The US government agencies are reportedly preparing a major cyberattack against Russia in response to the unproven theft of records from the Democratic National Committee and its affiliates, allegedly by Moscow-backed hackers. The CIA's cyber operation is being prepared by a team within the agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, which has a staff of hundreds and a budget in the hundreds of millions.
While the National Security Agency (NSA) is the center for American digital spying, the CIA is the lead agency for covert action and has its own cyber capabilities. It sometimes brings in the NSA and the Pentagon to help. NBC reported that intelligence officials have been asked to present the White House with ideas for a "clandestine" cyber operation designed to "embarrass" the Kremlin.
On October 7, the US officially blamed Russia for attacks against its political organizations in a joint statement of the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. According to the claims, Russia interfered with the American elections by launching cyber-attacks and hacking more than 100 Democratic Party officials and groups.
Vice President Joe Biden openly threatened Russia with a cyber-attack in a televised interview with the NBC’s “Meet the Press” on October 16. He remarked that Washington will choose a time and place for a “response” which will have “the greatest impact.”
His warning seems to suggest that President Obama is prepared to order some kind of covert action using the arsenal of cyber weapons, which are under the control of the military Cyber Command, the NSA and, in some circumstances, the CIA. The vice president’s statement does not exclude the possibility of a response outside the realm of cyberspace. It could be traditional sanctions. Or it could be both.
Russia has denied the charges.
There has never been any evidence presented to substantiate the accusations. President Putin told an investor forum in Moscow that it did not matter who was behind the hacks, but it was "what’s inside the information that matters."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov immediately blasted Biden’s remarks, saying Moscow would take precautions to safeguard its interests in the face of the increasing “unpredictability and aggressiveness of the United States”.
United States openly threatens Russia with a war in the domain where battles have never been fought. With so many reports published and media revelations going around blaming Russia, nothing has been made public to support the accusations. No evidence whatsoever has been provided.
ANYONE WHO BELIEVES the United States is not fighting enough wars in the Middle East can be happy this week. We have just plunged into another one. Twice in recent days, cruise missiles fired from an American destroyer have rained down on Yemen. The Pentagon, a practiced master of Orwellian language, calls this bombing “limited self-defense.”
American forces were already involved in Yemen’s civil war. Since 2002, our drone attacks have reportedly killed more than 500 Yemenis, including at least 65 civilians. We are also supplying weapons and intelligence to Saudi Arabia, which has killed thousands of Yemenis in bombing raids over the last year and a half — including last week’s attack on a funeral in which more than 100 mourners were killed.
Shortly after the funeral bombing, a couple of missiles fired at the USS Mason, an American naval vessel patrolling close to the Yemeni coast, fell harmlessly into the sea. The United States immediately blamed Houthis, a group of Yemenis we consider hostile. They vehemently denied responsibility. Even the Pentagon admitted that it could not be certain who had fired the missiles. None of that stopped us from launching what we described as a retaliatory attack. With that, we became an active belligerent in yet another war. This brings us several million new enemies.
American forces are already fighting, carrying out drone attacks, and “advising” ground troops in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Mali, and Somalia. No vital American interest is at stake in any of those conflicts. Nor will our security be affected by the outcome of Yemen’s civil war. The impulse to fight there — and to control the Persian Gulf — is simply the latest result of our long campaign to shape the fate of foreign nations.
The United States no longer enters wars as we did in earlier eras. Our president does not announce that we have taken up a new cause in a distant land. Congress does not declare war, which is its constitutional responsibility. Instead, a few buttons are pressed and, with only a brief and quickly forgotten spurt of news stories that obscure more than they reveal, we are at war.
Four Russian navy warships are on their way to the Mediterranean Sea led by Russia’s large and only aircraft-carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.
The contingent from Russia’s Northern Fleet was spotted sailing past the Norwegian city of Bergen Wednesday, after the fleet announced the deployment in state media over the weekend.
Besides Admiral Kuznetsov, the Kremlin is also deploying the nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great, as well as the large anti-submarine ships Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov.
The four vessels are currently nearing northern Scotland, with Peter the Great leading the formation between the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands, according to Russian navy tracking site Flot. The Russian navy currently has six other vessels deployed in Mediterranean waters, three of which are landing ships.
The arrival of the air carrier, possibly within two week’s time, would serve as a big boost to Russian military capabilities near Syria, where Western partners have been unable to make Russia follow its earlier pledge to a ceasefire.
In recent weeks, officials of Western governments have engaged in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric condemning the Syrian and Russian governments for alleged war crimes that have occurred since the collapse of a UN-backed ceasefire in late September.
The escalating charges aimed at Russia and Syria, reinforced by well-orchestrated media campaigns propagating official talking points, are familiar in the sense that such attempts to mould public opinion have traditionally been a precursor to Western military interventions.
Western and Gulf states have been unequivocal about their intention to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, presumably to replace it with a client regime that would maintain an adversarial relationship with Russia, Iran and various political forces associated with Shia Islam.
On the ground, the Syrian military, supported by Russian, Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies are on the path to military victory over the rebel-held east of Aleppo, which would mark the restoration of government control in all of Syria’s largest population centres.
Insurgents that have been armed and supported by the United States are now besieged in eastern Aleppo fighting Syrian government forces in coordination with jihadist militants, including the al-Nusra Front, the former Syrian wing of al Qaeda that Washington itself classifies as a terrorist organisation.
The United States is not technically at war with the Syria, nor is there a UN resolution authorising American forces to operate inside Syria’s borders. Establishing a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace, safe zones within Syrian territory, or US military attacks on the Syrian air force and its bases would directly constitute an act of war against Damascus – and by extension, Moscow.
“One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgement, the official said.”
Hillary Clinton, who will presumably become the next US president, publically supports the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria and has openly stated her number one objective in Syria is the removal of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Russia has begun to deploy advanced anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems in Syria. Trust between Russia and the United States has entirely eroded. Russia is holding the cards in Syria and it is difficult to imagine how open conflict can be avoided should the US pursue an escalation. The seriousness of this moment should not be understated.
Russian forces are beginning the full deployment of the Kremlin’s Northern Fleet and a portion of the Baltic Fleet to the city of Aleppo, according to a NATO diplomat.
“They are deploying all of the Northern Fleet and much of the Baltic Fleet in the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War,” the diplomat said.
According to NATO officials, this attack is meant to end the Syrian war, before the end of the US election by annihilating the city of Aleppo, committing genocide of over 8,000 people.
Eight Russian warships will be escorted by a Royal Navy aircraft carrier and other warships traveling across the UK toward the Mediterranean.
This will likely ramp up discussions about US involvement in Syria and talk of retaliation against Russia, but those who may support this course of action should recognize the long failed history of US involvement in foreign affairs, which only breeds hate and violence in retaliation against the US.
Bureaucrats promising to send your children to a foreign country to risk their lives has nothing to do with “defending freedom” or protection of any kind.
As it is often said, poor men die in rich men’s wars.
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