Posted on 01/06/2017 9:55:05 AM PST by Kaslin
What do Fidel Castro, Salvadore Allende, Mohammed Mossadegh, and Manuel Noriega, as well as the nations of Cuba, Chile, Iran, and Panama all have in common ? They all were the victim of meddling by the United States in their internal political affairs, to include the attempted or actual overthrow of their governments.
One could also easily add the nations of Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Australia to the list. And most recently Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel can be included since the Obama Administration actively worked against the reelection of the Israeli leader. It’s quite likely that the list of countries and governments that the United States has either outright overthrown, or at the least tried to influence elections in is quite long and touches every continent.
As an old Cold Warrior I happen to believe that our efforts to fight and prevent the evil and spread of communism was a noble cause. And sometimes things were done during that effort that in hindsight might not have been such a good idea after all, especially when they are revealed and made public. Egg sometimes takes a long time to, and is difficult to wash off of one’s face.
There’s a strong case to be made that the one time when we should have involved ourselves in the internal affairs of another country happened early on during the administration of Barack Obama. Iranians rose up in the streets against the regime in the Islamic Republic, and instead of taking advantage of this situation and encouraging and helping the Iranians, instead we sat on the sidelines and allowed a popular uprising to be quashed. And consequently one of America’s biggest threats, the Iranian regime to remain in power.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that nations all over the world have a vested interest in the internal politics of their neighbors, adversaries and enemies, and even their friends. And that countries regularly try to influence the internal affairs of other nations in order to try to protect their own interests, or to benefit economically.
Watching the recent hearings that took place in the United States Senate about the supposed Russian hacking of our elections I was reminded of two things. One, the pomposity of some politicians would be humorous if it wasn’t so destructive, and two, I recall then-candidate Donald Trump questioning during the presidential campaign why we would telegraph to our enemies what we’re going to do.
Apparently the good senators, with the exception of Republican Tom Cotton from Arkansas who knows firsthand the destructiveness that poor OPSEC – operational security – causes from his time as a combat commander in Iraq, most of the others haven’t a clue about discussing these sensitive matters in a public forum.
All of our adversaries practice, just as we do what is referred to as “open source intelligence gathering”, in which a great deal of useful intelligence can be obtained from unclassified and published, or publicized sources.
If our enemies know the extent that we are aware of their activities they can change or adapt their tactics. If we warn them that we’re going to retaliate they can take steps to prepare or prevent any effective retaliation. In addition, they can also prepare a response. Knowing an attack is coming and who it’s coming from can exacerbate already heightened tensions during which things can sometimes spiral out of control.
Wouldn’t it be more effective if we just quietly acknowledged to ourselves what was done, and then very quietly went about the business of getting even ? Wouldn’t it be better if our enemies just woke up one day to find that their computer networks had suddenly crashed with no explanation ? Our enemies would have no way of knowing for sure that we were behind the problems they were experiencing.
But no, not with our politicians ! Our politicians seem hell bent on tipping our hand to our enemies on a regular basis, no matter the potential costs. Our politicians find it more important to pontificate in a public forum than to practice real OPSEC and protect our sources and methods, not to mention our plans and tactics. Our politicians gladly warn our enemies that we discovered what they did and that we’re coming for them.
Indeed we view interference in our political process by foreign governments to be a concern, just as I’m sure Cuba, Chile, Iran and Panama did. And we should take whatever steps are necessary to protect the integrity of our elections. And that would include implementing a national voter ID law to prevent illegal aliens from voting in our elections, and preventing the flow of illegal future Democrats across our borders.
But Democrats don’t seem to be really too concerned about protecting the integrity of our elections after all, as long as it benefits them.
What do Fidel Castro, Salvadore Allende, Mohammed Mossadegh, and Manuel Noriega, as well as the nations of Cuba, Chile, Iran, and Panama all have in common ? They all were the victim of meddling by the United States in their internal political affairs, to include the attempted or actual overthrow of their governments.
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Now CIA; FBI; DOJ; and the rest of our ‘swamp’ government have to say about this, also including McLame and Grahamsty....
This is the operative quote: “Officials reiterated that there is no single intercepted communication that qualifies as a “smoking gun” on Russia’s intention to benefit Trump’s candidacy or to claim credit for doing so.”
