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Congress Begins Russia Hacking Probe

Congress Begins Russia Hacking Probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. intelligence officials will testify in Congress on Thursday on Russia’s alleged cyber attacks during the 2016 election, as President-elect Donald Trump described himself as a “big fan” of intelligence agencies despite casting doubt on their findings that Moscow orchestrated the hacks.

Trump is due to be briefed by intelligence agency chiefs on Friday on hacks that targeted the Democratic Party. President Barack Obama will be briefed on Thursday.

Trump is heading for a conflict over the issue with Democrats and some fellow Republicans in Congress, many of whom are wary of Moscow and distrust the New York businessman’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and efforts to heal the rift between the United States and Russia.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre are due to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is chaired by Republican John McCain, a vocal critic of Putin.

In the afternoon, State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials will brief the Senate Foreign Relations Committee behind closed doors on the Obama administration’s response to the hacking and harassment of U.S. diplomats.

Their testimony came a week after Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their alleged involvement in hacking U.S. political groups in the 2016 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives before the presidential election, a conclusion supported by several private cybersecurity firms. Moscow denies the hacking allegations.

U.S. intelligence officials have said the Russian cyber attacks were aimed at helping Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election.

Several Republicans have acknowledged Russian hacking during the election but have not linked it to an effort to help Trump win.

STOLEN DOCUMENTS

Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta were leaked to the media in advance of the election, embarrassing the Clinton campaign.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump said: “(WikiLeaks founder) Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless? Also said the Russians did not give him the info!”

However, on Thursday, Trump said in a post on Twitter that he was not against intelligence or in agreement with Assange.

“The media lies to make it look like I am against ‘Intelligence’ when in fact I am a big fan!” Trump tweeted.

Trump and top advisers believe Democrats are trying to delegitimize his election victory by accusing Russia of helping him.

Some lawmakers, including McCain, said a firmer response was needed to check Russian aggression in cyberspace and elsewhere, and to discourage other countries from trying to influence more U.S. elections.

McCain is among a handful of Republicans to join Democrats in pushing for a special committee to investigate Russia’s political hacking, although that effort faces opposition from Republican leaders in Congress.

Trump has nominated people seen as friendly toward Moscow to senior administration posts, including secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, who was awarded Russia’s “Order of Friendship” in 2013 while Tillerson was Exxon Mobil chief executive.

Rogers, the NSA chief, visited Trump in New York in November and is among a handful of people being considered by Trump to succeed the retiring Clapper as U.S. spy chief, in addition to former Republican Senator Dan Coats, according to sources familiar with the matter.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bernadette Baum)

IMAGE: U.S. National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyber threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Senators Call For Probe Of Russian Cyber Attacks

Senators Call For Probe Of Russian Cyber Attacks

By David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican and Democratic senators called on Sunday for a special bipartisan panel to investigate cyber attacks against the United States by foreign countries with a focus on Russia’s alleged efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Charles Schumer, who will be Senate Democratic leader in the new U.S. Congress in January, and Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said separately on Sunday a select committee was needed to ensure effective congressional focus on the hacking of Democratic Party emails during the campaign.

“The fact that they’re hacking our political system and trying to influence the outcome, as it seems to be, that is serious, serious stuff,” Schumer of New York told a news conference in New York. He said the panel should also examine hacking by other countries including China and Iran.

Two other senators, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island, joined Schumer and McCain of Arizona in sending a letter to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell requesting the panel.

By having one dedicated committee on the subject, they said, the investigation could be targeted, while avoiding the jurisdictional overlap that would occur if multiple panels started conducting their own reviews.

“Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American,” they wrote.

“Cybersecurity is the ultimate cross-jurisdictional challenge, and we must take a comprehensive approach to meet this challenge effectively.”

A spokesman for McConnell’s office said on Sunday he would review the letter from the four lawmakers.

Last week, McConnell said he would support efforts to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia tried to influence the Nov. 8 election by hacking individuals and institutions, including Democratic Party bodies.

The matter has angered Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who says he won the vote fairly.

Russian officials have denied accusations of interfering in the U.S. election.

The U.S. Electoral College is expected to officially vote on Monday for Trump as the country’s next president. At meetings scheduled in every state and the District of Columbia, the institution’s 538 electors, generally chosen by state parties, will cast official ballots for president and vice president.

Trump won a majority of Electoral College votes, while the popular vote went to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

‘OPEN QUESTION’

U.S. President Barack Obama suggested on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorized the Democratic Party email hacks.

McCain told CNN’s “State of the Union” program that the U.S. response to the Russian attacks had been “totally paralyzed” and said cyber warfare “is perhaps the only area where our adversaries have an advantage over us.”

