plainly have no knowledge whatsoever.”

Murray then revealed to Dailymail.com that he had flown to Washington DC for a secret hand-off with one of the sources in September. He said that he met an intermediary in a wooded area near a US university to retrieve a package. [Many had speculated, including Roger Stone, that it might have been the murdered DNC employee, Seth Rich.)

The Kremlin has also rejected the hacking accusations while Assange has also previously said the leaks were not linked to Russia.

The claims also drew a rebuke from Trump’s transition team, which said in a statement: "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."

Meanwhile then-President-elect Donald Trump called the CIA's assessment ridiculous and tweeted:

Trump tweet Dec. 12, 2016

Trump rejected the CIA's conclusion that Russia tried to interfere with the presidential election and blamed "very embarrassed" Democrats for the public release of the assessment. The Washington Post — with their supposed "sources" — first reported the CIA finding. It was most likely John Brennan himself.

"It's ridiculous," Trump said of the CIA's assessment. He added, however, that he does not necessarily oppose President Barack Obama's order for a review of campaign-season hacking. "If you're going to do that, I think you should not just say 'Russia'. You should say other countries also, and maybe other individuals."

The White House has said the probe would focus on any breaches by other countries, and past elections.

Intelligence assessments

Sources have told Reuters that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (James Clapper), which oversees the 17 agency-strong US intelligence community, has not embraced the CIA's assessment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose standards require it to make cases that can stand up in court, also declined to accept the CIA's analysis.

In an angry letter that was sent to ODNI chief James Clapper, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said he was “dismayed” that the top US intelligence official had not informed the panel of the CIA's analysis and the difference between its judgment and the FBI’s assessment:

"ODNI is not arguing that the agency (CIA) is wrong, only that they can't prove intent," one of the officials told the news agency. "Of course they can't, absent agents in on the decision-making in Moscow.” (The ODNI was formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.)

Thin Reed

“[It was] a thin reed upon which to base an analytical judgment,” another official said in response to the speculation. He stressed that the “judgment based on the fact that Russian entities hacked both Democrats and Republicans and only the Democratic information was leaked.”

Republican Senator John McCain had then said there was "no information" that Russian hacking of US political organizations was aimed at influencing the election: "It's obvious that the Russians hacked into our campaigns," McCain said, "But there is no information that they were intending to affect the outcome of our election — and that's why we need a congressional investigation."

The late John McMain was later instrumental in getting a fake Russian dossier on Trump spread to the media that contained false pornographic accusations.

Daily briefings

Trump has said that he is not interested in getting daily intelligence briefings [just a concise briefing of the briefing], an unprecedented rejection of the nation's massive and sophisticated intelligence apparatus. Those remarks came as Never-Trump Republicans (like John McCain) joined Democrats in demanding a bi-partisan investigation into the Kremlin's activities and questioned consideration of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson — who has close business ties with Moscow — as head of the State Department [and who Trump later fired for being incompatible with his foreign relations agenda.]

When asked on Fox News Sunday by the Never-Trumper Chris Wallace whether he is rejecting valuable intelligence, Trump was defiant: "I get it when I need it," he said of the top-secret briefings sessions, adding that he is leaving it up to the briefers to decide when a development represents a "change" big enough to notify him. "I don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years."

The CIA/John Brennan said it has concluded with "high confidence" that Russia sought to influence the US election on behalf of Trump [A BIG FAT FRIGGING LIE!]. The finding alarmed legislators, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who said he planned to put Senator Lindsay Graham, then, a very staunch critic of Trump, in charge of investigating the claim. He said: "The Russians didn't tell Clinton to ignore Wisconsin and Michigan," two states she was expected to win, that went instead for Trump.

Then-RNC chair Reince Priebus said Trump's win "had nothing to do with the Russians. She lost the election because her ideas were bad. She didn't fit the electorate. She ignored states that she shouldn't have and Donald Trump was the change agent." And he still is, bigger and better than anyone would have guessed.

* Full Disclosure: Bud Meyers edited and updated this story (and added all the hyperlinks to sources) from the original story published on December 16, 2016 at Belfast Telegraph Digital.

Other related links from Belfast Telegraph Digital:

Other related outside sources:

(Real Clear Politics) Assange to Hannity: Source For WikiLeaks Was Not Russian Government
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/01/02/assange_to_hannity_our_source_was_not_the_russian_government.html

(Wikipedia) The 2016 DNC emails were stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0" who are ALLEGED to be Russian intelligence agency hackers, according to indictments carried out by the Mueller investigation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committee_email_leak

(Wired) DNC Lawsuit Reveals Key Details About Devastating 2016 Hack -- By Brian Barrett -- April 20, 2018
https://www.wired.com/story/dnc-lawsuit-reveals-key-details-2016-hack/

(Politico) What Mueller Knows About the DNC Hack—And Trump Doesn’t -- By THOMAS RID -- July 17, 2018
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/17/dnc-server-hack-russia-trump-2016-219017

The 17 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community

Click to enlarge

* The CIA, NSA, FBI, DNI and DIA are the 5 major ones we usually think about and would most likely investigate Russian "collusion".

1. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Created by Congress in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the office coordinates intelligence collection and sharing among U.S. intelligence agencies. The director is the head of the intelligence community and the principal advisor to the president, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council on intelligence matters related to national security.

