Intelligence Analyst: Russian Cyberattacks Could Roil US Elections
October 13, 2016 8:44 PM
Cindy Saine
Malcom Nance, speaking to VOA's Cindy Saine in Washington, says he has overwhelming evidence that Russia is seeking to interfere in U.S. elections to put "not just a finger, but their whole hand" on the scale to help Republican nominee Donald Trump, Oct. 13, 2016. (M. Miller/VOA)
Malcolm Nance is extremely worried about what might happen as U.S. votes are tallied on Nov. 8, election night.
A career U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence official with 33 years of experience, Nance said he had overwhelming evidence that Russia is seeking to interfere in U.S. elections to put "not just a finger, but their whole hand" on the scale to help Republican nominee Donald Trump and hurt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Nance said a number of private companies had traced cyberattacks exposing potentially damaging Democratic Party emails and voicemails back to cyber "fingerprints" clearly identified in the past as those of Russian state hackers. He said the same fingerprints were found in what turned out to be Russian hacking of power plants in Ukraine and of the German parliament.
VIDEO: 0:00:32
Nance outlined his evidence in a book published this week, The Plot to Hack America.
Interference to date
Last Friday, the Homeland Security Department and the director of national intelligence put out a joint statement formally accusing Russia of hacking into the computers of U.S. political organizations, including the Democratic National Committee, and orchestrating the release of the contents in conjunction with WikiLeaks.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the accusations, saying interfering in the U.S. election would not be in Russia's interest. Putin said U.S. authorities should pay more attention to the content of the emails, instead of who had taken and exposed them.
Trump has also repeatedly questioned why Clinton and others say that Russia is behind the attacks, and he has expressed admiration for Putin as a strong leader. Trump campaign surrogates say Clinton is simply trying to distract from the contents of the emails.
FILE - Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta speaks to reporters outside Clinton's home in Washington, Oct. 5, 2016.
Current Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into his emails was part of a broader investigation into Russian cyberattacks. Podesta claimed longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone had "advance knowledge" of the leaks. Stone has admitted he is in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Florida system
U.S. federal investigators believe Russian hackers are also behind cyberattacks on a contractor for Florida's election system that may have exposed the personal data of Florida voters.
Nance said Russian military intelligence also attempted cyberattacks on voter databases in Illinois and Arizona. Illinois officials said data on about 90,000 people might have been breached, while Arizona officials said they saw no indication that hackers had succeeded in accessing data in their systems.
Several states across the country have reported scans of their computer systems, which is often a precursor to a breach.
Nance told VOA he was not worried that Russian agents would attempt to hack into individual voting machines. What he fears is cyber mischief at a state level that could discredit the results.
"It's far easier to create mayhem and chaos on Election Day by, at the end of the day, going to a state which is controversial, like Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump has said he expects the state to be stolen," he said.
All it would take is hacking into the computer on which the state calculates its results, and "removing some digits from one column and then putting them in another column and then moving them back 5 minutes later so that people know it's a hack, all right?" Nance said.
'It would create chaos'
What would that do? "It would create chaos in the entire electoral process, and it would give one side the ability to claim that the election has been invalid and should be done again," he said, "and that could literally create a constitutional crisis in the United States, if not civil disobedience and violence."
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin says U.S. authorities should pay more attention to the content of recently stolen emails, instead of who had hacked into computers and exposed them.
Nance rejected assertions that he was accusing Russia of supporting Trump for political reasons.
"This is not a partisan issue. Someone — a foreign intelligence agency at the bequest of a former director of the KGB [the main security agency for the former Soviet Union] — is attempting to hijack the American electoral system for the first time in 240 years," he said.
Brookings Institution foreign policy expert Thomas Wright told VOA he didn't know about the technicalities of cyberattacks, but he did say Trump and Putin have similar worldviews, since Trump opposes NATO and other U.S. military alliances in Europe and Asia and has long expressed respect for authoritarian figures.
He said the hacking allegations had shined a light on the vulnerabilities of the U.S. electoral process.
Hacking of America/Exorcisms & Sorcery - Coast to Coast AM October 12, 2016
[to tie and load back into this string two YouTubes, originally included in the draft of the post to which this is a reply and previously posted at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=125818038 and preceding and following, which have for the moment anyway come back to life and will embed/can be viewed/listened to directly below]
Date: Wednesday - October 12, 2016 Host: George Noory Guests: Malcolm Nance, Sonia Brosz
In the first half, author and former naval intelligence counter-terrorism officer specializing in the Middle East, Malcolm Nance [ http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/nance-malcolm/78466/ ], discussed the April 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee. He believes Russia's spy agency was responsible for the hack, and seeks to influence the outcome of the US election. In addition to the DNC hack, in the last six weeks, we've seen over 25 states have their electoral boards and voter registration lists either probed or hacked, and some of these incidents definitely have "the fingerprint of Russian military intelligence," he reported. Nance contended that the goal behind the Russian hacks is to push Donald Trump forward as the winning candidate.
Vladimir Putin, as an "old school" former KGB officer, quickly caught on to the value of cyber operations, noted Nance. Putin prefers Trump, as he is more sympathetic to Russian positions, especially regarding the dissolution of NATO, he remarked. And with NATO weakened or removed, Russia would become the preeminent authority on security in the eastern hemisphere, he added. Also, if Russia can tamper with the election, Nance suggested it can lead to civil unrest and economic chaos in America, which helps build up the image of Russia internationally and makes them seem stronger by comparison.
In the latter half, Sonia Brosz [ http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/brosz-sonia/82346/ ], a Maronite Catholic, Charismatic, visionary and spiritual warrior, spoke about her work and techniques. She was called forty-four years ago to service in the field of exorcism and deliverance, and has served as a consultant and advisor to exorcists of the Catholic Church as well as deliverance pastors and ministers of all faiths. Using her knowledge of metaphysics, magic, and sorcery of various cultures and religions, she is able to advise on aspects of potential cases of exorcism, and point out signs of demonic activity and witchcraft.
One of her cases, which she called the "Curse of El Diablo," dealt with a powerful Mexican brujo named Francisco, a sorcerer who used both the dark (Satanic) and the light to effect healings and cures. When Francisco decided to give up the dark powers, he was killed by an evil rival brujo, and his family was also cursed. Subsequently, Brosz got involved helping to remove curses from the family members and Francisco's collection of ritual masks. People sometimes turn to dark powers such as magic, when they feel they don't have control over their personal circumstances, but they end up getting manipulated by the Devil, she cautioned.
[for the moment at least respectively at] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EZc9FXbiEU [with comments] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiHeyE12Hss [with comment] [the host George Noory is and long has been fully in league with and directly tied into the Alex Jones/Roger Stone/Donald Trump bunch but tries to pretend he isn't in his role as the host of Coast to Coast AM; the absolutely must-be-heard discussion with Malcolm Nance begins at c. the 13:15 mark and concludes at c. the 1:15:00 mark (even better, because there is some related in the opening c. 13:15 and because that opening stretch helps set the tone for any not familiar with the Coast to Coast AM radio show, listen from the beginning through the end of the discussion with Nance)]
currently-working "Hacking of America & Sorcery - Coast To Coast AM October 12, 2016"
[for the moment at least at] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rroe-6rjRs [the absolutely must-be-heard discussion with Malcolm Nance begins at c. the 13:15 mark and concludes at c. the 1:15:00 mark; no comments yet]
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