Among the most oft-repeated claims of the entire Russia election hacking scandal is that of absolute unanimity among US intelligence agencies, with media and politicians regularly claiming that “all 17 US intelligence agencies have agreed that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump.” It’s not true.
Nearly a year into the hacking scandal, both the New York Times and the Associated Press are finally copping to the fact that this allegation is untrue, and retracting it outright. The AP confirmed falsely making the claim in at least four distinct articles, most recently on Thursday.
What actually happened? The Director of National Intelligence made the allegation, claiming it was based on information from three US agencies, the CIA, FBI, and NSA. The Director of National Intelligence nominally represents all 17 intelligence agencies, and that was quickly and incorrectly extrapolated into all 17 agencies being in consensus.
In practice, however, the DNI is an increasingly politicized office, and their publications aren’t necessarily in line with actual reality, let alone proof of a consensus among the intelligence agencies. Indications are that the overwhelming majority of the US intelligence agencies were never even involved in assessing the Russia hacks.
Nor would they be expected to be. It would be bizarre if the Pentagon’s intelligence agency, for example, was probing US elections, or if the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates spy satellites looking for missile launches, was chiming in on the Trump Campaign.
It sounded better, particularly for those trying to make this into a bigger scandal, however, to claim that “all 17” US intelligence agencies had agreed on the narrative, because this would give the impression that it’s indisputable fact, as opposed to a heavily politically-motivated assertion backed up by limited circumstantial evidence dug up by a couple of US spy agencies.
This revelation is pointless now because people already made up their minds on the issue months ago. I got tired of arguing with people about Trump and Russia and tuned it out weeks ago.
Trump is our president now a modern day Reagen it’s crazy how history repeats itself.1 Reagen like Trump was once a Democrat was Pro-Choice Pro-Union than switched parties to Republican 2 Both where Entertainers with a strong name recognition 3 Reagen and Trump ran on an Anti-Iran and when diplomacy failed cold war mentality towards the Soviet Union. When Reagen was President it was Afghanistan this time it’s Syria… History repeats itself…
Not sure where to begin here…
A) When Reagan was president, it was the USSR, not Russia, and there was very much still an actual Cold War going on.
B) When Reagan was younger, the Democratic Party was very different – it lost most of the Southern Dixiecrats to the GOP after the Civil Rights Act passed in 64, I think?
C) I’d hesitate to say that Reagan, a B movie actor, had the same name recognition as Trump. If he did, it was for naming Hollywood actors as Commies to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee or whatever it was called – destroying people’s lives in an effort to make a name for himself.
Trump is more like GW Bush – born rich, surrounded by sycophants and yes men, clueless, unable to string together a coherent sentence if they’re not reading a teleorompter, and unqualified for the office of President. But hey, they’re both fake “guys you’d want to have a beer with,” or whatever. Oh and they both lost the popular vote but thanks to the Electoral College, became President.
I first knew of Reagan from his TV ads for Chesterfield cigarettes. He was a great snake oil salesman.
Reagan was a dim bulb, deer-in-the-headlights simpleton. A B-movie pretty-boy mediocrity with never an enlightened or reality-based thought. His vanilla “world view” was a brain fart mix of right-wing ideological truthiness suppurated from the play-acting fantasy bubble of silver-screen Hollywood, and his brain was half-way to tapioca by the time he became president. The perfect political blow-up doll figurehead: acquiescent, malleable, vapid, who made anyone, no matter how stupid, feel good about themselves. The first of Menken’s morons.
Jimmy Carter,… now there was a President.
I am troll, hear me roar.
Well, why didn’t the dim-wits at these misrepresented spy agencies pipe up and correct the story until now? It’s like they wanted the lie to get some traction first, before hauling it back.
The real reason for the timing of the retraction will likely become obvious later. Like the recent CNN retraction and firing coming not as a result of pangs of conscience but as a result of a good old-fashioned lawsuit.
The story was that the USIC concurred with the conclusions of the assessment. What’s to correct? Who is disputing that Russia hacked among those who have seen the evidence. Name one.
Doesn’t matter if you like Trump or hate Trump, the fact is this Fake News and complete bias of Main Stream News would not be in the news constantly now if not for Trump. The only thing we have to be careful of now is infringements on the Internet and the first amendment, because that’s exactly what all good Statist want.
The DNI claimed it spoke for the entire USIC, and this is what the media reported. The real fake news is that reporting the actual claims of the DNI is fake news. The real scandal is that the President called the Russian hacking fake news but now admits it, blaming Obama for not doing somethnig about it.
Trump has contributed to his share of “fake news,” of course. Endlessly attacking Obama for not being a natural born citizen of the USA back in 2013. What scandal-mongering site made up that one? Breitbart or Infowars?
