Justin Raimondo
AntiWar
Hardly a day goes by without some "news" about the Russian "threat," and in the past twenty-four hours the hate-on-Russia campaign seems to have picked up speed. After learning from Hillary Clinton that Vladimir Putin is not only responsible for the Trump campaign, but also for the "global nationalist movement" that yanked the British out of the European Union, mainstream media are telling us that Russian interlopers are supposedly invading our electoral process by hacking into voter databases. The Washington Post "reports":
"Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russian hackers were behind the assault on the election system in that state.
"The bureau told Arizona officials that the threat was 'credible' and severe, ranking as 'an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10,' said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office.
"As a result, Secretary of State Michele Reagan shut down the state voter registration system for almost a week."
So the Russkies are invading the American polity, launching a cybernetic assault on the very basis of our democracy? Really? Well, no, as becomes apparent when the reader gets down in the weeds and exercises his critical faculties, if such exist. Because by the time we arrive at paragraph five of this "news" story, we learn that:
"It turned out that the hackers did not succeed in compromising the state system or even any county system, but rather had managed to steal the user name and password for one Gila County elections official."
Oh, but never mind that nothing much happened and no data was altered, because:
"Nonetheless, the revelation comes amid news that the FBI is investigating suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems, and earlier this month warned states to be on the alert for intrusions."
"Russian" hackers have now been magically transformed into "suspected foreign hacks": we aren't supposed to notice this shift in attribution because, after all, the FBI is supposedly putting its imprimatur on this conspiracy theory. Except they aren't: nowhere in the story does the FBI confirm that the Russians or any foreign actors are behind this.
In Illinois, election officials - who just happen to be Democrats - report a similarly minor intrusion, which one Kyle Thomas, director of voting and registration systems for the State Board of Elections, describes as "a highly sophisticated attack most likely from a foreign (international) entity." How does he know that? Well, he doesn't. As we read on, we are told that "The bureau has told Illinois officials that they're looking at possible foreign government agencies as well as criminal hackers."
In other words, it could've been a couple of teenagers sitting in a cyber-café in Shanghai.
Is there a shred of evidence the Russians were behind any of this, as reporter Ellen Nakashima states in her opening paragraph? The answer to that question is an unequivocal no.
Read more
AntiWar
Hardly a day goes by without some "news" about the Russian "threat," and in the past twenty-four hours the hate-on-Russia campaign seems to have picked up speed. After learning from Hillary Clinton that Vladimir Putin is not only responsible for the Trump campaign, but also for the "global nationalist movement" that yanked the British out of the European Union, mainstream media are telling us that Russian interlopers are supposedly invading our electoral process by hacking into voter databases. The Washington Post "reports":
"Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russian hackers were behind the assault on the election system in that state.
"The bureau told Arizona officials that the threat was 'credible' and severe, ranking as 'an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10,' said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office.
"As a result, Secretary of State Michele Reagan shut down the state voter registration system for almost a week."
So the Russkies are invading the American polity, launching a cybernetic assault on the very basis of our democracy? Really? Well, no, as becomes apparent when the reader gets down in the weeds and exercises his critical faculties, if such exist. Because by the time we arrive at paragraph five of this "news" story, we learn that:
"It turned out that the hackers did not succeed in compromising the state system or even any county system, but rather had managed to steal the user name and password for one Gila County elections official."
Oh, but never mind that nothing much happened and no data was altered, because:
"Nonetheless, the revelation comes amid news that the FBI is investigating suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems, and earlier this month warned states to be on the alert for intrusions."
"Russian" hackers have now been magically transformed into "suspected foreign hacks": we aren't supposed to notice this shift in attribution because, after all, the FBI is supposedly putting its imprimatur on this conspiracy theory. Except they aren't: nowhere in the story does the FBI confirm that the Russians or any foreign actors are behind this.
In Illinois, election officials - who just happen to be Democrats - report a similarly minor intrusion, which one Kyle Thomas, director of voting and registration systems for the State Board of Elections, describes as "a highly sophisticated attack most likely from a foreign (international) entity." How does he know that? Well, he doesn't. As we read on, we are told that "The bureau has told Illinois officials that they're looking at possible foreign government agencies as well as criminal hackers."
In other words, it could've been a couple of teenagers sitting in a cyber-café in Shanghai.
Is there a shred of evidence the Russians were behind any of this, as reporter Ellen Nakashima states in her opening paragraph? The answer to that question is an unequivocal no.
Read more
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