Newsweek: Why Vladimir Putin's Russia is Backing Donald Trump

[deminks]

http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russia-hillary-clinton-united-states-europe-516895

n phone calls, meetings and cables, America’s European allies have expressed alarm to one another about Donald Trump’s public statements denying Moscow’s role in cyberattacks designed to interfere with the U.S. election. They fear the Republican nominee for president has emboldened the Kremlin in its unprecedented cyber-campaign to disrupt elections in multiple countries in hopes of weakening Western alliances, according to intelligence, law enforcement and other government officials in the United States and Europe.

While American intelligence officers have privately briefed Trump about Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. election, he has publicly dismissed that information as unreliable, instead saying this hacking of incredible sophistication and technical complexity could have been done by some 400-pound “guy sitting on their bed” or even a child.

Officials from two European countries told Newsweek that Trump’s comments about Russia’s hacking have alarmed several NATO partners because it suggests he either does not believe the information he receives in intelligence briefings, does not pay attention to it, does not understand it or is misleading the American public for unknown reasons. One British official said members of that government who are aware of the scope of Russia’s cyberattacks both in Western Europe and America found Trump’s comments “quite disturbing” because they fear that, if elected, the Republican presidential nominee would continue to ignore information gathered by intelligence services in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy.

(snip)

American intelligence officials know Russia used cyberattacks and misinformation to interfere with recent elections in Western Europe, including the German elections last month that resulted in victories for right-wing populists, and the United Kingdom’s vote in June on Brexit, a referendum that called for Britain to leave the European Union.

(end snip)

[yardwork]

1. I noticed pro-BREXIT propaganda on DU

By the same posters who then left to found an anti-Hillary site that is full of pro-Putin propaganda.

[deminks]

2. The smiling a**hole, Nigel Farage, what are his ties to Pooty Poot?

We know Nigel is a fan boy like Trump. and Nigel has had a big role in the Trump campaign. Bringing messages back and forth?

[yardwork]

3. Remember the day BREXIT passed, Farage admitted the campaign was full of lies?

Who paid for all the bus signs in England saying the National Health System would get back hundreds in millions of pounds?

[deminks]

5. Yes, perhaps Nigel, too, has been rewarded for his efforts.

[KittyWampus]

21. And a large percentage were also very vocal Snowden/Greenwald supporters.

[yardwork]

24. Correct. Years of propaganda here.

In the weeks around the vote, pro-BREXIT propaganda on DU was remarkably consistent. I wondered where the posters were getting their talking points.

The word "oligarchy" was also thrown around DU a lot and I wondered why, since it is usually used in the context of Russian history.

I think a number of DUers have been played by long-time embedded trolls with multi socks. I think the anti-Hillary websites and Facebook pages are getting a lot of funding from Putin, whether their volunteer mods realize it or not.

[OKNancy]

4. We knew this, but still very important

From the article:

The Russian penetration in the United States is far more extensive than previously revealed publicly, although most of it has been targeted either at government departments or non-government organizations connected to the Democratic Party. Russian hackers penetrated the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department. The State Department cyberattack, which began in 2014 and lasted more than a year, was particularly severe, with Russian hackers gaining entry into its unclassified system, including emails. (Clinton left the State Department in 2013, which means that if she had used its unclassified email system rather than her private server—a decision that has dogged her throughout the campaign—any of her emails on the government system could have been obtained by Russian hackers).

[yardwork]

22. This could be why the emails are being hammered.

Is the goal to force all public servants to use weak, easily compromised servers so that the Russians CAN hack them?

[BlueCaliDem]

26. Exactly. As Eichenwald said this morning on MSNBC, the State Dept. was hacked and tens of thousands

of e-mails and other info stolen. Had Hillary Clinton had an account with them, ALL her e-mails would've been stolen for disbursement to WikiLeaks. But she was smart enough to have a private server that hasn't been compromised.

[yardwork]

28. We need to start saying that to our "concerned" friends and relations.

[BlueCaliDem]

33. And share it repeatedly on our social media so that it gets widespread attention! eom

[piechartking]

6. I want what's in the Kompromat file

That would truly be devastating.

[deminks]

8. Yes, there is a lot of speculation about that file and the Donald.

[LisaL]

10. Don't we all?

[texasleo]

7. No kompromat audio/video, no one will care.

[Koinos]

9. Another masterpiece by Kurt Eichenwald.

This article deserves to be read over and over again by everyone.

