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Obama administration ordered a “stand down” of work to stop Russian election interference

The real Russian collusion: When it was evident that the Russians were trying to use the internet to interfere with the election in August 2016, the Obama administration instead ordered a “stand down” of any work that might have stopped that interference.

Former President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity czar confirmed Wednesday that former national security adviser Susan Rice told him to “stand down” in response to Russian cyber attacks during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Michael Daniel, whose official title was “cybersecurity coordinator,” confirmed the stand-down order during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing held to review the Obama and President Donald Trump’s administrations’ policy response to Russian election interference.

…“Don’t get ahead of us,” [Rice] told Daniel in a meeting in August 2016, according to the book.

Daniel informed his staff of the order, much to their frustration. “I was incredulous and in disbelief,” Daniel Prieto, who worked under Daniel, is quoted saying in “Russian Roulette.”

“Why the hell are we standing down? Michael, can you help us understand?” Prieto asked.

It appears that the Obama administration wanted the Russians to interfere with the election, and this desire was part of their effort at the FBI to frame the Russian collusion story on Trump. They needed the interference to justify the FBI Russian investigation, which had just been instigated in late July 2016. Stopping the Russians (and defending the American electoral process) was therefore not in their interest.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • wodun

    Maybe an investigation would have turned up documentation that the DNC was funding troll farms that spoofed a Russian connection.

  • wodun

    Or maybe an investigation would have showed decades long involvement by Russia in Democrat activist groups.

  • John Policeman

    Let’s not forget that the “Russian cyber interference” has never been truly confirmed. It has only been agreed to (among the leaders of the NSA, FBI, and CIA) that Russia was behind it. What has been confirmed is that the CIA has cyber tools that can mimic any country’s cyber intrusion. If Obama’s admin. wanted it to appear as though it was Russian, it’s known that USA has the tools to do it. Given the bias and desire of the deep state actors, it’s not hard to imagine the plot.

  • John Policeman

    Let’s not forget that the “Russian cyber interference” has never been truly confirmed. It has only been agreed to (among the leaders of the NSA, FBI, and CIA) that Russia was behind it. What has been confirmed is that the CIA has cyber tools that can mimic any country’s cyber intrusion. If Obama’s admin. wanted it to appear as though it was Russian, it’s known that USA has the tools to do it. Given the bias and desire of the deep state actors, it’s not hard to imagine the plot. That might explain Rice’s “stand down” order.

  • Cotour

    THINGS TO CONSIDER:

    Might the U.S. intelligence agencies (CIA) have conspired with the UK intelligence agencies to hack the U.S. 2016 elections and blame the Russians? They certainly have the programs and capabilities to do so I have to assume.

    Where did Julian Assange get the “Hacked” DNC email files from? Seth Rich and not the Russians like is being promoted in the MSM and the intelligence agencies? (Who here trusts anything about the MSM or our intelligence agencies have to say publically? And Seth Rich was definitely murdered and Assange did offer a $20K reward for any information about it. Why would he do that? And a week or so ago there was a press conference by an investigator and a lawyer investigating the Rich murder who had someone who finger some trained agency people with the deed. Information? Disinformation?).

    Why does the UK want to arrest Julian Assange? To get the source codes that would prove that the files actually came from Seth Rich and a thumb drive and not the Russians and that would prove the collusion and clear the Russians?

    Between the DNC server information coming out and hurting the DNC and the Hillary campaign and that “Hacking” being blamed on the Russians, and the “Dossier” that was produced by a Trump hating UK spy Christopher Steele and funneled through a trump hating Senator John McCain and contributed to by the DOJ and the involvement of the FBI none of who has any love lost for president Trump and was meant to hurt or destroy candidate Trump and then president Trump. Might there have been collusion between the two country’s intelligence agencies to take Trump out in order to keep the status quo power structure in the world?

    This is something floating around and it does not sound that implausible to me. But then, I am just a “conspiracy nut” to some.

    Anything in pursuit of the acquisition of or the retention of power, ANYTHING.

