A couple curious twists to the DNC hacking story

Let's just accept that we haven't seen one iota of proof who hacked the DNC, and we most likely won't.
Let's also just ignore that Wikileaks, who would be the ones to know, have denied the Russia connection.

Instead let's consider motives.

First of all, why are anonymous sources at the CIA "proof", but an official report by the FBI casually dismissed?

The FBI official’s remarks to the lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee were, in comparison, “fuzzy” and “ambiguous,” suggesting to those in the room that the bureau and the agency weren’t on the same page, the official said.
The divergent messages from the CIA and the FBI put a spotlight on the difficulty faced by intelligence and law enforcement officials as they try to draw conclusions about the Kremlin’s motives for hacking Democratic Party emails during the 2016 race. Officials are frequently looking at information that is fragmentary. They also face issues assessing the intentions of a country expert at conducting sophisticated “influence” operations that made it hard — if not impossible — to conclusively detect the Kremlin’s elusive fingerprints...
“The FBI briefers think in terms of criminal standards — can we prove this in court,” one of the officials said. “The CIA briefers weigh the preponderance of intelligence and then make judgment calls to help policymakers make informed decisions. High confidence for them means ‘we’re pretty damn sure.’ It doesn’t mean they can prove it in court.”
The FBI is not sold on the idea that Russia had a particular aim in its meddling. “There’s no question that [the Russians’] efforts went one way, but it’s not clear that they have a specific goal or mix of related goals,” said one U.S. official.

Now I know the FBI has a lot to answer for (think COINTELPRO), but if we are talking a credibility comparison, it's a no contest - the CIA loses every time.
No agency has less credibility and trust than the CIA. No one.

So if motives are the question, why aren't we looking at the group with the most to gain from the leaks - the Republican Party?
How come no one has even mentioned it?
Isn't that curious? Especially when Wikileaks said this:

“I know who leaked them,” Murray said. “I’ve met the person who leaked them, and they are certainly not Russian and it’s an insider. It’s a leak, not a hack; the two are different things.

Since when did statements from witnesses count for absolutely nothing? While anonymous tips from the CIA mean everything? Did anyone even consider the possibility?

It makes me think there is more here than meets the eye.

Now let's assume that the Kremlin was behind it all.
What was their motive?

Democrats seem to assume one of two things:

1) That Trump is being controlled by Putin, like a Manchurian Candidate, or

2) That Trump is a Putin Puppet, or Russia's Useful Idiot.

Let's ignore that all these accusations stink of McCarthyism.
Let's also ignore the fact that there is no link between Trump and Russia.

Instead let's focus on the face value of the accusations.

a) A billionaire, narcissist that was totally beyond the control of the Republican Party is being controlled by Moscow?
I can't even count the number of ways this doesn't make sense.

b) The guy who just kicked your ass in the election is too stupid to see how he is being manipulated from afar?
If that's true, then just how more stupid are the Democrats for losing to this guy?

Neither of these accusations hold any water.

What was the Kremlin's motive to do something so risky?

Fear.

Fear of the candidate that the neocons were backing.
Fear of the candidate that intended to invade Syria, even at the risk of war with Russia and Iran.

Hillary would have scared them so much that they would have thought the risk of WWIII was worth the potential blowback.
In other words, they acted, not for a nefarious reason like the Dems portray it, but for the damn good reason of survival instinct.
And that puts it all in a different light.

Finally, there is the question of the CIA's motives.

Unlike the Pentagon's Syria program, the CIA's program in Syria is aimed directly at the Assad government.
This program is a big deal to the CIA.

At $1 billion, Syria-related operations account for about $1 of every $15 in the CIA’s overall budget, judging by spending levels revealed in documents The Washington Post obtained from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Since the federal government repealed the ban on domestic CIA propaganda three years ago, we have both motive and opportunity.

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of those WMD's too, weren't they?

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Song of the lark's picture

How exiting. So Cold War, John Le Carre. Where is Smiley when you need him. BUrrow, burrow cut and furrow, pillory Hillary... Diarist seems eminently sensible in a morass of disinformation.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

and I may even be in that number, that a number of top Democratic strategists have been so bad that they must be GOP plants (e.g. Bob Shrum, Donna Brazile). However, I would like to add another hypothesis to explain the DNC leaks, that it was an insider with a conscience like, for example, Seth Rich that leaked the emails. The Podesta emails are another matter. They were hacked but the wikileaks documents, themselves, reveal that his IT security (and that of the Clinton campaign in general) were laughably bad. There is evidence that he fell for a embarrassingly transparent fishing email, and that his account was John.Podesta@gmail.com and his password was P@ssword. I would be surprised if his email account was not hacked many times. Surely the GOP would have gone after it and hacking it is certainly right down Roger Stone's alley.

