Glenn Greenwald destroys the "Russia hacked the election" story

Was Russia behind the DNC hacks? Maybe, maybe not.
But one thing we know for certain: no one has produced any proof.

The Washington Post late Friday night published an explosive story that, in many ways, is classic American journalism of the worst sort: the key claims are based exclusively on the unverified assertions of anonymous officials, who in turn are disseminating their own claims about what the CIA purportedly believes, all based on evidence that remains completely secret....
Needless to say, Democrats – still eager to make sense of their election loss and to find causes for it other than themselves – immediately declared these anonymous claims about what the CIA believes to be true, and, with a somewhat sweet, religious-type faith, treated these anonymous assertions as proof of what they wanted to believe all along: that Vladimir Putin was rooting for Donald Trump to win and Hillary Clinton to lose and used nefarious means to ensure that outcome. That Democrats are now venerating unverified, anonymous CIA leaks as sacred is par for the course for them this year, but it’s also a good indication of how confused and lost U.S. political culture has become in the wake of Trump’s victory.

At this point does the one thing that Democrats, and anyone with intelligence, should have done first - reminded us of the CIA's history of lies.

To begin with, CIA officials are professional, systematic liars; they lie constantly, by design, and with great skill, and have for many decades, as have intelligence officials in other agencies.

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And then Greenwald presents motive.

Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell not only endorsed Clinton in the New York Times but claimed that “Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” George W. Bush’s CIA and NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, pronounced Trump a “clear and present danger” to U.S. national security and then, less than a week before the election, went to the Washington Post to warn that “Donald Trump really does sound a lot like Vladimir Putin” and said Trump is “the useful fool, some naif, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited.”
...
And while we are now being treated to anonymous leaks about how the CIA believes Putin helped Trump, recall that the FBI, just weeks ago, was shoveling anonymous claims to the New York Times that had the opposite goal:

So we have an anonymous leak from an organization of professional liars, published in a newspaper with highly questionable journalism ethics.
(note: the WashPo quietly walked back their last Russian scare story)
Basically, this CIA leak means less than nothing. It's a non-story.

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Creosote.'s picture

as usual, CSTS! You have a genius for this you know.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Should we be getting bomb shelters or popcorn? I seriously can't tell anymore.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Trump was seen dining in the Russian Tea Room on thursday night with a gentleman whose profile suspiciously looks like Vladimir Putin's. Did you know that Trump Tower is strategically located a mere five blocks away from this known den of Russian propaganda?

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