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

John Podesta, Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, said on Sunday it was an “open question” whether Trump’s advisers colluded with Russia to hack into Democratic Party emails to try to sway the election outcome.

Leaked emails had revealed details of paid speeches that Clinton gave to Wall Street, party infighting and comments from Clinton top aides who said they were shocked about the extent of her use of a private server to send emails while U.S. secretary of state.

The leaks led to embarrassing media coverage and prompted some party officials to resign.

Podesta said there was evidence that Trump associates had contact with a Russian intelligence official and the website WikiLeaks before U.S. intelligence agencies accused Russia of being behind computer attacks of Democratic emails, including Podesta’s. He did not specify what the evidence was.

“It’s very much unknown whether there was collusion. I think Russian diplomats have said post-election that they were talking to the Trump campaign,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

“Not what Mr. Trump knew, but what did ‘Trump Inc’ know and when did they know it? Were they in touch with the Russians? I think those are still open questions,” he added.

Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, rejected the notion that Trump or his associates were aware of and in touch with the Russians during the hack attack.

“Even this question is insane,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.” “Of course we don’t interface with the Russians.

(Additional reporting by Julia Harte in Washington; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)

IMAGE: FILE � In this Jan. 28, 2013, file photo Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Alex Jones Deletes Video Urging Fans To Personally “Investigate” Pizzagate

Alex Jones Deletes Video Urging Fans To Personally “Investigate” Pizzagate

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters for America.

Alex Jones suggested last month on his radio show that “something’s being covered up” at the restaurant that’s been falsely accused in the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and “it needs to be investigated.” Days later an Alex Jones listener attempted to “self-investigate” Comet Ping Pong and ended up firing his gun inside the restaurant. After the shooting — and after media began reporting that the shooter is a fan of Jones — Jones deleted the YouTube video.

Jones is a radio host who has pushed the conspiracy theories that the U.S. government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the tragedies at Columbine, Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon. Jones has also repeatedly accused the Clintons of murder. He has been elevated from the fringes to the mainstream by President-elect Donald Trump, who appeared on his show in December 2015 and praised his “amazing” reputation. Trump adviser Roger Stone is also a regular Jones guest and contributor.

Jones and his Infowars website have promoted the false conspiracy theory dubbed “Pizzagate,” which alleges that top Clinton associates such as campaign chairman John Podesta are trafficking children through the Comet Ping Pong restaurant.

On his November 27 program, Jones spent roughly half an hour pushing Pizzagate conspiracy theories and told his audience that they “have to go investigate it for yourself,” claiming, “Something’s going on. Something’s being covered up. It needs to be investigated.” From that program:

ALEX JONES: Now I want to be clear. Not everybody in the WikiLeaks is involved in this. Clearly. You have to go investigate it for yourself. But I will warn you, this story that’s been the biggest thing on the internet for several weeks, Pizzagate as it’s called, is a rabbit hole that is horrifying to go down…

Let’s go ahead and go to the report, “Pizzagate Is Real.” The question is: How real is it? What is it? Something’s going on. Something’s being covered up. It needs to be investigated. To just call it fake news — these are real WikiLeaks. This is real stuff going on. [Genesis Communications Network, The Alex Jones Show, 11/27/16] 

Jones then aired a previously taped video titled “Pizzagate Is Real: Something Is Going On, But What?” During that video, Infowars producer Jon Bowne stated that Clinton allies were “using a code to communicate child sex trafficking as casually as ordering a pizza.” The video then claimed that Comet Ping Pong “may be competing for the lucrative Washington, D.C., pedophile market right out in the open.”

Jones also suggested that he himself would be “getting on a plane” to visit Comet Ping Pong. He stated: “I couldn’t sleep last night and you know, people may look into it. I may take off a week and just only research this and actually go to where these places are and stuff. In fact I’m looking at getting on a plane — it’s just like Bohemian Grove and stuff, I can’t just say something and not see it for myself. They go to these pizza places, there’s like satanic art everywhere.” 

Later in the program, Jones backtracked and said that he “can’t go out there and investigate it myself. We’ve had reporters on that have been there. They say it’s really creepy because — I don’t have the self-control to be around these type of people. So you want us to cover Pizzagate, we have covered it. We are covering it. And all I know is God help us, we’re in the hands of pure evil.”

Days later an Alex Jones fan decided to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory at Comet Ping Pong. On December 4, Edgar Maddison Welch entered the pizzeria and, during his attempt to uncover the supposed sex ring, fired an assault rifle inside while scaring patrons and staff.

