If there is any shock at the level of corruption within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as revealed in recently released emails attributed to Wikileaks and the DNC's automatic response to blame Russia, the fact that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and her staff effectively sabotaged the Bernie Sanders campaign may seem secondary compared with how the Obama Administration has been constructing a false narrative to justify NATO preparations for war with Russia.
While the accusation that Russia is at the root of its email scandal adds titillating fodder for how Clinton defrauded Sanders out of the Democratic nomination, the US continues to pursue every opportunity to identify Russia as the culprit in a myriad of complaints, the US is now using the DNC hacks as part of its geopolitical agenda to discredit Putin.
The potential threat of nuclear conflict in the Baltics may be linked to the DNC's inappropriate behavior as inconsistent with their mission of neutrality since the end result of that partisan political campaign process is the nomination of Hillary Clinton
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To read that Democrats are placing the hacked emails at the door of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a vehicle to aide Donald Trump's candidacy might be laughable if the Dems were not so transparent in attempting to deflect attention away from their own malfeasance. It is indisputable that members of the DNC staff wrote and sent the offensive emails without any thought of consequence, overstepping their authority or accountability.
The depth of information contained in the 20,000 email pages are yet to be thoroughly vetted by independent investigators. Those investigations may provide interesting details regarding the DNC relationships with big money and corporate donors and its quid pro quo with 'liberal' mainstream media functionaries. As the controversy continues to unfold, the DNC may have reason to be concerned.
Indeed, the DNC and Clinton campaign are spending much valuable time spinning a narrative that the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming rather than focusing on the upcoming race against Donald Trump which promises to be a very tight election. At what point, do the Democrats with egg on their face end up looking foolish, inept and desperate.
In what may be an early sign of a sinking ship as the latest polls show Donald Trump leading Clinton in the Presidential race, Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager told the Washington Post on Sunday that "There's evidence Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole those emails and there are experts saying they are releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump."
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has told CNN of the possibility that 'a lot more material' will be released relevant to the US presidential campaign but refused to confirm the source of the emails citing necessary 'maximum ambiguity' to protect all sources. Assange went on to say that the DNC reaction "raises questions about the natural instincts of Clinton that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, et cetera."
Assange explained that "so called experts the Clinton campaign quote are not analyzing our materials, they are analyzing previous materials published," and further "what we have right now is the Hillary Clinton campaign using speculative allegations about hacks that occurred in the past to try to divert attention from our (current) emails because they are having so much political impact in the United States."
In an NBC interview with Richard Engle, Assange added that "it has not been proven that Wikileaks published the emails" and that "there is no proof whatsoever" that Russian intel services provided the emails. Assange claimed that "DNC servers have been riddled with security holes for years and that many sets of documents from multiple sources are now in public hands."
On Tuesday evening, President Obama commented that "anything's possible" and "I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia." The President is hopefully aware that 'favorable coverage' in Russia does not translate into votes in the US. In an NBC interview, Obama said, "what we do know ..is that the Russians hack our systems."
The President might have forgotten that the US and Israel were responsible for a joint Stuxnet project, a malicious computer worm hack against Iran in 2013 that, according to cyber security expert Ralph Langer "was far more dangerous than the cyber weapon that is now lodged in the public's imagination" and 'changed global military strategy in the 21st century." In other words, Stuxnet opened a wholly new can of (cyber) worms.
Whether the source of the emails may have learned their hacking skills from the US government or not, the fact is that DNC sleaze that Sanders has been alluding to for months has been confirmed.
While former US secretary of State Madeline Albright, a Clinton supporter who has, in the past, exhibited a disoriented sense of proportion when she told Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes that "the price was worth it" regarding the deaths of half a million Iraqi children due to US sanctions and more recently suggested that women who do not support Mrs. Clinton would 'find a place in hell' suggested on Tuesday "the truth is that a Trump victory in November would be a gift to Vladimir Putin." Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort has labeled Albright's assertions 'crazy'.
Presumably Albright was referring to, among other issues, Trump's questions regarding the future of NATO while Clinton has vowed a tough approach to territorial disputes involving Russia indicating how the candidates might differ on issues of world peace.
For all the fuss and convoluted speculation that Russia was the source of the email link, the DNC appears to be increasingly anxious to deflect attention away from the actual contents of the emails and rather spend considerable effort into creating an enormous spin machine that pins the leak on Putin's government.
CNN continued to report that US officials indicated 'there is strong evidence" that the leaked emails were the result of hackers familiar to US counterintelligence who are working on behalf of Russian intelligence. But 'strong evidence' is no evidence and not admissible in the international court of law; at best, 'strong evidence' is only supposition and circumstantial.
Famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has tweeted that "Evidence that could publicly attribute responsibility for the DNC hack certainly exist at NSA. Even if attackers try to obfuscate origin, #XKEYSCORE makes following exfiltrated data easy. I did this personally against Chinese ops."
Another famed whistleblower William Binney, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a "legend" within the agency who created the agency's mass surveillance program, responded "Snowden is right and the MSM is clueless."
For the US mainstream media, to use every insignificant, irrelevant piece of trivia to destroy Putin's reputation so as to make it easier for the American public to accept future military action against Russia, proves that no amount of obfuscation, no distortion of the facts, nothing is beyond the pale.
Pointing the finger and alleging that Putin is in cahoots with Wikileaks (who never reveal their sources - for obvious reasons), Guccifer 2.0 (who denies any Russian involvement) or some other intel snoop misses the point entirely - the emails are legitimate and factual. And they are confirmation that staff members of the DNC worked overtime In undermining the Sanders campaign.
Watching the Presidential nominating roll call vote on Tuesday afternoon raised the question of how many Democratic delegates had any awareness that the votes they cast for Hillary Clinton were tainted; the product of a flawed and discredited political process.
And so on Tuesday evening, Bernie, being the good soldier, sucked it up and took the DNC's betrayal on the chin and delivered his votes to Clinton. Suppressing whatever was left of his self esteem, he reiterated his support for the very objectionable woman he opposed in the Democratic primaries and who had to have some level of knowledge, some awareness of what the DNC was doing on her behalf. Never answering the question of why he entered the primary in the first place if Hillary Clinton "must become President of the United States," Bernie's performances on Monday and Tuesday evenings, in effect, sanctioned DNC efforts to discredit his candidacy. So much for the 'revolution'.
Putin's efforts as he stepped in at the behest of Pope Francis in 2013 to block US bombing of Syria followed by his response to the US initiated overthrow of Ukraine's democratically elected President has made him a huge target as he has antagonized the pro war neo-cons currently embedded in the Obama Administration and mainstream media - both of whom may be a more significant potential threats to world peace.
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