Russia hacked the US Treasury

The Washington Post is reporting that Russian government hackers are behind the breach, "according to people familiar with the matter" who requested anonymity

The Russian government hackers who breached a top cybersecurity firm are behind a global espionage campaign that also compromised the Treasury and Commerce departments and other government agencies, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The FBI is investigating the campaign by a hacking group working for the Russian foreign intelligence service, SVR. The group, known among private-sector security firms as APT29 or Cozy Bear, also hacked the State Department and the White House during the Obama administration.

It is not clear what information was accessed. -Washington Post

Because I have no idea what to call this. So Hillary makes up Russia Gate. Obama runs with it and he wants to spill the beans but McConnell won’t let him. Democrats then used it against Trump for 4 years and all the while he has denied, denied, denied it. But now he’s leaving office he spreads the same manure?

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The whole Russia thing is a 'sources' thing. It is meant to throw out an argument you can't defend if you are an 'American'. They couldn't use the Russia meddling in the election so now they need another item to spew out. Of course we would never do something like this.....

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usefewersyllables's picture

That is all.

Once bitten, twice shy, three times “fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”

No smiley.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

snoopydawg's picture

I’m not sure how worried I should be. But man that 2nd tweet huh?

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enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Of course Russia central has swallowed it whole and believes that it happened even though tweets are saying, IF TRUE this could be.....but then articles state unequivocally that Russia did the deed. Unnamed sources again and anonymous sources are back in business.

“This is the kind of thing when the Russians are able to penetrate very secure networks like this. It’s not just the government,” said Ken Dilanian. “It’s private entities that use the same software that are vulnerable. Look, the United States does this too. We are, as we speak, NSA hackers are trying to break into Russian and Chinese networks. It’s fair game, but it’s still a big deal when the Russian state government breaks into the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department and major U.S. corporations.”

When it comes to President Donald Trump retaliating against Russia, it’s unclear if there would be any retaliation as Trump has been known to protect Russia above all else.

Well now that kinda gives away the game doesn’t it? Sheesh we’ll never be done with Russia Gate.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

New story on the Russian hacking and boy are they trying to fit a square into a round hole.

Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury Department and an agency that decides internet and telecommunications policy, according to people familiar with the matter.

There is concern within the U.S. intelligence community that the hackers who targeted Treasury and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration used a similar tool to break into other government agencies, according to four people briefed on the matter.

The people did not say which other agencies, but late Sunday, Austin, Texas-based IT company SolarWinds said software updates it released in March and June of this year may have been surreptitiously tampered with in a "highly-sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation state."

Three of the people familiar with the investigation said Russia is currently believed to be behind the attack.

Hey remember when Israel got caught hanging listening devices outside the WH? What? You never heard of that story? Quell my surprise.

But wait there's more. Or maybe it's a new story?

Hackers broke into the NTIA's office software, Microsoft's Office 365. Staff emails at the agency were monitored by the hackers for months, sources said.

A Microsoft spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a spokesman for the Treasury Department.

But surely people have caught on to this ruse right? After all it's been 4 years and no proof of anything Russia is accused of doing has been proven. Look Russia might have done all the deeds we've been told for 4 years, but Shirley they ain't the only country futzing with us?

Trump believes the Russians are our best friends. Putin has 1 goal... world domination. Hopefully with Trump out the Russians can be put back in place.

Hmm whose country has its troops on Russia's borders? Has been firing rockets into the Black Sea of the coast of Crimea? Gosh I can imagine our reactions if Russia had........

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

DCOTN

That is another reason why the two Senate races to be decided in Georgia on January 5th 2021 may be even more important than has so far been shown. They may not only decide whether Mitch McConnell retains his control over the US Senate, but whether Vladimir Putin retains his influence over the USA.

One reason they believe that Putin is in charge of the GOP is because 8 repubs went to Moscow during the 4th of July one year. Okay if that means that they are working with Putin/Russia then I say that every congress member that goes to Israel every year is working for Bibi/Israel. Oh wait. Anti BDS laws anyone? $3.8 Billion/year so they can buy weapons and other things for mayhem against the Palestinians.
I rest my case.

Dumbest comment of the Night.