“Fake News”is simply an assault against truth in the media by both sides in this repugnant display of deceit. By labeling any thing and everything Fake, the facts do not reach the people.
Good point: it is as false to claim that all news is fake as to claim all news is truthful. Each story stands or falls on its own merits. No one has put out more fake news than the accuser himself.
No. The “Fakenews” accusations phenomenon is a revolt — finally — against the decades-long corruption of professional — if culturally biased — journalism into a full-on state/corporate propaganda organ.
Ben Franklin is famously reported to have said, in response to the question “What sort of government has the constitution given us?” “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.” He knew that the power of despotism is unrelenting, and that absent unstinting vigilance, the wealthy would inevitably seek to capture the state and transform it into a tyranny in service to them. Welcome to despotism, we have arrived.
But despotism being despotism, leads to reaction. Trump is that reaction. He is our Martin Luther and Emile Zola rolled into one, and he’s calling out the political stooge class and their MSM propagandists-for-Empire. His j’accuse is an assault on the ecosystem of despotism — “The Swamp” –its propaganda, and its propagandists, the very opposite of an assault on truth.
Whether he wins or the Swamp wins,… wel, we shall see. But it’s a great show.
But, just like Obama did when he campaigned on “hope,” he’s named all the usual insider DC and Wall Street suspects to positions of power once elected. He campaigned on draining the swamp because that’s what the people want, but now that he’s the President, he’s doing what he wants. That’s because like all politicians, he lies. He’s benefited from the system, so why change it? He has no intention of shaking things up. If he did, he’d clean house at the Pentagon rather than putting generals in charge of the various wars. He’s not stupid either – he did that so that when things inevitably go wrong, he’ll just say, well hey, it wasn’t me! It was the generals, they were in charge! The buck does NOT stop with him.
Now, after these bsby steps — it is time to accept that no agency investigated the hacking DNC.computers. The entire case is based on thst one, false assumption. FBI requested acces, more then once, and was denied. Other two were just content to use the privately provided report, by a man who is Hillary’s associate, politically inclined to implicate Russia. The report was not just technically weak, but containrd innapropriate, politicized conclusions. Later, NSA and CIA added to its insinuations their own guesswork on “methods” used by Russians, and in the end FBI was forced to go along. But in Congressional hearing, FBI testified to the fact that DNC in fact was guilty of the obstruction of justice. We are yet to face up to the fact that the entire scandal was a distraction from the damaging Wikileaks emails, and then election loss. But if they can corner Trump on their war agenda, all will be forgiven and forgotten.
President Trump is correct that huge amounts of fake news and fake opinion are produced and showered on the nation every day. However, he is sadly wrong about the major sources for this fake news-opinion production. That is not the MSM. Its contribution is puny compared to the production in the so-called social media by commentators, specifically on Twitter and Facebook. And often on Antiwar.com itself.
Yes, huge amounts of fake news and fake opinions are produced and showered on the nation everyday BY DONALD TRUMP, BREITBART, FOX NEWS, and many, many right wing radio talk shows. You got that right…but you are blaming the WRONG people.
That Trump lies ALL the time is easily verifiable.
All you’d need to do is find a single instance where he told the truth, and your statement would be refuted. Trump is enough of a buffoon that you don’t need to make bombastic statements to attack him. He lies frequently, and makes odd subject changes to avoid answering tough questions. It’s been made clear that he acts based what he believes to be true, and he’s a Fox News addict with a former editor of Breitbart as a major advisor, so there you go.
All the time doesn’t mean 100%; it means he lies everyday.
It is not the media which lied when it reported that the DNI issued a report claiming that the USIC (ie all intelligence agencies) supported the conclusion, which Trump and all who have been shown the evidence now agree, per their October 2016 report.
The DNI spoke on behalf of the USIC, and if they were quoted as claiming the USIC supported the assessments, that was accurate reporting. Now that Trump and his entire foreign policy and intelligence staff have acknowledged Russian hacking, the real scandal is the claim of fake news when Trump had called the story a fraud but now blames the lack of action regarding the hacking on Obama.
The media reported what the DNI told them; the President has admitted “As for the hacking, I think Russia did it,” so the claim of fake news is itself fake news.
Everyone who has been shown the evidence has been convinced and stated publicly that Russia hacked and intervened. The real scandal is those still in denial and the way the media is caving in to White House bullying, even tho they themselves know and assert Russia DID hack.
Russia didn’t hack anything. That’s total Clinton/Obama/FBI/CIA bs from square one. You wish it were true, cause you’re hooked on the Kool-Aid. You and Pat and Eagle need to get a room somewhere and have a Kool-Aid party, and not disturb the grown-ups.
