This is a public service announcement: if you haven't seen enough information to prove to you, independent of the claims of the White House, CIA & FBI, that Russia was behind this, you should file a Freedom of Information Act Request for sufficient evidence to independently reach that conclusion. Citizens of the US in particular should do this to hold their government accountable -- we can not let it be accepted that because POTUS says something, and maybe has confirmation from "anonymous sources" within the CIA & FBI (e.g. as reported by the NYTimes[1]), that it must be true.
Muckrock[2] makes it dirt-simple to file a FOIA request. Hold the government accountable -- they work for us.
While there's no harm in filing additional FOIA requests, let's also add some deductive reasoning to the mix. Is this consistent with Russia's actions in other countries and contexts (as well as their own)? Yes. http://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russ...
Have individuals close to the Kremlin strongly implied they had a role in this and have senior Russian officials stated clearly that they had contact with the Trump campaign during the election? Yes. http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.752386
Did Russia even object today on the grounds that the allegations about their role were false? On the contrary, they were practically doing a victory lap.
There are plenty of debates still very worth having about whether the actions taken today are appropriate, whether a hostile stance towards Russia is merited, etc. But I've seen enough to convince me that Russia was engaged in an information operations campaign to cast doubt about the U.S. election and help Trump on the margins.
Russia has denied involvement with this incident in the past[1].
I would encourage considering applying the same standard that we would apply to a trial by jury. Simply indicating that someone is a repeat offender, and would have reason to commit an offense again, does not itself meet a standard of evidence of actually committing that offense.
I don't really care that much about this specific event.
It's a bunch of liars (Russian government, various US intelligence services, Russian and American politicians) trying to tell me that "the other guy" is a liar and did something bad.
My life continues as it does, working against all those listed above because none of them particularly deserve my assistance or respect.
on top of that, the leaks were real. If they were "leaking" phony information, I might have an issue. But this "hack" gives high-ranking politicians a taste of their own medicine. What POTUS calls a "hack", I prefer to call "warrant-less wiretapping".
and it's for "security". I'm 'secure' from hillary clinton's corruption, therefore, violating her right to privacy is ok. same thing they do to each US citizen
Sure, you can go ahead and file a FOIA request. But according to the NYT article you linked to, 'the forensic evidence was accompanied by “human and technical” sources in Russia, which appears to mean that the United States’ implants or taps in Russian computer and phone networks helped confirm the country’s role.' [0] CIA will not give you information about its secret agents in the Kremlin just because you ask nicely.
Yes, there are specific exemptions, but a properly worded FOIA request should be able to maneuver around them. For example, Exemption 7[1] would protect "from disclosure information which would reveal techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions or that would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law," but a properly worded request would seek the information that those techniques uncovered, not the techniques themselves.
This is predicated on the evidence, should it exist, of a Russia-backed security incursion being classified a national security secret. While such a hypothetical claim would have questionable value, would it be worth classifying a bit of information, say, like "the attack ingress point was IP address x.x.x.x, which is owned by Russian military?"
Of course it is classified. And of course no state backed actor is going to use a military owned IP.
And there won't be one single source of evidence which points to it, it will be hundreds of small circumstantial points which taken together point to the conclusion.
Those won't ever be released because they will give away sources and techniques.
I'm not perpetuating any particular agenda other than that people should request enough information to form their own opinions. Throwaway accounts for political conversations are an occupational necessity for my line of work.
Folks, now is the time that we need to make it clear that posturing and PR statements do not constitute valid, independently verifiable evidence. As a citizen of the United States, I am beyond terrified that our government has made public statements, buttressed by newspaper articles supported by nothing but anonymous sources[1], vilifying Russia for a nation-state-level cyberattack. The support for such claims, as presented, is the "sophistication" of the attack, which is not evidenced here (phishing is not a particularly sophisticated means of entry). At best, this is a mistake, and at worst, it wreaks of anti-Russia propaganda that will only serve to escalate tensions between the two countries. Every single person who absorbs a report like this without seeking supporting evidence (note that this report immediately starts by claiming Russia's involvement, and never provides support) is, to some extent, culpable in a hypothetical reality where the US Government is blatantly wrong about this one.
There's only one thing we can do at this point: File Freedom of Information requests. The fine folks at Muckrock[2] make this absurdly easy. Send requests to the CIA and FBI -- hold them accountable to their statements, which have to date been unsupported, that Russia as a nation-state entity was behind anything.
This is a public service announcement: if you haven't seen enough information to prove to you, independent of the claims of the White House, CIA & FBI, that Russia was behind this, you should file a Freedom of Information Act Request for sufficient evidence to independently reach that conclusion. Citizens of the US in particular should do this to hold their government accountable -- we can not let it be accepted that because POTUS says something, and maybe has confirmation from "anonymous sources" within the CIA & FBI (e.g. as reported by the NYTimes[1]), that it must be true.
Muckrock[2] makes it dirt-simple to file a FOIA request. Hold the government accountable -- they work for us.
1: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/obama-russia-election-h... 2: https://www.muckrock.com