by Robert M. Traxler
A new mantra we keep hearing from the media and the Democrats is that all 16 American Intelligence agencies agree the that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email. Hard for a reasonable and prudent person to believe they all agree on anything, but let’s look at that number, 16.
Half of them fall under the Department of Defense; each uniformed services intelligence agency is counted as an independent agency, even though they all report to the Department of Defense and cannot collect the type of domestic intelligence involved in this case. So now the 16 is down to 8; two of the agencies are double counted as they both fall under the Department of Justice or Homeland Security. So the number falls even further.
The number 16 sounds good but it is spin, a polite word for lying. We need to ask, where are the defenders of truth, justice and the American way: the media? Where are the people charged by the Bill of Rights to stand up to the government? To hold the powerful to account?
The “Raw Data” file in the intelligence dossier on President Donald Trump, a file that contains rumor, innuendo and unproven data, was “leaked” to a welcoming press, and some media, of course, reported it as a stone-cold fact. CNN, proven by the WikiLeaks DNC e-mails to be an arm of the liberal party, being the most watched.
If it appears leaks are more prevalent today than in the past, we need to look at a possible reason. President Barack Obama has grown government, but he has also grown unaccountable partisan government by some 30%. Senior Executive Service jobs, appointed politically connected people, not subject to Civil Service controls, went from 6,000 to 9,000 in the last eight years. As these people are partisan appointees who will lose their jobs in the Trump administration, why not violate ethical standards and the law by leaking fictitious rumors as facts?
Many of the “serve at the pleasure of the president” jobs grew in the intelligence agencies, rendering them currently an arm of the DNC. The problem with the overreach and expansion of government under President Obama is that as it worked in his favor in the last eight years, it will now work in President Trump’s favor for the next eight.
Senator Harry Reid, while Senate Majority Leader, changed the Senates rules to make it easy to confirm appointees for President Obama; now that change works in President Trump’s favor. The Democrats will never learn that government can be a two-edged sword that cuts left and right.
Our Democrat friends are like the traveler who is dying of thirst in the desert. He finds a pump with a bottle of water to prime the pump, and pump out all the water he will ever need, but instead drinks the water in the bottle and later dies of thirst; not exactly long term planning.
Mark my words the press will discover the expansion of unaccountable government by 30% now that we have a Republican government, and raise almighty hell about it after eight years of being deaf and mute on the subject.
The establishment news folks see themselves as the American Pravda (Truth). We think of Pravda as a stand-alone Russian Socialist news source, but indeed there were 72 major publications in the former Socialist Republic and nearly all self-censored to extol the virtues of Socialist government. The first casualty of a radically bias media will be our democracy. President Trump will be the excuse for the press to charge even further left.
Joint Statement from the Department Of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security
Release Date: October 7, 2016
For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.
Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company. However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government. The USIC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assess that it would be extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion. This assessment is based on the decentralized nature of our election system in this country and the number of protections state and local election officials have in place. States ensure that voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and there are numerous checks and balances as well as extensive oversight at multiple levels built into our election process.
Nevertheless, DHS continues to urge state and local election officials to be vigilant and seek cybersecurity assistance from DHS. A number of states have already done so. DHS is providing several services to state and local election officials to assist in their cybersecurity. These services include cyber “hygiene” scans of Internet-facing systems, risk and vulnerability assessments, information sharing about cyber incidents, and best practices for securing voter registration databases and addressing potential cyber threats. DHS has convened an Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group with experts across all levels of government to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks potentially affecting election infrastructure and the elections process. Secretary Johnson and DHS officials are working directly with the National Association of Secretaries of State to offer assistance, share information, and provide additional resources to state and local officials.
# # #
Footnote 1: The USIC is made up of 16 agencies, in addition to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. https://www.dni.gov/index.php/intelligence-community/members-of-the-ic
Footnote 2: A few “juicy” emails from John Podesta’s account from an October 2016 USA Today article. He doesn’t care much for evangelicals. Although he doesn’t talk about grabbing them by their genitals either, so there’s that.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/10/13/four-juiciest-leaked-podesta-emails/92014368/
Mr. Salisbury,
Sir,
Thank you for the comment.
So, there are 16 intelligence agencies that all agree? The point that you cut and pasted quotes an umbrella organization that does not control eight of the agencies referenced. The DHS, not The United States Military Intelligence units, stated that the Russians hacked the DNC emails. The point was the exaggeration that 16 intelligence agencies agree; not all 16 can even legally keep the type of files that hold data on American citizens. The uniformed services are not allowed to keep files on non-DOD Americans.
Quite frankly it is disappointing to see you play the old half-truth game. To say the DHS controls the DOD Intelligence assets is just not true. The DHS may task the military using the chain of command (through the Secretary of Defense) but they cannot require DOD assets to violate the law and gather data on Americans who are not DOD affiliated.
Just a guess, but I bet you would not like the Uniformed Services intelligence folks maintaining a file on you.
The “Intelligence community” is not even an organization; it is a very general term, not an office, department, agency or unit.
Bob,
Thank you very much for your time for clarification and better understanding of how the system really works. It’s to bad the copy and paste journalist keeps drinking the liberal kool-aid.
Keep up the great work!
John
Mr. Wilkins,
John,
You are very welcome. Thank you kindly for the comment.
Mr. Salisbury,
Sir,
Thank you for the comment.
Perhaps you missed the message in the original column. Perhaps I did not make it clear, the 3000 additional Senior Executive Service (SES) bureaucrats President Obama put in place, made the intelligence agency’s much more political. Are you sir, saying political appointees don’t, to be kind, say things that are not true? Thank you for making my point that the intelligence agencies were an arm of the DNC, your quote proves my point, twice, thanks again.
I did not cut and paste sir.
That is the press release in its entirety and the direct link.
Debate the merits, accuracy or veracity of the release with the Department of Homeland Security.
Not me.
Of course you didn’t cut and paste, You copy and paste as stated above. Your point?
Touché, Mr. Wilkins in a battle of wit you are well armed.
And a follow-up press release is available here:
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/215-press-releases-2016/1460-statement-on-requests-for-additional-information-on-russian-interference-in-the-2016-presidential-election
I think I understand now.
I took your thesis to be that you questioned the accuracy and/or reliability of news media referencing the combined conclusions of a collection of 16 agencies. Thus I supplied links to the pertinent releases which formed the basis for subsequent news stories.
I believe now you were saying the number 16 is in question as is their collective reliability thus making the press releases untrustworthy and in turn then negatively impacting the credibility of news media outlets using the press releases as sources.