"The Coup And The Silence"
by Paul Rosenberg
"Late last week, the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, released more than 100 pages of formerly-classified documents, showing that then-President of the United States, Barack Obama, ordered intelligence reports to be manufactured and to directly undermine the then President-Elect, Donald Trump.
As of this morning, July 21st, mainstream American news, as best I can tell, is almost stone-silent on the story… and that troubles me. Granted, I habitually avoid “the news,” but this morning I took a bit of time to check, and this gigantic story was simply absent from the “mainstream” feeds. Those feeds have ceased being mainstream, of course (their readership is generally old and small), but still: A former President is being accused of treason, and large portion of US intelligence agency bosses with him. And yet there is a near silence?
And so, here are just a few snips from the document release. I’ve annotated them in italics and you can (and should) download the originals here. Prior to Mr. Obama’s intervention, the “intelligence community” (IC), did not think Russia could, would or did manipulate the 2016 election:
From: -DNI-
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 8:05 PM
"There is no DNI-indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count through cyber means."
**
From: dhs
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2016 12:58 PM
To: [to 39 addresses at CIA, DNI and NSA, as well as others]
Subject: RE: Russia and the US Elections
"Took the intent of this email to get the basic starting point regarding Russia. We agree with: Russia probably is not (and will not) trying to influence the election by using cyber means to manipulate computer-enabled election infrastructure."
**
(U) Cyber Threats to the 2016 US Presidential Election
12 September 2016
"We judge that foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks on the diverse set of information technologies and infrastructures used to support the November 2016 US presidential election."
**
For the President
14 September 2016
"We assess that foreign adversaries do not have the capability to covertly overturn the vote outcome of the coming US presidential election by executing cyber attacks on election infrastructure."
**
This one is from after the election:
From:
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 2:09 PM
To: [at least 12 addresses at DNI]
Subject: ACTION: NIOs - DNI TPs for 12/9 Restricted PC on Russia-Cyber - Due 1500 Thursday
"We assess that foreign adversaries did not use cyber attacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome this year. We have no evidence of cyber manipulation of election infrastructure intended to alter results."
**
Now, Barack Obama, POTUS, gets involved:
From: @dhs
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 3:53 PM
To: @cia; @dhs. Cc: -DNI- @dni
Subject: RE: FW: Election PDB ---
"We spoke with the NIO Cyber shop, who discussed the prospect of a NIC product in response to POTUS at their afternoon (1400) session."
**
A Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) which was prepared, but apparently pulled:
"For the President 8 December 2016 We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure."
**
Related to the briefing noted above, which would have been delivered the following morning:
From: @cia
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 3:41 PM
To: Cc: -DNI-;
Subject: RE: FW: Election PDB ============
"Just tried calling you. Did you see email to you?"
**
Secure: @cia. -----Original Message-----
From: @dhs
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 3:33 PM
To: @cia Cc: -DNI- @dni USA GOV @dhs DHS
Subject: FW: FW: Election PDB ============
"Good afternoon! This email is what my question is related to - if PASS is ok with this PDB going forward, and possibly including in the BN mention of the 4POTUS NIC tasking. Please let me know if you have any questions."
The briefing being pulled.
**
From: DHS
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 2:22 PM
To: [50+ addresses at DNI, FBI, CIA and NSA]
Subject: RE: PDB Coordination Request - COB 8 December --- ============
"We have so far received responses from FBI, CIA/NIC, and NGA. Please provide coordination responses ASAP if you have not been able to yet. Thank you for understanding and trying to accommodate this short coordination period, to accommodate the Administration's request for this to run tomorrow."
**
-----Original Message-----
From: Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 12:59 PM
To: [ addresses at DNI, FBI, NSA STATE at DNI and NGA.]
"Due to high Administration interest, this piece is now scheduled to run tomorrow. Therefore, we now ask that coordination responses be sent by 2pm, so that the production process for tomorrow can be completed."
**
A new Russian response is formulated at the White House:
Summary of Conclusions for Meeting of the Principals Committee
DATE: December 9, 2016
LOCATION: White House Situation Room TIME: 11:30 a . m. - 1:30 p.m .
Susan Rice, Neil Eggleston, James Clapper, Secretary John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, Adam Szubin, Brian McKeon, Loretta Lynch, Mary McCord, Jeh Johnson, Rob Silvers, Denis McDonough, Maher Bitar, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan, Gen Joseph Dunford, Richard Ledgett, Avril Haines, Lisa Monaco, Ben Rhodes, Chris Fonzone, Caroline Tess, Brett Holmgren, Michael Daniel, Celeste Wallander. Samir Jain, Jeffrey Edmonds
A list of anti-Russia actions were ordered. And note the title is for the meeting, not from the meeting.
**
From: -DNI-
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2016 6:24 PM
To: [22 addresses at DNI, plus multiple redacted addresses]
RE: POTUS Tasking on Russia Election Meddling
Hello leadership team, I chatted with ___ tonight on our plan. Our plan is to have CIA/CCI to put together Part B.i and DHS to put together 3 (recommendations to protect). CIA/EEMC is to put together Part B.ii and B.iii. We will be the NIC firewall for those sections; our team will man the Part B.i and team will oversee Part B.ii and B.iii; as we integrate into Part B.iv by December 23.
We will also generate a draft version for Congressional briefing and an unclassified version. We will send out for coordination last week of December and first week of January for IC seniors to sign off and aim for delivery by January 9.
Note “POTUS Tasking.”
**
From: -DNI-
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2016 5:43 PM
To: [At least 22 addresses at DNI and CIA
Subject: POTUS Tasking on Russia Election Meddling
"Pursuant to the POTUS tasking at Monday’s meeting on Russia election meddling for a comprehensive assessment, the DNI broached the TPs below with Dennis McDonough and DCIA at the Russia PC this afternoon.The IC is prepared to produce an assessment per the President’s request… The goal would be to make the unclassified document publicly available.
“per the President’s request”
**
From: -DNI- Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 6:04 PM
To: [At least ten addresses at DNI]
Subject: RE: Rollout Planning for IC Report on Russian Election Meddling
"The only real direction we got was: 1) POTUS wants a comprehensive assessment, drawing from all available sources, and 2) it has to be before the end of his administration."
**
From: -DNI- Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:40 PM
To: [8 addresses at DNI and others]
Subject: RE: Rollout Planning for IC Report on Russian Election Meddling
"We are working with WH and IC Leg and Comms teams, and want to make sure we’re all appropriately looped in and discussing the same things."
**
The birth of the Russia-Did-It Narrative:
"Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections ICA 2017-01 5 January 2017 Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.
We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in the summer of 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments based on a body of intelligence reporting and the public behavior of senior Russian officials and state-controlled media.
We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment based on sensitive information not included in this version of the assessment; NSA has moderate confidence in this judgment based on the same sensitive information.
**
There is and will be more to this story, but I want as many people as possible to see these documents, because apparently many are being kept ignorant. Calling Treason on a former President, and supporting it with direct evidence… is huge."
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