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U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye discloses breach, theft of hacking tools

(Reuters) -FireEye, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the United States, said on Tuesday that it had been hacked, likely by a government, and that an arsenal of hacking tools used to test the defenses of its clients had been stolen.

Austin-based SolarWinds at center of massive US government hack

WASHINGTON (AP, KXAN) — Hackers broke into the networks of the Treasury and Commerce departments as part of a global cyberespionage campaign. They accessed those networks by slipping malware into a SolarWinds software update, according to the global cybersecurity firm FireEye, which was also compromised.

https://www.solarwinds.com/company/customers

Partial customer listing:
Acxiom
Ameritrade
AT&T
Bellsouth Telecommunications
Best Western Intl.
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Booz Allen Hamilton
Boston Consulting
Cable & Wireless
Cablecom Media AG
Cablevision
CBS
Charter Communications
Cisco
CitiFinancial
City of Nashville
City of Tampa
Clemson University
Comcast Cable
Credit Suisse
Dow Chemical
EMC Corporation
Ericsson
Ernst and Young
Faurecia
Federal Express
Federal Reserve Bank
Fibercloud
Fiserv
Ford Motor Company
Foundstone
Gartner
Gates Foundation
General Dynamics
Gillette Deutschland GmbH
GTE
H&R Block
Harvard University
Hertz Corporation
ING Direct
IntelSat
J.D. Byrider
Johns Hopkins University
Kennedy Space Center
Kodak
Korea Telecom
Leggett and Platt
Level 3 Communications
Liz Claiborne
Lockheed Martin
Lucent
MasterCard
McDonald’s Restaurants
Microsoft
National Park Service
NCR
NEC
Nestle
New York Power Authority
New York Times
Nielsen Media Research
Nortel
Perot Systems Japan
Phillips Petroleum
Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Procter & Gamble
Sabre
Saks
San Francisco Intl. Airport
Siemens
Smart City Networks
Smith Barney
Smithsonian Institute
Sparkasse Hagen
Sprint
St. John’s University
Staples
Subaru
Supervalu
Swisscom AG
Symantec
Telecom Italia
Telenor
Texaco
The CDC
The Economist
Time Warner Cable
U.S. Air Force
University of Alaska
University of Kansas
University of Oklahoma
US Dept. Of Defense
US Postal Service
US Secret Service
Visa USA
Volvo
Williams Communications
Yahoo

Hahahahahahahahahahahaaha aaaah. Heh! Come on man that one's bigger than the OMB breach of 2014. It's so vertical. lol

good luck
Edit: P.S. Pfizer-BioNTech data stolen in cyberattack on European Medicines Agency

This was not the first attempt to breach COVID-19 vaccine research. Just last week, IBM released that hackers had targeted the cold storage supply chain for COVID-19 distribution. And in October, Indian pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy Laboratories reported a cyberattack about a week after the company was granted permission to begin its final stage trials for a Russian COVID-19 vaccine.

Thus far, attacks have already been attributed to China, Russia and North Korea against many major firms, including Johnson & Johnson.

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snoopydawg's picture

@eyo

were over 800 private companies that had permission to spy on us and other nefarious acts. I wonder how many more formed during 0's tenure?

Thanks for the added info. Glad things are becoming more clear. What?

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@eyo
Like Brinks announcing that burglars robbed their safe.

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

@eyo
I couldn't buy a fish sandwich at the drive through an hour ago. their sofyware is down.
Must be those Russian hacker's. Or shitty software from google.

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

@eyo impugn your post, but bellsouth doesn't even exist anymore as a discreet company entity, they were bought out by SBC which is now AT&T. I worked in tax with the results of that buyout. I wonder how many other entities on that list might not even exist anymore as named? Minor quibble but it seems a neat way to make a list bigger, IMHO.

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

edg's picture

I'm not suspicious of the timing of this announcement. Not at all. Now way. Unh-un.

It's rather amusing that in 2020, with everything that is known about how to protect computer systems from hacking, we're still claiming Russian government bogeyman hackers are stealing our stuff.

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Hackers broke into the NTIA's office software, Microsoft's Office 365. Staff emails at the agency were monitored by the hackers for months, sources said.

A Microsoft spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did a spokesman for the Treasury Department.