The FBI and CIA and Secy of State, Defense, US Ambassador are all now appointed by Trump. They, as well as Trump, all say the evidence shows Russia meddled “without a doubt.”
““I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it. But nobody wants to talk about that,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with “Fox and Friends” that aired on Sunday. “If he had the information, why didn’t he do anything about it?” DT
“As far as the hacking, I think Russia did it.” DT
Dale, don;t waste your time. Trumpsters are not interested in facts. They (like their unhinged leader), live in a bubble created by conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, Trump, et al. They don’t want to be woken up because the truth might kill them.
I do not write to persuade the blind followers; I write to expose their mendacity and inform those with open minds. I use them as a device to expose the Trump lies and dogmas.
And you, dear sir, are hooked on the Trump Kool-Aid. LOL
The grown-ups? Anyone who defends the Manboy, can’t possibly be grownup,
Let me know when Trump starts acting like a grown-up, instead of taking to Twitter to make personal attacks when he feels he’s been slighted and making the conversation all about himself, which is behavior more becoming of a teenager in the throes of puberty rather than an allegedly successful man in his 70s who is also, yes, the President. The man who is supposed to be representing this great country is nothing more than an overly sensitive, transparently narcissistic man who can barely string a coherent sentence together.
Too late, they won.
As it’s indisputable fact even in a far east place like Japan.
Retraction means nothing, we all know that.
And the liars know this, and use it — a feature not a bug — to great effect.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”
Mark Twain
Most of “liberal people” in my country are, really, believing Trump has won by Russian meddling.
They also believe tight that Clinton must have been more appropriate to be the job.
Nothing can make them change their minds anymore.
When you make a lie, make it bigger as much you can.
Well, the majority voted for Clinton and even Trump admits Russia meddled. No one told Big Lies more than Trump. No one is less popular or trusted.
Wrong Mr. Ruff. You call Trump a liar, it gives others the license to call you one.
By what logic:I can catalogue and show evidence for hundreds of Trump lies; others can call me a liar only if I lie and they provide the evidence. This is the same absurd logic by which a person who calls out racism is then accused of being the racist.
We have all the right to call out lies, based on evidence.
Calling out Trump is NOT evidence I am lying.
Here is a simple example: Trump said he could be trusted because he was “self-funding.” In the general election, 90% of his funding was from outside.
Your turn: what lie have I told?
Wrong, Mr. Ruff. Trump said he was self-funded during the primary campaign, and he was. When the final election campaign began, he said he could not afford to fund it, and immediately began seeking contributions. He never made a secret of this, although it disappointed many of his supporters.
Your accusation is perhaps not a lie on your part, but a distortion. To accuse someone of lying is to make allegations about their INTENT. I do not believe you are intimate enough with Trump, nor knowledgeable enough about his positive thinking philosophy (which he learned personally from Norman Vincent Peale by attending his lectures for years in New York) to correctly assess Trump’s intent. Therefore you are not qualified to call him a liar. And so, by calling him one without qualification, you have made yourself a liar in my opinion.
Now, to say “I BELIEVE Trump is a liar” is certainly fair, if you do in fact believe it. It might also sometimes fair to say “Trump spoke falsely or inaccurately,” because falsehood and inaccuracy can be assessed from a distance.
Intent cannot be assessed without personal intimacy. You however did not qualify your allegation, but stated it as fact. This I find offensive. I would suggest you hone your argumentation technique by qualifying allegations in a context of what you are in a position to know.
Sometimes I call politicians liars too. I do this for effect, for emphasis, or out of frustration. But in your case, you are justifying this behavior through ethical logic. It is neither.
I’d rather not play this intellectual game, Mr. Ruff. I’d rather work on theories of General Relativity today, thank you.
Trump was lying when he claimed to be self-funding during the primary (he loaned a bunch of money to the campaign to be paid back fro contributions), and he continued to falsely claim to be self-funding for weeks after becoming the nominee.
Any rational discussion of Trump has to begin with the fact that he has always been a lying sack of shit whose statements should never be believed absent very strong corroboration.
You got it all wrong Michiko. Russia DID meddle, and certainly helped Trump in the swing states. Just look at his approval rating hardly 6 months into his presidency…a pathetic 36% (The lowest of any president in history at 6 months). You also don’t know his background (which is sleazy). He poses as a successful businessman. he’s not. That’s why he’s hiding his tax returns. All other presidents before him released their tax returns because they have nothing to hide. One look at his tax returns and the whole world will know that he’s a fraud and a con man.
