For months people have been screaming Russian hacking, Russian hacking, what they hacked is still a mystery. If anyone were to really read the Intelligence Community Assessment Report put out in January of 2017 this would all make sense. To quote from the report "Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process".
https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf
This undermining has been an ongoing process as Russia has infiltrated the anti fracking movement (to increase the value of Russian gas and oil business) and other so called grass movement groups, per the report.
How hard would it have been for Russia to feed Mr. Steele bogus information knowing he was paid by the Clinton campaign due to them hacking the DNC and Clinton's server. The Russian's then turn around and get out the information that the dossier was paid for with Clinton money. All of this was to cause discourse and paralyze the US president be it Clinton or Trump.
Occam's Razor dictates that this would be the simplest explanation for all this.
1
So after “months of secret negotiations” , last September spies from the CIA dropped off a suitcase stuffed with $100,000 in cash to a “shadowy Russian” who promised to deliver stolen NSA cyberweapons and oh yes, “kompromat” on President Trump. With no cyberweapons to be had the episode only ended this year AFTER it became clear that the Russian was trying to peddle the same recycled garbage that other Russians had peddled to Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
One wonders how desperate the CIA was in recovering stolen cyberweapons when a “hacker known to American intelligence officials as Carlo” offered a full set of hacking tools for the mere price of immunity from prosecution in the US, only to be rebuffed. One must also wonder if Carlo had offered to throw in some kompromat on President Trump if the deal would have gone differently.
"American intelligence agencies believe that Russia’s spy services see the deep political divisions in the United States as a fresh opportunity to inflame partisan tensions."
This should have been the lead. This is a newsworthy introduction to what should be the main story the NYTimes writes about--who is responsible for deepening the political divisions in the U.S?
Americans.
1. Sean Hannity insisted after the Nunes memo was released, insisted I tell you, insisted, adamantly, that the Mueller investigation MUST BE SHUT DOWN. Who declared him the authority on the rule of law? DJTrump + millions of viewers
2. Sen. Lindsey Graham is quoted in a Washington Post 2/6/2018 article about Steele: “You can be an FBI informant. You can be a political operative. But you can’t be both, particularly at the same time.”
This is such an alarming and unjustified accusation of Steele's character, but it feeds the narrative that is tearing this country apart--that people cannot do their jobs without partisanship. Steele was doing the job he had a stellar reputation for doing for over 20 years--gathering credible intelligence for his client. He was so alarmed by what he found, he considered it his professional duty to inform the FBI and did so first only about a month after Glenn Simpson hired him.
Anyone who doubts Christopher Steele's professional integrity and level of alarm hasn't read Glenn Simpson's testimony to Senate and House committees (in August and November).
2
Doesn't anyone realize that what Shearer is doing is called treason? Traveling to Russia and other foreign countries for months trying to dig up dirt on Trump to overthrow the legally elected government is not legal.
1
So far new technology's benefits are accompanied by negative consequences as well. Once the printing press is invented, hate speech and lies that cause deep harm in the world exist side by side with all the wondrous books that enrich our lives. Oil and gas pollute the air, water, and climate.
Now the hacking of computer secrets is an ever present reality, the deadly radiation to the digital nuclear bomb, so to speak.
Whoever figures out how to truly stop hacking will be a hero.
If attacked in any way in the past, most countries responded if possible. Our president and his party do not care about cyber warfare against us, despite distinct harm being caused. Abetting an enemy used to be called being a Quisling or being a traitor. What is wrong with the Republicans, Trump, FOX NEWS and the right wing bubble that now they happily collaborate with an enemy?
This article is so obviously absurd, irrational and illogical, I cannot believe it hasn't been laughed off the front page.
The premise is that the CIA lost the source code to its top hacking tools and wanted to buy it back, even paying $100K of $1M. But alas, the seller, instead of providing the tools' source code, instead gave them publicly available descriptions of the tools and instead insisted on delivering Trump collusion and blackmail material -- and even that wasn't even real - again, just copies of stuff in the public record.
Are folks really that clueless? The fundemental premise of the story, that the CIA was paying to recover source code of its hacking tools, is preposterous on its face. Stolen source code cannot be "recovered", especially from a third party who didn't steal it, because it is software. Thus, there absolutely is no way to know how many copies the thieves made or distributed or kept.
Further, they only stole copies of the tools - they didn't delete them from all government databases. In other words, the CIA and NSA still have copies, as do the contractors who helped them make them.
So how can the CIA possibly "recover" something which it already has? They KNOW the tools were stolen. What good does it do them to spend a fortune to buy a duplicate copy of something they already have?
No folks, this was about buying Trump kompromat all along - the code was just a cover story. The Deep State dies hard, it seems.
4
The key question resulting from this article?
Who was the source? And just what was their intention in enabling this to be public? For public "good"? Or otherwise.
2
SO THE RUSSIANS Will sell Cyberweapon to US spies? That looks to me like it's probative of Russia's engagement in manipulating US elections now and has been in the past, as in 2016.
"U.S. Spies, Seeking to Retrieve Cyberweapons, Paid Russian Peddling Trump Secrets"
Why the deliberately misleading headline? What are you, The National Enquirer?
1
Unfortunately, left wing conspiracy theorists, with their insider-club theories and purity monster insistence, are running with this as well. They think it "proves" that most Democrats must be purged in order to "win". They dismiss public servants and pragmatists as equally corrupt with Trumpians.
Sad.
This all can be taken in two ways: As an attempt to sow discord in the US government, as the article lays out, or as Russian payback for Trump's failure to deliver relief from financial sanctions. As with "the dossier," true statements imply other true statements, which can be checked out.
---Certainly the president and his team will try to spin this as being what they feel to be another example of American intelligence officials targeting him for political purposes, trying to purchase phony information to discredit his electoral win.
Regardless of the truth of what may have actually occurred. More fruit for obfuscation.
1
Alarming that our president and his closest advisors may see Russia as a source of dirty information to use on other politicians. More alarming is the fact that this president has openly declared his fondness for the current Russian czar, Vladimir Putin. It makes Mueller's investigation all the more important. It also makes American cybersecurity extremely important because WE the people need to know that our votes are being counted, not manipulated away to a candidate that the Russians prefer.
2
If the Russians were trying to roil American politics by feeding Christopher Steele tantalizing tales, they succeeded wildly. The FBI bit the bait, and we are still hooked up to line and sinker. Robert Mueller III is still being reeled in and the Russians may land a president with their fishing.
With their success, who can blame them for trying again?
7
Interesting article. Sounds like Christopher Steele is not the only bumbler out there. We have our own bumblers in our spy services.
We also seem to be bumbling our investigation of the Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Some people seem to think that the Russians "attacked" us, but the reality is rather prosaic. Some hackers, probably Russian, did some low-level hacking of a private server at the Democratic National Committee and a private email account of John Podesta. That was it. Unsophisticated and minor but certainly criminal.
Rather than focus on those real crimes, Robert Mueller III seems to be off chasing other prey. Anyone who believes that the Trump campaign had anything to do with the Russians is a conspiracy theorist at this point -- there is simply no evidence to support that. So why doesn't he close up shop and let everyone get back to government?
Apparently because Robert Mueller III thinks that Donald Trump might have obstructed justice by hindering an investigation that Trump knew would clear him. How that would work logically I don't know, but apparently others have more brilliant legal minds than me and can figure that out.
While the press seems obsessed with all this soap opera drama and Donald Trump's opponents get outraged by every tweet on any subject, Donald Trump seems to quietly be getting what he wants on taxes, the budget, and immigration. Maybe he's not so dumb after all.
11
Err, how is Steele a "bumbler"? He brought to the public attention information that has subsequently proven true. Other information in the dossier remains unverified but not disproven.
Your desperation to excuse Trump's treason, and to smear anyone who makes public information that is deleterious to his public image, is very sad indeed. No wonder dissidents in the GOP are constantly having to press the refrain, "Party before country". That's a concept that 90% of the American right does not grasp, at the moment.
It's very sad that the US right-wing has become so unpatriotic, so willing to accept treasonous conduct, so accepting of attacks on the intelligence agencies and law enforcement. It's disgraceful. The right-wing has lost the high ground on patriotism for a generation.
It is now the mainstream of American liberals who are the true patriots
2
What exactly did Steele bring to light and prove true? Steele himself testified that he never verified any of it and much of information now appears to have been given to him by Clinton cohorts and State and FBI Clinton sympathizers. Comey said nothing was verified as did the FBI fairly recently. What did it prove was true? That Russia is a country and their are Russians readily taking advantage of gullible biased agents?
1
Wow. The offer of the "return" of NSA hacking codes sounds like a complete straw man. How do you "return" codes that have most likely been copied many times already? So, it certainly sounds like just last September, almost a year after a President of the United States was duly elected by the American people, FBI operatives were still scouring the planet looking for possible information that could be used to unseat that legally elected president - even to the point of, once again, dealing with known Russian intelligence operatives. The question is: Who in FBI management just last September approved the operation and signed off on the money transfer?
5
@Michael NC - Close reading of the article reveals that NSA and CIA hacking tools were stolen, and the retrieval of the stolen files was attempted by agents of these two agencies, not the FBI. They weren’t involved, which begs the questions, Why are you accusing the FBI, did you read the article, and what are you talking about?
So these US intelligence agencies admit they didn't believe the Russians and refused to take the information, even claiming that it may likely have been Russian propaganda being pushed to stir up anti-Trump propaganda, yet their own fellow intelligence family, the FBI, were all too willing to take any material from anyone without verifying it just to spy on U.S. citizens. So doesn't that further prove how out of bounds the FBI went and how they should be investigated?
1
In our country, we thought the market for compromising media had expired. We stand corrected and wish to offer you Americans limited time sale -- $5000 per flashdrive. The authoritarian nature of your leader revealed in these videos should concern people of your country. MY brother says I am wrong, nobody cares, you've seen it already. But in case I'm right, please send us money to see the authoritarian nature revealed on these secret smuggled episodes of "The Apprentice."
4
Why can the government make payments for something like this when we are forbidden from making ransom payments for hostages? A lot more important to save a life than get dirt on a dirty politician!
If the information in this article is true, then Russia can comfortably reduce its defense spending. There probably cannot be a clearer account of the amateurishness of US counterintelligence and intelligence services.
I suspect, however, that the article's real purpose is to keep the conversation on Russia, hacking, and purported voter interference so as to distract the media from the question of how the Republicans were able to pass a budget deal for two years, without having to give the Democrats anything serious in return. Republican candidates, this fall, can proudly tell their voters that they increased defense spending and public programs, in addition to a historic tax reform.
4
What matters the most regarding the information here, is that the NSA cannot keep their critical infrastructure weapons safe. In this case, they are cyber weapons that ended up in the hands of 'Shadow Brokers'? Tighten the ship, and remove those who allowed this to happen on their watch from the positions we expect more from.
1
Senator Warner, one of the Democrats' Congressional leaders, was ready to fly to London to chase down Trump kompromat. Representative Schiff was also prepared to meet with Russians to obtain Trump kompromat - following in the footsteps of Donald Jr. When will Mueller interview these two corrupt politicians?
12
#1 - They are both on committees investigating the Russia attack.
#2 - Detective Nunes has set the precedent with his midnight runs to the WH to try to discredit the investigations - interestingly he was also on the Trump transition team. Many have commented that he may have opened himself up to obstruction of justice charges.
#3 - I continue to be amazed that his supporters are oblivious to the fact that Russia has infiltrated our election systems and clearly the Republican Party. When did it become logical to attack the investigators rather than wanting to see if there is any "there there". As the investigation has moved along, things are looking worse not better for Trump & Co.
#4 If you did find out that Trump and his associates were 100% involved in the conspiracy and if you found out that Trump was compromised and acting on behalf of Russia, would that even concern you?
11
Mary Sullivan, after a year and a half of looking, no one has found any evidence of any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Meetings, sure, but meetings mean nothing.
At this point, anyone who believes that Donald Trump or his associates were involved in a conspiracy with the Russians is a conspiracy theorist. There's no evidence to support that.
5
How convenient.
Russia is under investigation for conspiring with Trump. They never get caught spying, but somehow they get caught ( wait for it ), trying to peddle anti-Trump secrets !!
I guess they really were on Hillary's side after all. Just like "Trump" said all along.
This doesn't seem fishy at all.
Good thing this was leaked ( because the CIA is always leaking ) and that the "President" was so quick to use it as "proof" of a conspiracy against him.
How convenient indeed.
1
Death of Intelligence:
The day Intelligence agencies fear to get intelligence that implicates the leaders of country, it is death of "Intelligence".
If intelligence agencies are becoming selective on what intelligence want due to fear, then it is death of intelligence.
When we decide based on Fear instead of facts, it is death of Intelligence.
Get what you can and decide how to deal with it.
1
I'm utterly sure it wasn't intentional. The Obama administration's spies WERE NOT after anti-Trump, defamatory, incendiary information, in order to help compile a dossier that they intended to use to obtain from the FISA court the permission to spy on an American citizen. It was not their intention! And the NYT is doing an excellent job trying to preempt any such notion through this piece.
4
Can someone please explain how you "retrieve" source code that is already out in the wild? Seems impossible - or is there some sort of one off hardware device that has to accompany the code to make it work.
5
You probably know, source code here means scripts written to capture data from machines. These scripts run in our cars (when you go to smog check), these are running everyday on our laptops to be used to capture how software is working on the hardware. So it is probable that Russians have identified some vulnerabilities in the hardware and loaded some scripts (aka source code) to capture data. Why do we want that source code? We already know vulnerabilities but want to confirm that the vulnerabilities they found are same as ours or do they have any other way.
2
This answer is wrong. There was no Russian source code in play in this story which is what you're implying.
The NSA were allegedly trying to get copies of their code back, ostensibly to do inventory on what was stolen in the first place.
As numerous people have pointed out that story makes no sense, but that's what the sources are claiming.
1
So who on our side made the deal? What agency?
And Suzanna, Americans are stupid. They almost elected an outright unethical communist.
We took the best of two horrible choices.
And the electoral college has a purpose - too bad you don't understand that. We are a union of states and the states have rights - to many forget taht we are not a conglomeration of people. The states represent the people. At one time the Senate for example was elected much different - should have never changed.
Civics lessons fall on deaf ears.
5
"They almost elected an outright unethical communist. We took the best of two horrible choices."
As my dear old granny used to say, a cracked pot never boils. Get well soon.
8
What a fabulous parody of a conservative Texan's ideas! Particularly that last sentence. LOL
2
Maybe....if the ENTIRE government hadn't been using Kaspersky virus software this could have been avoided. What AM I Thinking? Who would have thought that RUSSIAN made software may contain a "hidden" Easter Egg that would eventually expose a hole that the FSB could use to siphon out our cybersecurity secrets? Unthinkable right? Silly me.
4
"Meddling" is a cotton-candy word for CyberWar attack and sabotage. "Meddling" is what your annoying Mother-in-Law does. The napalm of Lies wrought by Russia's evil & brilliant poisoning of our civic landscape twisted history. It will take decades for Democracy&Decency to recover.
5
Video of Trump in Russia will probably eventually turn up -- but we've already been subjected to the Access Hollywood tape, the porn star and so much more.
WHO CARES NOW? Certainly not Trump's supporters.
5
I'm a little concerned by the few Trump supportive comments here. Consider:
1) The Russians claim to have material on our President that would completely compromise his ability to make decisions.
2) Our spies have a chance to obtain and verify that material.
3) They don't take it.
And Trump supporters are mad?
Why did they not take this material and then have it verified?
Were the spies in bed with Trump?
Since when are our agents told NOT to retrieve comprising material that could jeopardize our country?
Who here are patriots and who here are treasonous?
If Trump is comprised we need to know NOW.
I hope the CIA. NSA, and FBI are doing all they can to see if Trump is clean or dirty.
4
You're clinging to outdated ideas. These days, to qualify as a patriotic American you have to be Russian.
1
The distribution of of American cyberweapons resulted in a short term international crisis. But is the international community safer long term, now that defensive solutions to CIA hack tools were engineered?
The American obsession with Russian election interference in US politics is likely born out of frustration that Russian 'elections'are riggeg by Putin. Putin has ensilured he has nothing to fear about Americans influencing Russian elections.
Final point... American media collectively lose their minds with outrage about espionage efforts from countries like Russia & China. Western media downplay the fact that American intelligence efforts are equal in every way to Russia & China.
The public gets it... the CIA grieved both the loss and exposure of their cyberweapons. The CIA loss was a long term win for international prvacy and security efforts.
"The cyberweapons had been built to break into the computer networks of Russia, China and other rival powers. Instead, they ended up in the hands of a mysterious group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which has since provided hackers with tools that infected millions of computers around the world, crippling hospitals, factories and businesses."
1
At this point, it doesn't matter if there was collusion on the part of Trump, Hillary or any other American. It doesn't even matter if the Russians did anything to interfere in our elections. All that matters now is that the Republican party is using its power in the legislative and executive branches of our government to produce conspiracy theory propaganda aimed at undermining the rule of law in the United States. No one who actually cares about preserving the Republic will ever be able to trust anything coming out of the government if this farce is allowed to continue. A fully bipartisan commission co-chaired by the likes of Justices Roberts and Ginsburg with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats could save us. Maybe. Give them full investigative powers and access to everything, Fisa warrants, texts, emails, tax returns, dossiers, witnesses. Everything. Let them figure it the eff out. If Trump is innocent, he's innocent. If Hillary's guilty, lock her up. If Trump is guilty. Impeach. The truth is out there. Smart people of good faith could find it. Republicans with their cherry picked partisan "memos" don't give anything like the appearance of good faith. We're expected to believe these partisan productions while completely excluding any claim ever made by anyone who might have had any connection to a Democrat. There is literally no reason not to form a bipartisan commission except for fear of the truth.
57
Trump has readily admitted to doing far worse things than paying for prostitutes. I'm more interested in the stuff that will send him to jail, tax evasion and money laundering.
9
Very, very stupid. You can never fully recover a stolen computer code, you can never exclusively buy and own a hacking tool. Obviously, NSA was going after "kompromat" on Trump. The NSA is right to want to know what compromising info a foreign intelligence agency has on a key US official, let alone a person occupying the WH. But we should be more concerned with incompetence of the NSA in not discerning quickly enough that the Russian was a fraud.
Putin wins, again. I bet he's having a pretty good laugh.... Putin has exposed the very large and soft underbelly of American democracy.
3
why do you say we cannot recover source code or tools?
Tools are nothing but source code. So these source code/tools here means scripts written to capture data from machines. These scripts run in our cars (when you go to smog check), these are running everyday on our laptops to be used to capture how software is working on the hardware. So it is probable that Russians have identified some vulnerabilities in the hardware and loaded some scripts (aka source code) to capture data. Why do we want that source code? We already know vulnerabilities but want to confirm that the vulnerabilities they found are same as ours or do they have any other way.
1
Way to play hardball there. Give the guy $100,000 for nothing then allow him to go home to Mother Russia.
Why not send him to Gitmo?
This is a cyberwar, after all, and this guy is part of a cyber-terrorist organization.
I bet it's not just because he's a white, non-Muslim.
No -- keeping the Trump Kompromat material under wraps is clearly the main objective.
1
Trump's actions and "governing" have sunken to such depths that any "Kompromat", including the Steele Dossier's famous "PP Tape" is irrelevant. Even the tabloids would consider it "Ho-Humm". This may be Trump's objective, a sort of "Overton Window" of behavior.
1
Let's face it. If the sex video, or salacious material on Trump existed......It would have leaked by now.
9
The hacking tools stolen from NSA are codes for "virus" that make you want to believe that the hacking was done by actor other than USA. Apparently, the codes can even make you think that hacking was done by Russians.
So, anyone who has a modicum of understanding of software (codes in programming languages) knows that you cannot retrieve codes like you do s stolen Ferrari with a unique VIN. The codes can be copied and distributed.
Are our intelligence guys really this dumb?
6
Recovering cyber hacking tools? Perhaps these come in a tool box?.... and from a Russian spy?
Are we that stupid? or just waiting to be taken advantage of?
This would have been more palatable if reported as a sting operation against a scammer?
3
You probably know, Tools are types of scripts written to capture data from machines. These scripts run in our cars (when you go to smog check), these are running everyday on our laptops to be used to capture how software is working on the hardware. ..Just in case you want to get more information, look up for Python scripts.
1
Don Jr. takes a meeting with a Russian under the assumption she has dirt on HRC, then spends 23 hours explaining the meet to Congress. Schiff tells anyone who will listen it's smoking gun or collusion. Previously he takes a phone call from two Russian comedians, where he appears intent on getting compromising photos on Trump. Now we find out a US Senator wants a private face to face with Steele in London, who had been in contact with the State Department on false Trump info.
Now the CIA is paying for the same type of dirt?. Do they go before Congress? It appears a lot of people did unethical things to delegitimize the President.
12
Hawk - Trump has done everything he could to delegitimize this country and its Constitution. THAT is the essence of the problem. His actions may or may not be treasonous, but Mueller's investigation is the ONLY one that will count. Congress' dog and pony show is just that: "reality TV" a la Trump. When we see a supposed public servant like Devin Nunes become a spineless, unethical lacky for Trump, it invalidates much of what due process is all about. These political disgraces must go - LET THE GAMES BEGIN. I can't wait to see the entire case that Mueller presents - only THEN will I be placated. Mueller doesn't care about Trump's distractions and lies - he is seeking the truth about Russian election involvement and Trump's activities therewith. If we let Trump muddy these waters, we might as well appoint Putin Emperor of America (a position Trump salivates about).