Welch also told The New York Times that he listens to Jones, and he reportedly “liked“ Infowars on Facebook. The FBI said that Welch shared a separate video headlined “Watch PIZZAGATE: The Bigger Picture on YouTube” with a friend. “Pizzagate: The Bigger Picture” is the headline Infowars used for a December 1 article — still online — promoting a video from Infowars producer Jon Bowne that also pushes the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

Jones has been scrubbing his Pizzagate content from the Internet following the shooting. The November 27 report that called for people to “investigate” pizzagate was originally uploaded to Jones’ YouTube channel under the headline “Down The #Pizzagate Rabbit Hole – Warning! Soul Sucking Info.”

He has since removed the video. According to the Internet Archive, the “Down The #Pizzagate Rabbit Hole” video was online as of December 6 but “removed by the user” by December 7. A tweet by Jones promoting the video is still online; it captures roughly 10 minutes of the video and links to the removed YouTube page. Non-Jones YouTube accounts have re-uploaded the “Down The #Pizzagate Rabbit Hole – Warning! Soul Sucking Info.” The video is roughly 30 minutes long.

Jones also removed the Jon Bowne video that Jones played during his November 27 program. On November 23, Jones’ YouTube channel posted the video with the headline “Pizzagate Is Real: Something Is Going On, But What?” The video was removed “by the user” shortly after the shooting, according to the Internet Archive.

Jones posted a December 15 video in which he lied about his prior promotions of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. He claimed that he actually said there’s “probably nothing going on there” and his lawyers reviewed his coverage and found that he’s been the “most restrained of all the coverage” in the alternative media.

Jones also said in the recent video that that he warned his staff that Pizzagate was “probably a setup” and that unnamed adversaries are “probably going to shoot that place up or something” and then blame Jones. He then claimed that they were setting him up so they can ban “free speech” and have him “taken off the airwaves.”

Conspiracist Alex Jones Tries To Scrub Pizzagate Content From Infowars

Conspiracist Alex Jones Tries To Scrub Pizzagate Content From Infowars

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters. 

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is scrubbing online content pushing the false and dangerous conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton’s campaign trafficked children through a D.C. pizzeria. A man who recently entered the pizzeria with a rifle and fired shots reportedly shared a piece of Jones’ content before the shooting; the video he shared is still on the website.

Jones is a radio host who has claimed that the government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the tragedies at Columbine, Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon. Jones has also repeatedly accused the Clintons of murder. He has been elevated from the fringes to the mainstream by President-elect Donald Trump, who appeared on his show and praised his “amazing” reputation. Trump adviser Roger Stone is also a regular Jones guest and contributor.

Jones and his Infowars website have promoted the false conspiracy theory dubbed “Pizzagate,” which alleges that top Clinton associates such as campaign manager John Podesta are trafficking children through the Comet Ping Pong restaurant.

The false claims took a dangerous turn when Edgar Maddison Welch fired an assault rifle inside the pizzeria because he was trying to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory. FBI special agent Justin Holgate stated in a criminal complaint that Welch said he sent a video on the night of December 1 with the message “Watch PIZZAGATE: The Bigger Picture on YouTube” to a friend before the shooting:

“Pizzagate: The Bigger Picture” is the headline Infowars used for a December 1 article — still online — promoting a video from Infowars producer Jon Bowne that pushes the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Jones tweeted the headline on December 1. The headline was also used on YouTube by a non-Infowars account to promote the Infowars video.

Welch also toldThe New York Times that he listens to Jones, and he reportedly liked Infowars on Facebook.

Jones and Infowars appear to be scrubbing commentary about Pizzagate. Jones’ YouTube channel posted a November 23 video headlined “Pizzagate Is Real: Something Is Going On, But What?” The video has since “been removed by the user,” though it’s not clear when.

The video has been re-uploaded or re-upped by other toxic conspiracy theorists (some of whom speculated about why Jones deleted it). During the video, Jon Bowne states that Clinton allies are “using a code to communicate child sex trafficking as casually as ordering a pizza.” The video then states that Comet Ping Pong “may be competing for the lucrative Washington, D.C., pedophile market right out in the open.”

Jones promoted the video on his Facebook account but has since deleted the post. Infowars also deleted a November 27 article by Bowne that promoted the video.

While Jones has removed content related to pizzagate, his website still contains false articles promoting the conspiracy theory. For instance, Kit Daniels posted a November 5 piece headlined “Law Enforcement Begs World: Read Hillary Emails To Find Child Rape Evidence; Hillary Linked To Child Sex Ring, Emails Suggest.” The article suggested that John Podesta was potentially involved in “child molestation” and “child pornography” because his hacked email account contained “strange” references to “pizza”:

Jones has been attempting to distance himself from his clear promotions of pizzagate. Yet Jones’ own content — scrubbed or otherwise — proves that he can’t run away from it.