On Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment.

Greg Krasovsky's response to President Obama's Statement "On Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment."

For those of you who know me or follow me on Facebook, I have been emphatic about the wrongfulness and evil of foreign interference in another country's domestic political affairs, including elections - the only exception being to stop independently & objectively confirmed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
   
The recent Russo-phobic attacks and allegation by Hillary Clinton's supporters against Russia for supporting Donald Trump and "sabotaging Hillary Clinton's candidacy, have gotten under my skin, due in part to the fact that I am (was):

- both an American citizen and a Russian citizen by birth (yes, I was born in the USSR), 
- a lawyer (both in U.S. and Russia), 
- a political scientist (political dissident is more accurate), 
- a human rights activist, 
- a former police officer (1989-1992 in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) 
- a former network systems administrator at Columbia University, and
- a former auditor and forensic accountant. 

Moreover, I really hate it when suspected criminals make false allegations of serious crimes against either their victims, their victims' supporters or whistle-blowers.

The viciousness with which the folks behind Hillary Clinton (the American and global interests that she represents) have been attacking Russia and Donald Trump should scare us all.

We don't need another cold war, especially a war started by American illegal (per international law) foreign interventions & regime change operations, such as in Syria and Ukraine.

We don't need another McCarthy era where any anti-establishment   leader or organization is falsely labeled as communist or pro-Putin.

Remember the surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of  labor, civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI in the 1960s? have you read about it?

Do we want to go back to those days? 

Guess what folks, J. Edgar Hoover may be dead, but there are enough people (and even worse) like him today in the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, DHS and the State Department. 

They consider themselves true patriots and defenders of Good Old America, but in fact these folks look more like the characters from Star Wars who served the Empire and The First Order. 
  
Anyway, let's look closely at President Obama's accusations against Russia and, even if they are objectively established to be true by verifiable evidence, we have a case of "the pot (POTUS?) calling the kettle black":
  
1. "Interference with the U.S. Election Process"

Q: Did the Russian government officially support a certain candidate, e.g. like Donald Trump?
   
A: No, but the U.S. does it ALL the time in other countries.
  
Q: Did the Russian Government provide funding (overtly or covertly) to a certain political candidate, party or PAC?

A: No, but the U.S. does it ALL the time in other countries.
  
Q: Did the Russian Government provide training, equipment, money and other material support to American political & civil activists in support of a particular party or candidate?

A: No, but the U.S. does it ALL the time in other countries.

Q: Did the Russian government sabotage a particular political candidate or a party by 

- releasing negative (compromising) information about them,
- their freezing funds & bank accounts abroad,
- engaging in selective prosecution or regulatory enforcement against their businesses abroad,
- damaging their equipment & communications, such as through in Cyber-warfare?

A: No, but the U.S. does it ALL the time in other countries.
  
2. "These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government."

Q: How many infamous hackers are not on Kremlin's payroll?

A: Lost of them, including by groups like Anonymous, Legion, A: LulzSec, TeaMp0isoN, NullCrew and etc.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hacker_groups
  
Q: How many personal email accounts of famous & important people have been hacked by individual hackers who are not on the Kremlin's payroll?

A: Lots of them, just google it and you'll see these famous folks: 

- Vice-Presidential nominee & former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin,
- CIA Director John Brennan, whose personal email account was hacked by a 16 year old American kid.
- Hillary Clinton, whose personal email account was hacked by a 44 Romanian father and husband, Marcel Lazar, AKA Guccifer.

*FYI, Lazar hacked into email accounts of about 100 victims between 2012 and 2014.

"They included celebrities, business executives and political figures such as Sidney Blumenthal, an adviser with whom Clinton corresponded using her personal email account; confidantes of former president George W. Bush; and former secretary of state Colin Powell."

See http://www.smh.com.au/world/guccifer-hacker-who-exposed-hillary-clinton-emails-jailed-20160902-gr762e.html
  
Q: Does POTUS have any verifiable evidence that Wikileaks, Bradley Manning or other recent famous whistle-blowers were on the Kremlin's payroll at the time that they release sensitive & classified U.S. government information and/or emails to the press?