2.Central Intelligence Agency: The CIA is the most recognized intelligence agency, known for spying on foreign governments and conducting covert operations, including funneling money to opposition groups in other countries to sway elections or oust certain foreign leaders.

3. National Security Agency: Once so secret it was referred to as "No Such Agency," the NSA is the largest and perhaps most technologically sophisticated of all the intelligence agencies. It focuses on signals intelligence — monitoring, collecting and processing communications and other electronic information — and cracking secret codes. It also protects U.S. information systems from outside penetration. The NSA oversees PRISM and other mass surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. It is believed to employ more mathematicians than any other organization in
the country — a fact not all math whizzes are happy about.

4. Defense Intelligence Agency: The Pentagon's top spy agency, the DIA is the primary entity responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence on foreign militaries, with support from the intelligence offices of all the military branches. The DIA shares this information with military leaders, fighters and defense policy makers in order to "prevent and decisively win wars," according to its mission statement.

5. Federal Bureau of Investigation: The FBI has both law enforcement and intelligence functions. On the intelligence side, it aims to protect the U.S. against terrorism, cyberattacks and foreign intelligence operations and espionage. It maintains the government's terrorist watch list and has been involved in the interrogation of "high-value" detainees, sometimes clashing with the CIA.

6. Department of State - Bureau of Intelligence and Research: This bureau collects and analyzes intelligence on global affairs and advises the secretary of State and other diplomats. It conducts foreign opinion polls and tracks and analyzes issues that may undermine U.S. foreign policy objectives, such as weapons proliferation, human trafficking and drug smuggling. Though it's one of the smallest intelligence agencies, its assessment on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was not as inaccurate as that of other agencies.

7. Department of Homeland Security – Office of Intelligence and Analysis: The scope of "homeland security" includes emergency preparedness, border control, transportation security and biodefense (Ebola and SARS, for example), among other issues. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis is charged with gathering intelligence in these areas and sharing it with state, local, tribal, territorial and private sector partners through a network of "fusion centers."

8. Drug Enforcement Administration – Office of National Security Intelligence: The DEA is the government's watch guard for drugs that are illegally manufactured, distributed or dispensed. It is also responsible for the seizure and forfeiture of assets connected with illicit drug trafficking. The Office of National Security Intelligence assists law enforcement with investigations and prosecutions. Most recently it has focused on the threat posed by a surge in heroin and counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl.

9. Department of the Treasury – Office of Intelligence and Analysis: Intelligence gathering at the Treasury dates back to its beginning, when Secretary Alexander Hamilton sent a tax official in disguise to investigate the "whiskey rebellion" underway in western Pennsylvania. Today the Office of Intelligence and Analysis sits within the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which works to prevent sanctioned countries, money launderers, terrorists, drug kingpins and purveyors of weapons of mass destruction from parking or moving their money through the U.S. financial system.

10. Department of Energy – Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence: Even the Department of Energy has an intelligence office. It traces its origin to the Manhattan Project, when the Atomic Energy Commission was charged with analyzing the Soviet Union's atomic weapons program. Today the office's role is to provide technical intelligence on foreign nuclear weapons, energy security, science and technology, and nuclear energy, safety and waste.

11. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Supporting the Defense Department, this agency is the principal provider of geospatial intelligence – analysis and information about Earth's natural and man-made features and geo-tagged activities. This "GEOINT" is used for combat, humanitarian and disaster relief, border and transportation security and security planning for special events. One of the agency's claims to fame is pinpointing the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding; another is operating the reference system for GPS.

12. National Reconnaissance Office: The NRO was a secret agency for 31 years, until its existence was declassified in 1992. The office designs, builds and operates the nation's reconnaissance satellites, providing the Pentagon, CIA and others precision navigation, early warning of missile launches and near real-time imagery to support anti-terrorism activities. On the civilian side, the satellites help survey damage from natural disasters and support environmental research.

13. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance: The Air Force's intelligence branch, organized into the 25th Air Force, uses airplanes, drones and satellites to identify hideouts, bunkers, mobile launchers and weapons caches. It is also responsible for code-breaking activities within the Air Force. All that surveillance takes up a lot of digital space – in 2013, one wing alone received 20 terabytes of data daily, processed 460,000 hours of video and disseminated 2.6 million images.

14. Army Military Intelligence: The Army's intelligence branch intercepts electronic communications and provides maps, ground imagery and information on foreign forces to assist fighters in the battlefield.

15. Office of Naval Intelligence: The Navy's intelligence branch keeps tabs on foreign scientific and technological research, analyzes the structure, tactics and readiness of foreign naval forces, and tracks merchant shipping to identify illicit activity.

16. Marine Corps Intelligence: The Marine Corps' intelligence officers create military maps, intercept and translate radio and electronic signals, analyze images collected from sensors and carry out counterintelligence.

17. Coast Guard Intelligence: The Coast Guard, part of the military and the Department of Homeland Security, protects and defends more than 100,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways. On an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 45 search-and-rescue cases, seizes 874 pounds of cocaine, interdicts 17 migrants and helps move $8.7 billion worth of goods, according to its website. Its intelligence office helps with criminal investigations and provides other national agencies with intelligence from domestic and foreign ports, coastal waters and offshore.

SOURCE for this list at the L.A. Times by nina.agrawal@latimes.com -- Twitter: @AgrawalNina

As of this date, the results of Mueller's investigation aka The Russian Witch Hunt

Mueller's Victims of the Russian Witch Hunt