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Roger Fox's picture

The DNC hired a private Cyber security firm, they came in, did a forensic post mortem, cleaned everything up and documented what happened, so if someone from the CIA wants to make an appraisal, they have to go by the documentation saved by the private cybersecurity firm, who was hired by the DNC.......

I think we can be fairly certain that if the Clinton campaign told the cyber security firm to announce "It was the Russians", then that's what they would say.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Podesta's password was "Runner4567." It is now a Twitter hashtag.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Roy Blakeley's picture

p@sswOrd was his Center for American Progress password, not his GMail password. So two easy passwords to hack and falling for a simple Phishing email.

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How would they make the distinction?

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Oooooo, I like that one - I hope I remember it, because it's perfect!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

detroitmechworks's picture

Not your essay, rather the situation.

"He may have said at one point, because he had a connection to another person who has ties to another... blah blah blah..."

I have a little game for the politicians and people who believe this shit. It's called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

And guess what. If you know ME, your Kevin Bacon Number is at a MAXIMUM of 3.

Because Mine is two. (I worked with Neve Campbell on a episode of a pathetic ABC Sitcom I can't even remember the name of, and she appeared in Wild Things with Kevin Bacon.)

The reason I bring this up is that there are considerably fewer of the global 1% than there are people that have worked in Hollywood. If you go looking, You can make considerably short leaps.

The media Is trying to imply meaning from a closed elite system that self-perpetuates. By this logic, we can claim that Hillary Clinton is Manipulated by Russia because she is only ONE degree separated from Donald Trump.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Song of the lark's picture

there you are. My only guess on what to do next is to go local in a more concerted way. Practice resistance in the quotidian. Go gray, oblique and keep the eye of Sauron from turning my way by being invisible. The macro situation seem increasingly tenuous, and fragmenting. Globalization unraveling? Deep state at war with itself? Maybe just too many people and diminishing returns on complexity. I'm off to work Thanxs for the read.

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PriceRip's picture

          To amplify detroitmechworks' comment:

          The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, is just an example of the Six Degrees of [Insert Name] variation of the small worlds problem. It is a property of the dynamics of human interactions within a finite volume. As this thing we know of as the internet has grown, the mean separation has gotten a bit smaller if we allow non-irl interactions to be included in the calculational algorithm.

          Each c99p user can play this game and find something like this: I was a house guest of someone who was in turn a house guest of [extremely famous person] · · · so what ? · · · When I discovered this bit of trivia I was amused · · · for a few seconds · · · I then returned to my mundane existence none the better (or worse) for the revelation.

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gulfgal98's picture

is who pushed Donald Trump to the fore front of the GOP ticket so what does that mean?

This is ALL about the demonization of Russia in an effort to ramp up more war: cold, proxy or direct confrontation resulting in a hot war. It is a dangerous game that the neocons are playing. And it will not end well for the United States. And yes, Hillary Clinton is both a neoliberal and a neoconservative.

I personally believe the leaker was Seth Rich and the reason for the leaks was that he had a conscience about the dirty dealings going on in the DNC.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Hillary Clinton's campaign

is who pushed Donald Trump to the fore front of the GOP ticket so what does that mean?

No kidding. I shake my head at the for-Clinton imbeciles that keep crying, "the awful media was complicit to help Trump!"

Yes, they were...because if you read the actual strategy emails, that is EXACTLY what Clinton's camp expressly wanted, and actually demanded their media-friendlies to do -- prop up Trump for opposition.

Ergo, by their new Russia-did-it-manipulated-stooges logic, since Clinton's team initially supported Trump as the nominee, and demanded the media coverage, per the memos, they must also be Russian stooges and useful idiots.

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MsGrin's picture

Exactly so. Correct answer.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Roger Fox's picture

inside the US.

The hack? Could be inside the DNC, but possibly more likely it came from someone inside US intel.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Roy Blakeley's picture

The Democratic Party, the media, the MIC and their congressional lackeys are all going after Russia, repeating poorly supported statements over and over until they are taken as fact by most. Why is this? I think the MIC needs an enemy other than the IS. It is impossible for anyone to make the case that we need the F-35 or many of the ridiculous weapons systems we are developing to fight the IS so we need another enemy to justify the absurd defense budget. We trade too much with China to have them as the enemy du jour so Putin it is.