Who needs walls when you have Windows and Gates? LMAO! smash it
From USNews: Suspected Russian Hackers Spied on U.S. Treasury Emails - Sources

via Slashdot, which cracked me up because... yeah.

Sorry everyone, I broke the rules and glanced at TFA, which tells us it's MS Office 365 that's been hacked into. Whoever it is has had tons of access to emails and documents for many months (that they're admitting to).

TFA, the fucking article. "many months", so... years? hehe

mir

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the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby and the assassination of Abe Lincoln, and the gunpowder plot. (but not the Profumo Affair - that was the Chinese)

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On to Biden since 1973

@doh1304
They also ate all the leftover pizza and didn't clean up after themselves.

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@gjohnsit

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

We want to believe in things that we know nothing about, spread by anonymous people that we will never meet who are paid to create narratives designed to influence our behavior, for the benefit of a system that oppresses its citizens and much of the rest of the planet. And if we believe, we will spread these lies and fairy tales with the greatest urgency and conviction we can muster, with our great American Patriotic fever.

What COVID-19 does to our bodies, these false narratives do to our mind and our feelings. Protect yourselves. Wear your mask. Filter these deadly viruses before they take root deep inside you.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

mimi's picture

broke. Even a Russian can|t be that dumb. That would be dumber than me. And that is not an easy thing to achieve.

Who cares anyhow?

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Bob In Portland's picture

@mimi Since the Russians got electricity during Obama they've been doing all this hacking stuff.

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snoopydawg's picture

@mimi

the reason Putin is doing all that he is accused of is because he wants to destroy the country using Trump and those dastardly republicans. Welp he best hurry because it sure looks like congress is going to do that with help from both parties by blowing up the economy. What will be left for Putin? Or wait...that is WHY they're destroying it. Never leave your enemies.....

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Cassiodorus's picture

So if I suspect that the Moon is made of green cheese, do I get a NYT headline too?

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Bob In Portland's picture

@Cassiodorus "Unnamed intelligence sources have issued an alert that the core of the moon is made of Rossiysky cheese, and that the surface of the planet is dessicated Russian dressing, dried over a billion or three years. The sources urge Americans not to draw any conclusions but to just be fearful generally and wait for the next unnamed undocumented scare story."

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Lookout's picture

https://wikileaks.org/vault7/

Which allows the CIA to insert fingerprints of any country they want on any computer they want.

The release of vault 7 is probably the real reason Julian is being tortured in London. You know they got 6 ways from Sunday of getting you.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

with you, and do do i. it made mafia don pompeo furious and dedicated to the ultimate revenge. vanessa baraitser's final decision is due on jan. 4, and i'll skip mentioning any other possibilities.

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How is surveilling another government's computers from within any different from all the rest of the technical collection? This is routine and universal. Every state does it to every other state. Stop getting your panties all twisted out of shape, Natasha.

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First off, the NSA that "gets everything" never detected the alleged Russian government hackers. So what "cybersecurity firm" was called in by what what USG agency and/or private IT company to find "Cozy Bear" active again? Is Crowdstrike the only one that can find bear tracks in US electronic systems?

Ipso facto, the NSA, all other USG IT operations, and private cybersecurity firms need bigger budgets to thwart Russian and Chinese intrusions. Easy way for all of them to fund the desired hardware and software upgrades with no questions asked by Congress or the public. Fake missile gap, fake WMD, and fake foreign computer hacks is how to get USG money to the Pentagon and US corporations.

The headline -- Russia hacks US Treasury -- momentarily suggested that at last we may see Trump's tax returns and the returns of a few other high profile miscreants. Alas no such luck. Appears that at best someone got into emails, and probably not even the juicy ones if any exist. Only an insider would know what to look for and where to find them. Something to still hope for.

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@Marie Oh hellya, Russiagate has become a profitable scam. Crowdstrike went public last year and their current stock price is about $157. They gained fame as the company that found the Russians in the DNC servers. And this year, their secret testimony to Congress was released saw them saying they had no evidence that Russians hacked into DNC emails.

Hidden Over 2 Years: Dem Cyber-Firm's Sworn Testimony It Had No Proof of Russian Hack of DNC
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/05/13/hidden_over_...

I believe CrowdStrike also got wrong their claim that Russians got into Ukraines military computers.

