Allegations Against Russia

Allegations Against Russia Less Credible Every Day

By David Swanson

The U.S. government has now generated numerous news stories and released multiple "reports" aimed at persuading us that Vladimir Putin is to blame for Donald Trump becoming president. U.S. media has dutifully informed us that the case has been made. What has been made is the case for writing your own news coverage. The "reports" from the "intelligence community" are no lengthier than the New York Times and Washington Post articles about them. Why not just read the reports and cut out the middle-person?

The New York Times calls the latest report "damning and surprisingly detailed" before later admitting in the same "news" article that the report "contained no information about how the agencies had collected their data or had come to their conclusions." A quick glance at the report itself would have made clear to you that it did not pretend to present a shred of evidence that Russia hacked emails or served as a source for WikiLeaks. Yet Congresswoman Barbara Lee declared the evidence in this evidence-free report "overwhelming." What should progressives believe, the best Congresswoman we've got or our own lying eyes?

Supposedly the evidence has been made public and is overwhelming, but try to find it and you'll come up dry. Ask why, and you'll be told that of course the evidence cannot be made public as that would risk revealing how the U.S. government came upon the information. Yet the same government feeds the U.S. media with the story that it intercepted communications of top Russian officials just after the U.S. election celebrating Trump's victory. Did that story not run that risk? The U.S. government feeds the U.S. media (specifically the "free" press of the Washington Post whose owner makes more money from the CIA than from the Washington Post) that Russia has hacked Vermont's electrical supply, and -- because this was a claim that could be checked by an independent party -- the secret methods of the CIA quickly turned out to be these: they had simply made the thing up.

If you read the "reports" that the U.S. government releases, and understand that the term "assess" is a synonym for "to claim without evidence," it will very quickly become clear that reports on Russians' motives for their alleged crimes (as well as for their non-criminal public actions, such as running a television network) are purely guesses. It also becomes clear that the U.S. government is not even claiming to have any evidence that Russia was a source for WikiLeaks. And, with a bit of help, it should become evident to anyone that the U.S. government is not claiming to have any actual evidence of the Russian government hacking Democratic emails.

Even the NSA will commit only to "moderate" confidence in what millions of Democrats will now stake their lives (and potentially everybody else's) on. Former top NSA expert on this stuff William Binney swears the claims are utter nonsense. IP addresses produced as supposed evidence turn out in at least many cases to have nothing to do with Russia at all, much less the Russian government.

The rest of the article is here.