by William A. Blunden / December 13th, 2016
According to unnamed officials a classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) blames the Russian government for, among other things, providing WikiLeaks with hacked emails during the run-up to 2016 presidential election. One source referred to this conclusion as the “consensus view” of the intelligence community. Though if that’s the case, then someone forgot to tell all those agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who, in their desire to obtain proof beyond a reasonable doubt (imagine that), have up to now declined to make a definitive statement. Ditto that for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has not sanctioned the CIA’s conclusions due to “lack of conclusive evidence.”
In an interview with John Pilger WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dismissed the claim of Russian Hackers as “neo-McCarthy hysteria” and stated that “the Russian government is not the source.” Likewise, President-elect Donald Trump also challenged the impression of absolute certainty commenting that “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.” In response to Trump the New York Times quoted former spy master Michael Hayden. Hayden remarked: “To have the president-elect of the United States simply reject the fact-based narrative that the intelligence community puts together because it conflicts with his a priori assumptions —…