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Strife Delivery's picture

The amount of fear that is being peddled against ISIS, especially by Republican candidates during the primary, was just ridiculous. ISIS, the group that has 20-30K troops and has stolen Toyota trucks as their convoys, they are our biggest threat in the world. We had Rubio talking about building up our navy and air force. Again, for what? ISIS? We have 11 aircraft carriers, what the hell do we need more than that for against ISIS? It's just ridiculous how people buy up that nonsense.

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The entire nuclear weapons industry was made obsolete by Gorbachev and Reagan signing their agreement to begin the process of dismantling them. Now, with Ash Carter, we're expanding, modernizing, and improving them in order to make them more useable. The Ash Carter project will cost $1 Trillion over 10 years. All private contracting.

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generally taunted. Some have even gone as far as to suggest the courts overturn the election and install Hillary. They accuse the tea party right of being "morans", ha, sigh,

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And remember the abomination when Trump mentioned possibly not accepting results...because rigged? How it shocked the conscience and how could he be so crazy to claim rigging, and so low as to defy democracy?!!! Which is now, of course the only responsible thing to do...defy the results, because rigged and it's the the right thing to do!

My neck hurts from watching the gymnastics.

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....it was ridiculous for the Democratic party to be persistent in going down the path of "Russian hack". now they're trying to get the CIA to back them up on their claims?

inside job, outside job -- i don't care. how about NOT try to manipulate the process in the first place and emails wouldn't be leaked and a sizable amount of Democratic/Independent voters wouldn't have been pissed off enough to not support your candidate?

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The only thing keeping me from falling into depression over this absurdity is the belief that the Podesta leaks just reinforced the perception of Clinton as a political liar and corrupt sleazoid working to nail the American people, already clear in polling throughout the election period. To say this was a perception created by Putin is horseshit explicitly because the evidence of it is in Podesta's words, not Putin's! Calling it fake news is only true in that it was nothing new!

Not to mention, what they're essentially saying is that Putin revealed to the American people what Podesta was doing! Wow! What a crime! How unfair of Putin! What Podesta was doing to disenfranchise Sanders' voters should stay secret! Pathetic!

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Carol Joy's picture

of The Russians did it! The Russians did it! could be the thing that quickly brings about a worsening of Russia/USA relations leading to a thermo nuclear war, I wish that this campaign against the other super power would end, the sooner the better.
But it does add evidence to the notion that Hillary was a CIA candidate, if ever there was one. Gives some substance to the rumors that it was Poppy Bush who had hand-picked Bill and Hillary to take over Arkansas. (His one son Jeb wanted Florida. Neil ended up tarnished by his one billion dollar swindle in Colorado, and back in the Eighties, George was content to do local politics and find a baseball team to operate.)

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Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.

Fionnsboy's picture

...to the point of absurdity that NO ONE in the media is discussing the TRUTH of the leaks-- the DNC's rigging, Donna Brazile and her 'helpfulness,' the 'elevating' of Trump, the scheduling of all the Southern (i.e., Clintonian) primaries early on to give HER an insurmountable lead, the collusion with the media, etc etc-- in other words the whole stinking kettle of Clinton/DNC fish-- but rather RUSSIA, WE WERE ROBBED!!!!! It would be funny if it wasn't pathetic.

Point Two: how many Russians, exactly, voted for Trump?

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Semper ubi sub ubi

Anja Geitz's picture

To de-legitimize the actual content within WikiLeaks. Shoot the messenger, if you will.

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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

Lady Libertine's picture

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Hillbilly Dem's picture

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

dervish's picture

that the Russians "hacked the election", yet even they know that that isn't true.

Even if we pretend that the Russians did it, what we're talking about is hacking two e-mail accounts, not hacking the election. No votes were flipped, no content was changed. Essentially what they are saying is that Hillary lost the election because "the Russians" revealed the truth about her. Transparency killed her candidacy.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Essentially what they are saying is that Hillary lost the election because "the Russians" revealed the truth

Seems like they are morphing DNC leaks into Russian hacking of voting machines.
So that election count itself is incorrect, due to act of war.

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We're seeing a coup in action. Trump must not be seated as president at any cost. They are getting their ducks in a row.

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Enjoy every sandwich. (ripwz)

We're seeing a coup in action.

Assange did say that HRC would "not be allowed to lose."

I hear people claiming "it's not over." WTF

Buckle up.

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Bob In Portland's picture

that the CIA itself did the leaking, because one way or another they plan on waging war against Russia. No problem if Hillary won, but Trump won, so we have to somehow blackmail him onboard to attack Russia.

There's this: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/site-behind-washington-posts-mcca...