38
I thought the article says they did NOT pay for the Trump material. It was offered and not accepted.
Curious that 15 seconds of video was shown.
1
No, the CIA is NOT paying for the same (or any other) dirt. Please re-read the entire article.
3
Another spanner in Mueller's Russian Investigation, by Trump and his coterie to derail and discredit the investigation. Again, another act of obstruction of justice. At worst it is spy v/s spy and at best a non-sequitur.
A different Republican memo trying to to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the Mueller Investigation. I just hope Mueller, Rosenstein and Vray don't throw in the towel. Our Country is at stake.
5
Can't fault Putin for wanting to spike the evidence against Page, because if he did abuse his brokerage rights to let a few wise guys get in on the RNC's slush fund origination, then a few other wise guys might get wise to having paid others' way to the ball. Wynning!
I'm trying to say those who had to pay full price now know who took them for fools...talk about tools.
Am I missing something here or American spies are really that stupid (which I doubt they are) trying to buy back stolen cyberweapons? These so called cyberweapons are with a doubt software which makes it very likely that whoever stole these made copies and anyone claiming that they can return these intact is lying. So that makes me wonder where my tax dollars really go?
8
The answer is "missing something", The americans are trying to get an inventory of what was stolen, not buy it back.
3
The value would be recovering physical evidence for investigative purposes. We don't know what type of cyber tracking devices were on the physical media or hardware. Plus, recovering the stolen media or device would confirm, numerous theories of how it was stolen and where it went.
Your comment is a akin to saying police are really that stupid, looking for a gun after the murder was already committed? Don't they know the victim is already dead?
2
Of course a gun is a material object and cannot be duplicated with the same ballistics. Software of course can be identically copied repeatedly.
Your example leaves a lot to be desired.
1
The trust of this article suggests that the intelligence services should not be looking for dirt on Trump. In fact, that is their job. Looking into the possibility that the US president may be compromised by the Kremlin is critical, especially given Trump's inexplicable pro-Russian behavior. The notion that they can't look for dirt on Trump because it might open them up to accusations that they such activities are motivated by partisan or anti-Trump forces within the FBI or national security services is outrageous. It ignores the very real threat to our county national interest if Trump has been compromised by a hostile foreign power.
3
Where, exactly, is the leverage point? Trump is a billionaire with a long history of sexual indiscretions, so who would be surprised if he is sleeping with women other than his wife of the moment?
3
Trump has to be compromised by the Russians (or just incredibly grateful). Almost nothing else makes sense. In the future, all presidential (and maybe congressional) candidates should first pass an FBI security background check. That should also go for ALL administration personnel who deal with national security matters or require Senate confirmation. That confirmation should also return to the 60 vote threshold after full and fair hearings. That would pretty much clean out the swamp that is the entire Trump administration. And that's exactly the point.
6
Surely we aren't trying to retrieve hacking tools as if there were no other copies.
My guess is that we would want to know as best as possible what exactly they stole and hopefully something useful about the people and organization that stole the tools in order to try and diminish their capacity to do further harm. The tools are clearly out in the wild now and we have them too.
I would say that the choice of wording in this article is probably more the fault of the journalists, than an actual failure to understand how technology works by our intelligence agencies.
4
The choice of wording was an attempt to obscure the true nature of what the CIA was searching for.
I'm assuming this was an attempt to discover exactly what was disclosed in the alleged hacks so that appropriate steps could be made to patch the holes. In other words, our security was compromised with no-one able to figure out how or where and maybe only a vague idea of when.
It's pretty clear that our "intelligence" management is lacking. This isn't new and did not originate with the current administration.
It's also clear our "intelligence" forces are being played for fools.
Our national security needs to be smarter than this.
2
"In December, the Russian said he told the American intermediary that he was providing the Trump material and holding out on the hacking tools at the orders of senior Russian intelligence officials."
There's something not right about this story. The "Russians", if they represented the Russian government would never negotiate for $1M, nor would they provide "kompromat" on Trump, since (according to all the western MSM anyway) Trump represents the best path for a relaxing of tension (and sanctions) between the USA and Russia.
6
If we want the Russians to stop hacking our elections maybe we should try not hacking their elections. It's worth a try.
2
How much stranger can things get? Tump criticizes our Intel agencies but is skewered for his words and now we have the same skewerers claiming that the same agencies are a joke. So which one is it? As far as Trump not addressing Russian interference, perhaps he is merely mimicking the actions of his predecessor who k ew of said interference during the election be elected to let the interference continue unabated. Finally, it would be great journalism if someone who has acces to these materials would actually publish the material instead of providing their interpretation of the material. You know, provide the data and let people come up with their own conclusions instead of hiding the material and providing a conclusion. Expose the truth and shine that beacon of light and all that good stuff. Or perhaps we are expected to believe what we are told and be good minions. How Russian of us!
4
Rathergate (which I think may have been kompromat) should have taught the press a few things:
1) The effectiveness of kompromat is not based on its veracity. It's based on the willingness of those who receive it to believe it's true.
2) Kompromat ruins the reputation of everyone who touches it or even meets with a source peddling it, and damages the institutions they represent.
3) Kompromat is a weapon as dangerous as any military hardware. It allows Russia to seriously disrupt the governments of their strategic competitors without risking all-out war.
I think both major political parties, major media outlets, and the government should organize a "Kompromat Conference" where rules of the road can be established for dealing with this issue going forward.
3
"The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing."
"Hacking tools" are software.
You mean to tell me the CIA is paying to get back their software that was stolen?
What's wrong with doing a computer backup if you have irreplaceable data?
Conclusion: They were looking for dirt on Trump but didn't have any.
So they made up a story about paying to get their software back.
3
The Trump Regime and Vladimir Putin must be doing a little dance right now. Thanks to the gullible NYT and some "American intelligence officials" who obviously were very happy to provide all the details of a "clandestine" intelligence operation, the GOP can claim that the entire Russia hacking investigation is politically motivated and none of our intelligence agencies can be believed when they said that Russians hacked and meddled in our election (and still are.) Now when Mueller makes his final report, Republicans in Congress can shrug and do nothing because it was "all a witch hunt" aimed at Trump. I always said the news media should have let Mueller do his investigation and make his report instead of competing to reveal bits and pieces. Now, Russia can step up their electronic and propaganda efforts to undermine our elections because there will be no more political will to stop them. What will they do next? Electronically switch votes in swing districts? Destroy voter registration records? Guess we'll have to go back to paper ballots and hand-counting.
As another poster previously noted, it's astonishing to see that so many commentors turn out to be experts on counter-intelligence, or at least whizzes at reading tea leaves and drawing rigorous conclusions.
Seriously, folks...try to separate spy novels, conjectures, facts, and logical conclusions.
A good place to start? Try, "Gee, I just don't know." As in, "It sure looks like Putin's minions fiddled around with the 2016 elections, with the willing cooperation of at least a few of Trump's upper campaign staff and managers, but we just don't know for sure what went on."
4
These kind of things happen all the time in the "spy" game. However for this more ridiculous President by the day to call this the Swamp when he has more aides resigning during his tenure than any other Government in our recent history is really pathetic. His criteria are so one-sided...he feels sorry for the abusers who have ruined their own futures...how about the continual "lock her up." He did not feel sorry then, did he? He just struggles to support women it seems, with the same attitude men used to have that women were objects...the kind he married, at least 2 of them were able to recognize what he is and leave...But what a caricature of a human being. Disgust is all I can muster.
1
This reads like the Witchcraft material. Deliberately fed chicken feed by a supposed double in the hopes of luring the information-hungry, desperate and unsuspecting towards a greater intelligence coup.
My thanks to la Carré for the language.
What a wild story! The most interesting factor is that the promised compromising information on Trump tracked with material in the Steele Dossier, yet the US agents easily detected its source as FSB and its apparent fabrication. Much was simple non-incriminating rehashes of publicly available information, including easily debunked falsities.
Yet the FBI has used the Dossier as the guide for investigating Trump, as have multiple committees in Congress and the MSM - without questioning that the stories were also fed to Christopher Steele by agents of the Kremlin or derived by him from open source materials available in the media. It's what spies do. Especially spies whose Russian contacts have grown cold after a 7-year absence from Russia. He was ripe for snookering.
The same can be said of anything sourced by the disreputable Cody Shearer via Sid Blumenthal that was fed to the FBI through the unwitting Winer, Kerry, and Nuland at State Department. More Kremlin attempts to destabilize the democratic institution in the US with tall tales.
All bought and paid for by the DNC and Clinton Campaign, through the partisan opposition research and smear merchants at Fusion GPS, using their well-developed ties in the media.
Plain as the nose on your face, yet NYT commenters are so wedded to their desire to defenestrate Trump, that they just don't care. Putin knows that and his efforts continue unabated, assisted by the Blind Resistance.
6
Obvious setup for use by the proto fascists in the Putin Trump orbit. Anyone who is remotely familiar, much less knows Trump can say that the Steele report is believable. This is part of effort to discredit the legitimate investigation into the Trump campaign and its collusion with the Russian state and those who stand in the way of Trump, while for Putin having the added bonus of undermining US spies. If you make the bait attractive enough the fish will bite.
8
I would suggest to all the trump supporter commenters here that you watch the "Dirty Money" episode "Confidence Man" before defending your Leader. The CIA, FBI or the NSA doesn't need secret dossiers on tump. It's all public record.
14
USA today, one of the first three Sundays in December 2017 gave a pretty itemized story regarding trumps financial ties with Putin and his crew. It’s been amazing that the national media hasn’t picked up on the story. But maybe that’s the string Mueller’s team is investigatingAnd verify.
1
What a total waste of taxpayers money. How alarming is it that the recent hacks and viruses of so many companies and individuals costing them billions of dollars was the result of our own doing - a lackadaisical NSA who allowed their tools to be stolen. And now we have spies and agents running around the globe paying millions to pranksters and gangsters for some obtuse data. Let's all stop trying to make reality out of a James Bond movie as it is actually making Trump a suitable commander to oversee this clown show of a government.
1
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The risk ($100K) was small compared with the benefit. Think of what a single missile costs.
2
Why are we giving a voice to Russian spys, and ultimately, Putin? Does the US have the ability to investigate real Russian infiltration or are they being used as puppets?
"Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data."
It it's unverified and possibly fabricated, why are we wasting news space? Stop giving voice to unverified junk! We want (or I want) an objective investigation that should take no more than 6 months given the money we are paying Mueller and the FBI to investigate. Are there any facts in DC or is DC now Putin's puppet.
2
Patience is a virtue. There is so much dirty dealing and conspiracy here that six months would never, under the best of circumstances, be enough. I would estimate another6 at least, and well worth the price. It costs more for Trump's golf outings!
3
You are missing the key point of the article if you think it's about the content of the Russian operative's kompromat. The article is about the failure to gain intelligence data because the investigation into Russia's compromise of our election last year is so hopelessly mired in partisan politics. Here's the key quote: "American intelligence agencies believe that Russia’s spy services see the deep political divisions in the United States as a fresh opportunity to inflame partisan tensions."
Every time we (as in the US) pit the Republican drive to bury the investigation against the Democratic drive to figure out what happened, we are doing Russia's work for them.
2
The Real Russian Threat to National Security
Putin must be pleased with America’s political disarray that grows greater by the day. If the “Russian Ruse” continues for another year, there could be riots in America. Russia would be happy to continue to meddle with US politics.
We’ve been here before with the “Russian Ruse” in an election year.
Remember the “Fake News” of a Ballistic “Missile Gap” which mimicked today’s politicization of Intel by Democrats, that the Russians endorsed with a Red Face and Americans swallowed hook, line and sinker with enormous help by the MSM. The Intel was bad, of course, but it was a huge part of the 1960 election and contributed to the Nuclear Arms race, at a terrible cost to America and threatened the whole world with Thermonuclear Armageddon by Mutual Assured Destruction. All of this was satirized by Stanley Kubrick in “Dr. Strangelove” with a hysterical General fearing Russian “meddling” with bodily fluids and another General denying the President nuclear war plans due to classification. The irony with today’s Intel scandal is rich.
1
It appears the CIA investigation morphed from identifying what hacking tools were in the hands of the Shadow Brokers and the names of people in that network to the role of Russia in the theft of the NSA software. The handoff from Carlo to the Russian is unexplained.
First Putin was out to get Hillary Clinton, and now Russia is trying to discredit our intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Besides having a president who refuses to defend us against hostile foreign aggression, the most disturbing thing about this is that some in our own government (that's you GOP) are helping Russia to destroy important institutions in our country from within, and in doing so are helping Vladimir Putin achieve his goal to sow chaos and discord in the United States.
24
These "important institutions" are destroying themselves from within with the help of the Democratic deep state. You should stop buying the party line.
1
You give way too much credit to the Russians. Our intelligence agency's have degraded over the past 8 yrs under Obama.
This is evident by Wikileaks ability to disclose a cache of what should have been unattainable intelligence reports.
1
This entire saga really is like a Jean le Carre novel, or something right out of "Berlin Station".
What is so obvious here is that we are, as usual, being played by foreign powers. How many times have we been duped by countries in the Middle East, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Africa, Viet Nam, Pakistan, etc., etc., ad infinitum.The second Gulf War (which we are still fighting forever 15 years) started over Bush's reaction to false intelligence of WMDs in Iraq.
Trump, through his ignorant, egotistical actions, has alienated most of our allies and now is trying to destroy any credibility that our intelligence agencies still have, all to avoid conviction on collaboration and treason charges with Russia. Russia is having a hay day; we are dupes and fools, and we have already lost this battle. Until we take this seriously, and act accordingly, we might as well run Putin against Trump in 2020 - and he would probably win if he aligns with the Republican Party.
12
Sadly our intelligence community seems to be incredibly naive and poorly trained... way before Trump ... how much do we spend on all of these intelligence agencies ... aren't there about 16?
1
Just as with the atomic bomb monopoly this NSA creation has been taken by international bad actors. At least with the atomic bomb technology it was extremely expensive to acquire at the time and prohibitively dangerous to utilize. This NSA stuff is now being inflicted on the world. These "intelligence" people reported are obsessed with Russian intelligence and their as yet unproven involvement in the 2016 elections.
7
Graham Greene, a former British MI agent, wrote several excellent novels concerning the price of human intelligence, one set in S Africa, three other in the Caribbean.
For quality human Intel you need to start with the highest quality youth who have access. You have to research and court them carefully with the hope that they will rise over the decades to the highest levels of government. They have to have superb, yet vulnerable, judgment of intent and credibility of what they feed you.
Noriega is a classic example. We groomed him well. His country paid the price.
In the Caribbean, island after island, and in Africa and South and Central Americas, in the 1950s and 60s onward, if not perhaps earlier, the Brits, Americans, French, Germans, Belgians, E Germans, Czechs, Chinese, and Russians all searched for the best and the brightest and seduced or ‘assisted’ and in the decades to come the developing world has paid a terrible price of corruption and loss of leadership and integrity.
(European colonial nations started it way back as soon as they entered their future colonies.)
Technical intelligence is rarely, perhaps never, enough. But human Intel has a terrible price now, the past, and the future.
13
I bet Mircosoft gets offers daily to learn which of their holes has been penetrated and what holes the competition has yet to fill. A tool costs a fortune to make, but a hole is just there for the taking.
4
And they say it’s a puritanical country.
2
I'm a NPR kinda gal, and that's where I learned one hole can get you $30K from Microsoft just for catching it. Imagine what the crooks might pay for it.
MORE TAX PAYER MONEY. Why are government employees using my tax money to try to "Find dirt on the POTUS" How many millions of dollars have been spent on this ridicules SHAM of an investigation. It's just a stupid distraction and that money could be spent on more useful things.
21
And if the Russians have successfully compromised the President? Are you actually suggesting that it is a waste of taxpayer money to determine this very real national security threat?
12
Bill Klink – the money was for cyber hacking tools. The CIA expressly was NOT interested in so-called Kompromat on DT or anyone else.
4
Try reading what the article actually says instead of fabricating your own version.
"Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian". "But the Americans desperately wanted the hacking tools." The article very clearly says that American intelligence officials were trying to get the NSA's stolen cyberweapons, and stopped the deal when they were only offered Trump sexcapade dirt instead.
2
We are now getting close the the endgame. Democrats had better hope Mueller finds something on Trump. Otherwise there is mounting evidence that some people were using government institutions for political purposes. I'm inclined to believe Trump would not be stupid enough to run for President if he had dangerous skeletons in his closet however we will likely know soon enough. If Trump can't be brought down then the spotlight shifts to very unorthodox activities aimed against him.
25
Oh, Trump is definitely stupid enough to run for office despite an array of skeletons in his closet -- among them, the sexual harassment of multiple women, hush money to Stormy Daniels, use of his real estate properties to launder money for Russian oligarchs, not to mention more prosaic things like six business bankruptcies, cheating a long line of contractors who have worked for his businesses, a scam for-profit "university," a sham charitable foundation used to bribe politicians and buy personal items for himself -- the list goes on. It's just that none of them seem to stick because congressional Republicans see an advantage to themselves in keeping him in office.
4
i'd place that "Trump would not be stupid enough to run for President if he had dangeros skeletons in his closet," right up there with the Pater Noster as a statement of religious faith.
Maybe not "stupid" enough, but certainly "arrogant" enough. This is a man who has never been held responsible for any of his crimes, why would he think he would be now?
It's not clear that officials involved in the effort to "recover" the hacking tools are really aware that the sources can keep copies of them that are just the same as the originals. It looks like the spy movies early in the digital age where the goal was to recapture some computer "disk".
And it's not even as though you can insist on a return of the negatives.
6
Duh. Of course they know that. They want them because: "The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing."
4
I am not buying the overall story in this article. If you read between the lines, I think this article is a message from the intelligence agencies in the US and Europe to the Trump team that they coordinated together and obtained the kompromat.
(1) The sources identified for the story include American intelligence, European intelligence, and the Russian at the center of the story.
(2) The Russian was supposedly ordered to go back to Russia and never return, yet his interview was conducted in Germany on the condition of anonymity?
(3) The article indicates that several CIA agents from the US and in Berlin worked this investigation - plenty of witnesses.
(4) The article teases the information that has been obtained: the video, Russian intelligence reports, emails, bank records.
(5) The article makes clear that the NYT was provided with a sample of 4 intelligence reports that implicate Carter Page and the Mercers behind the Republican machine. (No wonder the Republican Congress has been in overdrive trying to discredit the investigation).
(6) Fox News (Trump TV) has been silent. If the overall story is to be believed, they would be all over it.
Read the article again and see what you think.
11
If you read tea leaves my grandmother, or between the lines in the article, you come to a very different conclusions. Nothing has been found and the Democrats have spared no expense in trying to obtain some dirt they can leverage.
This article shows why we need to continue and encourage Mueller's investigation. Russia is making serious and repeated efforts to disrupt the democratic process in this country, and neither the president nor the political party which presently runs this government seems interested in addressing the problem, probably because they see it as benefiting them. The more we know about what the Russians did, and are continuing to do, and who here is helping them, the more able we will be to save ourselves from becoming like Russia itself, a powerless, cynical populace governed by a kleptocratic oligarchy.
8
Why, exactly, are our intelligence agencies trying to buy hacking software that they already have? This software was apparently stolen from the CIA and NSA in the first place. It is not as if you cannot make copies of software.
The only reason I can see is that it would confirm exactly what software they have stolen. But even that is of limited value, since there is no guarantee that they would provide copies of all the software they have.
Obviously the intelligence agencies cannot pay for dirt on the Republicans. But isn't there a liberal billionaire out there somewhere who might find it interesting?
4
My country is becoming a laughing stock, but the tax money of average people being wasted on this corrupt, incompetent government is no laughing matter.
7
Just substitute President Obama for DT in this story and it becomes laughable like late night parody. And that is THE problem - DT has NO legitamacy and the russians will exploit it as much as they can to divide and weaken our country. Thank you republicans for voting in this disaster.
10
I'm amazed at the comments for this article. So many people speak as if they know what they're talking about. As if they understand the process of gathering intelligence. As if they really know the full story here. The great unraveling continues.
12
It Is amazin', ain't it? I also adore the logical gymnastics; it's like watching people spin cotton candy out of "therefore," and "it's logical that," and, "obviously."
Beyond generally thinking that no, folks, you're not a brain surgeon because you saw a Science Channel special or an astronomer because you saw somethng about thatfake Face on Mars, a fancier statement from Wittgenstein comes to mind:
"About that which we can have no knowledge, we should fall silent."
1
The Russians continue to call the tune. Trump could be outed by the Russians whenever they choose and he knows it.
7
Article far from vindicates Don T.
Don T. people; careful what you wish for.
Good luck folks; see you at the polls.
6
The most informative paragraph in this long article about almost nothing is:
"Reached by phone late last year, Mr. Shearer would say only that his work was “a big deal — you know what it is, and you shouldn’t be asking about it.” He then hung up."
Because, you know, "the president will not be questioned."
As this comment section indicates, Trump supporters -- each of whom has exactly 34 recommendations at this moment -- are desperately struggling to secure Trump's legitimacy.
And the entire house of lies built around attacking the Mueller investigation has among its foundation a claim that everything in the dossier is fake news. Clearly it isn't.
So I found this to be a really long article to inform us that our spies paid a Russian spy $100,000 to let Russia know what lengths we'll go to to secure the Trump Kompromat material.