A: No, otherwise you would have read in the American establishment's flagship newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
    
Q: Is it true that the DNC, Clinton and Podesta email thefts & disclosures to the press "COULD" have been done "ONLY" with the approval of  Russian President Putin or the Russian government?
  
A: No, these hacks, thefts and disclosures to the press could have been done by independent hackers (many of them are anarchists) or insider whistle-blowers.
  
****

Well, that's enough Q&A for now. 

What about the strength & specificity of evidence presented by the CIA, DHS and FBI allegedly confirming that the DNC & Podesta email hacks were done by Russian foreign intelligence services -- SVR and GRU, counterparts of CIA and DIA -- and their agents?

Where is it? As an investigator, I don't see any verifiable digital fingerprints or trails leading right to the Kremlin's door.

What I see is President Obama and Hillary Clinton's supporters attacking Donald Trump with that age-old "ace-up-the-sleeve", the Russian menace.

Why? Because leaks & theft of sensitive and damaging electronic information today (by lone-wolf whistle-blowers and hackers) are scary to the establishment, as these leaks are very hard to prevent.

On top of that, thanks to the Internet, organizations like Wikileaks and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LiveLeak), this leaked & stolen information -- true information no matter how damning or classified -- can be read and seen by billions of people within minutes and hours in TOTAL circumvention of the main-stream media outlets owned & controlled by the establishment.
  
Now imagine a foreign state that does not obey the Western political establishment, like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, offering rewards or incentives and sanctuary to independent hackers & whistle-blowers in the the millions of dollars for such sensitive information.

Wait a minute! This sounds awfully familiar. Hasn't the CIA been offering such rewards to its agents & collaborators abroad for decades?

So this is why the American Establishment has gone apes..t over these Clinton, DNC & Podesta email leaks.

They have seen how these leaks can influence voters opening up their eyes to the ugly truth about government & political corruption -- an ugly truth which until now was easily ignored, blocked or white-washed by loyal media outlets. 

They have also seen how independent sources of news - including social media - can play a crucial role in close elections. After all, when victors and losers can be separated by only a few hundred or thousand votes in any given state, this is scary.

So how do you try to neutralize the truth? You call it 

- wacky conspiracy theories,
- fake news,
- leaks & thefts ordered and orchestrated by your country's arch-enemies through their spies in America
- domestic terrorism,
- foreign control & occupation of American Democracy.

Do these people really think that the American public, even it doesn't have my education & work experience, is naive enough to fall for this?

Yes, they do. Why? Because they've done this before and have seen that it works in The Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Heck, it'll probably work in Australia and New Zeland, too!

Just look at Ukraine over the last three years as a recent example of applied political science, including regime change & social control.  

- Massive anti-Russian propaganda & demonization by privately-owned Ukrainian media outlets. 
- Total clamp-down on any political dissent and opposition to the civil war in Eastern Ukraine. 
- Complete black-out of any news coverage demonstrating war crimes & crimes against humanity by the Ukrainian government troops and nationalist paramilitary groups. 
- Immediate investigation and potential secret detention & torture of anyone who sympathizes with the Eastern Ukrainian autonomists (separatists) and opposes the Poroshenko regime's continuation of civil war and refusal to grant those Eastern Ukrainian regions autonomy.  

Why do I bring up Ukraine? Because I was an insider and a witness to the start of the civil war in East Ukraine in May and June of 2014.

That's when I discovered that Western MSM can publish outright lies about foreign interventions and civil wars and, when ordered by their owners & sponsors, will ignore horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity when these crimes are encouraged, assisted, facilitated even committed by U.S. military "advisers," intelligence personnel, contractors, agents and allies. 
  
But American MSM did the same thing when it came to America's interventions and ensuing crimes against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. They also did it in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia and Honduras.

BTW, if Russia did not provide military assistance to Eastern Ukrainian insurgents -- who were demanding autonomy and federalization after refusing to recognize the unconstitutional coup that deposed President Yanukovich -- then Eastern Ukraine could have looked like Yemen looks  today after Saudi Arabian bombings with bombs & weapons from the U.S. and NATO member states.
   
So after my personal lesson in 2014, I have learned to question any narrative that's put before us by Western corporate-establishment owned mainstream media and by the American government.

