In the movie Men in Black, two federal agents protect the Earth from destruction during an unrelated intergalactic war. The people of Earth didn’t even know about the war; only the two federal agents (the Men in Black) were aware of the war and its implications.
A similar scenario has playing out in present-day America. There has been a Cyber-war going on between America and Russia for some time now and we, the people, have largely been kept in the dark. An element of that war was the Russian involvement in the 2016 US elections. The extent of that involvement was known to the CIA, the FBI, congressional leaders of both parties and the White House, but kept from the voters
That lack of knowledge led many voters to select a leader who may tip the scales against America in the Cyber-war and give the Russians what they are Cyber-fighting for. It is widely believed that Donald Trump would not have won the presidency but for the revelations resulting from the Russian hackings. fed to the American Public through WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign.
Will President Donald Trump give the Russians what they want, effectively rewarding them for helping him become President?
Just over two weeks ago, President Obama ejected 35 Russian diplomats from the US as part of a penalty for Russian interference with the elections, as disclosed by the CIA. This penalty was on top of pre-existing sanctions that have been doing great damage to the Russian economy. Additional unspecified sanctions were also expected.
We saw evidence of Russia’s response to Obama’s moves on January 12th with the substitution of the C-SPAN feed for the feed of the RT (Russia Today) cable network.
The same day, the lights mysteriously went off at the hearing for the nominee for the new head of the CIA.
Both events occurred shortly after Russia was mentioned at the hearing and on the C-SPAN air.
It appears these events may be projections of Russian cyber-capability, demonstrating that they can assert their power into the heart of American government and its media.
As in Men in Black, most of us have been unaware of the extent of this Cyber-war. Some of our leaders knew but kept us in the dark. All we want as citizens is that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people not lie to the people.
Russia developed a strategy to win the Cyber-war, and it is on the cusp of winning.
President Trump could give Putin everything he wants . Trump has indicated he will lift the punishing sanctions. Trump has also called NATO obsolete, and Russia has agreed. Russia would love to see the end of NATO, as it has kept Russia (and its predecessor the USSR) in check in the postwar era. Trump has also signaled he will withdraw from the Paris climate deal . Trump calls climate change a “Chinese hoax.”
Importantly, Trump wants to be Vladimir Putin’s best friend, as the two are engaged in a “get a room, already” style mutual admiration society.
Russia will largely win the war if a President Donald Trump takes these executive actions to help Russia.
It appears that Vladimir Putin at some point realized that Russia did not need to beat America on the battlefield, it could just manipulate America’s electoral process so that a pro-Russian president could be elected.
The US has been at odds with Russia since the end of WWII. It’s been a hot war and a cold war, and there was a short period of detente in the late 1980s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, it’s been fought through proxy wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq. Now it’s a 21st century war fought in cyberspace and in the world economy.
The war with America has been very expensive for Russia and the sanctions that have been in place for years have taken their toll.
Russia seems to have found a willing participant in Donald Trump, who has been sidling up to Putin for years, and whose confidante Paul Manafort has been comrade-in-arms with Putin’s lackeys in the Ukraine.
Trump may allow Russia to win the Cyber-war through his actions. If so, this is the direct result of careful planning and skilled execution by Russia of a bold plan to limit American power with the installation of a Russia-friendly government in Washington.
While it is now too late to prevent the inauguration of Donald Trump, several investigations seek to determine what happened.
First, ABC News reported that the FBI is investigating claims that Trump was personally compromised by the Russians.
Second, the Justice Department’s Inspector General is investigating whether the FBI took illegal or unethical steps to help Trump win the presidency at Clinton’s expense.
Third, a Senate committee is investigating Russian influence in the election, and it has subpoena power to obtain documents, evidence and compel testimony. The appointment of this committee is designed to protect the evidence by requiring anyone with potential evidence to maintain and not destroy it.
What makes further investigation more likely is an action taken in recent days by President Obama to give all intelligence agencies access to the raw foreign intercepts of the CIA. This could extend to transcripts of Paul Manafort’s communications in the Ukraine and Russia during the months, years and days that led up to his appointment as campaign manager for Donald Trump. Previously this unredacted information would be limited to the CIA; now the FBI and other intelligence agencies will have access to supplement their investigations. There is likely a vast, vast reservoir of information to sift through and to be most effective, information is needed now.
Just as this action by President Obama was taken with no congressional approval required, a new administration could reverse the wider access, putting crucial evidence out of reach of investigators and a fraud on the American people will have been completed.
Evidence may disappear.
Complicating the investigations, after the Inauguration evidence may disappear, witnesses may refuse to testify, and hope for a full, fair and impartial investigation may be gone. Further, Donald Trump as President will have pardon power over everyone’s actions, including potentially his own, if they were found to have overstepped the law.
Donald Trump has shown no inclination on his own to investigate the events that may have led to his becoming president, going so far as to deny any relationship. Once he is inaugurated, there is no possibility that an investigation would be held.
Why did we not find out sooner?
All of this was going on under our noses and few of us knew. Those who did catch on believed that Trump would never win, or that the Russian/Wikileaks leaks weren’t enough to sway an election. So they kept the information to themselves.
Another reason they did not disclose the information was the fear that their disclosures would be considered unfair, being done for partisan advantage too close to election day.
Shockingly, one of the leaders who remained mum was FBI Director James Comey, who sat on allegations that Russia was interfering in the election to the benefit of Donald Trump and to the detriment of Hillary Clinton, while he simultaneously paraded spurious email tales before an eager media on three separate occasions. This was done in knowing violation of Justice Department policy.
An excellent analysis of the reasons for Comey’s actions is in this important article by Seth Abramson. The writer persuasively explains how and why Comey was coerced into going public with meaningless Clinton emails but remaining silent on the massively greater threat of Russian influence on the election.
The voters were kept in the dark, just as if we were the citizens in Men in Black. But all is not lost.
What can we do at this point? As it appears no legal action will taken before the inauguration, continuing investigations are crucial to find out what happened. The existing investigations mean that the parties must maintain and not destroy relevant evidence, records, logs and the like, but there is no certainty that the parties in possession of the evidence will do so. Donald Trump’s companies have been accused in the past of destroying evidence under subpoena.
The investigations may uncover sufficient evidence to invalidate the presidential election and force a new election. Such legal proceedings can take months or years to wind through the legal system, including appeals. Incalculable damage can be done in the meantime.
We are in uncharted territory here, but unless we end the threat of foreign influence in our elections, we may see a sequel in four more years and in every election after that. And with any future voter disenfranchisement, well, say goodbye to the concept of a free and fair election.
In addition, pressure must be put on Donald Trump to deny him the political cover to make decisions supportive of Russia, to use Trump’s own words, “until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on".
Photo Credit: Donald Trump Presidential portrait By Joint Congressional Inauguration Committee via Wikimedia Commons