5
Just for clarification, D.A.Oh, could you point out which parts of the "dossier" are fake news and which parts are real news? Steele himself said that he thought 70% to 90% of his dossier was correct. It would be helpful to know which 10-30% is fake.
1
The tools have probably been copied by all the parties who actually had control of them, which makes me ask: Are we seeking to 'recover' these tools because WE didn't have back-ups of them?
4
"The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing."
3
It seems they wanted to know exactly what has been stolen. They know it's already been sent – or sold? – to others.
1
Clearly an operation designed to compromise American intelligence agencies and provide additional cover for Russia's friend in Washington.
5
It's time to clean out the entire building at the F.B.I. and start over. When our country's Top Cops and Top Prosecutors are caught violating the civil rights of Americans, spying without legitimate warrants, and attempting their own coup d'etats, it's time for them to go.
The F.B.I. took a beating after 9/11 for its failure to locate terrorists in our country who were using their VISA credit cards and found in the phone books. They had to send information via FEDEX to field offices the days following 9/11 because they didn't know how to use computers and email.
Clearly, whatever glory days the F.B.I. has been living since J. Edgar Hoover, are over. It's time to clean out that nest of traitors, liars, and schemers.
4
Given Trump's fascination with Russia since the 1980s and his multiple trips to that country, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Russian intelligence had gathered "kompromat" of some sort on a brash, reckless, greedy American who harboured presidential ambition.
A possible video tape on Trump's alleged sexual encounter with Russian prostitutes in 2013 could be embarrassing, but it would hardly raise eyebrows in the US. What could damage his image as a billionaire is evidence of money laundering and other deals that can't withstand scrutiny, because it would crush the myth that he was a highly successful businessman and that his empire were nothing but a Potemkin village.
But it doesn't deter shadowy figures in Russia from seeking to bilk the American intelligence out of millions, claiming to have "kompromat" on Trump, as the latter is embroiled in wide-ranging investigations.
25
The Russians have Trump cold on Treason per ¶3,3 of the U.S. Constitution.
Trump went running to uncle Vlad in a panic over the first full U.S. intelligence briefing Trump and Lynch received that detailed the assessment Russia had interfered or attempted to interfere and interact with the Trump campaign.
Thus in December, before taking office, Kislyak -Moscow's man in D.C. received a full report via Flynn at Trump's behest. Shortly thereafter, the director of the GRU's intelligence gathering apparatus was arrested in Moscow because of the information provided- he along with an assistant and the head of security for Kaspersky Lab, which is little better than a Kremlin adjunct, were all imprisoned by the second week of January.
Trump was in a frothy panic from his second personal meeting with Putin, which occurred in Vietnam, when he blurted out to the Press Corps. that "Putin didn't like the press speculation" regarding their interference and "people could die" (i.e. be executed as U.S. spies) as a result of such investigations continuing. Putin was yanking Trump's leash, hard, to warn him that the penalties for treason in our constitution, though hard to prove come with mighty penalties, and if Trump didn't cooperate the price could be his complete destruction.
Trump is a rat, cornered and with his back to the wall, with a cat waiting on either side of him. His current behavior is a mixture of denial, terror, and panic.
9
So that our government was willing to sell information on a U.S. sitting president to a foreign enemy doesn't bother you? It's all about maybe Trump did this; maybe Trump did that, huh?
It is not that Trump's "image" might be damaged! How would that be even possible after so much is known about his business and 'social' dealings over his career. What is of absolute concern to the Trump family is the real threat of prosecution and conviction for serious crimes. (Please underline and bold last sentence)!
There's a certain irony in stuff like this that supersedes even righteous outrage. It reinforces what Mad magazine spoofed decades ago: our spies are just as dumb as theirs; perhaps even more so. And when you wade in the swamp, expect to attract leeches.
16
Why would they pay money to get back hacking tools that had already been spread around. They were looking for dirt on Trump.
21
If that was so, then why did the price fall to one percent of the original bid? That usually indicates an artful fakery in deal making. Just trying to learn who the real dealer is.
4
One would think the U.S. spy agency has turned the materials over to Mueller.
10
Does Muller have a "need to know"?
I bet Russians are having fun in feeding the political chaos in this country and it has not started with Trump but way before he became president. Perhaps the entire Mueller investigation was planned in Moscow.
13
"Planned in Moscow"? Think that through.... The Russians buy social media space to spread dissension, they hack Clinton's email server in an attempt to discredit her and swing the election towards Trump, they steal cyber spyware and get ahold of stuff that would be embarrassing to Trump to keep him on script. And then you propose that they for some reason get Muller appointed to investigate their own collusion? If so, doesn't that make Trump an agent for Russia? Just saying......
5
The troll response to the Mueller investigation certainly seems to have been cooked up in Moscow, along with direct intervention by Putin. Trump is guilty of treason and Flynn is a witness to it. The GOP leadership is currently pretty close to the edge as well. Trump has been a Russian asset, witting or not at first, since he went to them for money in the 90s.
5
No more are the Russians needed, USA has turned on against itself. Trump is a symptom, not the disease.
23
Trump is the disease, he did not create the vulnerability or lowered resistance- easy money and lobbyists taking over via SOTUS rulings on campaign contributions being protected under the 1st Amendment paved the way for that. But, Trump is the disease, and is controlled by multiple entanglements and financial obligations to Putin and China, some documented, many still concealed. Trump is also controlled via the Komprimat of Russia learning of the sources for counter-intelligence that served as the basis for the assessment that they interfered with our electoral process via Flynn/Trump - and arrested the director of FSB and intelligence/security at Kaspersky Labs, based on that treason-supplied data.
2
"By last April it appeared that a deal was imminent. Several C.I.A. officers even traveled from the agency’s headquarters to help the agency’s Berlin station handle the operation."
So, that was after Mike Pompeo was at CIA. And, having watched his confirmation hearing & interviews since, pretty sure he's way more interested in getting the kompromat video of Trump for Trump than he is in stolen NSA hacking tools.
16
What do we believe Pompeo was speaking to those same Russians about recently?
I think the RNC got compromised by these kinda guys and this is why they are hellbent to prevent the Russian investigation from finding they got a lot of money from that Rosneft stock sale Page brokered.
5
hacking tools?tools can be remade.why would you spend 100,000 for a shovel you buy a new shovel.or spend 100,000 for a video,when they can have copies made.if they did have dirt on trump,sort of proves he is vulnerable to blackmail,thus unfit to be president.
6
Speaking of long cons...could our own software warriors be in cahoots with those who want to reboot this entire operation for profits? I don't trust the whole Lot of them to lead us out of this S&G saga.
This pathetic story shows the sleaze that is the CIA, NSA, all US, European, and Russian “intelligence” activity. Let's STOP FUNDING ALL "INTELLIGENCE” AGENCIES. And while we're being reasonable, let's stop thinking "the Russians" are The Bad Guys like in today’s superhero movies aimed at little boys. The time for John Le Carre games is over. We should be ashamed they ever happened. Let's start assuming other countries are as honorable as ourselves. Oh wait, first we would have to start being honorable.
5
Oh my, if we were ever to learn the full extent of the games we would be most certainly appalled; unfortunately, counter-intelligence is a necessity unless of course the other sides quit playing...which they will not.
1
The Russians are the bad guys. Ask the thousands of Ukrainians and Georgians who have lost their homes or their lives. Ask the tens of thousands of Syrians who have been murdered in their beds by Russian bombs, so Putin can generate refugees to destabilize the west. The Putin regime is the Evil Empire of the 21st century, and they are an existential threat to democracy and freedom in the world.
3
Intelligence gathering agencies frequently use sophisticated types of lie detection techniques to separate out hard truths from the rest of the noise they are subjected to. Maybe it's time to use these techniques on our employees resulting from questionable incidents like 'U.S. Spies, ... Paid Russian Peddling Trump Secrets'. Time to get in The Swamp and clean it out!
6
Whole lot of nothing here. This kind of thing happens all of the time. Fortunately, in this case, no one was hurt, unlike what Curveball supposedly provided us in the prelude to the Iraq War. Oh and note to right-wing posters here--as soon as you say "deep state" you lose.
9
So that U.S. intelligence agencies were willing to sell information about a sitting U.S. president to a foreign enemy doesn't bother you?
Compared to the sums that went missing in the Pentagon recently or in Iraq years ago, $100K is chump change for the chumps who elected this swarm of swamp creatures.
8
It is about the right time, according to the agitprop playbook, to start letting a slow seep of kompromat into the public domain. Kompromat is worthless unless the victim is absolutely sure that it exists in quantity and quality. This exact scenario had been repeated over and over by the USSR/Russia since the 1930's.
11
Are our intelligence agencies truly that gullible? Why would they continue to work with people who had tricked them after the first time? And why would you give them $100,000 on the third go round? And, is the purpose of this article to try to lend excuses for the FBI and others for why they've been carrying on this Trump investigation? I'm not sure which one it is. Either the FBI, CIA and NSA are very naive and gullible and desperate to believe any bad stories about Trump or they all have known from the start that this whole thing is a made up spy tale supplied by Sidney Blumenthal and they just thought they could get away with continuing it long enough to get Trump impeached. Either way, it's disgusting and terrfying.
7
I agree. It's terrifying that people being paid by taxpayers to protect our citizens and our country have turned on both in order to put their own political agenda in power. In other countries, that's called a coup d'etat - the overthrow of a legitimate government.
These Americans are sooooo naive! I can imagine the whole deceitful lot of Putin minions laughing at us for repeatedly taking their bait. When are we going to come to our senses and push back? How about we behave like our name implies - The United States of America?
1
Oh Lord, right when I started reading this article I knew it'd bring out the loons. Rather than seeing American spies risking their lives for us, they see the "deep state" and NOT the fact that the CIA was able to easily discern false info from real info, legit operative from KGB operative.
Thank you CIA and FBI for working behind the scenes each day. I don't love everything you do, but I appreciate the fact that you DO work for the good of America.
18
this happened last year. trump was president last year.
4
The headline is needlessly divisive. It makes it seem like the intelligence service was looking for dirt on Trump. The whole thing is obviously an attempt by the Russians to create further chaos, and tempt the intelligence services into using the dirt. The Intelligence Services wisely did not take the bait, which shows just how savvy they are. (We should remember this when others complain about fisa warrants based on flimsy evidence.)
The New York Times is helping Trump and the Russians out by focusing on the Trump junk in the headline. The Times reinforces the Nunes memo ... that the deep state was trying to get Trump with Russia stuff.
One only has to wonder why Democrats would go after the Russia thing, while they had plenty of money laundering and other dirty Trump deals to use. In fact, Barak Obama ignored the Russia stuff until Trump was elected, and only applied sanctions when it was shown Russia messed with voting machines (!). Hillary Clinton didn't use the Steele dossier, as she thought there was enough evidence for pure corruption of Trump. These stories of what did they know and when did they know it believe this behavior.
In fact, if the people were shown conclusive proof of Russia-Trump collusion before the vote, many would shrug it off and vote Trump anyway. That's where we are folks.
13
Mike Pompeo, a Trump lapdog and current director of the C.I.A., recently met with the 3 heads of Russian intelligence agencies ( at least one of whom is sanctioned from entering the U.S.) Congress found out about this through Russian state-run media.
I'll bet Mike Pompeo is to the C.I.A. what Devin Nunes is to the House Intelligenxe Committee. They're both Trump stooges and a danger to our democracy.
16
Correct, Nunes should be arrested for conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice as well as direct interference with an ongoing FBI investigation. Mike Pompeo is guilty as Trump of treason.
5
I like your owl picture, but I don't think your very wise in your assumption. The only danger to our Republic is the people making decisions for the country. I really wonder if the people in office actually did get elected. I am referring to most of the Democrats in the Senate.
"...the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing." - Huh? NSA management doesn't know what NSA employees are developing and delivering for potential use? Losing the secrets/tools is bad enough but not knowing what was lost (e.g., what exists) is almost as bad.
7
Maybe when Russian tanks are poised to invade Europe, Trump will side with NATO and not the CCCP, as he definitely is not worried about Kompromat anyway, as the world knows about him already. "What does he got to lose?"
2
Previously reported when Wikileaks was in the news: somehow the US security services allowed their hacking (back door) programs to get into the public domain. Sloppy work that allows hackers both national and independent to steal all kinds of classified info.
My compliments to the Times for this report. This is what fair and balanced looks like, and as a supporter of the president, I appreciated it. Thank you.
2
“For What It Is Worth”
“There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear...
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.”
Lyrics by Stephen Stills.
Buffalo Springfield
11
Let us not forget the Russians hacked into 21 State Voting Systems in 2016. These deftly targeted attacks could not have succeeded without Americans with inside knowledge of our state voting systems to direct them to which states to specifically target and hack. And yet we've done nothing substantial to prevent a repeat of this sabotage in the upcoming elections. To date it's not completely and absolutely certain these hacks didn't result in a presidency gained by fraud.
15
All these assumptions, thank you for clarification on all that based on the 17 intelligence agencies data. Or wait is that actually true? The facts would be so much easier to read.
NOT REALLY -
The hacking of generally county-based systems seems part of Trump’s claims that he didn’t lose the general election, and if he did it was because of, as Orson Wells put it, in Citizen Kane, “FRAUD AT THE POLLS”.
Trump lost the popular vote - Clinton got about 3 million more votes than he did, but a 240-year-old system giving extra power to states without people stole the victory from the winner.
But the real profanity of the ‘16 election is not the allegation the Russians may have gotten voter information in 21 states. It was the systematic successful move by both the GOP and the Russians to misuse the phenomenon of the “social media”, the Internet”s uncontrolled and uncontrollable gossip box, available, and, unfortunately believed, by millions of people who have no idea how the ‘net works, or how to understand the stuff accessible from the tiniest computers including almost every cell phone these days, Political advertising on those systems doesn’t get labeled advertising, let alone say who paid for it.
The ‘net was not built to be gossip box, one where programs target and manipulate the gossip, professional “news studios” can be had for $1,000 or so, and too many BELIEVE what they see.
One must prove one can drive before driving. I wish people would be required to prove computer- and net-competence and basic net information interpretation. before they were allowed to drive the networked byways.
2
Trump has been working for the Russians since the campaign. The Russians wanted to question the legitimacy of US democratic processes. Everyday on the campaign trail, Trump called our political system a rigged system. The Russians hacked the DNC and gave the material to Wikileaks. Trump talked everyday about his love of Wikileaks for releasing DNC information. He invited the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton, an American citizen.
After taking office, Trump had the Russians in the White House and gave them classified information. We got information about the meeting from the Russians and not from the White House communications team. Now Trump refuses to impose sanctions that Congress has voted.
Trump is a Russian asset. Nearly 63 million Americans have handed the White House to a Russian asset.
Give control of Congress to the Democrats in November.
15
Nice. Throw out a lure to the intelligence community about returning stolen goods, put a few drops of poison on the bait (i.e. potentially damaging "information" about a President that many in the intelligence community feel is a threat), then sit back and watch the fun. It's a win-win for Russia. If the U.S. tries to buy back anything, the scurrilous information makes the NSA look like it's running a hatchet job on Trump. The NSA was trying to separate out the cyber intelligence from the more inflammatory Trump-related bits. Good on them for calling it off. Even if it did take the better part of a year.
5
Cyber tools are not a little shiny box with blinking lights on it like on Star Trek. This is a diversion. In the digital age, you don't RECOVER ANYTHING digital. Copies can be made with a keystroke. Ridiculous. Furthermore, if you invented the tools to begin with, you ALREADY know what they are.
It is more plausible that the intelligence agencies went looking for Trump- Russian dirt via hackers, discovered they might actually get something, discovered it was likely bogus, then backed out when it looked to compromise their intelligence objectivity related to an American election. The cyber tools recovery angle seems like a thin back-story -- a smokescreen.
9
The United States officials worked through an intermediary — an American businessman based in Germany — to preserve deniability.
-------------------------------------------------
Really? In other words, to be able to LIE to Americans with impunity?
9
Our intelligence paid $100g to buy our own hacking software back.
Unintelligent, you think? For they still have copies of our software.
No. That's the genius of these spy games.
We paid them to know what they know, that we know.
That also means they know, what we know, that they know.
And we now know, what they know, what we know, that they know.
And so on.
I would say, 100g was a pretty good deal.
2
We know that the secrets stolen - the hacking tools - was one of the historic losses of our lifetime and profoundly damaged American security. But I do not understand how this can happen, time after time.
When I buy something from Amazon, etc., they know exactly what and when it was. They know where I live, my credit info, likely my measurements and God knows what else. When they offer me something for sale, they can look directly into my soul. They know more about me than even I do.
Yet, the secrets of the United States are always and forever online and available for undetected downloading to anyone with enough storage capacity to receive the data. Manning was turned in by a friend or they wouldn't have known and they still have no idea of the totality of what Snowden took. Several others have been found to have downloaded over time gigabytes of secrets without being detected. Can't somebody hire Amazon to help the US learn what is being downloaded and who is getting it?
4
They were only trying to by back software? How is that possible? I thought software can be copied.
Cody Shearer in Eastern Europe looking for dirt on Trump, no problem he's a Democrat
Carter Page, apparently looking for political dirt also is really,really bad,he's Republican gets indicted by Mueller.
Double Standards?
6
Why would they stop buying dirt on Trump NOW? From all the 3 letter agencies own records they have been doing it for a few years.
2
The Russians had to INSIST that harmful "facts" about Trump be included? If you believe that I have a bridge...
4
It's an illustration of how this phony investigation of Trump is a danger to national security. The latest polling shows that the government has about an 18% approval rating as of the commencement of Trump's presidency. That is the lowest point in recorded history. The guys in Washington need to either resign or do their job instead of fighting each other.
10
Holding someone’s hard drive for ransom is now worse than actually holding them hostage. So this is how Icarus was feeling as he plunged back down to earth.
1
Hook their "important parts" to battery terminals and start turning up the juice. Getting info the old fashioned way.
The article states that the FSB is in charge of the operation. As it deals with intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation, it should be the responsibility of the SVR, not the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service). Strange.
3
I am constantly appalled at how much money I pay in federal taxes each year, because of how my money, and every other taxpayer’s money, gets spent. I watch the news stories of how bridges around the U.S. are literally crumbling in some places. I know and have heard of many teachers paying for supplies out of pocket for their classrooms. I am disgusted by the figures paid to the top of the hierarchy at our U.S. companies. I see the hypocrisy of the Republicans who decry the increase of the deficit for social services, having just given a whopper of a debt-creating tax break that mostly benefits the very wealthy and protects certain businesses that benefit Trump and his family.
Okay, so this article informs me of the money spent running around trying to get back our own stuff that we lost through incompetence, in settings that are novel-worthy, including 5 star hotels. SOMEONE is having fun, but it ain’t me. Trump called himself clever because he doesn’t pay his share of our tax burden. I guess I’m not as clever because I don’t cheat, right?
12
I agree with you that the government is wasting our tax dollars in many, many terrible ways.
2
"The Russians are also particularly eager to cast doubt on the federal and congressional investigations into the Russian meddling, American intelligence officials said." This and the fact that Russian bot trolls sow lies and discord on social media are only half the problem. The other half, the one that we can actually do something about, is that the GOP enablers and trump deplorables refuse to take the Russia threat seriously. Instead, they deflect and distract by insisting the Russia investigation is a political witch hunt. The only reasons I can see for this are money (for trump and his family) and power (GOP and their fat cat donors). And these are the very people who scream to high heaven if someone doesn't stand for the national anthem.
15
I wondered as I read the article if the bots on social media are what is responsible for people thinking that so many Americans have turned into radical socialists. And, then it encourages naive young people or older people without strong character to believe that most Americans now want socialism/communism and that they need to go along with it to be part of the "in crowd".
1
And I don't know about Trump and Russian prostitutes but after the Access Hollywood tape and Stormy Daniels anything is possible. And I seem to remember seeing something in 2016 that was Trump on Russian television for Ms Universe or something like that. Manafort and Flynn who were key Trump aides during 2016 are definitely known to have maintained close ties with the Russians and even worked for Russian oligarchs with ties to Putin.
In the spy game if there's smoke there's a good chance of fire. And the more smoke there is the better the chance for fire. At least two key Trump aides during 2016 had strong connections to the Russians setting the stage for collusion. Manafort even had an office in Kiev and was doing work for the Russians and Ukrainians and was under investigation in the Ukraine for money laundering which is what he has been indicted for in America. That's some pretty strong circumstantial evidence to overcome. All the more reason for a very thorough investigation. Which I hope Mueller is allowed to do no matter where it leads.
7
This story makes no sense. Buying back copies of secret hacking tools is like buying back copies of stolen emails: worthless. Incidentally, information about Trump is bundled into the deal? It is essential to know more about where this story comes from since it was clearly created and released to serve an agenda.
Perhaps "leaked" from Pompeo's office to support Trump? Unfortunately this incomplete story will dominate the narrative for the next few days. Mr. Mueller please complete your investigation while you still can.
7
It does not make sense that you can buy back stolen digital information because that depends on the trusting those who have the stolen merchandise not to keep a copy.
Perhaps common senses dictates that what was wanted is dirt on Trump.
Assuming the government has other copies of its own cyber weapons, and those who stole them are going to keep copies, what other motivation than buying dirt on Trump makes sense?
1
It's a lot more expensive to make new tools then to pay to discover which we need to rebuild. If you want a bright, shiny new lie, you are gonna have to pay for it.