Alleged Russian-sponsored theft and dissemination of Clinton-DNC-Podesta emails is not the main big threat to American Democracy today.

The main threats are

- Corruption, if not effective seizure & current control, of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches by major trans-national Financial-Industrial Groups (FIGs) through the purchase of politicians and civil servants like Hillary Clinton;

- The rise of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) that feeds on foreign conflicts (while plunging our country further into debt & domestic terrorism) and the Surveillance State (Police State), both foreign & domestic, and the corporations that run it with their supporters & political appointees in relevant government departments & agencies; and

- the seizure & control of Major Media by FIGs and members of MIC to neutralize journalists as the 4th branch of government that could expose wrong-doing, abuse of power and corruption in the other three branches and help our population "drain the swap" that extends way past Foggy Bottom and K Street in Washington;
 
- the current clamp-down on internet-based news that cannot be controlled & censored by our government, establishment FIGs and the MIC.

- the surveillance and likely future selective persecution (and prosecution) of domestic opposition under various terrorism & counter-espionage laws that would have America's Founding fathers turn over in their graves. 

So until we are presented with verifiable clear-cut evidence of Russian spying and hacking of Clinton/DNC/Podesta emails, I would worry more about our domestic enemies who masquerade as American Patriots and defenders of Freedom & Democracy worldwide - especially when they fund, arm and provide political & media support to throat-slashing terrorist groups fighting dictators that don't obey the U.S.
    
IMHO, Russia does not present a genuine threat to the U.S. in Syria, Ukraine and its cautious support of Iran.

Russia, with its large Muslim population, is extremely concerned amount the spread of radical Islam and its terrorist groups (like Al Qaeda and ISIS), especially when these groups are

- funded by supposed U.S. allies (like Saudi Arabia and Qatar),
- fight with Western and American weapons, including portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons which could eventually end up in Russia,
- are incubated in failed states after U.S. interventions (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria)
  
On top of radical Islamic terrorism, Russia is now concerned about the rise of ultra-nationalist Russophobic paramilitary groups in neighboring Ukraine, who could start to commit terrorist acts in Russia (which does not have a secure border with Ukraine) using weapons procured from ISIS, Al-Qaeda and their affiliates in the Middle East.

So Russia will continue to do everything necessary to protect its population, economy and political system from American intervention through 

- funding of Russian opposition,
- funding of Russian opposition media,
- economic sanctions, including related to Russia's currency and access to foreign financial markets,
- market interference in Russia's primary exports and sources of export revenues,   
- build-up of hostile military forces (NATO) along Russia's borders,
- neutralization of Russia's defensive nuclear capabilities by placement of ABM systems next to Russia's borders (under the guise of protecting Europe from Iran or Japan from North Korea?),
  
After all, if the Russians were doing the same thing to the U.S., would America be justified in its defensive posture and measures?
  
But don't just take my word for it -- please look at some of these other sources listed below on this topic :

So what do you think?
  
*******

Select Excerpt from President Obama's statement "On Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment":

"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions. In October, my Administration publicized our assessment that Russia took actions intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.  

These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government. 

Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year.  

Such activities have consequences.  Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response."
  
See https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/29/statement-president-actions-response-russian-malicious-cyber-activity
  
*******
  
Details Still Lacking on Russian ‘Hack’ 

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/29/details-still-lacking-on-russian-hack/

It Wasn’t the Russians: Hillary Lost Because She Blew Off Sanders and His Voters 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/20/it-wasnt-the-russians-hillary-lost-because-she-blew-off-sanders-and-his-voters/ 

Obama’s Sanctions against Moscow “Intended to Box In Donald Trump”. Evidence that Hacking of DNC Accusations are Fake 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-obamas-sanctions-against-moscow-intended-to-box-in-donald-trump-evidence-that-hacking-of-dnc-accusations-are-fake/5565481
  
America’s Secret Planned Conquest of Russia 

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/americas-secret-planned-conquest-russia.html

Reality Check: 5 Problems with CIA Claim That Russia Hacked DNC/Podesta emails... 

https://www.facebook.com/BenSwannRealityCheck/videos/1301123713285909/

How an evidence-free CIA finding alleging Russian interference in the US election was turned into an indisputable ‘truth’

https://gowans.wordpress.com/
  
Clinton’s Defeat and the “Fake News” Conspiracy

http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/12/clintons-defeat-and-the-fake-news-conspiracy/

“Blame the Russian Game” and the Information War: Mainstream Media “Fake News” vs. Truth from Alternative News"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/blame-the-russian-game-and-the-information-war-mainstream-media-fake-news-vs-truth-from-alternative-news/5563534

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See https://www.facebook.com/gkrasovsky/posts/10154397533433742

The World Press Freedom Index 2016.