  • wayne

    Cotour–
    To which “U.S. 2016 Election” do you refer? Elections in general and the Federal election for President are the purview of Local and County jurisdictions under supervision from their State.
    There’s like 17,000 separate electoral jurisdictions within the Congressional Districts.

    The Popular vote is just a straight count for Presidential Federal Elections, but your vote is also assigned to the designated electoral college Elector. (We didn’t really vote for Trump directly, we voted for the Electors pledged to Trump, who in turn voted for Trump in the electoral college. )
    Some States have winner take all (Electors) some States apportion them by popular vote.
    –Point being, to “hack” into “the election” requires manipulating thousands of individual electoral jurisdictions. We have a “national” election for the electoral college, but its done locally.
    In my town, we use the scan-tron paper ballots; a hard copy exists and those can be compared to electronic tabulation totals. (Our identities are confirmed by drivers license scan into an on-line database, but the voting machine scaner is not itself connected on-line.)

    That being said.

    Obama ordered our FBI & CIA to spy on Trump during the 2016 election. They went to the Fisa Court with a fake petition and those idiots granted it, more than once.
    Hillary was so arrogant, stupid, and downright criminal, she assumed her election was a forgone conclusion.

    The Soviet Union actively interfered with our Government and Culture for 70 years, now the Russian Federation does the same thing. This is not a new development.

  • Cotour

    Your conflating a bit here Wayne. Like many in the public conflate the idea of Russian hacking or Facebook ad buying to disrupt, confuse and cause chaos within the American public AND the idea that they somehow changed the numerical results or the electorial collage results of the election in some manner in all of those districts that you listed. That is not what happened but many in the public believe it is so.

    (Always a paper ballot copy that can be stored and recounted if necessary and always the electorial college, once again the Founders shine through as brilliant!)

    Did the Russians have a disruption program on going in the 2016 presidential election? No doubt, but did THEY hack the DNC server and supply Wikileaks with the information? That is what is under question and I think it has been established that the files were downloaded much too fast for it to have been accomplished over the internet, it had to be done on site. Who was on site and who had access? Seth Rich, who was gunned down for no apparent reason. And Julian Assange offered a $20K reward for information. Out of the blue Assange becomes sympathetic to this particular situation? Why?

    The “hack” happened and did its harm to the Hillary and DNC machine by revealing the truth, which because they were one of thee most dishonest and manipulative campaigns in history do not want known and it benefited the Trump operation. So tie the Trump operation closely with the “hack” and blame the Russians and bring it all down using a special council and retain power ultimately. Sounds like a pretty straight forward thing to me.

    Is it plausible that the two intelligence agencies know all of this and do not want it to come out that they worked together to take out Trump and essentially executing a coupe against a duly elected president by associating him more closely with the Russians and the Wikileak “hack” of the DNC?

    There apparently was collusion, but it does not appear that it was in the Trump organization with the Russians. And on top of all of this the intelligence agencies to solidify their operation apparently set up the trump operation and lied about their FISA warrant that caused the special council to be empowered. Legal fraud and malfeasance on top of collusion to remove a duly elected president, if this were to come out in the light, which it appears that Devin Nunes is driving for because he knows the truth. Now it does not get much bigger than that.

    One problem, the evidence does not appear to support that narrative that the intelligence agencies are pushing. Who has the evidence? Julian Assange, who is trapped within the country that appears to have colluded in a coupe attempt against an American president and wants the evidence that he possesses, the source code for the information. What do you think Assange would trade for a pardon from president Trump? But he is stuck in England in the Ecuadorian embassy, for the moment.

    This is the kind of political three D chess that is going on, and not what we see in the MSM. And this is just one of the many, many subjects that will have the potential to be disrupting many American lives over the coming weeks and months. And Trump has to know all of this and if most of this is so then he is right now thinking how to best leverage this advantage that he now possesses. Does it all come out in the cleansing light of day, or is it sat on and traded for concessions from the deep state and the intelligence agencies for future operations, political and otherwise?

    Anything for power.

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