Previous presidents left America vulnerable to cyberattack. The Shadow Brokers disclosures began in August 2016, when President Obama was in the White House. President Trump signed the “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure” executor order on May 11, 2017.
The executive order will help protect U.S. elections from cyberattacks. Under
Trump’s executive order, the federal government will provide cybersecurity assistances to states. However, protecting voter registration databases and the ballot box is ultimately up to the states. The states, not the federal government, run elections.
5
It looks to me like the Russians on multiple levels are taking advantage of the "Red Scare" hysteria that has over-taken the USA. It's getting embarrasing.
5
One of the more touching details in this political cover-up is the little flash-drive they received as a "sample" of what they were buying. Of course. Notice they didn't get the whole thing but just enough to legitimize the entire operation. More likely is that they got nothing because there was nothing, and probably not even a flash-drive. It all makes one wonder how stupid the intelligence agencies really are. They can't even devise a plausible cover for their dirty tricks, but we're supposed to believe that they are capable of keeping America safe from its enemies--? They are the enemy.
6
Shut it down. Enough is enough. It's been over a year, and the more info that is revealed about this investigation, the worse the investigation looks. For all the hand wringing about the criticism our intelligence agencies have been taking, never forget that these are the same people who:
Couldn't get bin Laden in the 90s
Couldn't prevent 9/11
Let him escape at Tora Bora
Couldn't find him for almost a decade when he was in Pakistan
Sold us the WMD fiasco
Gave guns and cash to drug cartels in a botched operation
And now keep getting punked by anyone with a Russian accent
This is embarrassing. And I'm supposed to have faith in our institutions? Well, I don't, for reasons entirely unrelated to Trump. And keep in mind, if he stole the election with Russian help, he did it under their noses. If Trump can outsmart all these agencies, what am I supposed to be impressed by?
Either nothing happened, or these are not the people to find it out. Stop wasting the country's time and money.
12
Mueller (and for the most part, the FBI) has/had nothing to do with any of those previous operations. Those are all CIA ops, the failures of which could be chalked up to politics as much as bureau incompetence. But of course, that doesn't matter to someone just trying to cast doubt on the entire US intelligence program
1
Wishing someone would put up the money to find out if the information is true or not.
1
The Russians have been trying to collapse us from within for decades. There is no way we should be seeking information from them. Both political parties are guilty of contact with them. In their zeal for operation research against their opponents they have shown total disregard for existing laws and common sense.
Mr. Mueller's job was to determine the extent of Russian involvement in our election. Then it morphed into Trump team collusion. Now it turns out that both parties have sought advantage via the Russians. Collusion means acting in concert with them to alter the results of our election. I think the democrats are
closer to that than the Republicans with the phony dossier they purchased on Trump. Even Adam Schiff, pranked by Russians comedians, was willing to do page 6 gossip with them. Trump's people were doing quid pro quo feelers via Flynn but nothing venal. Schiff needed to hang up and report the matter to the FBI.
The real scandal is the FBI. It's clear that they had a horse in the race and it was not Trump. They could ave expressed that angst in the ballot box, but they disgraced the agency instead. Meanwhile the two love birds are still employed at our expense. They will enjoy wonderful pensions with COLA increases and suffer nothing.
7
This has become an interesting event. Ask yourself why Trump brings up the "Russia investigation" every chance he gets. In my opinion, it's because he is enjoying watching everyone in the country, including his perceived enemies, become polarized by it. He's essentially setting a credibility bomb. When he's vindicated by Mueller, and he will be, every single individual who went all-in on this, which entails virtually the entire Democratic Party and most of the news video, will be once again humiliated, a la last year's election polls, and have huge egg on their faces.
Meanwhile he's on a political roll. If the Republicans maintain control in the mid-terms he'll likely get immigration through this year and, who knows, maybe even infrastructure.
It truly will be Trump Nation!
And our historians will footnote that at some point in the mid-2010s there was a long and foolish Scare of shadowy origin that the president of the United States was a Russian agent and also enjoyed embarrassing sexual games. And the historians will likely kick it down the hall to be dealt with by the anthropology/myth department.
7
All this is distracting from the fact that tRump is not qualified emotionally, intellectually or only level to be president. This man(?) is destroying our freedoms from the inside out. Even if he was elected legitimately, and that is questionable, he is now doing Putin’s work for him. And he is obviously profiting greatly from it.
3
Now all the Obama/Hillary surrogates are out there in the media giving us helpful information on how intelligence works. How helpful of them. So we are told sometimes intelligence has to work with bad people and even pay them money, and sometimes they don't even get the information that they want, but get something in which they have absolutely no interest, like unverified dirt on Trump. Really? They didn't want that? Or were they simply disappointed in the type of information they received? In the meantime the story is breaking out. So the Democrat operatives scramble to go on TV to give an innocent explanation for their dirty tricks. I think this has to go to a grand jury. I don't believe intelligence should have immunity or cover once they engage in politically motivated undercover operations. There is no excuse for what they did.
11
Trump’s defense attorneys at work: This phony issue is designed to discredit the American intelligence community. The so-called proposed exchange makes it look like the intelligence services have all along invented all the compromising material to sink Trump. Trump and his minions know that his base will buy any disinformation they disseminate and that the tentative might see this as cause for reasonable doubt. I have just now read posted comments that prove this.
4
Aside from the misleading title in this article, while reading I kept wondering when I'd get to the part where it was explained WHY we were buying back our own computer code?! I've worked in IT. I am not a software developer but it sure was my job to keep software safe. When the government develops or acquires hacking tools, the media should be backed up like crazy in multiple locations, in fireproof safes, etc. If our own hacking software fell into the wrong hands we'd have to ensure that it could not then be used against our systems, but we'd still have it. What am I missing here folks? This article reads like every instance of the software disappeared and that we had to get it back, like it was a crown jewel or something.
8
@porcamiseria ...according to the article the NSA "was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing" and how it had happened. Concerning that they can't figure that out on their own.
2
America wants its 'hacking tools' back? What, exactly is a hacking tool. Presumably, not a set of elaborate screwdrivers.
If it's software, then it's probably either been reverse engineered, or replicated a thousand fold by now.
The ransom money would be better spent on a set of 'anti hacking tools' at this stage.
....and try not to lose them this time.
6
The Russian Intelligence Services are winning! A true understanding and reconciliation of what they are doing to incite partisan factions in this country can only begin when Trump acknowledges their role in getting him elected.
1
A couple of years ago an NSA official said in an interview that out offense was way ahead of our defense in cyber. He said he knew how deep we were into our adversaries networks without their knowing about it, and what concerned him the most was that they were as deep into our networks without our knowing about it. As it turns out, the NSA officia, was right to be concerned, because it is likely that China and Russia have deeply compromised both the CIA and NSA, because our defense is just not as good as it needs to be. I am sure the intel community is desperate to find out what was stolen, and how it was stolen. When you are desperate, you make mistakes. Here the cost was only $100k, and no one was got hurt. The Russians won't release the good info they have on Trump right now. They just want him to know they have it and will use it if he doesn't stay in line. If Trump turns on Russia, they will turn on him. In the meantime, they will continue to dangle meaningless info to the CIA in the hopes they can get he CIA to even further damage their relationship with the President.
1
Don't quite understand not taking possession of info already paid for -- it might be worthless, might not, but why be afraid of checking?
2
They were after dirt on Trump. Period. There is no independent verification that there was in fact a theft of hacking tools that the NSA wanted to "recover." Knowing that in the cyber-universe, once information is out there it cannot be taken back, intelligence comes up with the bogus excuse that they wanted to do an "inventory" of what had been taken. So they were just compiling a "list." Sure. The timing of this article is also curious. Why at this point would the story be leaked to the NYT unless it was to get ahead of the story which was going to break anyway so that intelligence could have a plausible cover for the true purpose of their meeting with the Russians and offering payment-- which was to get dirt on the President but to have deniability. Too bad they got schnookered.
12
This reads more like a leak designed to muddy the water. Probably by Pompeo providing a smokescreen for Trump. The CIA appears to have been lured into a no-win situation
2
This has the appearance of an FSB bait and switch operation on the CIA to compromise the CIA be showing them compromising information on Trump that they would either have to verify or bury. One important unanswered question in the story is why did the Russian decide to become a source for this story.
5
There was nothing on the President but so many wanted there to be something on him. Robert Mueller is trying real hard to find something on the President. In the meantime, so many are looking the other way on FISA court abuse and how that all happened. We should all demand to know what happened, but these are highly politicized times. Very sad.
4
So the Trump Administration tried to buy stolen American data using the CIA which is directed by Mike Pompeo, one of Trump's best buddies. This Russian also claimed to have the dirt on Trump. Was this done so Trump could get the goods on himself and find out if tapes or whatever do exist?
Our American operatives do not come across as intelligent in this article. In fact I am not sure what we are supposed to come away with other than bumbling spy games and dubious reasoning on all sides. Said operation ended with a big nothing burger.
Trump heaps scorn on the FBI but never buddy Pompeo's CIA. So what is really going on here?
4
So, what useful ancillary intelligence, if any, did the intel wizards gather from this odd operation with an old-fashioned paper hanger? Let's see a follow-up from Mr. Rosenberg. This could have been set in Vienna in 1945-6.
The naked brazenness of the deep state to attempt to get incriminating info on the sitting President of the United States and commander in chief and to pay for it with tax payer dollars shocks the conscience. The deep state knows that Trump is onto their game and this leak from the perpetrators is an attempt to get in front of this story and to put their spin on it. The only spin is that the underbelly of Brennan's CIA was corrupt to the core and that did not change after Trump took office. This must be investigated. There needs to be a cleansing at CIA, DOJ and FBI.
4
We cannot hope to know at this point whether Mr. Putin has Trump kompromat or not. It's silly to try. (The Times is selling entertainment here, not information.) If it exists it will come out only if/when that serves Mr. Putin's interests. The germane question is, given what little we do know about the people involved and their past behavior, is it a reasonable risk to bet that Mr. Putin does not have Trump kompromat. It isn't and we should not be placing that bet. Perhaps that's unfair to Mr. Trump. But he's a big boy and this is a very high stakes thing.
1
The CIA paid $1,000,000 for intel because they believed it contained valuable "hacking tools", and "just happened" to contain potentially damaging information about a presidential candidate? Sounds to me like a lot of lame rationalizing. Is this going to be the narrative when another revelation comes out regarding the unethical use of our spy agencies for political purposes by the Obama White House?
3
"The cyberweapons had been built to break into the computer networks of Russia, China and other rival powers."
Yet, it is the Americans crying foul when these "rival powers" use similar tactics against the United States of Hypocrisy.
Putin's dream scenario would be a civil conflict in the U.S., an America that tears itself apart. For that, he would want to provoke the Left and the Deep State into trying to remove Trump from office, hoping the Right would move to protect Trump, and the Two Americas collide. Putin might be interested in persuading the Deep State that Trump is indeed his agent, so that the Deep State attempts to remove him "by all means necessary". The Russians knew that all "anti-Trump" info that they give to CIA/NSA would end up leaked to the media and/or relayed to Mueller. Simultaneously, the Kremlin works to further inflame race relations by posting incendiary "Black Lives Matter" messages on social media. As the Mexicanization of the South-West progresses, Russia will try to use pro-Mexican secessionism hoping the U.S. will go down the U.S.S.R's path of territorial disintegration along ethnic lines (since Putin is convinced that the ethnic disintegration of the Soviet Union ("the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century") was America's doing, he would love to return the favor).
2
Can’t make this stuff up, although I wish I could.
3
This has got to be the flimsiest excuse I have ever heard, "they were trying to retrieve the hacking tools." Like they are held in a tool case as some sort of specialized wrench.
Good God. They are software. Once out there they are out there for good. You cannot "retrieve" them.
The CIA paid for Trump dirt and are covering for it by stating they tried to get hacked software back and the dirt was simply a nice added bonus, but they didn't really want it.
i really hope the plans for the gallows are still available online. That kind of knowledge is going to be useful.
2
Dude, we don't want them back, we want to know which ones they took so we don't have to rebuild the entire mousetrap. If you insist, I hope you will offer to help pay for it.
1
As a concerned citizen who tries to stay informed I've reached the conclusion that I have no clue what's really going on in this country except that we have a president who does not tell the truth.
2
American intelligence agencies are being played for their political biases by the Russians to sow discord. They want to destabilize any American President, whether Trump or Clinton. The suggestion that the Russians went after Clinton to help Trump win is ridiculous - no one, not even the Russians, thought he could win. At best, they were hoping to make the election close to assure that Clinton didn't have a mandate. Can someone explain why the FBI has never examined the DNC servers to verify the "hack"? Why was the Russian intelligence briefing first presented as the consensus of 17 agencies, then 3 agencies, and now a few leaders at the top of 3 agencies? Why would the FBI never seriously investigate the veracity of the Steele dossier but trust its author after he clearly lied about leaking it to the press? And why was the Clinton investigation conducted as a "special" by the senior leadership instead of in the field office pursuant to FBI investigative guidelines? And last, this entire article is about the US intelligence agencies incompetence at protecting our most secretive cyber-intelligence weapons. Face it folks, if it isn't there political bias that will kill us, it will be their utter incompetence.
6
Deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons? Really? Once stolen it doesn't matter if they are "returned". They were paying for dirt on Trump and were duped again by the Russians.
2
Remember Spy vs Spy vs Spy from Mad Magazine? That's what this reminds me of. Trouble is...this time, I'm worried.
63
I notice in the article you kept referring to our President as Mr. Trump: he is now President Trump. I bet you would have not referred to an article about President Obama as Mr. Obama. It so simple to determine liberals in the MSM. Just notice the name they use to refer to our highest elected official in the US. Same on the Times slant.
The only reason you have this information is the CIA gave it to you so they could not be bribed by the Russians. Wise up the deep state is a shady business at best. A million here and a million there and before lone we are talking about real money. Taxpayer money.
41
At the time this all happened he was not yet President Trump. The NYT does consistently refer to him as President Trump, or simply "the President" when reporting on events during his term in office. I believe you would find this usage consistent for Obama and all recent presidents.
99
If this happened in September of last year, as the story states, Donald Trump was indeed president when it allegedly happened.
2
The only shady character here is trump. Not Mr. trump, not President trump. Just trump. Lower than low. And let's not even talk about taxpayer money..
4
Adam Schiff is an American super spy too. He did same thing--tried to get material from a Russian who was a comedian by trade. The Russian strung Schiff along for quite some time. Schiff salivated at the prospect of getting pictures of Trump without clothing. But our Ranking Member of Intelligence was totally duped. He even had his staff follow up with this Russian to get the material. Why isn't Schiff under investigation for colluding with Russians? As more FBI officials (now David Laufman) resign after the Nunes memo and with the prospect of a damning IG report, we need a special prosecutor NOW to investigate the co-opting of the DOJ and FBI by a major political party. Also, what did Obama know about all of this? Why doesn't the NY Times dig into this?
49
Why don't we just stop all government functions except investigations of elected American government officials? To he-l with actually getting anything done! the Russian investigation--most especially determining how to stop them from rigging our elections--is the ONLY one worth spending any money on and in the meantime all the people who get paid to do other stuff need to get to work doing it.
1
Having just seen the back of Trump's head, I imagine without clothing, he is horrific. My husband is adorably bald, but Trump's back is lacking in any kind of fringe movement.
1
And Mark Warner used his power in the Senate to help a Russian Oligarch. Where is the outcry against him by the mainstream media?
2
"American spies are not the only ones who have dealt with Russians claiming to have secrets to sell."
LOL. Umm, yea, like the DNC/Clinton Campaign? Hello?
42
Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian, who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.
The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.
Refresh my memory: What Russians were those?
and the Trump family, the Trump campaign, the Trump ....
The article seems to imply the CIA was buying back leaked software? Does this make sense to the experts (say, your IT staff) at the New York Times? You do know that buying back leaked software is idiotic, right?
In the future, could you please identify precisely what the CIA intended to buy?
That is assuming - if your sources are to be believed - the CIA was not intending buy compromising informaiton on a Presidential candidate during an election.
34
Buying back software does seem fruitless. Why would anyone by something easily copied?
It seems to me that if an intelligence agency wanted to detect and defend against a foreign power's cyberweapons a good idea would be to obtain a copy of that software.
It is not as idiotic if he was the only one to have the software, if the goal was to buy it back or he'd put it into the wild.
The sex police seem to want to bust sexual offenders based on which political party they belong to. The evangelicals are a case in point.
9
the CIA vs. the KGB must be like a little league team playing against the NY Yankees
13
Agree, but they can still throw the game. I suggest we stop playing theirs. Time to build a bigger penetrating device to block all these code walkers.
1
This story about "a shadowy Russian" belongs on NewsMax or InfoWar. The fact that money was paid for nothing doesn't exonerate anybody.
16
Another fake news story that is trying to cover the Deep states illegal activity. NICE SPIN, BUT NOBODY IS BUYING IT.
32
So do tell us what happened to the money.
On the contrary - a majority of not only Americans, but citizens of all Western democracies belive real news.
Trust in tradition media has in fact only gone up since the Russians and Trumps enablers started pumping out lies online.
You and people like your are part of a small, sad, minority and you'll end up on the ash heap of history soon enough.
Then you can spend the rest of your life lying to people about how you actually never fell for Trumps lies at all.
Not hard to imagine what happens next: Trump tweetstorm leading with "Proof that treasonous deep state intelligence community is out to get me!!!"
The circus continues.
30
And he happens to be right. And now on to Senator Warner.
2
Republicans in Congress are the Ring Masters of this circus. They keep telling us to look at different rings in their circus.
1
What kind of "memo" will Nunes come up with for this one? It's all fake news and it's all the Democrats' fault!
13
Why pay for dirt on His Lowliness when he gladly delivers it for free every day?
52
Here we go again!
3
Our enemies must be cheering for GOP and Trump attacking CIA and FBI
19
Well, they haven't done much worth celebrating this century. Some people are able to form opinions regardless of what Russia thinks. Ostriches and lemmings, not so much.
1
Every Trump supporter is cheering for the Trump administration attacking this totally biased and anti American behaviour by our spy agencies.
These are the most dangerous times we live in.
Yes, when there's clear evidence that Obama and his government at high levels tried to tilt the election to Clinton, we should ignore it! Somebody could get embarrassed!!
1
this russian witch hunt gets funnier by the week! when i voted trump i knew these holdovers and the dems would go bananas as he is undoing what they forced on american's for the last 5 decades from lbj tp obama the apex of this insanity!
27
Holdovers from what? America? This article gives evidence that they were NOT trying to get dirt on Trump.
1
Or, Trump is lying.
Come on NYT!! Who wrote that headline? I doubt Matthew Rosenberg did because his first two paragraphs make it absolutely clear that the spies' motive was to recover hacked cyberweapons. Regardless, it is shoddy journalism, dangerous and just plain wrong, providing fodder for Trump supporters and anti-intelligence service conspiracy theorists. Very disturbing.
32
I could not agree more. I am disappointed with this article--it makes what should be clear very unclear. Moreover, unless we have all given up on the theory that no one is above the law, it is necessary to run down these leads albeit warily where the Russian intelligence services are concerned. I suspect when Mueller's investigation comes to a close we will all have the opportunity to review whether the press did their job properly. And I am a life long Democrat and reader of the NYT.
You believe the "recover hacked cyber weapons" nonsense? I have some ocean front property in Nevada for sale, cheap - interested?
1
Where are the dead bodies?
So, the same clueless intelligence people say Russia meddled in our elections and we are supposed to believe them lock, stock, and barrel?
They are selling Brooklyn bridge to Trump-hating liberals and Deep State, folks.
29
I don't know where you get your information from. But both the Republicans and the Democrats are concerned that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections, and will continue to meddle. This is not about Trump-hating, this is about wanting to keep our elections out of the hands of the Russians. Surely, you can't be opposed to that.
2
"Deep state" is the funniest thing I have every heard. The same people who have been brainwashed by Fox to believe our government--particularly law enforcement-- is awash with incompetent no-nothings wants us to also believe that they are smart enough to have created a vast underground shadowy "deep state" for the purpose of undermining the most incompetent administration in 'mercan history. Wow.
2
Google Schiff audio meeting with two Russian agents/comedians. It's hysterical!!
So, U.S. counter intelligence has reached the point where they can't follow leads on compromising material against the president because it's compromising against the president.
Huh?
This is like knowing of a nuclear weapon near Penn 1600 but not doing anything about it because you don't want to upset the White House. If there really is such a thing as the famous pee-pee tape the public needs to know (but not necessarily see it).
Blackmail only works as long as there is a secret. Once the transgression is in the open there is no leverage over the person who committed the act anymore. And, let's be honest, at this point in his presidency nothing can embarrass DJT anymore, nothing! He won't step down, no matter what. And they can't impeach him for such a tape. So what?
Bring it on, bring it out, let's have it, and with this simple act remove the cloud that Vladimir Putin has been casting on Donald Trump for years!
12
If it is fair to pay for this then how can you say Trump is guilty of Russian collusion? This is very blatant Russian collusion! Hypocrisy much?
If you fail try again.
So I question why we would pay the Russian's for a copy?
Had we lost our hacking playbook? (Again I mean.)
Was it a Numbered Copy?
5
Classic straw dog.
6
". . . .a video of Mr. Trump consorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in 2013, according to American and European officials and the Russian, who agreed to be interviewed in Germany on the condition of anonymity. There remains no evidence that such a video exists."
