Posted on 07/04/2018 1:10:50 AM PDT by gattaca
The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that found Russia interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to help President Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton is "a sound intelligence product." The newly released, unclassified 7-page report -- whose conclusions the Republican-led committee previewed in May -- put to rest some questions that had arisen about the integrity of the assessment and the political agenda of the agencies that authored it.
"The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions," said Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, in a statement accompanying the report's release. "The Committee continues its investigation and I am hopeful that this installment of the Committee's work will soon be followed by additional summaries providing the American people with clarity around Russia's activities regarding U.S. elections."
In its report, the committee said it had conducted numerous interviews with senior intelligence officials and reviewed the analytic procedures that informed the ICA, which was commissioned by former President Barack Obama in late 2016. The committee's report stated unequivocally that it concurred with the ICA's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at the election, and that he and the Russian government had developed "a clear preference for President-elect Trump."
It also said that further details have come to light that "bolster" the ICA's findings about the extent of Russia's efforts to undermine the U.S.-led liberal international order and hinted at new findings by the committee that have "exposed a far more extensive Russian effort to manipulate social media outlets to sow discord."
Unlike Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee -- whose final report indicated that the ICA's findings on Putin's strategic intentions "did not employ proper analytic tradecraft" and said it had identified "significant…failings that undermine confidence in the ICA judgments" -- the Senate report made no mention of shortcomings. Instead, it said, "the analytical disagreement was reasonable, transparent, and openly debated among the agencies and analysts, with analysts, managers, and agency heads on both sides of the confidence level articulately justifying their positions."
Of the three agencies that contributed to the ICA, the CIA and FBI offered assessments on Putin's objectives with "high confidence," while the NSA's assessment was issued with "moderate confidence."
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said at the time of the majority's report's release that they had found no fault with any of the tradecraft underlying the ICA.
The Senate Intelligence Committee did fault the ICA on two fronts. It said the assessment failed to provide an updated account of the capabilities of RT, the Russian state-funded television network. And, it said, the historical context provided about Russian interference in U.S. domestic politics was "perfunctory," and could have presented a "more relevant historical context."
Mr. Trump has been a frequent critic of the work of the intelligence community in general and of some of the ICA's core findings in particular. Last week, Trump tweeted, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn't Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn't Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!"
The Senate's report said none of the analysts contributing to it provided any indication their findings resulted from political or other demands, saying it "heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions."
"All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process," the committee wrote.
It also noted that the so-called Steele dossier, which the president and some Republican critics say wrongly prompted or informed an investigation into Trump's campaign, "did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA ... because it was unverified information."
Tuesday's report was one of several the committee will issue as part of its investigation. Reports on the role of social media and on the question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia are expected to be completed in the coming months.
"While our investigation remains ongoing, we have to learn from 2016 and do more to protect ourselves from attacks in 2018 and beyond," said Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Virginia.
Such contradictory BS. But this will not save them either. The military has all the goods on these pukes.
I still can’t get past the words “Senate” and “Intelligence” being used in the same sentence.
Did the senate investigate this?
“Merkel BACKED Hillary: Clinton Foundation received £4M German taxpayer cash pre-election”
It is a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
See B S
These nevertrump dimwits are still trying to cover for Hillary and her Uranium giveaway.
By doing so, these lowlife bastards are covering for Mueller, Obama and a whole bunch of other lowlifes involved in that traitorous act.
All this supposed meddling by Russia I doubt affected the votes Trump received. It was all vapors with little stink.
There is only one reason I can think that Russia would work to get Donald Trump elected. That would be to give cover to the clintons for the sale of uranium one. I think the results of the election surprised the hell out of the Russians. But it has kept the focus off the treason of the Clinton’s
I think it didn’t matter who Clinton’s opposition was. They just wanted to sew chaos in America, at least that’s what the prevailing thought was after the Facebook inquiry.
The Deep State protects its own - and its lies.
Having Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) on an “Intelligence Committee” is like having Jeffrey Dahmer as the chef at a wayside inn or the Bates Motel.
"....Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said at the time of the majority's report's release that they had found no fault with any of the tradecraft underlying the ICA...."
That should be proof positive that it is utter BS.
".....The Senate's report said none of the analysts contributing to it provided any indication their findings resulted from political or other demands, saying it "heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions."
Do you honestly believe these guys are so foolish as to ADMIT bias ?
Yeah that could be as well but one thing I’m certain of it wasn’t beause they wanted to deal with Donald Trump as opposed to Hillary Clinton.
They take this politically contrived horsesh*t at face value.
It doesn’t pass the laugh test.
they still can’t get over the AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTED FOR TRUMP.
/Last week, Trump tweeted, “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”
/
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Trump got it right.
It’s ill-advised to agree with the conclusion that Russia did meddle in the election.
Trump tweeted, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn't Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn't Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!"
Thanks gattaca.
Well, hypocrisy is a standard tool of the Left.
meh.
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