U.S. Charges Russian Intelligence Officers in Major Cyberattacks
Prosecutors said the suspects hacked elections in France, the electricity grid in Ukraine and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
"...six Russian military intelligence officers" have been indicted in charges unsealed today.
Justice Department officials played down the timing of the announcement two weeks before the presidential election...
The prosecutors focused on seven breaches that together showed how Russia sought in recent years to use its hacking abilities to undermine democratic institutions and ideals, retaliate against enemies and destroy rival economies.
...
In a startling parallel description John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security.
said,
“Their cyberattack combined the emotional maturity of a petulant child with the resources of a nation-state.”
[Which, I do not know if I am actually alive or not.]
The Russian response was also strikingly familiar:
“It is absolutely obvious that such news breaks have no bearing on reality and are aimed at...launching a ‘witch hunt’...
[Rooski, you missed "Fake News".]
One of the suspects charged in the newly unsealed indictments, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, was indicted two years ago on charges announced by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, over the 2016 election hacks.
[So? NO COLLUSION!]
The new charges did not address 2020 election interference; American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia is trying to influence the vote in November.
The charges also showed the limits of the United States’ power to deter Russia. Many of the breaches occurred after the United States imposed sanctions and publicly rebuked Russia over its 2016 election sabotage...
[OR!]
...
Mr. Demers, the Justice Department’s top national security official, took direct aim at President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who made an unusual appeal for a cyber “reset” with the United States last month.
Mr. Demers said the indictments were “a cold reminder of why its proposal is nothing more than dishonest rhetoric and cynical and cheap propaganda.”
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U.S. Diplomats and Spies Battle Trump Administration Over Suspected Attacks
American officials in China, Cuba and Russia say U.S. agencies are concealing the true extent of the episodes, leaving colleagues vulnerable to hostile actions abroad.
Trump...withdrew most of its staff members from the embassy...issued a travel warning...said U.S. diplomats had experienced “targeted attacks."...Trump expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington and started an independent review, though Cuba denied any involvement. [And convincingly denied, I might add.]
The Russian aim: Chaos.Drive wedges between the U.S. and Cuba, the U.S. and China, just make everybody suspicious of one another.]
Despite China Syndrome being “very similar and entirely consistent” with the syndrome in Cuba. The administration evacuated more than a dozen federal employees and some of their family members.
The State Department soon retreated, labeling what happened in China as “health incidents.” While the officers in Cuba were placed on administrative leave for rehabilitation, those in China initially had to use sick days and unpaid leave...And the State Department did not open an investigation into what happened in China.
The administration has said little about the events in China and played down the idea that a hostile power could be responsible. But similar episodes have been reported by senior C.I.A. officers who visited the agency’s stations overseas
That includes Moscow, where...a C.I.A. officer who helped run clandestine operations in Russia and Europe, experienced what he believes was an attack in December 2017. [He] who was 48 at the time, suffered severe vertigo in his hotel room in Moscow and later developed debilitating migraine headaches that forced him to retire.
The cases involving C.I.A. officers, none of which have been publicly reported, are adding to suspicions that Russia carried out the attacks worldwide. Some senior Russia analysts in the C.I.A., officials at the State Department and outside scientists, as well as several of the victims, see Russia as the most likely culprit given its history with weapons that cause brain injuries and its interest in fracturing Washington’s relations with Beijing and Havana.
The C.I.A. director remains unconvinced, and State Department leaders say they have not settled on a cause.
...disparities in how the officers were treated stemmed from diplomatic and political considerations, including the president’s desire to strengthen relations with Russia and win a trade deal with China.
According to half a dozen American officials, State Department leaders realized that pursuing a similar course of action as they had in Cuba — including evacuating missions in China — could cripple diplomatic and economic relationships.
[Better to cripple American people!]
The battles [between victims and Trump] have complicated their recovery and prompted government retaliation that might have permanently damaged their careers, according to interviews with more than 30 government officials, lawyers and doctors.
U.S. lawmakers have criticized what they call secrecy and inaction from the State Department and are pressing the agency to release a study it received in August from the National Academies of Sciences, which examined potential causes of the episodes.
...
“This is a deliberate, high-level cover-up,” Mr. Lenzi [one of the victims] said.
...American officials and scientists still debate whether the symptoms resulted from an attack.
Many diplomats, C.I.A. officers and scientists suspect a weapon producing microwave radiation damaged the victims’ brains. But some scientists and government officials argue it was a psychological illness that spread in the stressful environment of foreign missions. Some point to chemical agents, like pesticides.
The Trump administration has not clarified its view or said exactly how many people were affected.
At least 44 people in Cuba and 15 in China were evaluated or treated at the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania....Doctors at [Penn]...dismissed the idea of a psychological illness, saying the patients they treated had sustained a brain injury from an external source.
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Some top American officials insist on seeing more evidence before accusing Russia. Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, has acknowledged that Moscow had the intent to harm operatives, but she is not convinced it was responsible or that attacks occurred, two American officials said.
...
Top officials “know exactly which country” was responsible, Mr. Lenzi said, adding that it was not Cuba or China but another country “which the secretary of state and president do not want to confront.”
