Until I found stories about FSB's
[Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation] arrest of
Col.Sergei Mikhailov, I thought the claims about Russian
hacking during last year's presidential
election were probably false. I know the FSB
is unlikely to be as effective as the legendary KGB, but I
wouldn't expect it to engage in the amateurish activities attributed
to Russian hackers. The CIA's connection with Col. Mikhailov
raises the possibility the CIA was operating a sting to
discredit Donald Trump.
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For example, the KGB wouldn't have been satisfied with using
hacking to get some emails from the Democratic Party
headquarters. The old KGB would have planted an agent in
Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters. This agent
would have occasionally downloaded documents, including summaries of
meetings, onto a zip drive. Russians have been
planting people in American organizations for 70 years. Why would
the FSB switch to a less productive means of acquiring
information? A human agent can overhear conversations that
contain information that doesn't get into the computer.
The CIA could have used Col. Mikhailov for more than just a
source of information about Russian activities. The
association potentially allowed the CIA to use Russian hackers to
spy on Americans or on "friendly" governments like Britain or
Germany. Those detecting the hacking would blame the
Russians rather than the Americans. European governments would
complain if they caught the CIA spying on them. Using Russian
hackers potentially allowed the CIA to gain information risk
free.
CIA could also have had Mikhailov send Russian agents to try
to compromise American politicians. Spy agencies
sometimes have trouble resisting an urge to become power
brokers. The CIA has a history of involvement in other
countries, particularly in the Middle East. An agent of the
World War II OSS [predecessor to the CIA] admitted before he
died that he was responsible for killing American World War II
General George Patton. Many Americans believe the CIA was
involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in
1963.
The following statement is not intended to accuse the CIA of
attempting to interfere in the process of determining who is the
President of the United States. I merely want to point out its
actions are consistent with that possibility. The CIA could
have used the Russian hackers to keep Hillary Clinton from winning
the election and then used other Russian agents to discredit her
opponent Donald Trump and make him appear to be responsible for the
Russian hackers.
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