Russian trolls targeted bernie voters

[Valley Oak]

Huffington Post, 03/11/2017
Sanders Campaign Faced A Fake News Tsunami. Where Did It Come From?
By Ryan Grim, Jason Cherkis

The trolls set out to distract and divide the invigorated left. Facebook groups backing Sen. Bernie Sanders were slammed with fake news links last year.

WASHINGTON ― Last June, John Mattes started noticing something coursing like a virus through the Facebook page he helped administer for Bernie Sanders fans in San Diego. People with no apparent ties to California were friending the page and sharing links from unfamiliar sites full of anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda. The stories they posted weren’t the normal complaints he was used to seeing as the Vermont senator and the former secretary of state fought out the Democratic presidential primary. These stories alleged that Clinton had murdered her political opponents and used body doubles.

Mattes, 66, had been a television reporter and Senate investigator in previous lives. He put his expertise in unmasking fraudsters to work. At first, he suspected that the sites were created by the old Clinton haters from the ‘90s ― what Hillary Clinton had dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy.” But when Mattes started tracking down the sites’ domain registrations, the trail led to Macedonia and Albania. In mid-September, he emailed a few of his private investigator friends with a list of the sites. “Very creepy and I do not think Koch brothers,” he wrote...

Continues Here:

[phredo]

Thanks, Edward. Just as I was starting to think that the RussiaGate hysteria was perhaps starting to wind down, it's refreshing to see another evidence-free assertion of Russian meddling in the campaign. You might enjoy the following exchange on last Sunday's "Meet The Press":

CHUCK TODD:
Well, that's an important revelation at this point. Let me ask you this. Does intelligence exist that can definitively answer the following question, whether there were improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials?
JAMES CLAPPER:
We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, "our," that's N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.
CHUCK TODD:
I understand that. But does it exist?
JAMES CLAPPER:
Not to my knowledge.
CHUCK TODD:
If it existed, it would have been in this report?
JAMES CLAPPER:
This could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government.
CHUCK TODD:
At some--
JAMES CLAPPER:
But at the time, we had no evidence of such collusion.

[Valley Oak]

You reference only Clapper's statements on collusion, of which he indeed denies that there is any evidence.

But if you pay attention to the entire interview he has with Cuck Todd, Clapper also CONFIRMS Russian interference in our POTUS elections.

Thanks, Edward. Just as I was starting to think that the RussiaGate hysteria was perhaps starting to wind down,...

[phredo]

Here's a link to the whole interview: https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-pre...-05-17-n729271

You're correct: I only referenced the "no Trump collusion" part of the interview. Here's the part you are referring to, no doubt:

CHUCK TODD:
There was a conclusion that said, "It's clear that the Russians interfered and did so in an attempt to help Donald Trump." Do you still believe that conclusion?
JAMES CLAPPER:
Yes, I do.
CHUCK TODD:
But at this point, what's not proven is the idea of collusion.
JAMES CLAPPER:
That's correct.

Here's a link to the report referred to: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

Makes for interesting reading. There's an appendix about the part played by RT in Russian propaganda, which I found interesting since I read RT a lot.

[Valley Oak]

Two Russian Hackers INDICTED
The Young Turks, Mar 15, 2017



Two Russian hackers have been indicted for a massive Yahoo hack in 2014. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola, and Nomi Konst, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

"The United States on Wednesday charged two Russian intelligence agents and two criminal hackers with masterminding the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, marking the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber offenses.

The charges came amid a swirl of controversies relating to alleged Kremlin-backed hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible links between Russian figures and associates of U.S. President Donald Trump, and uncertainty about whether Trump is willing to respond forcefully to aggression from Moscow in cyberspace and elsewhere.

The 47-count Justice Department indictment includes charges of conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identify theft. It paints a picture of the Russian security services working hand-in-hand with cyber criminals, who helped spies further their intelligence goals in exchange for using the same exploits to make money.

"The criminal conduct at issue, carried out and otherwise facilitated by officers from an FSB unit that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow on cyber crime matters, is beyond the pale,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord said at a press conference announcing the charges.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is the successor to the KGB.”*

Read more here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yah...