Greg Krasovsky: With the recent debate around "fake news" in the United States, let's take another look at the freedom of the press worldwide.

I'm saddened and embarrassed that my home countries, Russia, Ukraine and The United States didn't do better than their current rankings in The World Press Freedom Index, especially the U.S.

But hey, at least everyone is ahead of China, right??? 

***

The World Press Freedom Index.

WHAT IS IT?

Published by Reporters Without Borders annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.

The WPFI is an important advocacy tool based on the principle of emulation between states. 
Because it is well known, its influence over governments is growing. 
Many heads of state and government fear its annual publication. 

The Index is a point of reference that is quoted by media throughout the world and is used by diplomats and international entities such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

WHAT DOES IT MEASURE?

The Index ranks 180 countries according to the level of freedom available to journalists. 
It is a snapshot of the media freedom situation based on an evaluation of pluralism, independence of the media, quality of legislative framework and safety of journalists in each country. 
It does not rank public policies even if governments obviously have a major impact on their country’s ranking. 
Nor is it an indicator of the quality of journalism in each country.

The 2016 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published on 20 April, 2016, shows that there has been a deep and disturbing decline in respect for media freedom at both the global and regional levels.

The survival of independent news coverage is becoming increasingly precarious in both the state and privately-owned media because of the threat from ideologies, especially religious ideologies, that are hostile to media freedom, and from large-scale propaganda machines. Throughout the world, “oligarchs” are buying up media outlets and are exercising pressure that compounds the pressure already coming from governments.

All of the Index’s indicators show a decline from 2013 to 2016. This is especially the case for infrastructure. Some governments do not hesitate to suspend access to the Internet or even to destroy the premises, broadcast equipment or printing presses of media outlets they dislike. The infrastructure indicator fell 16% from 2013 to 2016.
   
https://rsf.org/en/deep-and-disturbing-decline-media-freedom

1 Finland
2 Netherlands
3 Norway
4 Denmark
5 New Zealand
6 Costa Rica
7 Switzerland
8 Sweden
9 Ireland
10 Jamaica

18 Canada
41 United States
149 Mexico

7 Poland
12 Slovakia
14 Estonia
24 Latvia
35 Lithuania
67 Hungary
49 Romania
60 Mongolia
76 Moldova 
107 Ukraine
148 Russia
151 Turkey
157 Belarus
160 Kazakhstan
176 China
  
https://rsf.org/en/ranking_table

Another turn of the screw in the post-Soviet region.

The fact that Russia (148th, up 4) improved its ranking slightly should not raise hopes because its score fell as a result of the persecution of critics, which has reached levels not seen for three decades. And Russia’s behaviour has legitimized the growing repression throughout the region because Moscow acts as a regional “model”.

After plummeting in the 2015 Index because of the Maidan crackdown and the fighting in the east, Ukraine (107th) has jumped 22 places in the latest Index thanks to a significant decline in violence and to some long-awaited reforms. But major challenges remain, starting with the oligarchs’ grip on the media and the “information war” with Russia.

https://rsf.org/en/another-turn-screw-post-soviet-region

Karma over Russia?

"The CIA was founded to undermine democracy overseas, to overturn elections, to influence internal politics of sovereign countries, to destabilize governments. And to lie to us about it.

Should we believe a mainstream media report that the CIA believes the Russians manipulated US elections to get Trump elected?

Or is the supposed CIA assessment itself a form of coup against the US elections? Have the coups come home?

Jacob Hornberger looks back at the CIA coups through history in this important piece..."

Please read the rest at: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2016/december/12/karma-over-russia/