If Trump had an affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels, it would not be unlikely that he was consorting with Russian prostitutes and therefore knows the Russians have dirt on him. Hopefully Mueller understand this to be worth investigating.
18
Non sequiturs not allowed. We are adults. We need proof. So far no proof of a Trump-Stormy affair. She is using that for publicity. Note she has not said that they were an affair.
2
They didn't have an affair.
2
Wait? I thought the Russians where trying to help Trump. Oh well I guess that's just another narrative busted.
30
Well, this is just more proof all the allegations against Trump are fake. If the left didn't buy into the Russian propaganda there wouldn't be so much division in the U.S.
26
This whole situation is becoming ridiculous, i can't tell if i am reading a NY Times article, or something out of the National Enquirer, the Globe, or one of those other supermarket check-out counter tabloids.
23
I think the NYT unwittingly is caught up in right-wing bias. Why is the headline about the U.S. paying for information - I assume that money is regularly spent trying to get information. It seems that the agency was doing its job. They got the guy to reveal to them that he was a fraud before they spent any big money. I guess an agency doing its job doesn't sell newspapers.
13
The suggestion that Donald Trump, with a net worth of over six billion dollars, wouild have to pay someone for sex is not just laughable, but inconceivable. Keep fishing.....
6
So YOU have seen the tax returns that document this net worth. Do share!
2
Maybe someone should look into what we paid for?
3
"according to American and European intelligence officials."
There's the most important part of the story, right in the first paragraph. And "European" intelligence officials. Meaning, they've begun their planned, slow leaking... Treason will out.
1
The 1980s want their foreign policy back.
2
I agree with what many are saying here: Terrible headline!
6
Dear God. Portable grills for sidewalk sausage salesmen. John LeCarre meets Anthony Bourdain.
13
They "believe", they "suspect", etc
Wake me up when "they" corroborate and prove what i believe and suspect to be all too partisan if not Pavlovian claims.
"The Russian" has become -no doubt on purpose for many- the ultimate bogeyman, and telling that will get me slandered as a "Russian bot" in every parts of our "free press" comments.
"In October 2016, The Washington Post reported that Harold T. Martin III, a former contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton accused of stealing approximately 50 terabytes of data from the National Security Agency (NSA), was the lead suspect [for the stealing of NSA hacking tools]. " (wikipedia, The Shadow Brokers)
5
Is this how espionage works?
"Move along, nothing to see here..."
Who honestly believes the airing of a video of Trump consorting with prostitutes would have the slightest effect on anything?
13
Thanks for the chuckle, although it's sad, too.
Unlike the ‘Family Value’ days of scorched earth wrath involving Mr Clinton and a cigar.
My my my, as Jimmy Swaggart says.
I kept reading thinking that eventually the twisted tale being spun would lead readers to . . . Hillary Clinton. I’m sure Nunes will fill in the rest of the story.
4
Time for Rudi Giuliani to be appointed Special Counsel to find out how and why Hillary Clinton, Obama, and the Democrats used the US Intelligence services to spy on Trump. Seems the question is who in the Trump campaign WAS NOT spyed on.
18
Why is the NSA doing CIA work? What am I missing?
1
Cue the Obama blame, the guy who told GOP leadership about Russian interference, and they declined to help protect American voting integrity and now the President refuses to enact sanctions. Surely, the man who has Russians to thank for saving his real estate empire has no interest in protecting them. This is the collusion, right here and now, the compromised POTUS and civil discord in America, that is more readily blamed on the half white guy.
5
So, the FBI paid this informant $100,000 to get more "fake dirt" on Trump when they hoped to retrieve the NSA codes? How inept and incompetent are our spies?
Russians seem to be past masters in bait-and-switch: they promise to give you dirt on Hillary to get the meeting but instead talk about "adoption". Here, they got the FBI agents to believe they are getting their cyberweapons back only to get some dirt on Trump.
Our intelligence agencies are being played like drums by Russians who are laughing at our eagerness to lap up fake intelligence.
12
"Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian..." Reading comprehension can be helpful; so too can an honest attempt to comprehend.
1
Sorry sir but spies on both sides do stuff like this all the time. And always have and always will. We shouldn't be so surprised or high and mighty.
You use every tool you possibly can if you're a spy to get the job done and catch your opponent in a mistake or get an advantage. Playing both ends against the middle is a spy's bread and butter. Obviously you do not understand the business or are ignoring history and precedent for political purposes just like Trump. The spy game is as it is and always will be. We're just getting a lot of insight that we didn't have before which may or may not be a good thing.
1
The only misleading thing about this article is the title, and unfortunately so as anyone reading that alone would assume events occurred far differently than what allegedly transpired. Seems like such an editorial mistake to just leave that way...
3
I'm afraid the Russians are just better at this than we are. They drove James Jesus Angelton to strong drink and madness with purported defectors who contradicted the debriefs of earlier defectors, such as Golitsyn. The "Russian" is just a pawn, playing a part assigned him.
1
Agreed.
They weren’t buying stolen hacking tools back. That is absurd. It is a pathetic excuse for trying to buy something from the Russian.
Time to revisit "Smiley's People".
2
In God We Trust.
Because we certainly can't trust the government.
3
Why does the NY Times continue to perpetuate the lie that the Democrats were behind the Steele Dossier? It is a firmly established fact that Trump's Republican opponents commissioned and paid for the dossier during the primaries and that the Democrats only bought access to it once Trump was nominated.
"Rumors that Russian intelligence possesses the video surfaced more than a year ago in an explosive and unverified dossier compiled by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats."
Another lie in the quote above - much of the dossier has in fact been verified, though not the existence of the sex videos which, though salacious, are relatively unimportant.
17
Steele was not engaged until the DNC started paying.
The same firm was indeed previously paid for by Republicans but not for Steele's research/dossier - that came later.
I do agree though that the only important thing was whether a crime was committed by colluding with the Russians to influence the election.
Wrong. Republican sources funded beginning of research by Steele, by DNC and HER funded the dossier.
Thank you for changing the salacious headline. It was outrageous.
1
Why does everything about this administration always sound like a goofy script rejected for an even worse adaptation of a John LeCarre novel?
4
U.S. Intelligence is becoming an oxymoron.
4
This headline is misleading. According to the article, the primary purpose of the payment was to secure information stolen NSA hacking tools. This mischaracterization seems designed simply to grab eyes. SAD!
6
Wonder how this latest spy thriller will play out. Only the "Shadow" knows.
1
A House divided against itself cannot stand. A better Government will come when all nations align themselves with GOD'S ELECT - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
This article is very disconcerting. The New York Times should not be in the business of writing spy novels or possibly true counterintelligence reports. Let the NSA and CIA continue their investigations discreetly without the intervention of the media. It only muddies the waters and opens the floodgates to yet more partisan political discussions.
3
Picky here, but why does NYT keep writing that only the Democrats funded the Dossier?
Republican competitors originally hired intelligence on Trump and Democrats picked up the mantle only after Trump was nominated.
Why not share the facts? It makes one wonder what else comes up short in the piece.
6
Because, like most partisan statements, it is misleading. Washington Free Beacon sources started working with Steele, but the DNC and HER dug deeper and went farther, and thus the statement that the dossier was funded by Dems is accurate.
1
Steele was hired ONLY AFTER FusionGPS was hired by DNC and Clinton Campaign to dig up dirt on Trump. Washington Beacon that initially hired FusionGPS did not use Christopher Steele to produce any dossier, and ended the arrangement with Fusion after Trump secured nomination.
Wise up.
1
I look forward to seeing how the Trumpies spin this feat of brilliance by Trump's appointees into Clinton's or Obama's fault.
2
So, on one hand we have trump, jr., overcome with joy and anticipation that the Russians are going to deliver to him a slew of glop on HCR - and the Russians never delivering......
.....and, on this hand here, another batch of Russians offering the same deal on trump, sr...... and, again, the Russians never delivering.....
The difference is, of course, that Junior was a private citizen dealing with a foreign cache of spies.... illegal.
And the ones dealing with the Russian offering the dirt on trump were US intelligence agents.
Ah, it's just the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", folks, co-starring Boris and Natasha...
... and we all know that Rocky, the Flying Squirrel, when the show was cancelled, eventually took up residence on the top of Donald Trump, Sr.'s head.
And, now you know the rest of the story....
7
This is the beginning of one of the most important stories of our lifetimes. Why is it not at the top? There actually is a tape of POTUS in the Moscow hotel and the security services story is like a bad episode of "I Spy." It's a story to make you head spin. More!
"The Russian did not give it much thought. He took a sip of the cranberry juice he was nursing, picked up his bag and said, “Thank you.” Then he walked out the door." That's absolutely great writing! The NYT at its best. Thank you. What a story!
2
Its only taxpayer money, right?
2
There is no video. There is nothing. If there was a real Russian story it would have come directly from the Kremlin to your desk. Some one is getting duped, yet again and it isn't Trump. Never Trump. What amazes me is that people can't see this for what it is. File gate, travel gate and Russia gate all have the same fingerprints on them in Lupita's humble opinion. If the media could get off their little pony and investigate there is a whole lot to be learned here. File gate....hum the FBI took the fall on that one too.
2
This stinks of Donald Trump and his pals trying to turn the tables on the investigation of collusion with Russia to win the election.
2
This headline is misleading and inflaming. The story makes clear that the motives of the US parties was to buy the stolen cybertools and that the Russian offered the "Trump" material probably as a agent provocateur. And the NYT headline helps him fulfill that objective.
7
So this is going to be the next scandale du jour, eh? We can guess how this is going to unfold: Trump gets to pretend he's vanquishing his enemies on his daily 'reality show', while Putin rubs his hands at the further demeaning of America's Intelligence community.
One can only hope this shines a bright light on the real story, which is Russia's continued and on-going efforts to deligitimize U.S. elections in every way possible, from hacking voter lists and voting machines to disseminating fabricated 'news' items targetted to the most susceptible audiences.
And by the same token, shed an even brigher light on what the relevant federal and state authorities are doing about it, or rather not doing about it.
NYT, once again we are counting on you!
3
"After ... secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen [NSA] cyberweapons..." Do you read what you write? Let's parse, just for fun.
The negotiations were 'secret'. Fine, did you expect anything else? Even companies, when they try to reach an agreement, indeed individuals when they are organizing a birthday party, tend to avoid the limelight.
The Russian was 'shadowy'. What does that even mean? Badly shaven? No expansive Facebook profile? Or just a Russian, who happens to have connections to that country's intelligence services and, understandably, would rather remain anonymous? Besides, I imagine the Americans who took part in this caper were probably as publicity shy as that ill-lit Russian.
Then 'bilked'. Really? He 'bilked' the 100 large ones out of the US' agents? This is not good. Are they that bilkable? It does imply the people you send to wheedle out secrets are actually quite gullible, inept even. And then of course the stolen cyberweapons the NSA so thoughtlessly "lost".
Lets return to that for a moment. Amidst all the hubbub bout those pesky Russians' alleged(!) attempts to influence the US Presidential elections, we find out that (a) the NSA has a comprehensive toolkit to penetrate and interfere with other countries' cyber environments, e.g. to influence elections and decision processes, but, astonishingly, that (b) they couldn't hang on to it...
A pot and kettle story...
4
@Jasper Slavens, Page, Az: Sir, I did not say that Donald Trump "is behind this." My point is that anything and everything Russia is Donald Trump's tar baby. When you hear thunder, don't you look up at the sky? My other point was that Trump wants to discredit the DOJ, FBI, the free press (except for Fox Noose) and now the NSA, as well as the other federal intelligence agencies. If he cannot control them (and he cannot) he discredits them. And, yes, whatever evil has befallen our country since his annunciation (June 15, 2016), Trump is behind it. If you don't believe that, you haven't been paying attention. If it works against America, then Trump's for it. Or don't you get it?
7
Just think all of the efforts to let Hillary Clinton skate and frame Trump by manufacturing the Trump Russia collusion narrative would have been buried and never uncovered if only Hillary Clinton would have won the election. Strozk did his job by starting investigation on the thin gruel of Georgie P. And his drunken boasts in a U.K. bar, Comey, McCabe etc... did their job by compiling fake dossier, yahoo news stories to corroborate basis for a FISA warrant. Since they couldn't legitimize the information via the dossier and sell it to mainstream press due to lack of sources it could not be used to destroy Trump campaign and ultimately became basis for counter intelligence investigation navigating this thing into Special Prosecutor territory.
9
Question: why didn’t the USA spies took him and interrogate him before he went back to Russia?
1
If you read the article carefully, the Russian was one of the sources for the article and was interviewed in Germany. There is an underlying message in this article from the US and European intelligence agencies - "Hey Trump, we have the goods on you and the evidence is secured in Europe by an American businessman so you can't do anything about it"
Talk about priorities! The US spies had a chance to prevent a Russia-friendly, intelligence-hostile, severely compromised (and far worse) man from occupying the White House, and all they cared about was "cyber"-attack code they should've never wrote in the first place.
Thanks to the latter, we freed the very bogeyman we warned China would use against us: other countries now think it's OK to breach computer networks. Thanks to the former, the other countries also now think it OK to load up their own island prisons[1] and black sites with some "bad [American] dudes", not to mention thumb their nose at the UN and international law.
We should've took the smoking video-gun and left the cyber-cannoli.
[1] You can safely bet one reason China's building its artificial water-claim islands is so our nearby patrols can..."involuntarily stay" for a while, too.
1
Dear US intelligence agencies:
DON'T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ADVERSARY!
The Russians practically invented spy craft.
WE ALL KNOW HOW GOOD THEY ARE AT IT!
Don't help them for God's sake!
It will not be salacious video, but a corrupt money trail that brings him down. Ask Al Capone!
5
We could use some top-drawer help in clearing this up, like maybe George Smiley.
2
This headline is misleading. It creates the impression that the NSA paid the Russian for the information on Trump, while the article reveals that the NSA was in fact trying to obtain hacking tools that had been stolen, and the information on Trump was a bonus the Russian was offering.
6
This is a misleading headline. Accurate, but misleading and will be misconstrued as american intelligence officers trying to buy dirt on Trump.
8
So the NSA got suckered and duped in its own attempt to smear Donald Trump, first as a candidate and then as President-Elect. Geat geniuses we have looking out for our national security. Given everything, one wonders if MI6 was also involved, perhaps by referring these bumblers to one of Christopher Steel's ananymous "sources."
9
What I learned from the article is that if somebody tracks down this shadowy Russian individual, and pays him a million dollars, that he might be willing to release a video of Donald Trump consorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room. And so therefore, now I am wondering... who will start the crowdfunding campaign for this endeavor, and how do I go about making a donation?
5
NEVER FORGET that Russian spies (including a money launderer AND a hacker) met with Trump Jr, Kushner AND Manafort in Trump Tower (a meeting which Trump himself tried to cover-up). Until Republicans can honestly explain why this meeting wasn’t (as Steve Bannon has said) treasonous ALL GOOD Americans should regard Trump and his enabler as threats to everything our nation stands for.
8
So if the U.S. intel folks only wanted the return of hacking tools, why include more apparently-phony kompromat about the president in the deal? This story is suspect on its face.
6
"... using bot armies to promote partisan causes on social media." ??
Why would they need to do that when our news media uses misleading headlines that are practically designed to do just that. Gross.
1
After reading this I dare anyone to believe that Christopher Steele was receiving anything other than disinformation from his Russian contacts. That the FBI used a dossier based on such nonsense is either a display of child-like naivete or pure partisan bias. Both are equally scary.
11
The story keeps referring to "last year". Could the Times make it clear that they are talking about 2017 - the full year when Trump was President. Too many people will misread this and think that this took place in 2016 and under a Democratic administration. Please be clear about dates and what happened when. Clarity is critical in this reporting. This is happening under the CIA run by Mike Pompeo, a great friend to Trump, correct?
10
Incriminating evidence against President Trump? Would that have anything to do with Adam Schiff's latests embarrassing moment? Is he one of the "intelligence officials" who said they cut off the deal bc they were afraid of how it would look?
6
Nothing shocks me anymore.
And I miss President Obama.
There is nothing else left to say.
5
What we need is a big military parade.
7
As serious as this is I can say that the American spies had it coming considering how they had no other assurance other than a promise
Mike Pompeo, Dan Coats, what other rank amateurs do we have running our intelligence services? This ranks up there with Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy, and Tom Rooney’s “memo” which has now blown up in their face even more because Trump, who undoubtedly signed off on this latest asinine caper, refuses to release the minority rebuttal to an obvious bogus narrative. Nine month countdown commence.
7
It is hard to believe this story and I do not see why US intelligence operators would be supposedly offering a great deal of information to the New York Times about a failed mission.
It is more likely that some reporter wanted a story and was willing to listen to anyone.
Why would NSA have to use known intelligence agents to buy information to find out which hacking information the thieves had stolen. The thieves that stole the NSA information where already making the information available to hackers at a cost. The NSA could have gained the information that was sought simply by having an operator acting as a hacker.
With a cheap recorder anyone could have made recordings of the Russian that was offering information for money, and that he was given $100,000. With this information the Russian could have been arrested by the German police based upon the information on a cheap recorder. This would have made the Russian be more willing to speak the truth.
Why would trained operators ignore this and simply allow the Russian to walk away after being scammed out of $100,000?
The New York Times needs to start thinking about the information that they are being offered by sources that can claim to be anyone on a telephone. The article of the New York Times is full of holes and would not even be accepted as a spy novel.
3
Totally misleading headline. Should be corrected with an apology. I don't pay hundreds of dollars a year for this sort of junk. I can go to Breitbart or Fox for free. As a matter of fact, I think I will. I'm sure it will be a top trending story, based on this headline, with little or no context. Thank you, NY Times for doing a disservice to your readers and this country. Hannity is going to love this !
5
My main quoestion is how did this become public? I am sure the CIA and any investigation has a long history of false leads and dead ends.
1
The very idea that Trump could be compromised by the Russians -- absurd! /s
3
This really will not end well.
1
"There were other questions about the Russian’s reliability. He had a history of money laundering and a thin legitimate cover business — a nearly bankrupt company that sold portable grills for streetside sausage salesmen ... "
I'm no international spymaster but doesn't this fact alone kind of suggest that the Russian source was not what he purported to be?
U.S. intelligence should have been dealing with Russia the same way one would any criminal organization. Here's a novel idea! Approach them in the same way that Trump did when he was looking to borrow or launder money or get elected, whatever his motive was.
This smells like yet another way that Trump's lawyers and cronies are attempting to spin any future criticism of him. Control the FBI, control the Justice Department, control the CIA and control the military and you control the United States Government. Checks and balances break down. Congress and the Judiciary will be at his mercy. And the press? It has been neutered already. The social media edifice has seen to that.
3
Clearly the Russians offered the Trump kompromat in order to sow discord in our country, to fan the narrative that our intelligence services are out to take down Trump--they were even willing to pay for a video! How long before Trump uses this as more evidence to further compromise public trust in our institutions? Putin has been adept at pounding wedges in the cracks of division in our country, aided by our treasonous President.
3
It appears that Russia is toying with the US and through actions such as those described in this article, possibly sending a message to Trump, letting him know that they can expose and destroy him at any time. This explains Trump's desperation to get rid of Mueller and discredit US law and intelligence agencies and all media except the imbeciles at his beloved Fox & Friends. C'mon. A US president refuses to levy sanctions voted upon by both Republican & Dems? Or to speak an ill word of Putin? We're to believe that Trump has some singular insight on Putin that no one else has? Trump, who's so worried about voting fraud but refuses to defend the country against a foreign power infiltrating democratic institutions? This is downright and obviously weird.
Foreign intelligence services have also picked up on this oddity and are likely tracking it if only to protect themselves from the flak. But you can bet that they aren't sharing any sensitive information with Trump that would put them at risk if Trump's buddy, Putin, finds out about it. Time to call this out & stop trying to be fair and balanced. Nothing in history has been clearer.
5
Cue Breitbart, Fox News, and WSJ editorials to go crazy with this story. It is ripe for twisting into a tale of CIA and NSA attempted subversion of the Trump government. Toss a dash of Cody Shearer into their consumers' fevered minds, and all can be neatly tied back to the evil Democrats. Then GOP lawmakers can increase their attacks on the Mueller probe as somehow tainted and abuse their power to misdirect away from the actual and real scandals enveloping this White House.
1
This is the craziest thing I've heard all day. I'm saying this after hearing about a show where Jude Law is a robo-butler.
2
Nice to see confirmation that the CIA acts independently and autonomously of whoever the president may be. Now you know who really controls things.
"American intelligence agencies believe that Russia’s spy services see the deep political divisions in the United States as a fresh opportunity to inflame partisan tensions. " EXCEPT for the man Hillary and the FBI paid to go to Russia and find the good Russians with the real skinny on Trump: Mike Steele! No way he was fooled and no way the unimpeachable Comey and hero of the Democrats Yates would go to a FISA courts with no other evidence than the Steele dossier to get multiple warrants on Trumpsters. Why, according to FBI lovers Stronjk and Page, they even prepared bullets for Comey to brief Obama on "everything they were doing" with the Russia investigation which presumably includes the Russian connections. They wouldn't feed Obama a bunch of Russian spy phony-baloney, would they? Any day Mueller will verify everything. Any day now.....
1
". . . and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing." They don't know?
1
How incompetent and gullible are our "intelligence" agencies?
None of this reported here makes sense.
The work of the coders is already gone. no matter how much you pay to hackers for it.
