“Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking” (nytimes) says that the U.S. government is taking action against the Russian government because we think that the Russians broke into the Democratic National Committee’s email.
First, how does this qualify as “election hacking”? Is there any evidence that the release of DNC emails influenced voters?
More importantly, why is it the U.S. government’s job to deal with one party’s loss of email confidentiality? If the Russians break into Joe Citizen’s email account, does the federal government retaliate? What if the Russians break into a corporation’s email? Is that the taxpayers’ problem? How about if the clever Russians break into Jill Stein’s email or the Libertarian party’s email? Would President Obama be taking action then?
If the answer to the above is “no” then what is special about the Democratic National Committee that it becomes the government’s (i.e., our) problem when they can’t keep their emails secret?
Nailed it. QED
Russia is being accused of rigging the election by leaking emails that showed the democratic national committee rigged their election against Bernie.
Don’t forget that in October 2014, the Russians actually did hack into the White House and State Department email systems. The White House system in particular was down for days while they scrambled to recover and secure it. So why is it so important to retaliate now when it wasn’t important enough to do so then?
Good thing US gov’t doesn’t hack anything.. oh wait:
Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked dozens of documents about U.S. surveillance programs, released a new batch of internal government documents to The Guardian, showing that in 2009, when President Obama attended his first G20 summit in London, the U.S. used surveillance techniques to intercept messages between then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Russian diplomats.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ahead-of-putin-obama-meeting-guardian-report-claims-us-spied-on-russia-at-previous-summit/
Was the election also “hacked” when Sarah Palin’s emails were leaked in 2008? The perpetrator there only got a year in prison, and his Democratic politician father had no trouble getting re-elected, which makes it seem a bit minor compared to practically restarting the Cold War over what is fundamentally the same offense.
Related: why would politicians, most of whom are lawyers, use email for anything even slightly sensitive? Are they really that stupid?
Frank: You raise a good point. You’d expect that these folks would communicate via baseball coach-style hand signals sent over Snapchat!
Yes, the government will retaliate if a private company is hacked by an enemy state…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-penalizes-north-korea-in-retaliation-for-sony-hack-1420225942
If the US government will retaliate, why not do it the way Israeli government does: do it in silence and then offer no comment.
The US going public about it, is … child play.
If someone had broken into the Trump campaign computers and published dirt about him, whoever it was would have been hailed as a hero and savior of the nation. He would get a major book deal and then they would make a major motion picture about him with some handsome Hollywood star playing his part.
More importantly, should these emails be public in the first place?
You know, democracy, transparency, and all?
Seems like an intentionally obtuse question. If a nation coordinated an attack on any private property in the United States, sanctions at the very least would follow. Do you not consider a server private property? Most did when Hillary used her own.
The globalist USA oriented order is in the process of falling apart, both culturally and financially. All over the world voters are rejecting multi-culturalism and the whole star-trek vision of the future. The petro-dollar is failing; witness all the treasury dumping. The Chinese and Russians are collaboratively spearheading new international financial institutions that entirely exclude Washington and London, and attracting much enthusiasm from other Eurasian nations. America has been humiliated at every turn in the mid-east.
We’re seeing a regime in the early stages of its death throes lash out. The public doesn’t get it yet but the spooks giving this stuff voice are feeling desperate as the global order shifts.
Slightly off topic, but didn’t Bob Woodward say that he’d gladly go to jail if he was able to obtain and then illegally publish Trump’s tax returns? And wasn’t he hailed for such by many libs?
Ho hum. Obama’s days are running out, and so are his hail mary attempts.
PS
This whole thing reminds me of Archie and Meathead arguing over sock sock, shoe shoe, or sock shoe, sock shoe.
Governments merely smirk when private property like confidential legal documents are hacked and stolen (Panama Papers most recently). Indeed, sometimes they even pay to receive such stolen property (Germany). So keep crying and stomping your foot, Barack. That will show them who has the moral advantage.
bobbybb, do you have any links or references to flesh out your comment? very interesting viewpoint.
Жду не дождусь когда ваша новая дружба с Россией даст свои плоды, и что же вы будете писать тогда. Because when you “stop demonizing the demon” you will definitely have consequences.
Life in 21st century is very, very interesting. Interesting is not always safe though, mostly the opposite. For myself I decided that I can do nothing about it, so it is better just live my life and take care, like people lived and died in WW2 times.