Donald Trump takes aim at US intelligence community on Russia

[Judy]

Donald Trump takes aim at US intelligence community on Russia


By Stephen Collinson and Elise Labott, CNN
Updated 6:52 AM ET, Sun December 11, 2016

Trump slams CIA over Russia

(CNN)President-elect Donald Trump's transition team slammed the CIA Friday, following reports the agency has concluded that Russia intervened in the election to help him win.

In a stunning response to widening claims of a Russian espionage operation targeting the presidential race, Trump's camp risked an early feud with the Intelligence community on which he will rely for top secret assessments of the greatest threats facing the United States.

"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," the transition said in a terse, unsigned statement.

"The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again.'"

The sharp pushback to revelations in The Washington Post, which followed an earlier CNN report on alleged Russian interference in the election, represented a startling rebuke from an incoming White House to the CIA.

The transition team's reference to the agency's most humiliating recent intelligence misfire — over its conclusion that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — threatens to cast an early cloud over relations between the Trump White House and the CIA, whose assessments he'll need to make monumental decisions.

The top leadership of the agency that presided over the Iraq failure during the Bush administration has long since been replaced. But the comments from Trump's camp will cause concern in the Intelligence community about the incoming President's attitude to America's spy agencies. CNN reported this week that Trump is getting intelligence briefings only once a week. Several previous presidents preparing for the inauguration had a more intense briefing schedule.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation into Russia's hacking told CNN last week that the US intelligence community is increasingly confident that Russian meddling in the US election was intended to steer the election toward Trump, rather than simply to undermine or in other ways disrupt the political process.

On Friday, the Post cited US officials as saying that intelligence agencies have identified individuals connected to the Russian government who gave Wikileaks thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.

Senate Democrats responded to the news Friday and Saturday by calling on the Intelligence community to turn over to Congress as much relevant information on the subject of Russian hacking to Congress.

"That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core," incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "Senate Democrats will join with our Republican colleagues next year to demand a congressional investigation and hearings to get to the bottom of this."

Trump has repeatedly said there is no evidence to suggest that President Vladimir Putin's Russia, with which he has vowed to improve relations, played a nefarious role in the US election.

"I don't believe it. I don't believe they interfered," Trump said in an interview for the latest issue of Time magazine, adding that he thought intelligence community accusations about Russian interventions in the election were politically motivated.
Trump has also been highly sensitive to any suggestion that he did not win the election fair and square, including claiming that he is only trailing Clinton in the popular vote because of a huge trove of illegal votes -- a claim for which he has provided no evidence.

His surrogates including Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer underscored the point Saturday that there's little evidence that Russian hacking would have affected the overall outcome of the election.

"What proof does anyone have that they effected the outcome because I've heard zero," he said in a heated conversation with CNN's Michael Smerconsih. "Show me what facts have actually shown that anything undermined that election."
Earlier Friday, the White House said that President Barack Obama had ordered a full review into hacking aimed at influencing US elections going back to 2008.

Russia has demanded evidence of its alleged involvement in the election and denied any wrongdoing.

CNN Eugene Scott, Manu Raju and Jim Sciutto contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/10/politi...ing/index.html

[Judy]

Russia has demanded evidence of its alleged involvement in the election and denied any wrongdoing.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable request.

I think this is another FAKE NEWS story. WikiLeaks says it didn't come from the Russians. I don't think the WikiLeaks on the DNC came from Russia either. But what if it did? Russians or any other people in any other country have the right to seek information, get it, and publish it. Russia is under sanctions by the Obama administration causing enormous harm to their country and people. They have the sovereign right to take actions and do things to improve their situation same as we and any other country has. We're not part of this Global Cabal manipulating the world. At least, we aren't supposed to be.

And what kind of CIA do we have that wants to involve itself in political campaigns and elections and discuss their intelligence activities publicly? Activities that at the end of the day, apparently, they either don't really have or can't release if they do?

I admire the hell out of Trump for standing up to the CIA. What the CIA and all these other stupid globalist hacks don't get, is Americans want a new improved relationship with Russia. We don't buy this bunk about Russians being our enemy. They aren't our enemy, they never have been. They have never attacked our country, they didn't bomb the World Trade Center, they didn't hit our Pentagon, they didn't attack Pearl Harbor, they don't have drug-cartel sponsored illegal aliens invading our nation stealing our jobs, opportunities and resources, they aren't stealing our factories and good jobs, they aren't manipulating their currency to hurt our employers, they aren't spreading disease, they don't demand billions in cash delivered in the dark of night on pallets, they don't ask US for anything except normal relations. They haven't and aren't doing anything to hurt the US, the American People, or US interests.

So someone needs to ask, WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Oh wait, someone did. His name is Donald J. Trump, and he'll be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States on January 20th, and soon after our Period of Ironies and Opposites will be brought to an end.

I mean, since when did THE TRUTH, no matter how we came by it, become an "attack on American Democracy"? I guess since the CROOKS AND LIARS lost an election they thought they had already bought.

In closing, all I can say, is thank God our Founders gave US a Republic instead of a Democracy.

[posylady]

All you hear on the news these days is hearsay. CNN reported this ...Fox reported that... on all the main stream media with no facts or actual proof almost always person don't want to be identified that spreads the gossip. Sound like a bunch of parrots. Russia accused Sorro's and the Clinton's of trying to sway their election a few years back. The wikileak e-mails this past year shows how deeply involved our own government is involved in other countries elections and placement of officials. Even in some cases encouraging overthrows of their current government. The US can't expect to be involved in things that sway other countries government take overs or elections around the world without it coming back to them. Our government created the NSA to snoop on other countries and opened up this can of worms. As far as I am concerned Juliean Assage stated that the documents came from the USA and not Russia I tend to believe him and not this gossip.

[Judy]

I'm with you, posylady.

[nntrixie]

Don't kid yourself, the 'heads of the CIA' that lied us into the longest war in our history, which led to the eruption of a firestorm in the ME, killed untold numbers of innocent people, and thousands of American military - are right where they have always been. They are still
manipulating our foreign involvement, the globalist agenda.

The nameplates on the doors may be different but those pulling the strings are the same ones.

PE Trump's victory, our stepping up to the plate, has given rise to movements around the world. So think about it, if Russia and the US became strong allies, they could bring peace to that part of the world.
That's something the globalist do not want. They want a constant strife and the ME is the place they can always be able to go and stir up a crisis/war when they need it.

[Judy]

Thank you, nntriixie. If we had a 5 star rating system for posts, I'd give that one 6 Stars. The CIA can not be trusted at this point. I'm not certain it ever could be. Trump seems to get that because he doesn't even waste his time with their briefings. He said he doesn't have time to spend listening to the same stuff on Tuesday, he heard on Monday. That's why he's cut his briefings to 1 briefing a week. I guess that insulted them, so now they come up with the Russian hacking crap that didn't work during the campaign, to try to use it against Tillerson's nomination. If Trump really wants Tillerson, then everyone trying to use Russia to stop that nomination, will soon realize they can not out-maneuver Donald Trump's mission for peace in the world including much better relations with this crucial ally in war and peace.

Russia is the Bear. For a reason. They are not a Lion. They are not a Tiger. They are not a Hyena. They are the Bear. Territorial, protective, strong, and solitary. They protect their own interests and mind their own business. The Russian people are a remarkable people. It's unfortunate, a tragedy really, that most Americans know nothing about them, our greatest ally in WWII and the reason half of our country doesn't speak Japanese and the other half German. But for Russia, we would not have won WWII.