This story tries to sell to us that the only thing cia and nsa want to know what exactly got stolen.
But that makes no sense either.
If i were the hackers (or their sales department dealing this the US spies) i would realizes quickly that the NSa doesn't know whats missing. So why would i give them a list of all the stolen goodies?
The NSA has no way to figure out if the lisyt is complete, otherwise they wouldn't want to buy it in the first place.
The only sense making part is that "look at the false Trump evidence".
So by publishing this, the media plays right in the hand of Team Trump who celebrates every bad piece of evidence as evidence that there was no wrongdoing by the trump clan in the first place.
I am disappointed by the NYT
Hillary team paid $100,000 to do cyber crimes in favor of Democrats in order to find dirt on Trump team.
American employees paid three one dollar ads in Twitter or face book, the ads were supposed to advertise that Trump is good for America - Russia relations.
Soon after 1992, as a favor to President Clinton's wishes, almost all KGB agents and even those department officials with desk jobs without gun licenses (eg. Vlad) were fired from their jobs. Even KGB employees inside the Soviet union and elsewhere, were summarily fired by President Yeltsin.
Clinton refused to reciprocate (to Boris Yeltsin's firing gestures) by not firing CIA officials and FBI officials of the cold war era. This is why older agents like Clapper are always cursing Russia today on TV, as they were cold war era officials
2
Hard to tell how credible any of this is, but I'm sure Bob Mueller will look into it unless he's sure it's a total waste of time.
1
Someone should make a miniseries of this unfolding debacle. Seriously.
Sounds like one of Putin's false evidence trails. Something the Republicans can use later to try to extricate themselves from investigation.
1
Or might have if only their first fall guy hadn't thought he had to off himself to bury this plot. This is just Putin trying to lure CIA the way they got Trump. CIA knew this and told Putin to keep his leaky dirt for his own enjoyment.
1
So now we have Hillary paying for a fake dossier put together using RUSSIAN sources. We have emails from Mark Warner (head of the Senate investigation) showing that he was working with RUSSIANS trying to get dirt on the president, and now other spies paying RUSSIANS for dirt on Trump. After almost two years of investigations there is no evidence against President Trump, but plenty of evidence against traitorous Democrats and members of the Deep State.
4
The CIA and the FBI have video recorded "parties" of Russian prostitutes and Trump during the Miss Universe contest. If and when the video(s) and or audio is released, Trump will have 24 hours to resign. The catalyst will be when the "powers that be" decide Trump is a true and very present danger to America.
2
You don't have to pay $100,000 to obtain compromising material on Trump. All you have to do is turn on the news every day. Like today. He told everyone what a fine, upstanding man the wife-beater who gave him his documents every day is, or tonight, when he declined to release the Democratic Committee members' memo. Every day, we get fresh evidence of his unfairness, his extreme self-interest, his monumental self-regard, and his total unfitness for the office that Putin obtained for him to occupy.
3
Is this for real? It sounds like a badly written pilot for a TV series. Confused, indecisive, bumbling and, strictly speaking, poorly plotted - by all parties involved. Not to mention the lousy casting. If this is spycraft, dump the NSA and the CIA and start all over again. It sounds so unbelievable - like the invented stories on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."
Reporter Rosenberg needs someone to write a gloss on this incredible tale. Russian bumbling is of lesser concern to the US while American bumbling is most certainly of concern to the American citizens who finance our intelligence apparatus. Why would all of this be prime time news unless there was something of value we gained from the entire shoddy operation? The American Spies Who Came in From the Cold all seem have a bad case of failed intelligence flu.
Somehow I picture the Russian as a 13-year-old gum-chewing child. "I promise you BIG secrets, you bring me one million dollars, secrets is hidden in Starsky & Hutch lunchbox."
2
Our American CIA officials do not seem very competent. This just reads like it was an IC leak before a story comes out about them trying to purchase damaging info on the President. They are using the hacking tools as cover.
2
Don't forget that Reality Winner, who tried to inform us of Russian meddling, is still in jail, while the Trump* acolytes who did actual crimes, are free on bail.
1
“They” know what they’re doing. We do not. Simple as that.
1
American intelligence personnel already know just how shadowy and duplicitous Russian bots can be. Members of the now-president's campaign in 2016 were baited by the Russians with promises of dirt on Secretary Clinton but were instead ensnared in an elaborate Russian web of intrigue and deception that Robert Mueller is now investigating. Russian operatives have no desire to harm or undermine the president and the American businessman should have known better. A fool and his money are soon parted.
This is on Trump's watch, so hopefully we won't be inundated with alt right propaganda blaming Hillary Clinton for it.
1
So the guys that stole the hacking info were going to give you back a copy? You did not remember how or what?
Was it a NUMBERED COPY?
This article is evidence of a leak. The author has obviously colluded with a leaker from the CIA. If they wanted to be a whistleblower, I don't think they followed proper protocol. Am I reading actual evidence of a crime?
1
Now everyone will try to sell intel information. How long will you carry water for the elites?
Seems everybody is involved with the Russians except for the President .Shiff now wants their business,Obama,Mueller and Ms Clinton were very factually involved leading to the comey coverup and now The Mueller coverup ,of ostensibly his own tracks and recently his exile to a non disclosed location.what this is all about and only about is the landslide election of a President whos popularityy is only vastly increasing by the day.
2
If any of this is true, it is stunning the CIA supposedly the world's top spy agency is creating very advanced hacking tools, looses them and lost money to recover them. Then the guy walks away just like that. Vow.
Many left-wing readers have TDS trying to tie this to Trump, while Kamala Harris was questioning CIA director about global warming.
3
trying to fix one mistake with another is the definition of incompetent. I haven't respected our intel agencies since 9/11. We threw money at them out of fear and they just got more stupid and lazy. Some rando russian is gonna give you what you want and toss in some dirt to sink a president when the news and half the country is frothing at the mouth to sink him? How are bells not going off? It's like a looney toons episode with a carrot on a land mine.
The FBI using tax payer money to get National Enquire level information on a president.
The Obama FBI is compromises and needs to be completely reviewed with new leadership top down.
2
Much of the problem exists due to many Americans' juvenile attitudes regarding sex. One of the reasons why a possible video of Trump cavorting with prostitutes is considered important is that it could be used for the purposes of blackmail. However, if Americans could get passed the high school mentality of who is copulating with who, then information regarding the sexual history of politicians would be rendered worthless.
I do not care who my mechanic engages in sexual relations with; I just care if he repairs my car properly for a reasonable price. I do not care who politicians engage in sexual relations with; I just care if they improve the country and lives of the people residing within it.
5
Given his unending praise for Putin and Russia, his denials of what every intelligence agency in the world says, that Russia did meddle in our elections and continues to do so even today, you can only come to one conclusion...he has already been compromised/blackmailed by them. No President or leader of their own country denigrates and attacks the very institutions of it's country like this President does. Sorry, but who he cavorts with speaks volumes about who he is, his morals, values and decency. When you lack these essential values, your policies are a reflection of who you are.
2
John Le Carré indeed! Of course mere readers cannot know what's cooking and if we do not doubt Russia's desire to meddle we also know that the US is a superior meddler (NSA, Snowden & all that). The Russians have Kompromat but the FBI compromised Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers too. One sentence though gave me pause: "The viewing took place at the Russian Embassy in Berlin" so, on the one hand, the Russians are presented as super spies who determined the outcome of the US election but, on the other, they are as dumb as Trump who keeps incriminating himself. The article then asks us to believe it's a sting organized by Russia but the spies are so inept that they give dates in the Russian Embassy. Surely there is more to it than this. Did US services understand it was a scam only when they got to the Russian Embassy? Then they would be fools too.
3
How much of this is true? And how much of this does russia *want* to be true?
"The United States officials worked through an intermediary — an American businessman based in Germany — to preserve deniability."
No indication that anyone talked to the american.
"They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president."
If this isn't true, what a great (for russia) planted statement.
"The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government."
Again, if this isn't true, the russians imply americans were "afraid" of russian efforts.
This obviously won't be a NYTimes selected comment with this next part but ...
Maggie Haberman explained why NYT believed/published that trump wasn't trying to get rid of Mueller: (not a direct quote) "we were all surprised how good they were at lying."
Credulity isn't an asset for reporters.
Maybe this all happened. Maybe some of it did. I can well believe our gov took wrong steps. And let us all remember everything Pompeo has said to carry water for trump.
But already - even at this initial report - parts of it don't add up AND play directly into this administration's fears AND directly echo russia's aspirations ... which is too on the nose. (side eye to Maggie Haberman)
Assuming this story is true, American intelligence folks have been fooled.
It is not the first time.
I am not convinced in this case that this actually happened. Nor do I care if it did happen as described.
There is no proof.
Deep State doesn't look too good here. What's the old line, "they're not just dishonest, they're incompetent too" and add "arrogant".
Trump may have his flaws, but it is salutory that his completely unexpected election has jolted these $75 billion dollar goniffs.
Just think, if Hillary had got in, such incompetent corruption would be unknown. The only thing they make safe is their budget.
4
The more I reread this article, the more convinced I am that this article was provided by the US and European intelligence community to let Trump and team know that they have "the goods". If the Russian double-crossed them, why is he listed as a source?
2
I am a bit unclear on this story. It said that the agents didn't want the Trump information and yet the concern was the political fallout if they took it and they were concerned Russia was feeding us false information. What other information did they try to provide other than a video that was basically useless? Moreover, precisely why was the CIA going to a Russian EMBASSY to get kompromat?
P. T. Barnum was right. A sucker is born every minute and in this case it's our own covert operations. There is no smoking gun to be had. The salacious video of Trump, the recorded bribes are all smoke and mirrors. The liberals and the DNC keep lining up to pay for outright fabricated stories. The mire extraordinary the tale the money they pay.
2
Whose decision was it that this effort was a failure? Did the Trump team force the operation to be shut down?
Quote: "Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian."
Question: Why not? If there is some information available, why not get it and evaluate its veracity?
Quote: "Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data."
Question: Of course the information is unverified until an attempt has been made to verify it. Why was there no attempt to verify it? Why is the information described as "possibly fabricated" instead of "possibly true"? Are they not equivalent? Why is the adjective "purported" prefixed to "Russian intelligence data"? Why is there an attempt to tarnish the information without any supporting evidence and without even relating what the information is?
Essentially, once again, who decided that this was wasted money?
6
intelligence agencies do pay for secrets from time to time. when they suspected they were being used in a transaction which had intentionally targeted themselves as unwitting agents in a Russian strategic defense op, they backed away.
that's how it is supposed to work.
5
The Steele Dossier is partially substantiated. And was paid for by Democrats, but first by conservatives trying to hurt Trump in the primaries.
4
This latest intelligence fiasco proves an important point. The US political split enables powerful adversary states like Russia/China to take advantage in many areas, including espionage.
The Gospel of Mark 3:25 comes handy: Jesus states, "And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand."
4
During the republican campaign DT attacked the CIA for role in Viet Nam and the weapons of mass destruction claim that led to Iraq war. He is no fool to attack agencies that either ignore evidence, plant evidence or mislead elected officials.
6
This story discredits the allegations contained in Cody Shearer's memo, which in turn discredits Christopher Steele because Steele shared Cody Shearer's findings with the FBI.
4
I wonder what makes our intelligence guys think that the hacking tools can be recovered without there being copies of the the tools floating around and already distributed to rogue actors.
Russians are only too eager to exploit our national gullibility to lap up anything that would incriminate Trump.
Stop making fools of yourselves.
4
One of the “best” features of digital media, especially software “tools” is that it is so easy to make perfect copies.
The concept of “buying back software” is like buying back an audio CD that the thief has had for a week - enough time to make 100,000 copies.
So we can dismiss the idea that the goal was to recover data the black agencies know has been duplicated.
That means the two important questions are who ordered the move to pay someone claiming to have material to blackmail POTUS.
If it came from the White House, it was a payment to prevent information considered real from surfacing.
If it came from an intelligence or law enforcement agency, it was a move to uncover evidence believed real either to (I would hope) nail down a fairly solid case against a president who attempted to obstruct justice, much worse than blocking the Democrats’ memo on a Congressional committee meeting containing information they say was deliberately left out of the Republican members’ version of events (that just keeps the alternative version from the public), to obtaining a lever - a trove of embarrassing information that would allow them to continue their investigation without constant threats and denunciations.
Today we lost a career Justice Department lawyer who would become #2 in line to be ordered to fire the Special Counsel if a Saturday night massacre was ordered (though I see no sense of justice in the heart or mind of any lawyer who would work for Walmart).
Wonder who’s next?
3
even if this alleged Trump Tape exists and was leaked, do you really think it would matter much to his loyal base?
4
No more than it would matter to Dems if it were an old tape of Bill Clinton.
There simply must be a way to evaluate intelligence that you’re paying for ... before handing over the cash. On one hand, $100k probably didn’t feel like a significant amount if the trade could prevent sabotage.
Assume for a moment that counterintelligence officers are unbiased, apolitical professionals. If the source enthusiastically offers, say, pages of instructions of porcine insemination techniques, or a handful of magic beans, then no one there to buy hacking tools would pay.
Why would the inclusion of trump kompromat, genuine or not, change the officer’s next move? Because $100k is chump change, maybe. If that is the case, then they wouldn’t have been “bilked” because this would be seen as the cost of doing shady business.
Looks like politization of intelligence and institutional anxiety about pee pee tapes has altered the gathering and analysis of Information. This inability to do their jobs is a bigger problem, not a one-time con. Because sources who waste time and peddle nonsense are nothing new.
Donald Trump was correct. The US government was in cahoots with Russia and the Clinton machine, the intelligence community was spying on him and its time to " Drain the Swamp ".
9
It's very interesting that the reporter got so much detailed information about the operation from "American intelligence officials." I didn't think those guys were that loose-lipped and cooperative with the press. Sounds like a lot of what would normally be classified information. The element about Trump "kompromat" makes me suspect a set-up to politicize and discredit the CIA and NSA in addition to the FBI. Bottom line, Why are we reading about this intelligence gathering operation?
7
We should really be calling the CIA "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight."
Given their bottomless budgets and technology, this agency has proven itself to be totally inept since its inception. Installing the Shah in Iran, backing the Somosa's and Pinochet's in the Americas, the Bay of Pigs, missing the fall of the Soviet Union, WMD; and the list goes on.
The problem with this agency has always been at the top. Perhaps someday, n a more perfect world politics can be taken out of the management of this vital agency and the professionals will be permitted to provide pure intelligence for our leaders to act on. Sadly, that's not too likely.
1
Sounds like most of this happened under Trump's watch, with his people in charge. If I recall Trump transition team never showed up for briefings with various depts and..........Trump himself refused the daily briefings, too boring he said. Even the American people knew b4 the election that Russia was involved in cyber invasion. Wouldn't you think he would want to know what the CIA- NSA were doing and in particular because he was and still is the target?
I don't know how this spy novel will end. But I can tell you right now, as a University of Wisconsin alum, I am going to be very careful about buying brats from street vendors. Who knows what listening devices are in those Russian portable grills -- or maybe there are peep shows?
4
" The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing." Maybe you can explain to us how it is that computer code is a "Thing" that can go "missing" and vanish from inventory. Then is it possible to "recover" the code and keep copies from being distributed world wide? Really?
4
I have nostalgia for 2013 and 2014...Obama had just won his 2nd term and inclusion was the goal of the land. The Republicans biggest problems appeared to be debt and deficit. Obama had his pen ready to change America in a positive way. Good times.
6
If this wasn't so important, this would have made an absurd plot for Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau's Pink Panther series.
Although this episode didn’t prove out, it doesn’t mean it couldn't have happened. Especially since Trump refuses to say anything bad about the Russians, and he refuses to protect the US from Russian cyberattacks against our voting systems, past, present and future. And finally Trump has refused to add additional sanctions against certain Russians, which Congress, has almost unanimously directed him to do. Trump has no problem tweeting about everything else.
It doesn’t take anything more to infer that Trump has already been compromised, by the best in the business. If he were an honest person, he wouldn’t be having this problem. His own prior and current greed that has compromised him.
NAME ONE OTHER US PRESIDENT THAT HAS REFUSED TO PROTECT THE UNITED STATES AGAINST ITS MORTAL ENEMIES, INCLUDING THE FORMER SOVIET UNION KNA RUSSIA, WHO WOULDN’T HESITATE TO DESTROY US.
FINALLY, TRUMP HAS SWORN AN OATH TO PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE US. IF HE DEFENDED THE US AS HE DOES WITH EVERY OTHER PERSONAL BENEFIT FOR HIMSELF, THIS WOULD BE A DIFFERENT STORY.
TRUMP IS OUR "MANCHURIAN" PRESIDENT.
75
I don’t think Trump’s a Manchurian President or that Russia is a ‘mortal’ enemy.
No world leader since Ronald Reagan gas believed anyone would survive a US-Russian strategic nuclear war.
I do believe Trump walked into either a money trap or a honey trap - though the latter seems not to bother his supporters - who didn”t abandon him for paying for time with a porn star, then paying her hush money - on top of his well-known bragging about grabbing women by their pubic mound, and problems over the size of his “button”.
No, it would be a sitdown over what US policy changes he’d make to get his Moscow Trump Hotel.
Aha! Trump is our Manchurian president.
The entertaining irony here is that Condon's book was a satire about our overblown national paranoia.
Case in point.
His refusal to join, or even back the investigation into Russian interference, and his refusal to reveal his financial dealings, is a violation of his constitutional oath to stand for the "general welfare" of the nation / country. Since this is all a criminal matter, the House will need a 'preponderance of evidence' to impeach. It seems from all I have read across the journalistic spectrum that this threshold has been reached. And I haven't been privy to his tax returns, as I presume Team Mueller has.
Finally, how many copies of the Russian translation of The Manchurian Candidate are there? I am sure it is assigned reading for all Freshmen at the Moscow spy academy.
I remember the Tet Offensive which the North Vietnamese kicked off Jan 30, 1968, and raged for the next 6 to 7 months. The bloodiest year of the Vietnam War for American casualties. The so-called American “intelligence”
community and military totally missed it. Although the CIA and our military have been pretty good at overthrowing democratically-elected governments and installing military dictators.
Clowns.
17
Be sure to hand deliver this reporting to Special
Counsel Mueller - wear a trench coat and meet him at midnight in Lafayette Park. The recognition signal can be "Forward Together."
24
Maybe his code name could be Deep Trachea.
Outclassed in basic spycraft, with their software trove of tools stolen and possibly used against them, with a President that most likely colluded with the Russian intelligence services, all that... $100K would have been spent. Even $100M, or more. Of course, if the US had obtained the goods...
10
What collusion, the only collusion with the Russians was by Clinton and the DNC by paying Steele to pay russian intelligence operatives for fake data. That's collusion, so look no further.
Just think, no active senior Russian official would sell what purports to be Russian state secrets (kompromat on Trump) without the approval of the FSB, unless they have a death wish. So Clinton and her chums on the FBI and DOJ have been using FSB sourced and approved data in a so far futile attempt to oust Trump. Isn't that sedition and close to treason ?
Of course the other possibility is that it was just faked stories put together by Codey shearer and Sid Blumenthal and feed to Steele to obscure its origins, but I don't think that sounds any better really.
3
Call it Karma. America in my lifetime has interfered plenty in other countries elections and politics. Backing coups and dictators from El Salvador to Vietnam. Chile to Guatemala.
41
@Winston. "Call it Karma." exactly my thought. What goes around comes around. Who knew how willing Americans would be to effect, indeed, be complicit, in their own demise. Stunning really...
1
How about giving the rest of the 1,000,000 to some college kids in the form of scholarships? They'd handle it better and be more worthy of it than the NSA.
21
A long, drawn out, unconsummated tease.
10
Since cyberweapons can be copied why would getting a hold of them be important? Doesn't the NSA already have copies because they originally produced them? Or does the fact a Russian can produce them prove the Russians stole them, which the U.S. government seems to know anyway?
33
The agency was attempting to get a full inventory of what was stolen. In this sense, you need to read the word "stolen" as meaning "copied." Once copied by a foreign power and/or others, the agency would be in a position to warn domestic users of what changes would be needed to be made in domestic cyber installations in order to avoid having the hacking tools used against them to create domestic chaos here at home, such as at power plants, fiiancial institutions, etc..
1
They don’t know how much was stolen. Since it was a digital break in it’s harder to know what was taken. They know what’s been released online but is that all?
Amy As of now, the CIA doesn't know exactly what was stolen. So, they're trying to buy copies on the black market. If someone on the black market can provide a copy of some piece of software, then they know for certain that software was among that which was stolen.
That won't solve the entire problem, as software which was stolen could still remain outside of CIA hands, but with any software they can obtain, they'll know for certain that it was stolen.
Gee, it gets so complicated I'm getting confused about who's on which side. Oh wait, that's what they (The Russians and the Republicans) want.
101
get it right, it's the Democrats who are colluding, all the evidence points that way. The only evidence for any Trump/Russian collusion is proven Democrat talking points. Projection.
6
Sorry, dlnyc, but read the article more carefully... this is an attempt by the Esteemed Jarret/Comey/Krapper/Brennan/Johnson Group of 17 Intelligence Agencies to clean up after more of its incompetence... (not only losing its "inventory" but not even knowing what was stolen) All this started "during the 2016 election" and "in early 2017" according to the article.
Did CIA Director Pompeo have any role in this operation?
If so, what?