[Mc Mike]

12. Yep. He's fantastic. Nt

[dalton99]

16. Yes.

[Augiedog]

11. Perhaps tRump is selectively "ignoring" intelligence. Weakening NATO could be a trade off for Russia

allowing him, tRump, To use nukes in the Middle East. We may never be sure of any of this because the FBI may so hate Hillary that their myopia will throw America under the bus and ensure that tRump ascends to the Whitehouse.

[tom_kelly]

14. Is this what Rachel was so giddy about yesterday?

Doesn't sound like the bomb I was expecting.

[yardwork]

20. It's hard to imagine anything worse, imo.

The Russians spreading secret propaganda to interfere with elections in order to weaken other countries - getting useful tools like Trump elected in the U.S. Getting the Brits to vote to leave the EU. Getting a right-wing government in Germany. It's World War III.

The outcome could be severely weakened countries and alliances just as the Russian Federation is poised to expand. Think of the 1930s.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Not much worse for people with intelligence

But pretty mch anyone with intelligence has already decided to vote for Clinton. . .

[mountain grammy]

15. Same old same old

and the polls tighten as Americans shit their pants and vote for the new Hitler.

I'm so sick of it all. None of this will be on the network news because there are too many emails and fake letters for stupid people to fret about.

[yardwork]

25. But now we know why so many people are being influenced.

It's difficult for people to resist propaganda when it's carefully designed to touch them. And the media - knowingly or not - is colluding with the propaganda.

There's a lot of science, a lot of psychology behind these disinformation campaigns. You get sent a video on Facebook that says Trump has helped little kids with cancer, maybe because your Facebook feed has had posts about a family member with cancer.

[mountain grammy]

29. Yes, it is carefully designed propaganda

but people still have to be gullible or want to believe it.. like Hillary has been murdering opponents for years. What kind of moron buys into this bullshit?

[yardwork]

31. I share your anger and frustration.

Why are people so gullible. Are they driven by their fears and biases?

[Gothmog]

17. Another great job of reporting by Eichenwald

[BlueCaliDem]

30. Eichenwald is a TREASURE in investigative journalism. M$M, if only to keep the shame that they're

our fourth estate, should publish and report Eichenwald's Newsweek piece widely to inform the sleep American electorate who exactly is behind Trump. Makes you wonder if Russia helped Trump to win the Republican primaries, too.

[Gothmog]

34. It will be tough to see who gets the Pulitzer between Eichenwald and Farenthold b

[world wide wally]

18. Yeah, but....Hillary has email

[smirkymonkey]

19. K&R

[NastyRiffraff]

35. A money quote from this important article:

However, there are so many layers of individuals between the hackers and that organization there is a strong possibility that WikiLeaks does not know with certainty the ultimate source of these records; throughout 2016, the site has been posting emails from various Democratic Party organizations that were originally obtained through Russian hacking.

WikiLeaks is being played too, apparently. And they are supposed to be heroes for exposing government corruption!

This article is stunning, and very important. But as it's a long and thoroughly comprehensive article, most of the MSM don't have the patience to read and vet it.

[calimary]

37. Maybe we need to push them. I'm gonna start tweeting every media person I can think of.

Found THIS, too, which might serve quite nicely:

Win or lose TrumpTV is set to become the Propaganda Arm of Donald Trump spewing lies & controlling access to only those that toe his line! Should the unthinkable prevail & Trump wins, it could be the end of Corporate Media which would be IRONIC indeed!

Contact the Presidents of the Networks — Deborah Turness @DeborahTurness -NBC News

James Goldston @jamesgoldston -ABC News DavidGrayRhodes @DavidGrayRhodes -CBS News

Jeff Zucker -email- [e-mail], Phil Griffin MSNBC email to [e-mail]

Demand REAL NEWS accountability & fairness or BOYCOTT THEM ALL!

From:
http://pleasecutthecrap.com/guest-post-sueinrockville-on-media-failure-2016/

[NastyRiffraff]

39. Great idea

about pushing them. As for TrumpTV, nothing will grab their attention faster than a threat to their very existence!

[calimary]

40. In the event of a Trump TV, it will be

MOST instructive to see how many of the alleged "mainstream" people find their way over there, finally going public about their own personal bias. Like Howard Kurtz did, for example. He hosted CNN's "Reliable Sources" til recently. Did a crappy job there, in the inpartial department. As in, NO impartiality. Then sure enough, he pops up on Pox Noise. Surprising exactly NOBODY.

It'll be MOST instructive to see who wants to switch over to Trump TV so they can finally do their "honest" "journalism".

[SharonAnn]

42. Shades of Sylvio Berlusconi in Italy and his media empire!