FireFly and others jumped big time after the election pimping their software to stop those evil Russians. Hell, even Microsoft claimed to have a complete election integerity package for running databases, etc.

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@MrWebster
being specific. wrt Ukraine military, Crowdstrike was rather quickly proven wrong. They're just the outsourced IT operation that will always "find" "enemy" intrusions and the MSM will is guaranteed to promulgate their BS. MI5/6 uses Bellingcat to pimp even more ludicrous claims.

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They were putting out white papers on how the Russians got into various computer systems after 2016 election. It worked to generate business and now they have been hacked. Really good experts. And now people should believe them that there were poor victims of Russian hackers. You know, those hackers who left Cyrillic files on servers.

This one will go surface deep for most people as there are no claims of damage. Just that they were reading email.

So I had to take a cyber security course with my current employer. Standard stuff but password generation was interesting on how many letters, numbers etc make stealing a password literally impossible. But one thing training claimed, that 93% of successful hacking started with phishing. And anybody can set up a phishing operation. But somehow, these security experts are always able to characterize the hacking as being Russian. The French reported several years ago that they saw no Russian hacking as it could have come from anybody.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

that was how John Podesta's emails got out. His password was password. It got blamed on Russia of course cuz they are the ONLY ONES doing these things. It is so sad that people have bought this. Next up we will be seeing claims about China.

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@snoopydawg There is a conflict between the Russia hawks and China hawks as to who the top enemy should be. So they will be making up narratives pushing their positions. Right now it seems the anti-Russia hawks have the upper hand.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

One set wants to go after Russia and the other wants to go after China. It's the Biden/Obama/Clinton side that wants to finish what they started against Russia. Zero overthrew Ukraine's president because he was too close to Russia. Trump's side wants to finish what it started with China. So in effect we are witnessing a fight between whose CEO gets to play president. Good catch.

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@snoopydawg
One nobody seems to have questioned. I have a couple.

Is phising equivalent to hacking? IMHO, yes because the phiser doesn't have authorization to access the files read/taken. However, others define hacking more narrowly and phising falls outside the definition. Formally Wikileaks only publishes documents obtained legally. Is phising okay with WL. Or did WL make an exception for the Podesta files? Or was the phising a CYA for a leaker?

Well done by a leaker, imo. And he/she left one itty bitty clue.

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without question.
I swear DN! is like the New York Tool and Wapoop newspapers when it comes to the 'unnamed person in intelligence says' stories.
They reported the crowdstrike story without questions, but didn't report the eventual story where they said there was no proof of Russia's involvement.

After continuing to remind people that tRump's administration is one of perpetual lies
they quote it as the source, which is of course what the NYT's has done and I imagine on Russia Maddow's show I'm sure she will hammer on this relentlessly, all the while leaving out the words like "if" "believe" "suspected" "possibly" "maybe".
She will bleed this story dry, then add a twist/suspicion and start over.

But this story got no play at all..

Clinton Insiders Reveal ‘Blame Russia’ Plan Hatched ‘Within 24 Hours’ of Election Loss

"The page uploaded by WikiLeaks explains how the Clinton spin machine was set in motion in the minutes following her loss to Trump. Allegedly, John Podesta (Clinton’s campaign manager), collaborated with Robby Mook (fellow member of the Clinton campaign) to make the argument the election was rigged by the Russians — an argument which was put forward when it was revealed in early 2016 the Democratic National Committee’s emails had been hacked.

Building on that narrative, the Clinton camp reportedly put out the notion to members of the media the election was anything but fair. The suggestion was apparently made that “Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.”

The motivations for doing so are speculative at best. Was Clinton’s team preparing a comeback in 2020? Was the effort done to cast the shadow of doubt over a Trump presidency? Or was the plan to implicate the Russians a way to rile up voters in an effort to somehow win the presidency when the official electoral votes were cast for the newly elected Trump?

Allen seemed to know, and his sources seemed to indicate the Clinton camp was not at all willing to concede without first doing damage to a Trump presidency. Immediately following the election, riots took place in the streets of several metropolitan areas, including Washington, D.C.

Our very own Claire Bernish took to the streets to document the uprising. With Allen’s revelations and WikiLeaks’ charge, those same riots and school walkouts now appear to be a direct result of the Clinton campaign’s spin tactics.

