Russians Charged With Treason Worked in Office Linked to Election Hacking

[CousinIT]

WASHINGTON — Ever since American intelligence agencies accused Russia of trying to influence the American election, there have been questions about the proof they had to support the accusation.

But the news from Moscow may explain how the agencies could be so certain that it was the Russians who hacked the email of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Two Russian intelligence officers who worked on cyberoperations and a Russian computer security expert have been arrested and charged with treason for providing information to the United States, according to multiple Russian news reports.

As in most espionage cases, the details made public so far are incomplete, and some rumors in Moscow suggest that those arrested may be scapegoats in an internal power struggle over the hacking. Russian media reports link the charges to the disclosure of the Russian role in attacking state election boards, including the scanning of voter rolls in Arizona and Illinois, and do not mention the parallel attacks on the D.N.C. and the email of John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman.

But one current and one former United States official, speaking about the classified recruitments on condition of anonymity, confirmed that human sources in Russia did play a crucial role in proving who was responsible for the hacking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/europe/russia-hacking-us-election.html

[Gman]

1. Trump people gave them up.

They didn't think twice about it. Their loyalty is to Russia.

[tblue37]

3. Probably. nt

[Botany]

2. And the follow up ? is ...

..... Are members of Trump's team providing information to Putin and the Russians?


*********

Rachel Maddow just nailed it. Russia is guilty.

Earlier this month they broke a breathtaking story. In December, one of the high ranking officials in the Russian security service, in the cyber security department was attending a routine staff meeting when several armed police officers, burst in, threw a hood over his head, and dragged him from the room. That is the last anyone has seen of him, and the State charged him with treason. They then broke the story that another high ranking intelligence official, this time in counter intelligence had been fired. There was sketchy information as to whether or not the official had also been imprisoned and charged.

Rachel’s point was simple and concise. Russia has denied involvement all along. OK, fine. That’s your story, and you’re sticking with it. But, if you’re innocent, then as a nation, you don’t need to do anything, there is no fire there, you didn’t do anything, and nobody can prove a negative. But when you have police storm into a routine meeting, bag and wrestle out a senior cyber official, and then cashier a senior counter intelligence official in charge of making sure nobody blabs, you have just waved a giant red flag. It means that Putin has looked at the information in the “dossier” that the ex MI6 intelligence officer compiled on information compromising Trump, and has looked at the information in at least the public release of the combined intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the election, and he has realized that there is actually fire behind that smoke. And Putin is taking aggressive steps to stamp out that fire so that it doesn’t occur again.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/27/1625826/-Rachel-Maddow-just-nailed-it-Russia-is-guilty?detail=email&link_id=6&can_id=9d9ab9550f6f19d630ddc2d594a7bd47&source=email-al-gore-saved-a-us-climate-change-conference-that-was-abruptly-canceled-after-trumps-election&email_referrer=al-gore-saved-a-us-climate-change-conference-that-was-abruptly-canceled-after-trumps-election___159185&email_subject=the-people-have-spoken-petition-to-trump-to-release-his-tax-returns-breaks-the-all-time-record

[GliderGuider]

4. My money says Flynn outed them.

The timing is right. He's coming up to speed on his National Security portfolio, finds out about them, and promptly tells his boss.

[Botany]

7. And is this story why Trump was on his twitter attack on the NY Times this AM?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028550708

[GliderGuider]

8. Yep.

[Botany]

9. Is there some kind of connection?

[GliderGuider]

12. Start here.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/15/trump-adviser-michael-t-flynn-on-his-dinner-with-putin-and-why-russia-today-is-just-like-cnn/

Google "michael flynn connection putin".

ETA: Unless you're talking about the connection between the story and the tweets. That's just a logical deduction.

[jmg257]

5. Great - so not only did Putin influence our elections, he also outed 2 US spies in the bargain.

KGB at its finest.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Trump's team probably sold them out.

Now it's like "Good Fellas" to cover all ties.

Mystery death of ex-KGB chief linked to MI6 spy's dossier on Donald Trump
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/27/mystery-death-ex-kgb-chief-linked-mi6-spys-dossier-donald-trump/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_fb

[Achilleaze]

10. Republican-Russian traitors agains America e-vile

[Turbineguy]

11. If you arrest somebody for treason

on a charge that they revealed you were spying on somebody, doesn't that indicate you were spying on somebody?

[Barack_America]

13. And who in the treasonous Trump administration sold them out?

And what is our punishment for treason?

[GliderGuider]

14. Michael Flynn.

I'm Canadian, so I don't know for sure about punishment, but I would expect it includes the death penalty.
I think getting a conviction on a Russian mole in this political environment would be impossible.

[asiliveandbreathe]

15. I know no one is finding this a laughing matter..will we, the US, if they are US spies

demand they be extradited to the US - or they will just disappear, never to be heard from or seen again...

First they came for the communists..I remember, I was still in HS, applied to the telco, when hired, I was 17, I had to sign a form declaring I was not a communist...

I shudder to think, who is next....while our congress sits on their arse....