If Russia Isn’t Behind the Hacked Emails From Wikileaks, Who is?

Not everyone believe President Obama and Hillary Clinton's claim that Putin is responsible for hacking the Democrats' email accounts.

By Rachel Alexander Published on November 5, 2016

The Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton campaign have maintained for months that Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the GRU, is behind the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. They have some evidence for their claim.

Dell SecureWorks, a private Atlanta-based security firm hired by the DNC, concluded that Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, two groups of Russian intelligence-linked hackers, attempted to hack into 4,000 email accounts, including 100 associated with the Clinton campaign. The magazine Esquire has put together evidence that the hackers are tied to the Russian government. It’s the kind of thing Putin could do. After all, he created a secret Russian troll factory to boost Russia anonymously online.

But are the Russians really behind it? There are reasons to think they’re not.

Maybe Not the Russians

First, it is a curious accusation, since the purpose of obtaining the emails clearly seems to be to defeat Clinton in the presidential campaign — yet Democrats are less hawkish than Republicans when it comes to foreign policy. As secretary of state under Obama, Clinton oversaw a “Russian Re-set” where she attempted to warm up relations between the two countries.

Although Putin and Clinton have a somewhat testy relationship, there is no evidence that a Trump administration will be any softer toward Russia. Clinton has claimed that Putin wants to put Trump in the presidency as his “puppet.” While Trump has made friendly remarks about Putin, he has also made some very combative statements.

Besides, the hacking began over a year ago, before it was apparent Trump might win the Republican nomination.

Hillary claimed these 17 intelligence agencies all concluded the Russian government was behind the hacked emails

Drug Enforcement Administration
Energy Department
Treasury Department
Coast Guard Intelligence
Navy Intelligence
Marine Corps Intelligence
Air Force Intelligence
Army Intelligence
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
Central Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Homeland Security Department
State Department
Federal Bureau of Investigation
National Security Agency
Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Second, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks which released the hacked emails, denies it. Speaking to the Australian broadcaster John Pilger, he said, “The Clinton camp has been able to project a neo-McCarthyist hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything.”

Assange said on the show, which will air on Sunday, that although Clinton had said several times that 17 American intelligence agencies claimed Russia was the source of Wikileaks’ publications,  “That’s false — we can say that the Russian government is not the source.”

Assange told NBC the problem goes back further than Clinton’s icy relationship with Putin. “DNC servers have been riddled with security holes for years.”

Third, the Russian government denied responsibility for the hacking. “The hysteria is merely caused by the fact that somebody needs to divert the attention of the American people from the essence of what was exposed by the hackers,” Putin said.

Expert Skeptics

Others who know about internet and national security also doubt that the Russians leaked the materials to Wikileaks. Jeffrey Carr, CEO of the cyber security consultancy firm Taia Global, pointed out that “There’s no evidence that this was done by the state itself, only evidence it was done by non-state actors that might be Russian-speaking.” He also questioned why Russia would “leave such obvious technical indicators in their wake,” letting the US catch them.

Former British ambassador Craig Murray said he was told by security insiders that the email leak “comes from within official circles in Washington DC.” William Binney, NSA whistleblower and former technical head of the NSA agrees. One possible source is the FBI. Damaging leaks about Clinton have come from the FBI lately, reportedly because bureau officials are so concerned about Clinton becoming president. One FBI agent told The Guardian off the record that Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel.”

Jim Waurishuk, a career U.S. spy with 30 years as a senior intelligence and political-military affairs officer, penned an explanation why Russia couldn’t have been behind the hacking. With Carr he argues that they would have never allowed their work to be traced back to them and that they would have kept it secret in order to strategically use against the US in the future.

“The last person that Putin and Russia want in in the White House is Donald Trump.” -Jim Waurishuk, careeer U.S. spy

Citing the geopolitical advances Russia has made with Obama in office and Clinton as secretary of state, Waurishuk observed, “The last person that Putin and Russia want in in the White House is Donald Trump. ” Someone motivated to make a profit hacked the emails, he thinks — not necessarily with a political motivation.

Trump’s Disbelief, Clinton’s Insistence

Trump does not believe the Russians are behind it. “Anything that goes wrong they blame Russia,” Trump said during a rally in Ocala, Florida, on Wednesday. “We are being hacked because we have people who don’t know what they are doing. They always blame Russia.” He added, “They say Donald Trump is friends with Putin. I don’t know Putin, folks. What the hell do I have to do with Putin?” The FBI has found no credible evidence associating Trump with Russian intelligence.

Why is Hillary so eager to place blame on the Russians? To hurt Trump with older voters who remember the Cold War is probably one reason. Another is that the hackers may actually be renegade employees within our own intelligence agencies, and she doesn’t want Americans to know how they distrust her.

 

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. 

 

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