To this date, we’ve still yet to see a single shred of evidence that Russia hacked the US elections. In fact, the US is trying so hard to prove this nonexistent hacking they allegedly bribed a Russian man — offering him cash, citizenship, and an apartment — if he confessed to hacking Clinton’s emails on behalf of Donald Trump. He refused.."

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/clinton-insiders-reveal-blame-ru...

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wendy davis's picture

'After Trump Spent Four Years Inviting Russia to Hack the US, Russia Allegedly Did Just That', December 14, 2020

Yesterday, Reuters revealed that the same vulnerability used to steal FireEye’s Red Team tools was also used to spy on Treasury and Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the Internet. Then WaPo revealed that Russia’s APT 29 hacking group is believed to be behind the compromise. Multiple outlets — including FireEye itself — revealed that the hack had used a vulnerability in SolarWinds IT monitoring software identified in the spring. FireEye explains the hack has targeted, “government, consulting, technology, telecom and extractive entities in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” (presumably reflecting what they’ve seen in their clients as they respond to their own compromise). And CISA issued an emergency directive aiming to stem the damage in agencies beyond just Treasury and NTIA (among SolarWinds’ other US government clients are DOJ and two nuclear labs, as well as Booz Allen, which might as well be US government). Later today, Reuters confirmed that DHS had also been targeted.

Let me make clear before I start that thus far, this is nation-state spying, without the kind of sabotage we’ve seen from Russia in the past (if it is indeed Russia). Russia would do what they did with this vulnerability with or without Trump in office (indeed, I have a suspicion their overt hacks of the US will go up under President Biden, mostly because Trump didn’t need any help damaging the US government). While the full scope of the victims is not yet known, it’s quite clear that hackers targeted a slew of entities, governmental and not, with this campaign. So having Trump in office in no way created this campaign nor chose the target.

Almost four years ago, Mike Flynn called up the Russian Ambassador and asked him not to box the Trump Administration in in the wake of President Obama’s effort to hold Russia accountable for interfering in our elections, in part by hacking multiple participants in it, from both parties. Vladimir Putin complied with Flynn’s request, taking no steps in response. Not only did Sergey Kislyak make sure Flynn knew that his request had played a key role in Putin’s decision, but he told Flynn that the Trump Administration and Russia were on the same side, targeted by sanctions aiming to incur a cost for Russia’s actions. “I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions have targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president elect.”

Nevertheless, it is the case that the President of the United States, as a policy matter, has gone to great lengths to make it easier for Russia to minimize the costs of hacking the US.

the extremely lengthy rest is here.

oh: she ends:


We will presumably get more certainty in days ahead about whether Russia did this hack, as well as the many key targets of it. The real question, however, will be whether Trump will be held accountable for inviting it to happen.

from commenter Joseph Andrews (in part):

I so treasure looking at emptywheel. I’m coming to believe that it was the free press that was a primary force behind Biden’s victory.

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snoopydawg's picture

@wendy davis

indeed, I have a suspicion their overt hacks of the US will go up under President Biden

Well I doubt we’ll ever know. Because either way she won’t be privy to it. But do go on.

Where did she get this?

Not only did Sergey Kislyak make sure Flynn knew that his request had played a key role in Putin’s decision, but he told Flynn that the Trump Administration and Russia were on the same side, targeted by sanctions aiming to incur a cost for Russia’s actions. “I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions have targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president elect.”

First off Flynn had every right to do what he did. Trump was going to be president and the transition team reaches out to their counterparts all the time. Biden’s doing it now I bet.

Umm no...

The real question, however, will be whether Trump will be held accountable for inviting it to happen.

Because he didn’t. She’s a Moran

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wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

#ROTFLMAO!

tho't it might tickle you. she should buy one of these to frame:

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Bob In Portland's picture

I can hear American tanks rumbling towards Moscow.

Look, the Russians created Novichok decades ago. A drop of it would kill you instantly. Since then the Russians have worked on it to create a non-lethal poison so that it could assassinate political targets without killing them. Makes all the sense in the world, right?

Hacking is the best weapon in Russia's arsenal. It works by blaming any IT problem in the US on them. And since we plebians have no way to prove these hacks are Russian, well, I guess we just have to believe the CIA, because they would never lie to us.

Right?

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