Russians accused of aiding Trump: Obama’s sudden interest in cyber security

Just prior to Election Day, President Barack Obama’s intelligence team accused Russia of perpetrating a hacking operation that targeted the Democratic National Committee and led to embarrassing emails being released.

The intelligence officials say that Russia’s apparent goal was to help Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the presidency. The report about the intelligence assessment comes after outgoing President Barack Obama directed his national security heads to probe the hacking allegations and accusations that Russia’s actions were designed to assist President-elect Trump.

The lead agency, the Central Intelligence Agency run by Obama loyalist John Brennan, released a report filled with allegations, but failed to give any information that led to the agency’s assertions. But Brennan’s own emails were hacked in the past and he’s the Director of the CIA.

“The U.S. government has been allegedly hacked by Russia, China, North Korea, and others. They have hacked the Pentagon, the intelligence community, the IRS and other government agencies that routinely deal with classified information. And Obama and his administration gave those incidents scant attention,” notes Michael Baker, a former police officer, attorney and political consultant.

“But the Democratic Party’s headquarters becomes a victim of a hacker or hackers, and suddenly cyber security becomes a big deal with these politicians. The DNC should pay for its own investigation into the hacks, not the American taxpayers. The intel community does have more important things to do to  protect the nation and the American people instead of preventing political hacks from being exposed,” Baker added.

In addition, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is casting doubt on the CIA report that claimed Russia tried to aid him in the U.S. election. The Obama intelligence community has been less than candid in the past, with 50 intelligence officers and analysts blowing the whistle on the Obama administration’s “re-editing” of intelligence reports so that they backup Obama’s statements and claims.

According to the CIA, individuals with connections to the Russian government provided WikiLeaks with hacked emails and other documents that were damaging to the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. While the Democrats and their fellow-travelers in the news media claimed the emails were fraudulent or they were meant to hurt the Democrats, they never once denied the contents of the documents released, which were rife with racist, sexist and disparaging remarks.

Besides the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence jumped onto the Obama bandwagon and accused the Russian government of hacking Democratic Party organizations in a letter posted online Friday.

They claim the cyber attacks that targeted a political organization were “intended to interfere with the [November’s] election process.” It also accuses senior officials within the Russian government of approving the hacks.

“Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there,” the official letter said. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”