WASHINGTON (AP) -- Recent hacks of election data systems in at least two states have raised fear among lawmakers and intelligence officials that a foreign government is trying to seed doubt about — or even manipulate — the presidential race, renewing debate over when cyberattacks cross red lines and warrant a U.S. response. Federal officials already are investigating cyberattacks at the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, believed to be the work of hackers tied to the Russian government. Trolling a private organization's emails is one thing, cyberexperts say, but breaching state election systems to undermine the integrity of the November ballot would be quite another. "The mere access to those systems is incredibly concerning to me," said Sean Kanuck, former national intelligence officer for cyber issues at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "I think that the manipulation of election data or voting systems would warrant a national security response." No one has yet confirmed that data was actually manipulated. Law enforcement and intelligence officials are investigating the election-related breaches, but also are looking at the extent to which Russia could be involved in a disinformation campaign to diminish U.S. clout worldwide. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow wasn't involved in the hacking of emails of the Democratic Party Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said last week he thinks it's unlikely that Russia is trying to influence the election. "I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out," he said on RT America, the U.S. partner of Kremlin-backed network Russia Today. But Defense Secretary Ash Carter issued a public warning to Moscow last week while in Europe. "We will not ignore attempts to interfere with our democratic processes," Carter said. Asked later to elaborate, Carter said he was referring to Russia's use of hybrid warfare — "interference in the internal affairs of nations, short of war" — which he said is a concern across Europe. Late last month, the FBI sent a "flash alert" to warn state officials to strengthen their election systems in light of evidence that hackers targeted data systems in two states. The FBI described a "compromise" of one elections board website and "attempted intrusion activities" in another state's system. The FBI didn't name the states, but state election websites in Illinois and Arizona experienced hack-related shutdowns in the parts of the websites that handle online voter registration Manipulating an election in the United States would be difficult, officials say, because there are thousands of electoral jurisdictions across the 50 states. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday that the election system is "so decentralized, so vast ... it would very difficult to alter the count." FBI Director James Comey agrees. "The vote counting in this country tends to be kind of clunky," which is a blessing because it makes harder for hackers to infiltrate, Comey said. "It makes it more resilient and farther away from an actor who might be looking to crawl down a fiber-optic cable, and find there actually is no fiber optic cable — that it's actually some woman named Sally and a guy named Joe and they roll the thing (voting machine) over and pull out the punch cards," Comey said. Such reassurances have not eased concern on Capitol Hill, yet reaction has been mixed. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada was "deeply shaken" after a half-hour briefing about Russian activities that he received at the FBI office in Las Vegas, according to an individual familiar with the briefing. The individual was not authorized to publicly discuss the briefing and spoke only on condition of anonymity. An aide to another senator, who also was briefed, said what gave the lawmaker "pause" was that Russia might be meddling in the United States in the same way it has in Eastern Europe where it has a history of using cyberattacks to facilitate their political objectives. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there is bipartisan concern about the "Russian government engaging in covert influence activities." He said a section of this year's intelligence authorization bill directs the president to set up an interagency committee to 'counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and governments.'" ... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/election-hacks-raise-fears-russian-influence-131314916.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat..._trump_definitely_praised_vladimir_putin.html Is Trump crazy or just stupid?? Does he know that Putin came to power using his KGB connections (Putin was a KGB agent)? Does he know Putin's record in the Ukraine? Does he know about international sanctions againt Russia and Putin??? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis Does he read the newspapers? Or does he just watch the game shows on TV?
Donald Trump’s campaign says it didn’t realize his Larry King interview was for Russian TV https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-t...g-interview-was-for-russian-tv-143037962.html Donald Trump didn’t realize his Thursday interview with Larry King would be on a Russian state-run television network, his campaign subsequently claimed. “Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Friday on CNN’s “New Day.” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks also told the Associated Press that the King interview was “for his podcast as a favor to Mr. King.” “What Larry King does with the interview content is up to him. We have nothing to do with it.” Hicks added. The GOP nominee’s appearance on RT, the Moscow-based media organization previously known as Russia Today, drew immediate scrutiny as the station is used to back the Kremlin’s messaging efforts. During his interview on RT’s “Politicking With Larry King,” Trump criticized U.S. foreign policy and cast doubt on the idea that the Kremlin is trying to influence the U.S. presidential race. “U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies reportedly are investigating whether Russia launched a covert operation to disrupt the 2016 election. What do you make of that?” King asked Trump. “I think it’s probably unlikely,” Trump replied. “I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out, who knows? But I think it’s pretty unlikely. But who knows?” At the end of last month, Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff reported that the FBI had issued a warning about foreign hackers infiltrating U.S. election systems. And U.S. experts have widely stated that Russian hackers were behind the July release of politically embarrassing Democratic National Committee emails. Trump has adopted a strikingly soft stance on Russia throughout his campaign. In addition to questioning whether Russia was really behind the DNC hack, the GOP property magnate has echoed the Kremlin’s messaging about its annexation of Crimea and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. Indeed, during an interview this week on NBC News, Trump touted Putin’s poll numbers and called the Russian autocrat a better leader than U.S. President Obama. “I’ve already said he is really very much a leader. I mean, you can say, ‘Oh, isn’t that a terrible thing?’ The man has very strong control over a country,” Trump said Wednesday of Putin. “But certainly in that system he’s been a leader far more than our president has been a leader. We have a divided country,” he continued. For its part, RT doesn’t appear to be especially concerned about the flap over its Trump interview: It published a Friday story titled: “US media, Trump’s own campaign freak out about his interview on ‘Kremlin RT.’”
Donald Trump, on Russian TV Network, Criticizes U.S. Foreign Policy http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-on-russian-tv-network-criticizes-u-s-foreign-policy-1473394136 If he were IN Russia and sabotaging the Kremlin in the same way he would be arrested. LOCK HIM UP...LOCK HIM UP
Oh well!!!! Call it Karma???? Imagine the Russians managing to put in pole position one of their agents (?) for the top US job???? Hasn't the US done the same to many Latin American countries? I mean, many Latin American leaders are people who the Americans put on the top job to serve American interests, weren't they? Haven't Americans interferred in Latin Americans leadership - even going the way of attempting assassination or even doing assassination ( Allende, etc). So why the Americans could not go through the same thing? I can not help see the similarities. Putin, a KGB guy owning the USA via their presidency. Same as the CIA owning Latin America via their presidency. Looks like Putin knows well about Amercian interference in Latin American countries.
Opinion: These 4 charts show why Trump is an idiot about Putin http://www.marketwatch.com/story/th...-idiot-about-putin-2016-09-12?link=MW_popular
Yulp!!! "the U.S. military budget is nine times Russia’s — in fact, it’s bigger than Russia’s entire budget, meaning that Russia literally couldn’t come near matching U.S. military spending if it tried. The U.S. spends more than the next seven nations put together, in fac" I had no idea the US military budget was actually that huge!!! No wonder Americans need countries to make "good use" of this.
There's one catch to that. Those budgets are measured in USD and don't take much lower production costs of military equipment in China and Russia into account.