CBS News: Russians Are Hacking the Hell Out of Us

Says Unnamed Sources Warn US 'Not Doing Anything' About It

Adding to the flurry of Russia hacking stories emerging which both include no evidence and virtually no named sources, CBS News is tonight citing unnamed sources in the US intelligence community as claiming that “the Russians are hacking the hell out of us” and “we aren’t doing anything about it.”

The claims build on the growing media frenzy surrounding accusations that Russia “hacked the election,” though they notably run directly contrary to the comments President Obama himself made today, which claimed Russia’s hacking of the election stopped way back in early September after he told Putin to “cut it out.”

Obama presented the matter as one he had “handled,” though he continued to talk up retaliatory action against Russia during his comments. In stark contrast, the CBS News sources insisted that the hacking attacks have continued to escalate over the past year and a half.

These claims seem to rest on the reality that the Internet itself is increasingly awash in hacking operations with cyber-attacks from all over the world happening constantly and against seemingly every target imaginable. That they are attributing all of this to “the Russians” defies reason.

CBS is hyping the story with a secondary one claiming a “Russian hack almost brought the US military to its knees,” describing the well-documented July 2015 hack of a single non-classified email system belonging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, bringing the server down for a brief period.

The 2015 story is presented in awed tones, presenting it as a “full frontal attack” on the US military, despite the hack both being a runaway success and doing seemingly little of consequence. That hack does have much in common with the election hacking story in that no evidence was ever presented in either case proving Russian government involvement, but in both cases officials blamed Russia initially as a matter of course and stuck to that narrative for month.

President Obama also, in both cases, promised revenge at a time of his choosing, though as of yet it is unclear if any revenge has been carried out in either case.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.