Ex-NSA boss: Election security focus helped dissuade increase in Russian meddling with US Russia appears to be having second thoughts on how aggressively, or at least how visibly, it attempts to influence American elections, according to a former head of the NSA. I wonder if the Russians have said to themselves, 'Look, we think there's a return to be made, but perhaps being overly aggressive ... overly visible isn …
"Since leaving the service, he has held roles in the commercial security space, and is now operating partner at Israeli security investment group Team8."
Israeli "security " firms hiring top NSA managers? That might explain some things. It doesn't help to build trust in the NSA and co.
The founder of team8 Nadav Zafrir has some interesting background in cyber weapons as also used by NSO.
For those who would downvote, can you point to one thing Trump has done since taking office that is indisputably against Russia's interest?
Seriously, if he isn't their man it sure is a coincidence how he is doing everything possible to strengthen Russia's position in the world and weaken America and its alliances that have existed for decades and in some cases centuries.
I think Putin has given up on Russia trying to compete with the world's nations and has instead decided that if the world's nations (including the US) are all a lot poorer by pursuing isolationism that Russia will not be as far behind.
... yessir, I will bend over and kiss your ass right away!
Example 1: Yo Raffensperger, 'I just want to find 11780 votes'. You need to answer (or else!): yessir, I will bend over and kiss your ass right away!
Example 2: Yo Zelenskyy, 'I just want you to give me dirt on Biden'. You need to answer (or else!): yessir, I will bend over and kiss your ass right away!
And for good measure one might add this cherry on top: 'and I am so grateful for the honor of being allowed to do so at your pleasure sir, while wearing a most respectful of three-piece suits, Mr. Orange sir, and sidekick chihuahua'! and 'please do not hesitate to order me when I should be kissing your ass, again'! (or else!)
Example 2: Yo Zelenskyy, 'I just want you to give me dirt on Biden'. You need to answer (or else!): yessir, I will bend over and kiss your ass right away!
Example 3: Yo Parashenko, If you don't fire that prosecutor investigating Burisma, I'm going to withhold $1bn in aid.
And then there were probably other examples, like much of the whole Russiagate nonsense, with a lot of that 'intelligence' being fed by Ukraine. But would seem reasonable to try and found out just how compromised the Bidens were over Ukraine, and maybe if that's why Biden has been so generous with US taxpayers money.
On the plus side, Trump has revoked security clearances from a lot of the far-left, and I've never really understood why that became a tradition. Or if that casual disregard for good security practices is why Clinton felt empowered to run her own mail server, or Biden keep boxes of classified documents in insecure locations.
Eh-eh-eh! The infamous Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
That's what the Joke Alert icon was designed for ... ho-oh-ho-oh-ho-oh ... ih-ih-ih-ih-ih!
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/21/fact-check-joe-biden-leveraged-ukraine-aid-oust-corrupt-prosecutor/5991434002/
TL;DR the prosecutor was not investigating his son when he was fired due to pressure about him failing to deal with corruption. Check your facts please.
But Shokin WAS investigating Burisma. The claim is that Shokin wasn't investigating the politicians for corruption so he had to go. It just happened that his replacement halted the investigation into Burisma....
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/10/01/ukraine-opens-case-against-ex-prosecutor-yuriy-lutsenko/3828779002/
"Lutsenko has drawn scrutiny in recent days because he was Ukraine's prosecutor general – broadly equivalent to the attorney general in the United States – when an investigation was halted into Burisma, a Ukrainian company"
Awfully convenient eh?
TL;DR the prosecutor was not investigating his son when he was fired due to pressure about him failing to deal with corruption. Check your facts please.
Perhaps check yours. Biden was recorded boasting about getting the prosecutor fired, and witholding funds until he had been. The prosecutor had been investigating Burisma, because that was a very shady business. Burisma just so happened to hire one H. Biden Esq, who had no oil, gas or Ukraine expertise for.. something. The thing about conflicts of interest, or corruption is it's often not enough to be 'innocent', but to be seen to be innocent. Especially when Hunter is now pleading poverty and asking to drop litigation he started because now that Papa Joe is out of office, he's just not making the money that he used to. His 'art' isnt selling, people aren't throwing money at him any more. It's almost as though he was just trading on the family name.