If you bought the State Department's version of MH17 then you would have no problem swallowing more from the Ukrainian propaganda shop. Same with the Sarin. Same with the WMDs. Same with the "we're going into Afghanistan to capture bin Laden" and many other fairy tales.

The only actual clue we have is that fascist Ukrainian salute that someone inserted into their propaganda.

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Roger Fox's picture

There are 5 directorates, and they have been known to engage in infighting.

I do think its mre than possible that the hacker came from inside the USA, possibly from the US intell community

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Anja Geitz's picture

From Naked Capitalism. Lots of odd puzzle pieces to put together before we get the entire picture of the Russia hysteria.

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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

I think it wraps things up pretty good

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Outsourcing Is Treason's picture

(1) this whole "Russian hackers" baloney is directed at the Electoral College as a psychological warfare operation aimed at getting them to select Clinton; or
(2) the Democrats are afraid that their beloved donors will abandon them, and therefore want to make their losing appear to be not their fault; or
(3) the Democrats are just a bunch of sore losers (call the waaaambulance).

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"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

shaharazade's picture

uranium. They need to get a simulated computer visual aide like Powell had to show us all how the hack was physically implemented. On a surprising note I was listening to NPR All Things Considered the other night to hear what the enemy was up to while cooking dinner. They had an interview with Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the NYT. Terry Gross or whoever kept bringing up the Russain's intervened, hacked, stole the election for Trump insanity as if it we're the gospel. He did not bite and instead basically said that this was bs. He also brought up the fact that the US intervenes in elections all over the world to 'influence' pro American outcomes. I was shocked as this was quite reasonable as far as the bastion of establishment news goes. This is the craziest part of this farce of an election. I know all kinds of people in real life that believe this insanity. One 'friend' told me that this kind of arguing was what got Trump elected so I should shut up with my crackpot traitorous lefty talk. Thanks for the needed doze of sanity and reality.

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snoopydawg's picture

But frank Vyan has a diary up on DK detailing how Russia could have stolen or interfered with the election.
I'm amazed that so many people are buying the propaganda. They were smart enough not to buy the WMDs, but they are buying this?
Just doesn't make sense.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

They're getting paid to sell it.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

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Imagine what would happen if any major outlet had a reporter or talking head who disputed the narrative? We know the answer: Phil Donahue.

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MsGrin's picture

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

McConnell and Ryan are supporting an investigation. They fear a Trump administration with a Republican Congress and no Democrats to hide behind. All their greed, thievery and corruption will be open for all to see.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

that whichever party won the 2016 election would cease to exist by 2020. Except that now I amend that - the Dems are so putrid that even if the Rs self immolate the Ds will make sure that the people will have no valid choice in 2020. The R self destruction might take a little longer.

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On to Biden since 1973

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

The Dems need to face reality. The Tea-GOP did their best to rig the election, the Russians had nothing to do with it. Most of all Democrats have themselves to blame. They would be smart to stop looking around for scapegoats.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

As the democrats blamed Nader for 2000, now the democrats are blaming Putin. But the hysteria is now crazy. And of course as in 2000 democratic establishment leadership learned no lessons about the electoral reform while the gop went on learning how to game the system more and more outrageously. Same will happen now.

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What is again amazing to me--again and again--that after anybody going back to the Iraq war and for old timers back to Nam, there is absolutely no healthy sense of skepticism or suspicion. Not talking about anything complicated, but simple logic and its follow up. Maybe it is the cool aid of rabid partisanship, maybe brain damage--who knows.

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The HRC campaign is using this to avoid the reality of their horrific loss. First, it was Comey, then Media, then Bernie(!), then Russians....Next, it will be sunspots or something!

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It is not WHAT you think, but HOW you think that matters.
aka HonorFredHampton on TOP

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A leak, of course, to Wikileaks. And the Repubs electoral-cheated like crazy the Clintons/DNC. But now that propaganda's legal to use against the people (thanks, Obama!) the facts released to the public must be presented not as the result of an insider leak-of-conscience but as a next-country-to-attack hack along with claims of the next victim somehow interfering with the election... seems almost as though a random assortment of bull-monkey poop is being freely flung to see what sticks sometimes...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

The government will do and say what the government will do and say.

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The low-key approach of the F.B.I. meant that Russian hackers could roam freely through the committee’s network for nearly seven months before top D.N.C. officials were alerted to the attack and hired cyberexperts to protect their systems. In the meantime, the hackers moved on to targets outside the D.N.C., including Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, whose private email account was hacked months later.

What is really going on with: "Russia hacked the election! Act of (cyber)War!" ?
Do TPTB intend to overturn the election?
Real question.

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