Posted on 07/22/2017 2:34:00 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Michael Hayden, a former director of the NSA and the CIA, on Friday called Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election the "most successful covert influence operation in history."
"Frankly, [the Russian meddling] is the most successful covert operation in history," Hayden told a national security panel in response to a question from moderator Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff. Hayden said the original cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee was not that surprising -- and even from an intelligence perspective, impressive.
"I just have to admit as a former director of NSA, [Russia's hack and theft of email] is honorable state espionage," Hayden said to audience laughter, speaking at the Aspen Security Conference.
Isikoff interjected, asking if the Russian dissemination of the emails through WikiLeaks should still be considered "honorable state espionage."
"If we as NSA could have an insight into … Russia through the same techniques, game on," Hayden said. "But now you make the great distinction: What the Russians then did with the information. And then that turned [it] into what we call a covert influence operation."
Hayden argued that the release of stolen Democratic emails on WikiLeaks was the Kremlin's egregious act, not the hacks to obtain the information.
"This is, at its heart, not a cyber issue. At its heart, this is a Russia issue," Hayden said. "The cyber-thing was a preliminary action in order to get some raw materials, … but that's not what made this different. That's not what made this egregious."
Isikoff asked why the U.S. government has yet to clearly delineate a "red line" when it comes to cybersecurity violations from other countries even though the cyberthreat has existed for years.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, also on the panel, responded that the Defense Department had issued a guideline which said attacks warrant a response if they result in loss of life or serious economic damage.
"The truth is the technology and the techniques that can be used have actually evolved more rapidly than our thinking about it," Chertoff said. "The value of norms would be it would start to create a basis for law-abiding countries to know when they can respond to a cyber act as if it were an act of war."
The U.S. lacks a standard of proof, which makes it difficult to prove who's responsible for a cyber attack, Chertoff said.
"If we confront the Russians, their response is, ‘Well, you don't have 100 percent proof, so we reject it,'" Chertoff said. "We have to establish a consensus about how much is enough."
Isikoff then pivoted to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis, which he said has resulted in 4.9 million refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, noting that former FBI agent Ali Soufan called it "the greatest humanitarian disaster of our lifetime."
National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen, another panel participant, said he wouldn't want to draw "a straight line" connection between someone being displaced by the Syrian civil war and that person becoming a potential recruit for terrorists.
But Rasmussen said that Soufan's description still holds. "First and foremost, it's a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, but it does have a long-term security piece to it that we're going to be managing for a number of years," he said.
The counterterrorism expert also said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah poses a threat to the U.S. The Iranian-backed organization is recognized by the intelligence community as one of the most capable terrorist groups in the world, with access to technology and state sponsorship, he said.
But FBI arrests of individuals with ties to Hezbollah in the U.S. suggests that there's a presence of Hezbollah operatives in the homeland, Rasmussen said.
"We've known they look to lay infrastructure in all parts of the world to give itself options, to develop a playbook," Rasmussen said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation in the House and Senate on Thursday that would increase sanctions on Hezbollah for its actions in Syria and near the Israeli border.
Whenever I read of someone, and especially a so-called intelligence official, saying that Russia hacked Podesta’s emails, I know two things. First, the speaker is corrupt, incompetent, and has no idea of what he is talking about. Second, the speaker thinks we are idiots, because they can usually get away saying whatever they want and be believed. No one can make any knowledgeable statement about who hacked the Democrats because the Democratic party has refused to allow anyone to inspect the servers. On top of that Assange has repeatedly denied that the emails came from the, Russians, and instead hinted that Seath Richards was the source.
Hayden is disgusting filth. Deep state up to his the youknowwhat.
“If Russia had hacked the emails, they would have held them; not given them to Wikileaks. Russia could then use the email info as leverage.”
Exactly. Hayden should be tried and shot.
#SethRich
What, you didn’t have some guy named Ivan hole up in your guest bedroom, drink up all your vodka and torture your cat til you voted Trump like the rest of us did?
Russians didn’t write the emails
And Sanders followers didn’t backlash against Hillary so what did it matter
The Russians forced Hillary to set up her own server.
They forced her to delete thousands of emails.
They forced her accept previews of debate questions.
They forced her to take millions for the Uranium deal.
They forced her to sandbag Bernie.
They forced the Dems to stick us with Obamacare.
They forced us to grow tired of Obama’s BS.
They forced the media to become a leftist agitprop machine.
MAGA!
Covert is in the intent at the time of the operation.
Putin is a genius. Hundreds of experts in the US have worked to crack the mystery of swaying individual purple states with a unified national message. How can you sway Pennsylvania and Michigan and Ohio without alienating other states? Putin alone figured it out how to swing the electoral college votes.
> why did the Democrats deny access to the FBI?
Because they are liars.
Comey, Brennan, and Jeh Johnson also are liars.
The Russians had the Clintoons in their back pocket! There is no way they wanted Trump to win the election!
A most curious assumption since the only evidence of Russian intervention is on Hillary’s behalf.
yes, the Russian meddling in our election was such a successful undercover operation....that there’s not been a shred of evidence produced to prove it ever happened
now, THAT”s ... real REAL success for an undercover op.
or else.....
or else.....
or else????????????? it never happened.
until these loud mouths produce some evidence, I think all they are doing is trying to provoke a war against Russia (when Russia is a natural ally for USA in destroying the Muslim problem around the world)...and of course maybe they think these repeated lies might somehow lessen USA’s support for our new President
Okay, I gotta know why you picked Bell Gardens?!
Wiki got info from Seth Rich a Bernie guy. Podesta not the brightest bulb uses “Password” as his login security, and answers misleading emails to hackers websites.
Why the Dems concern now when they wouldn’t hand over hard drives when FBI wanted to track who may have accessed them?
So much BS/
Oh, bye the way our voting systems are not on line or vote results would not have to put in boxes and taken to be counted off sight or counted manually on site and results phonned in
Wiki got info from Seth Rich a Bernie guy. Podesta not the brightest bulb uses “Password” as his login security, and answers misleading emails to hackers websites.
Why the Dems concern now when they wouldn’t hand over hard drives when FBI wanted to track who may have accessed them?
So much BS/
Oh, bye the way our voting systems are not on line or vote results would not have to put in boxes and taken to be counted off sight or counted manually on site and results phonned in
Is there an extradition treating in force for that location?
It was really a rhetoric question, because you are absolutely correct.
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