(And in other news, Papa Joe is apparently looking to get back in to politics and save the DNC..)
Sort of like how the Saudis gave Jared Kushner $2 billion to manage even though he has no experience as a fund manager?
Nope, not really-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner#Business_career
Following his father's conviction and subsequent incarceration between March 4, 2005, and August 25, 2006, Kushner took a much bigger role in the family real estate business.[22] He set about expanding the business and acquired almost $7 billion in property over the next ten years, much of it in New York City.
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner#Conflicts_of_interest
After his appointment as Senior Advisor to Donald Trump (in January 2017), Kushner resigned as head of his family's real-estate firm, Kushner Companies, and partially divested himself of some of its assets, including all his stake in Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by his brother, all common stock holdings and over 35 other investments, and his stake in 666 Fifth Avenue.
Thrive is interesting given they were a big investor in OpenAI. But then Hunter also took money from China, Romania, Russia, and of course Burisma.. Which was probably the shadiest given the antics of this chap-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykola_Zlochevsky
Zlochevsky was accused of having illegally issued, while he was Ecology Minister in 2010–2012, oil and gas licenses to the companies that belonged to him... On 1 August 2023 the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine convicted, after 2.5 years of trial, Zlochevsky to a fine of four thousand tax-free minimum incomes, equivalent to 68,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia's. This case was started in 2020 and was about the "record bribe" of $6 million given for closing a criminal case against Burisma he had offered to (then) SAP head..
And of course Burisma was ultimately controlled by this chap-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi#Relationship_with_Volodymyr_Zelenskyy
Who created a novel form of banking via his Privat Bank, bankrolled Zelensky and then had a bit of a falling out. But it's one of those things where any sensible person would have done a bit of due diligence and run far, far away from any board appointments. But not Hunter, (in)famously described by Papa Joe as the smartest man he knew. Which didn't say much about the other people Biden appointed as advisors.
And that has to do with being operating a hedge fund how, exactly?
A fund is a fund. But Kushner obviously had a track record of investing in real estate and venture capital, Hunter only seems to have successfully invested in hookers & blow. Plus now being deeply indebted now that he can't trade on Papa Joe's influence. Also from a quick look, I couldn't find any evidence of this supposed Saudi 'hedge' fund investment anyway. I assume you can cite a reliable source for this? Wiki is usually quick to pick up on anything vaguely anti-Trump and didn't mention this in the Kushner controversies section, but then again they also don't mention the Biden's relationship with the Baturinas, or why Elena Baturina avoided the sanctions list.
(now I'll wait patiently for you to cite one of the Biden's PR outfits doing a convoluted denial)
"Or if that casual disregard for good security practices is why Clinton felt empowered to run her own mail server, or Biden keep boxes of classified documents in insecure locations."
It has been said before:
Every accusation by a Republican is a confession of their own guilt
Just read the papers or watch the news*.
*Assuming you can distinguish fiction from non-fiction programs.
“Or if that casual disregard for good security practices is why Clinton felt empowered to run her own mail server, or Biden keep boxes of classified documents in insecure locations.”
I’m just going to leave this here - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/
We learn absolutely nothing from this interview. Any casual reader of The Register could have given more informative answers than this guy did.
He has probably a lot of legal obligations to not divulge anything at all (or go to jail). But then, don't interview such people.
He could probably have injected an aphoristic rhetoric antimetabole into the exchange imho, for good measure and entertainment, something like the Saganesque:
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!"
It could have helped to contextualize his "I am a bit surprised that it hasn't been a little bit more aggressive" ... could be our monitors ain't yet tuned to their newest cyber-trick-cycling methodologies and all?!
Putin said he wanted Biden, but we don't know why he said that - most likely choices are:
1) He wanted to attach himself to Biden to lower Biden's reputation, to help Trump, since being attached to a Russian dictator is not a good look
b) He actually wanted Biden to win because he's a known quantity who is predictable in his responses to Putin, whereas Trump can be a loose cannon, and whilst Trump looks up to Putin and wants to be his buddy, there's nothing like a Trump scorned, and it's easy to upset Trump and ruination awaits if you upset Trump too much and he throws the entire US state at you.
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