[Mhiz Rebecca]

A day before U.S. intelligence agencies take their
case on hacking during the 2016 campaign
directly to Donald Trump, spy chiefs publicly
rebuffed the president-elect’s criticism of their
work and reiterated that Russia’s most senior
officials authorized the e-mail theft and
disclosures.
“There is a difference between skepticism and
disparagement,” Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services
Committee Thursday when asked about Trump’s
repeated questioning of the intelligence agencies’
conclusions and reliability. “Public trust and
confidence in the intelligence community is
crucial.”
Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI
Director James Comey are scheduled to brief
Trump Friday on the hacking and leaks of e-mails
from Democratic officials and organizations
backing his campaign rival Hillary Clinton. They’ll
face a skeptical interrogator in the president-
elect, who has said “hacking is a very hard thing
to prove” and that intelligence agencies have been
wrong before.
But Clapper told the Senate panel that the
intelligence agencies’ confidence in their findings
is now “very high” and they are “even more
resolute” in their findings about Russian
involvement than when they first weighed in on
the issue publicly on Oct. 7. Yet Clapper also
emphasized that Russian hacking didn’t change
the vote count that made Trump president.
He testified alongside Undersecretary of Defense
for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and Admiral
Michael Rogers, who leads both the National
Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.
The hearing — called by Republican Senator John
McCain of Arizona — highlighted a divide
between Trump and some of his party’s most
influential foreign policy hawks in Congress.
Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President
Vladimir Putin, while McCain and other
lawmakers have said Russia, which has repeatedly
denied the hacking accusations, should be
punished with stiffer sanctions.
Rocks, Not Pebbles
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina said “Putin is up to no good” and “it is
time now not to throw pebbles, but rocks.”
Addressing Trump’s barbs against the intelligence
community, Graham said: “Mr. President-elect,
when you listen to these people you can be
skeptical, but understand they’re the best among
us and they’re trying to protect us.”
Clapper said it “would be a good thing” if the U.S.
and Russia could find areas where the countries’
interests could “converge,” as has happened in the
past, “but there’s a threshold of behavior that’s
unacceptable.”
In a series of tweets starting Jan. 3, Trump called
an alleged delay in his briefing on the Russian
hacks “very strange” and went on to quote an
interview with fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, who said on a Fox News opinion show
this week that “a 14-year-old” could be
responsible for computer breaches of Democratic
Party offices last year. “Also said Russians did not
give him the info!” Trump added in his posts.
Clapper and Rogers both said Assange had put U.S.
lives in danger by publishing classified material
on WikiLeaks in the past and shouldn’t be a
credible source on the hacking issue. The
intelligence community doesn’t have a “whole lot
of respect for him,” Clapper said. When
questioned if Trump’s comments are hurting
morale among intelligence officers, Clapper said,
“I hardly think it helps.”
Trump pushed back ahead of the hearing, saying
on Twitter that “The dishonest media likes saying
that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange –
wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the
people…to make up their own minds as to the
truth. The media lies to make it look like I am
against ‘Intelligence’ when in fact I am a big fan!”
Obama’s Advice
President Barack Obama said in a television
interview Thursday that “it’s going to be
important to make sure the president and the
intelligence communities are both working on the
best possible information.”
“My hope is that when the president-elect
receives his own briefings and is able to examine
the intelligence as his team has put together and
they see how professional and effective these
agencies are, that some of those current tensions
will be reduced,” Obama told WMAQ-TV in
Chicago.
Ultimately, even if Trump doesn’t trust the
intelligence agencies’ judgment on Russia, he will
need their help to understand other foreign policy
issues and cybersecurity threats, including from
China, Iran and North Korea, Beau Woods, deputy
director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft
Initiative in Washington, said in interview.
‘Unhelpful’
“The conclusion of the intelligence community
was that they like skepticism — they’re in the
business of being skeptics themselves,” Woods
said. “However, to out-of-hand dismiss or
disparage the intelligence that comes out of their
processes, it’s unhelpful for finding the truth.”
At the start of the hearing, McCain, the
committee’s chairman, called Russia’s hacking an
“unprecedented attack” on U.S. democracy. He
said “every American should be alarmed” by
Russia’s attack.
In prepared remarks, the intelligence officials
said Moscow “poses a major threat” to U.S.
government, military, diplomatic, commercial and
critical infrastructure networks. They also said
Russia has developed a “highly advanced
offensive cyber program.”
“Looking forward, Russian cyber operations will
likely target the United States to gather
intelligence, support Russian decision-making,
conduct influence operations to support Russian
military and political objectives, and prepare the
cyber environment for future contingencies,”
their statement said.
Public Disclosure
Clapper told the Senate panel that intelligence
officials plan to brief Congress behind closed
doors and release an unclassified version of their
review to the public early next week. Although
there are some sensitive sources and methods, he
said he intends to “push the envelope as much as I
can,” he said.
“The public should know as much as possible,”
said Clapper, who described himself as
“apolitical.” “We’ll be as forthcoming as we can.”
The White House already has the intelligence
review, which Obama ordered be completed
before he leaves office, White House Press
Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday.
“Men and women of the U.S. intelligence
community are patriots. They’re experts. They’re
dedicated to getting the facts right,” Earnest said.
After the hearing, Trump again took to Twitter,
suggesting that the intelligence community’s
report had been politicized after NBC News on
Thursday night reported that it detailed attacks
not only against the DNC, but the White House,
State Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff.”Who
gave them this report and why? Politics!” Trump
tweeted.
Trump went on to claim the DNC would “not allow
the FBI to study or see its computer info after it
was supposedly hacked by Russia.” The tweet
appeared to be a reference to a BuzzFeed story
that revealed the FBI had relied on analysis by
CrowdStrike, a third-party cyber security
company.The FBI Thursday night confirmed that
DNC officials rebuffed requests for direct access
to the servers, forcing agents to rely on the third-
party source.
‘Aggressive’ Posture
In recent years, the intelligence officials said in
their statement, the Kremlin has assumed a more
“aggressive cyber posture,” targeting government
organizations, critical infrastructure, think tanks,
universities, political organizations and
corporations, often using phishing campaigns that
give attackers access to computer networks. In
some cases, Russian intelligence actors have
“masqueraded as third parties” with false online
identities to confuse the source of the hacking,
they said.
The intelligence community and Cyber Command
continue “hardening” internal U.S. government
systems, the officials said. Still, as of late 2016,
more than 30 nations are developing offensive
cyber attack capabilities, the officials said in the
statement. Terrorist groups are also using the
internet to collect intelligence and incite action,
such as Islamic State continuing to “seek
opportunities to target and release sensitive
information” about U.S. citizens.