Any conclusion of Russian involvement is limited to conversations that were overheard that indicated the Russians were gleeful that Trump won and Hillary lost.
If you ask me McCain is senile and Graham is just jealous because he didn’t make it past the primaries
What involvement did Russia have in the election of the most Marxist President the US has ever had, who offered Russia "more flexibility" in his second term, who had his incompetent Secretary of State "hit the reset button" for better relations with Russia, and has acted like a pussy regarding Russian geo-political and military misadventures?
Did Russia arrange for the National Security sieve, known as "Hillary's Home Brew Server", to intentionally leak State secrets to WikiLeaks and other hackers?
Does Clapper have hard evidence that WikiLeaks derived data (which thus far is roundly indisputable) from the DNC server or Hillary's Home Brew Server directly from Russian state actors?
Does Russia support a strengthening of US military power, as promised by the PEOTUS, which somehow benefits Russia?
How does Mr. Clapper define "fake news"? Did Hillary's declaration of "landing under sniper fire", or "a video caused the Benghazi attack", Donna Brazile's smuggling of debate questions to Hillary, or the release of Podesta's racially-charged emails, constitute Russian-driven fake news?
Can Mr. Clapper conceive of a "leak" from DNC insiders at all?
If the FBI was denied access to the DNC servers to investigate for evidence of Russian hacking, what physical evidence of the hacking is present that is so egregious that at least one addle-brained, atherosclerotic, senior Senator emphatically claim the "Russian hack" was an Act of War?
While we are investigating undue influence on elections (whether it is hacking, leaking, or propaganda) who is looking into US dollars funding the plans to influence Israeli elections, and the efforts to blunt the BREXIT elections in the UK, and threats to "put Britain in the back of the queue" for trade?
Pretending Podesta’s e-mail are “The American Election System” is nonsense.
Why isn't anyone else pointing this out. The hypocrisy is embarrassing.
Oh dear, I must be a Russian, I fit the criteria exactly.
Didn’t the German government give $5M to the Clinton Foundation recently? Where did that money and the tens, if not hundreds of millions from the Gulf Oil States given to them go? I want to know.
Boris was in front of me in line. He went to a booth. I went to the booth next to him. As he left, I left an opening so he could see that I filled in the circle for Trump.
As we left the polling place, my children ran to me. We saw a friend and got a ride home.
A Dead drunk looks gleeful also. And a pretty lady across the room gives many a look of glee.
Just saying...because of that word....I believe the whole thing is a phony story.
BFL
What the U.S. needs to do, is to classify Hillary, Podesta, Obama, and the DNC, as Russians, since, they’re the ones that put our election system at risk, and they’re the ones always trying to undermine our form of government. Neither the Russians, nor the Chinese, can cause as much damage to the country and it’s form of government, as the democrats have.
LOL...yep, agree 100% with you on that one...
So much BS, isn’t it.
Meanwhile, anyone hear of any Congressional hearings on what was contained in the emails?
In fact, call your representatives and ask them when are we going to have hearings on the email contents?
Good idea, except MY representatives are California Rats.
Didn’t the German government give $5M to the Clinton Foundation recently? Where did that money and the tens, if not hundreds of millions from the Gulf Oil States given to them go? I want to know.
Call McCains office. Thats close enough.
That's the point most are missing. Russians would love to keep Obama the wuss in office forever.
“Putin supports Trump” my ass. If he really supported Trump, he would keep his trap shut. How his “endorsement” could be beneficial for Trump ? Several Putin's fanboys could get exited but for majority that's a turn off.
As the wuss couldn't stay in office any longer, they decided to undermine position of the next POTUS, no matter who wins. If Hillary won, soon later the news would be spread around that Kremlin linked oligarchs donated a lot of cash to the Clinton foundation and folks here would be screaming to repeat the elections. As Trump won, the other side does it after they were fed with “Russians did it” nonsense.
If you don't have enough potential to compete with your rival, provoke a crisis to undermine his position. KGB knows very well how to carry it out. Unfortunately America (including CIA, FBI etc.) is a sitting duck in this department.
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