And was the President briefed on this operation while it was in progress?
15
Sorry, Someguy, but read the article more carefully... this is an attempt by the Esteemed Jarret/Comey/Krapper/Brennan/Johnson Group of 17 Intelligence Agencies to clean up after more of its incompetence... All this started "during the 2016 election" and "in early 2017" according to the article.
Pompeo does seem to have let them try to establish "their inventory," more incompetence by the Esteemed Jarret/Comey/Krapper/Brennan/Johnson Group of 17 Intelligence Agencies to not only have this stuff stolen but know exactly what was stolen.
1
I did read it carefully, Dennis, but not through the distorted lens through which you seemed to have viewed it.
Chump change. That should have been a flag. We love our dirty laundry thrown or sold back to us. Lazy may be another term.
5
On a day of extraordinarily bad news for Trump, this story may have the longest legs. Of course, the NSA and CIA wanted to recover their stolen property, but why would they have no interest in information that ties Trump to the Russians, the subject of major governmental investigations. Sounds like a major cover-up in the works.
19
Because they didn't want to add fuel to the anti-intel agency fire.
What an odd comment, William Walker. Read the article more carefully... this is an attempt by the Esteemed Jarret/Comey/Krapper/Brennan/Johnson Group of 17 Intelligence Agencies to clean up after more of its incompetence... (not only losing its "inventory" but not even knowing what was stolen) All this started "during the 2016 election" and "in early 2017" according to the article.
1
According to this article the "U.S. spies" whom I assume of deep cover CIA, got bilked out of 100K under the guise of securing incriminating info on Trump and cyber hacking tools previously stolen: OK. So was it worth the 100K to 1. Not get anything on Trump (because there is NOT anything on Trump) and 2. Not recovering the hacking tech.
Well done, CIA!
21
Soa Russian met with CIA spies and provided them information about the Trump campaign working with the Russians in the 2016 election, but the CIA guys said they were not interested in that. So did the CIA guys turn over the information to the FBI? Did hey turn it over to Mueller? Did they give it back to the Russian saying they were not interested? How do we know what was included, and did they keep it or give it back? Incredible either way. Who is the CIA working for?
9
We finally have the confession that many of us knew all along, that "the explosive and unverified dossier compiled by a former British spy was paid for by the Democrats."
Waiting for the sequel that reveals:
a) which democrat paid for it?
b) did some of that money go to the Russians?
c) how did the democrats subsequently use that information?
d) how did others, like the deep state, misuse it?
e) how far up the chain did it go?
It is becoming clear that there was a Russian collusion, and it was the democrats.
38
Not surprising I suppose that right wingers criticize what sounds/reads like an investigation purchased to attempt to uncover FACTS (granted that the purchasers hoped to uncover unflattering or worse facts regarding their opponent) . Parts of the right wing do seem demonstrably more efficient and cost efficient, for their purposes, by simply creating and spreading "fake news."
1
Um, most of the action took place under the Trump administration.
2
reading the *intercept* article leaves the reader with a significantly different impression:
“The information[ onTrump] was vetted and ultimately determined that while a significant part of it was accurate and verifiable, other parts of the data were impossible to verify and could be controversial.”. [Note “impossible to verify” (at that point) does not mean false.]
...
“Many intelligence officials are reluctant to get involved with anything related to the Trump-Russia case for fear of blowback from Trump himself, who might seek revenge by firing senior officials and wreaking havoc on their agencies.
...
“Some people involved with the channel believe that the CIA has grown so heavily politicized under Pompeo that officials there have become fearful of taking possession of any materials that might be considered damaging to Trump.“
...
38
Right out of the old "Spy vs Spy", Boris and Nayasha comics. Or maybe, "Who's on First, What's on Second."
11
The Russians are running circles around our law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Most of these scams, frauds, and flim flams occured on Obama's watch. How did Russians steel "cyberweapons" from the NSA? We've got the most advanced high tech industry in the world. Why can't we blunt Russian and Chinese cyber assaults on our security and privacy? Why are their assaults on our political institutions bearing fruit? The Chinese now possess private information on nearly every employee of the federal government. How on earth did that happen?
8
Sounds like our intelligence figured out that this was a bogus deal, but played it out and now we get to know about it.
6
Actually, it sounds like the US spies were looking for dirt on Trump, couldn't find it, and knew this story would get out so they made up the interest in repurchasing stolen cyber weapons. For starters, what's the point? The software has been copied a thousand times over. Second, you already know what software was stolen. So, paying $100,000 for stolen software doesn't make a lot of sense---it's not like you're removing it from circulation. It's long been redistributed. This is a cover for US spy agencies paying for dirt on Trump.
3
This story makes the IC look incompetent. Why would they pay money for their own software? I would hope the NSA/CIA would at least have a backup of their own tools - and purchasing it from someone is useless because there would be copies. The real issue, to me at least, is that these guys were caught trying to buy dirt on the US government from Russia. The stolen software angle is just the cover story (which frankly makes them look even worse).
1
Hmmm. I've been worried from the beginning that our efforts to tie Trump to the Russians would end up biting us right in the behind. Mission accomplished?
21
Of course there is negative material on Trump. Our agencies know it, our allies know it ,our enemies know it and Putkin is using it. How long must this country put up with a known criminal in the white house and all the resulting turmoil in our government? What happened to the Congress whose duty it is to control the president and hold him within the rule of law?
58
The shortsighted GOP is far more interested it scoring on their legislative agenda (deregulation, undoing Obamacare, tax cuts, DoD spending, entitlement reform) than protecting the integrity of our election process.
I believe Christopher Steele was so blinded by Trump hatred he accepted the Dossier info as 100% true, even though the info he received was actually produced by the FSB.
19
Steele was horrified at the results that his investigation uncovered, not blinded by hatred.
4
The headline ends up being misleading, though strictly true.
The Americans didn't pay and in fact did not want to pay for information on Trump. They (foolishly?) paid the money for information about the cyber weapons hack. The idea of giving dirt on Trump was from the Russian side.
17
I don’t know, but if the guy had taken a hundred grand and given them nothing. I wouldn’t think they’d just let him walk out the door!
9
A million dollars wasted? It's hard to conceive of that much money. A million dollars is fully one third of what we spend to send Trump to Mar a Lago for the weekend!
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317819-trumps-mar-a-lago-trip...
18
$100K, not a million. I hope you feel the same way about military parades.
Sounds like another smear campaign by Russians and the intelligence agencies against Trump using "stolen NSA hacking tools" as a cover. Because as we all now know, government agents would NEVER allow their political views to dictate their actions, and they always tell the truth.
10
For those asking why US intelligence would like to recover hacked information that is already "out there," it seems that what the US agents wanted to know was how much information had been hacked, and is now in the hands of the Shadow Brokers. In other words the NSA and the CIA don't know exactly what was hacked, and they were hoping to determine it by getting the information from the Russian source.
18
Why is this tale believable? Like the FBI director Comey said, it's not illegal to lie to a reporter.
For example, my Facebook account was hacked in Moscow, according to Facebook, by a pretty girl who put her photo on my profile. If ordinary computer savvy Russian citizens can hack into Facebook accounts with such ease it is difficult to believe that the Russian government was responsible for so many false Russian Facebook accounts that manipulated Americans into voting for Donald Trump.
6
Please, those in a position to receive Kompromst on Trump, turn it over to Mueller for verification. Particularly important is the financial information. We cannot tolerate much more of the chaos of allowing this bottomless pit of immorality to occupy our White House.
16
I have a feeling that the underlying message of this article is letting Trump know that our intelligence services do in fact have it (secured in Europe).
Ok, so, the Russians are and have been messing with us, consuming an extraordinary amount of time, money, and resources, and WE are paying for it!?
Thank you, sir, may I have another?
5
OK - I'm coming back in the morning... so far the dancing and excusing is pretty weak... with a debacle like this on our side, we're going to have to get a lot better at spinning to make it be about Trump
5
Muddying the waters. You steal, you muddy up the situation. I am pretty sure this falls under the heading of counterespionage. Compromise an asset, then compromise the evidence by which the asset was compromised.
Really, this needs to be out of the papers imo. If our intelligence agencies cannot properly handle these issues, our democracy is in bigger trouble than I thought.
After all, what the KGB learned was, not an ideology, but how to manipulate and play an entire nation. That is who Putin is. And if you think he does not dream of internally subverting our faith in our system of government and way of life, you misunderstand.
It almost sounds like a cliche joke: After the KGB controls everyone, what is left? YOU.
9
Leaving aside most of your litany: what faith do you have in a -two party, electoral college- system which, two out of five times this century, planted the loser of the popular vote as POTUS? This is almost a farce by now.
1
Donald Trump, by any measure, by any means, beyond anyone who defends him, betrayed his country along with the other suspects reported in the media. And it is now an undeniable fact, that the Republican party, from Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan on down to a man and woman are accomplices up to their neck. This is what our country has come to, that a political party cares will do anything to stay in power, including turning a blind eye to a traitor.
9
Still more crafty Russians seeking cash from gullible Americans seeking "compromising" information on Trump. This Russian tried to fool the U.S. spies with bogus original information on the Shadow Brokers and a blurred video allegedly showing Trump, greatly lowered his asking price, and yet the U.S. spies continued to contact him. Our intelligence services are starting to resemble the Keystone Cops.
5
I am not convinced that reporting about this is good. And reporting that military joggers can be tracked by their exercise bands in Syria. Do we need to know the details? Why is $100,000 much when thousands of man years of programmers are at stake? The work of our brightest coders was stolen.
5
This story sounds extremely complicated and confusing, leaving one with lots of questions.
Did the intel community understand immediately they were being played by Putin, and then decide to turn the tables on the Russians?
Did the Russians devise a plan with Trump to deflect away from the #TrumpRussia investigation, and to make our FBI/Intel community look less credible?
Could this story mean the Russians and Dt were/are in cahoots so the media will play into their hands and confuse Americans about Trump’s guilt in the Russian conspiracy that affected the 2016 election?
You in the media better present this important information way better than you have tonight to clear up a lot of these questions before you are complicit in letting the Russians and Trump off the hook before Mueller is finished. It all sounds like an invented story by the Russians & Trump to create another huge shiny object to halt the investigation. Tread carefully because you’re dealing with masters of propaganda and lies.
12
@RLevin: Well said. MR is in unknown territory, regardless of how reliably he believes his sources are, he simply does not have the training to discern if he was being gamed, or if his sources were being gamed. Good intelligence work requires analysis on a macro level, in which patterns, formerly acquired knowledge of tactics, personalities, and other factors are assessed and all assigned value.
In this report, none of that has been asserted as MR is not in the position to do so.
IMHO, this article is dangerous on so many levels.
1
Still waiting for proof of collusion.
15
Would you take proof money laundering instead? because I think that is what were are going to see, if Mueller will be allowed to finish his work and that there is still someone around in the DOJ with the guts publish Mueller's conclusions.
1
Ask George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty.
1
Our intelligence service, the CIA who is being run by an unusually partisan director, was more worried that they might be perceived as "biased liberals" than getting to the truth. Our democracy is under outright assault.
10
This article makes it seem like our intelligence service is an oxymoron - and I don't just mean our current administration. Offered stolen hacking tools from a Russian? All those red flags around this person and still they handed over money? Because they couldn't verify the video they decided to go ahead? And why so desperate to get hacking tools back? Isn't it already too late if they've been compromised?
As for Trump? He's spent his entire adult life in the tabloids, not a lot of secrets left. An intern with a computer can compile a credible dossier. Instead, everyone got dirty hands from the hired consultants dossier which is now used by both sides as a weapon. Instead, no matter what it tells about Mr. Trump, we probably already know it. His supporters don't care and the rest of us are appalled. I don't think all the Russian meddling in the world will change that.
154
"And why so desperate to get hacking tools back? Isn't it already too late if they've been compromised?"
Because they're not sure exactly what's been taken, and it's critical they know which tools are now useless as a result of their theft and which are not. Getting all the stolen tools from this guy would give them a full inventory, assuming he didn't hold anything back ... but why that would be a reasonable assumption, I can't imagine.
4
the hacking tools they planned to purchase would indicate how much- to what extent- our abilities were compromised. You are correct that we are not buying these back because code can be copied.
2
hmmm...pretty good take Kathy. As a career military officer I can tell you that the public's view of the "intelligence community" is vastly overblown. They are a normal mix of good-to-barely-competent people on the public dole...just like the rest of us Feds. Their "analysis" is not normally "decisonable" and usually just important-sounding restatements of what most would consider obvious anyway. Concur with take on DJT too. Half the people and appalled beyond recognition, and half the people couldn't care less. Good pick NYT!
2
This doesn't make sense... hacked information cannot be 'returned'. Unless it was some sort of hardware, physically stolen, I cannot understand how or why we would pay to get it back. Some clarification on what sort of cyber warfare tools we're talking about would be appreciated- because if it could be switched out with information, that means they were expecting data. Someone please clue me in.
8
Because they are not sure exactly what was stolen as the shadow brokers claim to have more hacking tools that they havent released yet.
1
And these operations were conducted by the professionals we keep being told about? Who was in charge of this keystone cop operation and when will hearings be made public about them? It is just absolute incompetence.
3
If there were a video why wouldn't it be used now?
Trump is in his seventies, he doesn't look healthy and there is Mueller with an army of investigators working on a case that could quickly end his presidency.
In other words if a real video exists then its peak value is at present.
My guess, flimflam artists are attempting to sell a phony video or a non-existent one.
5
It sounds like there aren't a whole lot of brains in these agencies. Don't we have enough tech people in this country, who can secure all of our agencies digital footprint, or are we that vulnerable? Of course, it is hard to find, and hire employees, who are forced to toe the line with partisan politics, and not the best interests of this country, and its citizens!
4
BOTH republicans and democrats paid for the Steele dossier. It is not a conspiracy.
29
Wrong. Steele was only employed after the Washington Free Beacon stopped paying Fusion GPS, and the Clinton Campaign and the DNC (and the Obama campaign fund) paid Fusion via Perkins Coie a(and illegally flagged it as legal expenses, campaign finance fraud).
The Dossier is the work of the Russian FSB , paid for by Clinton and co. No GOP payment though McCain was involved in spreading it to the FBI.
3
Only that Democrats used it to get FISA warrants time and again to spy on Americans. There's a difference! :)
1
It seems that Russia is really banking on how broken our politics is. It's becoming a more sure bet with every passing day.
10
One thing is for sure. That the war between Trump and the intelligence services if leading to an extraordinary number of leaks. I understand that this is news, but I pine for a time when it would not have been leaked, when someone would not have seen leaking this as imperative. It would be better if all of these sleuths worked this hard to leak Trump's tax returns.
16
I found the below to be the most informative paragraph. Russian disinformation is working on our credulous public, intelligence agencies, and media. Russia has succeeded and indeed makes our country look "foolish." They laugh as long as this Russia collusion narrative consumes our public discourse, and gleefully pour gasoline on this fire every day:
"Part of that effort, the officials said, appears to be trying to spread information that hews closely to unsubstantiated reports about Mr. Trump’s dealings in Russia, including the purported video, whose existence Mr. Trump has repeatedly dismissed."
1
the intercept article says agent verified some of the “Trump” material, and portrays a CIA reluctant to get involved Trump-Russia material for purely political reasons.
“The information was vetted and ultimately determined that while a significant part of it was accurate]
and verifiable, other parts of the data were impossible to verify and could be controversial.”. [Note “impossible to verify” (at that point) does not mean false.
2
Why would the CIA or NSA have any interest in "getting back" hacking software that was stolen : It is not like NSA does not have backup copies of the software OR hasn't long since moved on to better software. Nor could there be any assurance that the Shadow Brokers would not continue to keep a copy of the software for themselves to use or to sell to others.
Why did the writer never question his source about the pointlessness of "getting back" the NSA hacking software ? The whole story does not add up.
12
Because the Nsa etc are not sure exactly what was stolen as the shadow brokers claim to have more tools that they havent released yet. Knowing exactly what they stole is well worth 100k.
1
Eventually, Trump will become such an albatross, even to the Russians, that Putin will release his tax returns, which he has been doubtlessly saving for a rainy day.
7
"The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government." Really? This article sounds a little self-serving, especially since it did actually create discord in the American government.
9
The video is, if not irrelevant, then relatively unimportant even if it exists. That won't bounce him from office. What he's said to have done probably broke only laws outlawing prostitution (which I'd assume Russia has on the books). What might-- and certainly will, if the Democrats gain control of both chambers-- lose him his job and theoretically his freedom are the emails, if they show collusion with the Russians, and the bank records, if they show financial ties to Putin's inner circle. This is what the CIA is duty bound to seek and and retrieve, if possible. With their boss the subject of the evidence, however, they'd have to find some way to bypass the WH and turn it over to the House and Senate Intel. committees-- and not just the chairmen, of course, but the entire committees.
5
Becomes clearer every day that the whole Russiagate story is a political football being used by Repubs and Dems to smear their adversaries. in other words, a domestic inter party spat. Who loses out are the American people being led by the nose towards a bankrupt and isolationist foreign policy with no other option besides rampant militarization.
2
My thought - this is the US Intelligence Service letting Trump and company know that they have the goods on them "secured somewhere in Europe". I've been watching Fox's website and so far - crickets. Here's hoping!
6
The US should make every effort to uncover the intelligence officials who leaked the information reported in this article and send them to prison for a very long time.
Whatever happened to Jeff Sessions’ campaign to find and punish leakers? The same thing that happened to the campaign to find all that rampant voter fraud, I guess.
1
Abscam. Iran-Contra. Iran WMDs. This sorry episode. I'm not sure we're getting our money's worth from our multitudinous intelligence agencies.
2
Sure sounds like a made up deal to make some quick money and discredit the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The GOP seem perfectly content to ride Putins coat tails into the sunset.
Tillerson in an interview clip on the Daily Show said: If the Russians were determined to influence the midterm elections, there was not much we could do about it.
Really?
270
Or - those implicated here are getting their cover story in the news before they were caught trying to buy dirt on the US government from Russia - the very thing Trump was accused of.
2
Wait - I thought the IC was against Trump? Now they are trying to help him? My head is a bit dizzy from narrative spinning on all all these dimes someone dropped.
Right, it is all made up. Democrats are incapable of doing anything wrong. You just keep believing that it is all you got.
1
Sounds like some Russian spies might soon be turning up dead at some place deep within mother Russia.
17
Wow.
That Vladimir Putin sure is smarter than President Trump.
103
Yes, but that's a pretty low bar....
3
It is not clear from this story that the Administration knew any of this was going on, and they will certainly deny they did. They can use this as more evidence that Justice and Intel are working against this president, and they can invoke Cody Shearer to say the Democrats are behind it. And of course the alt-right media will be more than happy to report it that way.
41
Tom,
Are you suggesting that Mike Pompeo had no idea what was going on in his own department? I don't buy that for a minute. He authorized all of this. If he didn't, there's be two dozen CIA field operatives fired by now for going rogue.
4
Clinton bought the dossier that Obama's DOJ/FBI used in court...neither Obama nor Clinton will be able to run away from this. there are document trails. Sidney Blumenthal was one of the primary sources for the dossier. So it's gonna get ugly for the DNC and Democrats involved with the illegal actions of this mess.
9
And what if the allegations made in the dossier are true?
5
Buried in this article is an extremely important piece of information: The Russians are *still* attacking American politics and exploiting divisions:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/04/trump-twitter-russian...
Yet ... No White House response. Trump is doing just exactly nothing. By ignoring this, he is currently STILL indirectly colluding with the Russians.
Expect the Russians to do their best to help the Republicans out during the mid-term elections. And expect the Republicans to do nothing of substance to try to stop them.
273
I'm confused...exactly how do you know what Trump is or is not doing regarding national security. Just because nobody has leaked anything (and why would they if it benefits Trump?) doesn't mean nothing is happening.
6
Also buried in this article is a little appreciated piece of information: “The distinction between an organized criminal and a Russian intelligence officer and a Russian who knows some Russian intel guys — it all blurs together”. No kidding. There are more than a few smoky, cyber-cafes in eastern Europe full of highly educated and jobless patrons. I'd like to know how often free-time or freelance "cyber-dabbling" has gotten spun as sophisticated Russian espionage, directed from above. This is where "fake news" may present itself.
1
Good question. We don't KNOW Trump is doing "absolutely" nothing. But we DO know that he has not enforced the Russian sanctions passed by congress and has not come out formally to make a statement condemning or even acknowledging the current ongoing Russian Twitter and Facebook bot amplification. This is not surprising as the Russians, Fox and Mr. Trump are have overlapping interests in spinning the same narrative.
No one knows the future. But I think we can all agree that it is highly unlikely that Trump is suddenly going to start blasting Russia for its current and ongoing interference.
6
I am absolutely shocked -- shocked -- that the Russians want to interfere with the functioning of our democracy. Is there any precedent for this? How come no one has brought it to light?
43
So shocking. Next thing we'll be told is that the US, itself, tries to interfere with the functioning of Democracies beyond our borders.
Indeed, our stated goals of promoting Democracy don't seem to be very compelling overseas. The noble ideals of America are only taken seriously WITHIN our country. The rest of the world experiences a very different America from that which we like to think we are (sorry for that construction). Sure, we're really trying to promote Democracy in the middle east.... as we bribe Turkish legislators with business and civil works projects to get them to vote against their constituents' will (at 95% consensus) to open up their airspace and airports to our bombers. Yep, we're the beacon of democracy alright.