Major issue here for all of us the world citizens is, which American politician can stop US invasion and destruction and aggression on foreign countries.
That “regime change” BS thing.
Anyone can be fine only when one is going to stop the illegal action of US military.
Clinton is an Obama’s successor who’s just going to keep engaging in the war crimes so she’s definitely no no.
Anyone can be good, even Russian meddling or not meddling is NOT A BIG DEAL before the “major concern” for world peace but Trump is long gone when he joined a war criminal team by attacking Yemen, Syria, in daring killing foreign civilians just like his predecessors did.
I don’t think ordinary Americans are innocent at all, they are all responsible of those war crimes of their own military.
American people should be serious of stopping their military bringing destruction on foreign countries, this is what they need to do first than anything else.
Ray, you are got it all wrong, Russia DID NOT meddle in USA inside affears, at past and now! Neocons and neoliberals use all medias to distribute lies and fake news.
The biggest lies were those told by Trump…………how insightful of Mark Twain to understand that Big Lies have a jumpstart.
Retraction means everything; real fake news never admits error. Real journalism admits error and corrects itself.
Yes, absolutely! This is what Trump supporters need to etch on their foreheads. REAL news organizations ADMIT their errors, apologize and retract them. The FAKE dispensers of news like TRUMP, NEVER ADMIT their lies nor will they ever APOLOGIZE or RETRACT. And YET, his supporters criticize the media (and buy into Trump’s mischaracterization of them), while giving the scoundrel a pass EVERY DAY while he spews forth EGREGIOUS, BALD-FACED LIES. IQ Deficiency or Willful Blindness? Either way, it doesn’t matter. It stinks.
Excellent post, concise and to the point. The MSM wouldn’t be retracting anything if they thought their lies had solid traction with the public so they concede on the 17 agencies point as a kind of limited hang out mea culpa.
It’s like those commercials from the 80’s,
“9 out of 10 doctors agree…”
What happened to the 10th guy, seriously?
Antiwar.com needs to apologize to its readers for taking the Russia scare seriously. You have assisted in far-right McCarthyism and a run-up to a new cold war with Russia. Why did you get duped so easily? Are you people for or against nuclear war?
“If you look at Facebook, the vast majority of the news items posted were fake. They were connected to, as we now know, the thousand Russian agents.”
– Crooked Hillary
Really why this ridiculous “Pro vs. Anti” “Hilary vs Trump” stuff?….the Wars & the Status Quo remain unchanged due to crooked MSM…& too many people believing the Media. It ought be obvious the last thing the Russians or anyone else for that matter wants is a War with USA. The fact is the Media AND the Politicians (& paid Experts) all lie in concert TO MANUFACTURE Public opinion & consent…AND uphold the
Profiteers “Status Quo”.. Until the great majority of folks come out on the Streets and say “Stop these Regime Changes” (Read Syria/Iran/Russia et al) & these ridiculous “Wars of choice” it will all continue.
As for Russia “Hacking the Elections”?.. firstly, what does that mean? how unspecific is this?…secondly, it’s a TOTAL distraction……The VERY first thing folks in ALL “Democratic Nations” ought be doing is ensuring Election probity……If they can invade Iraq et al based on a pack of lies and do many other corrupt & criminal things & still be getting away with it, well, what won’t they do?
We really need some frank talk about who is making war between the US and Russia. But the guilty crooks are censoring us.
https://quemadoinstitute.org/2017/06/29/is-sputnik-news-a-front-for-the-ruling-elite/
t’s pretty clear: Trump attacked Russia’s military ally and UN Ambassador Haley says that with the next chemical bombiing, Russia will be in the crosshairs. When you attack the military ally of a nation, you are risking war with them.
The media has censored the expose by Hersh on the evidence that the CW attack was a false flag operation. Trump;s war crimes are pushing Russia to the limit. They have ended the “de-escalation agreement” and so if the US shoots down one of their allies again, we may have a Trump induced US/Russia War on our hands.
Nope, don’t think so. That’s just the picture on the surface. Easy to argue. I suggest you read my link, think, then get back to us.
You can’t retract. The boy who cried wolf used retraction in one sense.
Retractions are meant to correct. Are you saying we can’t correct ourselves if we make an error? If that were the case, there would be no science, no journalism, no chance of progress. The boy who cried wolf did not retract; he was ignored after his calls were found false.
If he had retracted, he might have been believed later.
Retraction implies compensation to those negatively-impacted. By itself it is meaningless or even counter-productive.
My quess would be that Russia and Putin would prefer Trump over his opposition too . But so did the U.S . electoral college . Why would Russia want the deep state ?
Calling such stupidity so grand a thing as intelligence,
it makes a man loose all faith in the English language.