Senior U.S. intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win.
The Armed Services Committee’s cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors — along with the director of national intelligence — on the investigation into Russia’s alleged hacking efforts. Trump has been deeply critical of their findings, even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.
The committee’s session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber-attacks against U.S. interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions.
“We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity,” the committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said ahead of the hearing. “Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks.”
Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U.S. Cyber Command.
Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with a sweeping set of sanctions targeting Russia’s leading spy agencies — the GRU and FSB — that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
But the sanctions against both Russian intelligence agencies could easily be rescinded by Trump, who has so far publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump earlier this week escalated his criticism of U.S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper. by tweeting that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, “perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”
Intelligence officials said there had been no delay.
Trump also suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia’s primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being “so careless.”
The sanctions imposed by Obama came after he pledged a “proportional” response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and Clinton’s campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks.
CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency’s conclusion that Russia’s goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said “there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election.”
Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obama’s sanctions as an attempt to “harm Russian-American ties.” Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U.S. approach after Trump takes office.
Trump praised Putin’s move and called him “very smart.”
To buttress the case for sanctions imposed by Obama and expose Russia’s cyber tactics, the Homeland Security Department released a report prepared with the FBI that for the first time officially tied cyberattacks into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee to hackers affiliated with the GRU and FSB.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
By all means, we must heed the advice of the senior, lack of intelligence officials. Their accuracy is epic….or not. We don’t need a policy that will be impossible to implement. We only need to consistently address security issues and utilize the talent available and stop running roughshod over them. The lack of cooperation between them is the stuff of legends.
@Pharmtek: We also need to remember the words of former CIA director Casey (Bill Cinton’s sponsor) in 1981 to his
CIA staff that: “We will know our disinformation program (Operation Mockingbird) is complete when everything the public believes is false.”
I want to know why, if the CIA (forbidden by law from operating within the US) and the NSA knew about “Russian” hacking, they didn’t say anything about it until AFTER the Hildabeast lost the election and the Democrats increased their losses in the House and Senate. Can anyone say “political influence?”
Dumb and Dumber Demo have to blame someone other than themweves for the lost, plus the money backer are wanting their money back as they thought Hitilary a soo in, since not only did she lose she lost badly as she only won NYC and LA, the rest of the country went for Trump so the money grabbing crooks lost all their money and power. ow they one to pit one loser Kilary against another loser the major of NYC.
Yes, we are screaming and fuming that the Russians hacking into our system, but the fact is we should be screaming and fuming over the fact that we have been sleeping and caught with our trousers down and with an inadequate cyber security in place.
DJT called V.Puting clever but what he is really saying is ” I am cleverer”.
There has been no proof that Russia hacked into the DNC files. Present the facts (proof) that it was Russia or the CIA, FBI, and John McCain need to shut up. I personally believe nothing RHINO John McCain says. Why wasn’t the DNC computers so easy to hack. Where is the firewalls? Did someone in the DNC hack their computer and blame Russia so Trump would loose. Didn’t work did it? Trump would have won the election regardless whether Russia or any foreign government hacked the computers. People were sick & tired of the crooked liberal Democrats and GOP elite establishment. We now have a fresh start with Trump.
Attention: Sen Schumer and all liberal Democrats and RHINO’s……… You don’t have to work with Trump (dumb decision) as he has access to pen as well as Obama. Trump will not be blackmailed and anyone in Congress poses this should be immediately impeached. We constituents are watching Congress very close.
AMEN! Absolutely True! The NSA have already said they were the ones who did the hacking. Let it go already! President-Elect Trump is our new President, Period! Anyone who interferes with that should be placed, thrown into Gitmo, which is practically cleared out of terrorists by BHO! He’s free to move in now along with Hillary, Soros, and All those sounding off and causing trouble~
????????
Very well said!
They have never described a direct link. All the talk is “could have been” finger pointing.. Never any proof. Yea, could have been anyone. How about a DNC insider? Podesta’s e mail wasn’t secure. Heard his password was “password”. Anyway the only for sure thing is wiki-leaks published. You’d think the word of the publisher carries the most weight, but that doesn’t fit their political agenda story so of course they say ignore Assange, ignore the only person talking who knows.
“Senior U.S. intelligence officials”….now that’s an oxymoron for you.
My thoughts exactly!!!! LOL!!!
It never fails When crap happens You can rest assured that Graham and McCain are always out front running their stupid mouths My Gosh cant We ever get rid of those two and Get new blood into their Republican seats..
We have a new President and for a change he is smart enough to asked Questions and get the dam answers and
somehow get to the bottom of things Obama needs to shut up and go quietly out of the white house and stay lost
Yesterday he went to Capital Hill to tell the Dems how to keep his health care law, but most of the dems who have enough brains to rub together said that he was just there to give one of his long winded speeches with no real ideas and said it was up
to them to save his law.. If the Republicans cave under Schumer being a long winded clown then they deserve what they will get.. The old Guard needs to be voted out and don’t understand how they keep putting these clowns back in office.
This is (pun intended) Hillarious! The democrats are butt hurt over the hack, and the retardicans jumping on the band wagon along with the lying main stream fake news outlets, while ignoring the 800 lb. Gorilla in the room which is the fact that the Democrats and Hillary Clinton are guilty of numerous things and tried to cover it up. Does this make sense to anyone? That who ever exposed the crime is more pertinent than the crimes themselves? Talk about living in a mad world. Get rid of these two parties, they have been the bane to this nation and will continue to be until they are stripped of their power.
If you recall Clapper speaking about metadata when testifying before Congress. It was quite clear he is a HACK himself. How can a HACK speak the truth about a HACK??? The answer? HE CAN’T!!!! Undoubtfully, ALL nations states hack each other. Remember SPY vs SPY?? ALWAYS made me laugh. The US government has been HACKED so many times it’s silly. The problem is the DNC was HACKED. And ALL the lies, deception and dirt tricks were EXPOSED!!! WE certainly can’t have that, can we?? Time to……………………..DRAIN the swamp!!!