5
The agency couldn't protect its cash either?
17
They totally got strung along . This whole story doesn't add up.
If would be interesting and entertaining to be living in a John Le Carré world if we didn't also have PT Barnum folks minding the store.
90
The video exists, and the Russians certainly know its value as the domino that will topple the rest. Americans, for the most part (especially Trump voters) will only pay attention to salacious tabloid fodder, and video is tailor-made for the social media frenzies that have replaced reportage. To unravel everything, an argument-proof, wordless document is all that will work now.
21
Which video? A shadowy video of someone made to look like Trump? No audio? Nothing more?
Yeah, that probably does exist. I could make one up using SNL clips.
5
They could release the video, if it exists, and Trump voters would still vote for him.
4
I don't even think a salacious video will work at this point, if it's Trump with a couple of women. Couple of men, maybe, just maybe that's another story, but even so. He could be stabbing the Pope on live TV and his supporters would excuse it somehow.
2
Is my understanding correct that our "expert" spies were going to pay a million dollars for stolen computer materials that probably had already been copied a million times. (The shadowy fellow copied them himself onto a thumb drive according to the story.) At least there is only one Brooklyn Bridge. I am more concerned about that part of the story than the offer of Trump material. It seems to me that out gumshoes were offering quite a lot of money for something that cannot be anything but nothing. Is this the best our best can do? It's good they only lost one hundred grand. I'll sell them a beautiful bridge for the other 9 hundred g.
25
Please read the story more carefully. The reason is that we want to do a damage assessment, which is a way of saying we are not sure which tools are “out” and how far they may have traveled, and to whom. The price paid is like taking an option in case there is a real payoff that would allow us to determine how badly we have been penetrated.
2
The reason they were willing to pay for a copy of the information is that they need to know how it was obtained and having a copy of the data files might provide some clues. It eventually became clear that the chances of that were slim.
3
The point is not to get the material back, but to know exactly what was stolen. Of course it's been copied.
5
"Yet all four appear to be drawn almost entirely from news reports, not secret intelligence."
Really impunes the validity of the Mueller probe, and also calls attention, once again, to the DNC funded Steele operation, and it's intent to uncover scurrilous information on the Trump cabal.
At this point in time, it seems to me, and I dare say tens of millions of Americans, that both Republicans and Democrats are equally corrupt, and will engage in just about anything and everything, including "ending the lives" of whomever dares oppose, and or, expose them, or otherwise cause unwelcome attention.
Our corporate owned government is as corrupt as any authoritarian regime on the planet, and may in fact be significantly worse.
As I grow older and wiser, (approaching 70), after experiencing our two party system operate during the last 50 plus years, for the exclusive benefit of themselves, their corporate masters and wealthiest donors, I fear this American democracy is dead and waiting to be buried.
Much of the blame rests with "we the people", simply because we stood mute as successive regimes manipulated us, managed our perceptions, and with great subtlety, and deliberation, attacked the very core of our way of life, focusing on weakening our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and arranging the makeup of our Supreme Court to render decisions diametrically opposed to the common good, and the will of the people.
We are deeply in it now, and sinking deeper, fast.
61
I'm only 30, and I think you're exactly right.
1
Well said. It's worth noting that this historically unique country hasn't even reached it's third century and is, by that fact alone, inherently fragile.
1
I do not see how you go from all info coming from news sources, to....therefore, the Mueller probe is invalid.
First of all, something like 80 percent of intel can be found in open source content. Secret intel makes up a tiny proportion of all intel.
Secondly, the article seemed to suggest that what was attempting to be sold was bogus, maybe even being sold by Russian agents or affiliated agents attempting to discredit the investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election.
Why would that undermine Muellers probe?
In fact, it would validate it.
13
"...a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump..." Um. Excuse me, but why pay for something that the President provides himself publicly on a daily basis?
88
TDS. It's a terrible thing.
I hope the serial number of every bill used to pay this guy was recorded, and maybe the bills were otherwise marked, so that the people handling the money could possibly be identified and tracked.
12
Nah all it has to do is be exchanged at a money exchange and the track ability is a mute point.
The most disturbing part of this article isn't even about shady spy dealings or kompromat. It's the part that says "Russian hackers are probing American voting databases ahead of the midterm election this year... and using bot armies to promote partisan causes on social media."
In other words, Facebook and Twitter continue to knowingly allow fake information posts and rake in ad revenue from entities intent on disrupting elections.
Fine, Facebook and Twitter won't stop it because they're greedy, but the fact that the Trump administration is doing absolutely nothing about it tells me everything I need to know about where their loyalties lie. And it's not with democracy.
122
Tillerson in a recent interview said, If the Russians are determined to influence the midterm elections, there is just not that much we can do about it.
Really?
Seems its the GOP who are determined to ride Putins coat tails into the sunset.
6
How do you know exactly what Trump is or is not doing in that regard?
Yeah. Free Speech. It's a horrible thing. If you think a few facebook ads are causing this, you're insane. TDS maybe...
There was a program on KQED's radio on cybersecurity and the NSA "toolkit", mentioned the technology was not actually cutting edge. Can't find the link for the discussion. The fact remains, while 45 wants a parade of defense --the electronic sphere in our country is less protected. And and Equifax breach? Ah, CPB won't do a thing.
20
I'm puzzled by the desperation on the part of American intelligence to retrieve the hacking tools. Hacking tools are software. Presumably the NSA had copies before they were stolen and the thieves would have made their own copies immediately so how does "retrieving" the tools help the US? The genie is already out of the bottle at that point.
131
The point wasn’t to remove all copies from circulation; it was to try to figure out how they got there in the first place.
3
It's important to know what was stolen for multiple reasons. One, it will be turned against you and you need to be ready to defend against it. Two, it may no longer be a useful tool. There are probably other reasons that I haven't thought of.
2
Mmmm, not really. The tools have contents that record use. Like a counter...
So the picture keeps getting clearer. There was collusion all right, between the Obama administration and the Russians in an effort to stop Trump from winning the American presidency in a democratic election.
47
Did you miss the fact that this was done "last year", which is the first year of the Trump administration? Pres. Obama was not in DC and had nothing to do with this.
9
What statements or evidence in this story supports that conclusion?
1
...Obama wasn't the president in 2017, when the events in this article happened.
3
I’m no cyber expert, but can you really buy back stolen cyber weapons? Aren’t these weapons just code that, once in the hands of hackers, can be easily copied and widely shared?
35
Yes, but by buying them back they can determine the extent of the hack. I believe that was the goal.
6
Being a non-hacker with limited understanding of the tools lost by the nsa, I have what might be a silly question: if the tools are out there, what use would reacquiring the tools be within the NSA? Wouldn’t the information contained in the tools (copiable, no longer secret) be the actual thing of value? So paying for the tools could maybe help the NSA trace the theft and means of delivery, but other than offering clues about the way the NSA was breached, is there any value on our end to a buy back? It seems implausible that buying a stolen tool back would recover the loss of its secrecy and mechanisms of attack. So why would the NSA want to pay for the tools’ return?
36
It wouldn't recover their loss, but it would allow NSA to understand the scope and be prepared for when the exposed tools will be used against US.
6
This story is a Red Herring and you are right if "software" tools were stolen um making a thousand copies hasn't happened?
This is much more complicated than you think
The US operatives work for an agency (CIA) who's chief is a political appointee of President Trump. There is no question Mike Pompeo, who reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, but in reality reports to the President would have kept Trump apprised of this operation.
My bet is the primary interest was the videos, not the missing code stolen from the National Security Agency.
51
Yes sir you hit the nail on the head. It wasn't about the code but the Trump Video. The deep state has been revealed and the players got stupid but they are the ones we know about.
2
I couldn't agree with you more. All is not as it seems in this story. If the primary goal was retrieving the "hacking tools", why did the Russian keep proffering Trump kompromat? This story does not add up.
1
So Pompeo is the head of the deep state? I’m confused.
If America's only defense and offense against Russian hacking and meddling is to pay ransoms, then I certainly hope that most of Trump's increase in defense spending (to $716B annually) is spent on improved Cyber Warfare.
18
This is the new Cold War: Pro-Trump Russian Bots, Trump Supporters, Right Wing Media and the Russian Government actively allying to ASSIST the American President, while Democrats, Progressives and Non-Partisan/Independents who are rightfully concerned, fighting to keep Democracy in America alive.
48
Let's not overlook the fact that for the average Joe, the liberation of the NSA hacking toolkit is a dramatic improvement in personal security. Once those tools are in the wild, every security company in the world must deploy tools to counter. The first to market gets the brass ring.
And Trump is President because 9/11 was an inside job, and we don't like for profit wars meant to last forever. How to fire a government? Rip it to shreds. Build a new one. This is our right. It's why we keep the weapons.
I got a bridge that had a liberated woman helping build it that I would like to sell Trump. It's called the Brooklyn Bridge, and the woman is Emily Roebling -
she is doing better and better in the news, I hear.
6
"Mistress in Vienna" would be a good title for a cheesy spy novel.
15
Now who In the USIC would want "compromising material" on President Trump?
14
Actually, nobody, if you read the article. Start with at the part that says," Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian...."
6
"Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian...."
1
Yeah, when there's so much in the headlines every day...
1
Right wing media kooks will take this headline, and run amok with their gullible listeners and followers. It pains me this is what we have come to. The reporting is good, but I would ask the NYT to apply more discernment in crafting the headline. Not sure it will help at all, but it can't hurt.
291
Re-read the whole article, has nothing to do with recovering a piece of software that can be copied ad nauseam. it had everything to do with catching Donald Trump in an uncompromising position.
Thank you come again. Still waiting for the Russian Collusion. From the boys who can indict a ham sandwich.
9
agreed. they changed it. but how does that get past editorial, considering?
They're already there. I found notice of this story in the comments section of the Washington Post. It was posted by a Trumper a few minutes ago, pretty sure he hadn't actually read it.
1
That's going to leave a mark ...
4
Helpful Russian for Americans, 2018:
дезинформация = disinformation. Creating & disseminating false information to mislead public opinion.
компромат = kompromat. Compromising information, whether true or not, designed to destroy a person's reputation and potential as a rival.
And we have an example of a disinformation campaign right here:
* US spies want hacked intel tools back.
* A Russian offers it plus Trump kompromat too.
* US spies say no, just the hacked tools.
* Russian gives only Trump kompromat.
* US spies say no, walk away.
* Someone tells the press that US spies paid Russians for Trump kompromat.
So, why would Russian spies want ours to have Trump kompromat? To the extent that they plant it?
So that later they can "reveal" that our intel community sought it, betraying the president. To sow distrust among all Americans in our own system, top to bottom. To disassemble America.
And THAT is what lies behind this. A Russian disinformation campaign, but a savvier US refusal to fall. But the US president is not as savvy, and he will fall for this.
I just hope the American people won't. But one segment is primed to.
393
You nailed it - except the part about Trump falling for it - Trump is deeply embedded in the disinformation campaign.
5
Except if you’d read FBI texts you’d learn that Intel has been trying to get dirt on Trump since 2016. The CIA loathes Trump. Y’all hate Fox News, but why hasn’t CNN or MSNBC posted all the texts on their sites? What are they hiding? Gowdy, who SAW the FISA application, reported that the application showed TWO Hillary people were digging false dirt on Trump and reporting it to Steele, as in the dossier.
WHEN will leftist NYT, WP, CNN & MSNBC report any of this? These are FACTS, not opinion. When will ONE Democrat stand up for COUNTRY over party?
2
Thank you for the clarity!
1
I wonder how many Americans believe this? Fox and friends will blame this on HRC and Democrats.
36
Read the article. Shearer crisscrossing Europ for six months trying to validate any point of the dossier. His response to the NYT sounds more than a little insane.
1
Anti Trump CIA operatives were obviously looking for dirt on Trump just as FBI executives were.
At a small bar in the old heart of West Berlin....Play it again Sam.
25
No, Trump administration officials know that the dirt is out there and want it first to begin their own campaign of disinformation. Trump is like the husband whose wife catches him cheating with a porno star and says "who do you believe, me or your own eyes?"
44
MEM, credit to Groucho Marx.
5
No, this began in 2016. Read the last few paragraphs of this article.
5
Was it American Spies or corrupt clinton and democrats gave 100k to get some dirt on Trump?
29
No big deal. Who cares about fake dossiers? The left has set the precedent. Trump will soon follow the standard and have his boys concoct a few fake dossiers on Schiff, Pelosi, Clinton, Obama....pick one...run it up the FISA wherein all warrants are issued like cake at wedding.
Then the indicts can flow. Thanks, Comey.
10
One catch; at least 80% of the Steele dossier has been validated by British and American intelligence. Only the allegation of Trump cavorting with prostitutes was unconfirmed. Of course, here in the good old USA Trump's lawyer arranged to pay $130,000 to a porn star.
220
Please share your source for that 80% verified stat. I like to think I follow this story closely and never heard of this. But considering that keeping up with the news these days is akin to drinking from a firehouse it is easy to miss stuff. So although I don’t believe it’s true I am willing to read up on it.
5
“Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian, who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.”
What does that have to do with “the left” setting some kind of precedent?
17
This is an example of what our intelligence agencies had already done once before as to Trump. Again our agents received non verified material as to Trump and even paid for it. Just how stupid are we? Sad to say, but Trump seems to be correct: our own NSA or whatever agency is so anxious to dump Trump, phony material is used and even paid for. This is another dirty dossier. Was this one used to get a FISA warrant too?
41
Except these are the agencies when under Trump’s control. So ....
2
Really? This occurred last year under the Trump administration by the CIA and NSA headed by Trump appointees and the information on Trump was disregarded as not valid. So is your point that even people appointed by Trump are out to get him?
4
Do you see now, Times, why you’re getting chastised over the headline?
@Bian: Intel was going after cyber tools, but instead got what looked to be falsified information about Trump. They got snowed, in other words. But they weren’t going after Trump.
Do people even bother to read anymore before responding? Good grief.
4
"A fool and his money are soon parted"
3
"A fool and his money are soon partying"
James Bond, eat your heart out.
22
The Trump administration authorized payments to someone claiming to have dirt on Trump that Trump says does not exist. The only reason our intelligence agencies would suspect that the Russian might have the NSA material is that that they know the compromising Trump material does exist. Otherwise, they would have known him to be a scam artist from the beginning.
115
We taxpayers paid for it, at a minimum I demand that Mueller have access to the kompromat. Agreed?
2
So, you really think Trump directed this?
1
Citation?
I doubt if a best-selling, suspense novelist could write with such intrigue what we are now experiencing. The intricate web that is being spun by Mother Russia is capable of catching anyone at any time. And, oh, what easy preys of this Predator Putin, Trump and his ilk are. As sure as a black widow releases its poison on a kill, so will Putin devour this present administration and possibly our democracy if allowed to have his way. And from what I am seeing from the Oval Office, this Russian Thug is fast achieving his goal.
And so, the "Russian did not give it much thought" when told to produce or get lost. Maybe he would have been cooperative if our spies spiked his cranberry juice with vodka....
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The spectre of kompromat will haunt Trump for the duration of his administration, no matter how long (or short) that is. The desire to end the Mueller probe is understandable from a simple political standpoint. But what is most troubling, and what should be deeply troubling to Republicans and Democrats alike, is the fact that Trump has done NOTHING as President to address Russia's ongoing efforts to hack the American electoral system, from 2016 to today. His inaction is damning.
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I know - what confounds me is that those who are being willingly blind in the name of supporting their team will be suffering under the authoritarian regime that they are enabling just like the rest of us.
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Donald Trump was President in 2016? Oh you mean the Obama Administration was investigating the Russian hacking?
What information do you have that Donald Trump isn't doing anything about the Russian hacking?
You mean there isn't a photo op of Donald Trump sitting at his computer hacking away and typing in Word. I am trying to stop the Russian hackers. I am stopping the Russian hackers?
That's the job of the CIA and the NSA.
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The NSA, CIA, and FBI are performing counter-intel activities. Trust me.
"Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian — who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. But instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data."
Sounds like what Hillary paid that British spy for.
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Basically - which should make some question the intent of this article. Is it trying to cushion the fallout?
You mean what the RNC paid for, right?
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No, the FBI got that information and didn't even pay for it. This is your Trump at work.
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Corrected Headline:
American Spies Gave $100,000 to Russian Who Promised to Deliver Critical Info On Hacked National Security Agency Cyberweapons, But Who Actually Delivered Worthless Old Trump Trash
Too wordy, of course, but accurate, NYT.
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EXACTLY. As written, the headline plays into the "deep state opposes Trump" myth. This is the NYT, not Fox News...
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Intelligence work is not Tom Cruise rappelling off skyscrapers. It is dealing with a broad and often unsavory assortment of people with very diverse, even conflicting, motives. Promises of cash, security, and the possibility of starting over in a new country are all common exchanges for nuggets.
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The US media has abetted Putin’s job of destroying the credibility of the US security apparatus. Funny?
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This headline obscures the more salient fact... The Trump administration paid this money to obtain specific information the CIA wanted desperately to recover, in addition to information pertaining to Russian interference in the election.In the process, may have refused to look at information about our president.
This is where allegiance to Trump, allegiance to country and democracy, intersect with treason. As more news outlets begin to report on various aspects of this story, it is of extreme import reporters cross-reference each other so readers get a fuller picture. We were bound to get to this point - one that President Trump and his henchmen are desperate to hide from us all.
This news hits on the day that the number 3 official at the DOJ has quit her job, making it even more likely that the Friday Massacre is well under way. Pressure must continue to be applied on the Trump administration. More pressure means more likelihood that blunders will be committed by panicked officials.
Trump will be exposed for what he is. The GOP will be exposed for protecting the most corrupt politician this nation has ever elected into office and, in the process, reveal the depths of its own utter corruption.
We are an oligarchy now. It is the opposite of democracy. The return to democracy must be a clean one in which safeguards will make it impossible for another Trump to ever get elected.
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https://www.rimaregas.com/?s=oligarchy
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I am hopeful that this is actually a shot over the bow from the intelligence agencies letting the Trump camp know that they have information about collusion "secured in Europe". When you reread the article - interesting points - we wanted the hacking tool but all we got was this trove of dirt on Trump and associates.
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Mary,
It can be put into context a number of ways. I agree with much of what The Intercept has here
https://static.theintercept.com/amp/donald-trump-russia-election-nsa.html
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I don't see any evidence the administration knew anything about this transaction. It looks to me like actors in the CIA were trying to buy dirt on the President. The shameful cover story (lie) is that they were buying hacking tools that they already had.
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We live in a spy novel.
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We do, except this is more Road to Gandolfo than it is John Le Carre...
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No, we live in a Coen brothers' movie. Alas, not one of the funnier ones . . .
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Debbie, we live in a Peter Sellers dark comedy: “Gentlemen, I will not have fighting in the war room.”
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The Russians obviously think Americans are really stupid, and they may not be entirely wrong, but the majority of Americans did not vote for this nonsense.
If we don't reckon with a flawed electoral college system and the influence of Citizens United we will be sunk as a democracy. It won't take the Russians to do it.
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So y’all think the CIA is buddy buddy with Trump? Hilarious. So Trump wants dirt on himself? That’s rich.
Intel loathes Trump. How have you not heard that?
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No, Teri, clearly you misread and misinterpreted everything you read. That was not my point. Get your head out of the sand.
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The "flawed" electoral college was deliberately put in place by the Founding Fathers to insure fair representation for all in Presidential elections, so huge cities didn't overwhelm the vote. It was brilliant and necessary.
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How much of this $100,000 ended up in the hands of terrorists, and was used to kill American soldiers? The fact this administration would give money to entities who want to kill Americans is troubling.
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@Angmar: There is no such "fact" stated in or hinted in or inferrable from this article.
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Same goes the Steele dossier. Same shoddy sources right?
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This was before the elections, so it wasn't this administration. That can be clearly inferred, it was during Obama's administration. Same with other revelations coming out, Do you still find it troubling since it wasn't Trump's admin that paid the agent?
I hope the Trump supporters can process the headline before leaping to the notion that they paid 100k for dirt on Trump. Some will be able to I'm sure...
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The Times is making that leap and easy little hop.
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I'm not. Nor am I sure that they'll understand that it happened under the watch of Trump officials. A certain inability to process basic information goes hand in hand with voting for him.
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i mean...." After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump " ummmmmm so yes, they did pay 100k for what they thought was dirt on trump.
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Donald Trump and Russia (or Russians). Are American intelligence agencies and their "professionals" so stupid as to bite on proffered dirty, whether it's on No. 45 or on someone else? Or is this just another long set-up by the Trump administration to detail the intelligence services as incompetent and perhaps treasonous? Or both?
Who knows what to think now. Trump certainly can't be trusted with anything like the truth. And now the NSA, and the discredited Gen. Michael Flynn? We're down the rabbit hole, for sure.
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I don't think you understood the article. They explicitly said they did not want information on Trump, because it looked like a counterintelligence operation designed to sow discord. And following the story, that seems very likely to have been the case. It sounds like they did a good job pursuing a possible lead on the lost NSA tools, and realized they were being played before it did anything truly damaging.
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Spies have access to too much free cash and too little adult oversight. Democrats are still spending money to try to get dirt on Trump. They still think it's a "big deal."
Notice, there are no stories claiming credit for all the money that changed hands between the Clinton's and the Russians.
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A careful reading suggests that the intel agencies did not in fact bite on proffered dirty. They wanted the hacking software, and declined the dirty.
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