Did a ‘loyal Trumpie’ burn US intel assets in Russia?
This time I say it without irony: it would be irresponsible not to speculate. Two days ago, the New York Times reported
A senior official in the Russian cyberintelligence department that American officials say oversaw last year’s election hacking has been arrested in Moscow on charges of treason, a Russian newspaper reported Wednesday.
The arrest of Sergei Mikhailov, a senior officer of the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor agency to the K.G.B., is a rare instance of turmoil in the country’s usually shadowy cybersecurity apparatus slipping into public view.
Mr. Mikhailov served in the F.S.B.’s Center for Information Security, the agency’s cyberintelligence branch, which has been implicated in the American election hacking. But it is not clear whether the arrest was related to those intrusions.He was detained along with one of Russia’s leading private-sector cybersecurity experts, Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of computer incident response investigations at the Kaspersky Lab, which makes antivirus programs.
The company confirmed in a statement that Mr. Stoyanov had been arrested, but said his arrest “has nothing to do with Kaspersky Lab and its operations.”
Newsweek‘s Gary Schmitt looks at the Times‘ own analysis…
given the two individuals’ “day jobs” and the working assumption that Russian intelligence services had hired Russian criminal hackers to do the dirty work of hacking into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee, there was “the possibility that Mr. Mikhailov and Mr. Stoyanov had interfered in this cooperation.”
Or, the paper speculates, “the detention of an official who would have been in a position to engage in the election hacking in America could indicate a goodwill gesture to the United States, which has sanctioned Russia for the electoral meddling.” Either of these two scenarios could of course be true.
… but then raises a more ominous – and very plausibe – reason for the arrests:
[A] third possibility exists—one ignored by the Times—that Russian officials discovered that Mikhailov and Stoyanov were U.S. intelligence sources and were the reason (or at least one reason) why the intelligence community was as certain as it was that the Kremlin had been complicit in the Russian hacking effort.
It’s not implausible that once the American intelligence reports about the details of the hacking, its motive and Putin’s hand in directing it were put on the public record, Russian counterintelligence went to work and fingered the two Russian “traitors.”
Speculation on my part? Sure.
But it’s in keeping with the history of blown sources as more and more details about an intelligence finding of great note become public.
Now how would Russia have gotten that information? Josh Marshall at TPM writes:
if Mikhailov was a US asset, how was he compromised? Did the information put out by US intelligence somehow lead to his exposure? Without putting too fine a point on it, a number of close advisors to President Trump are being scrutinized for ties to Russia. Some of them participated in the intelligence briefings the President receives.
And if that were true, some – in fact, anyone with half a brain – would call that treason.
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Copyright 2017 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
18 responses to Did a ‘loyal Trumpie’ burn US intel assets in Russia?
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mea_mark January 27th, 2017 at 11:20
The narrative in America is about to change. How treasonous is our president will be a question we start asking ourselves. It won’t be is he, it will be ‘How Much’.
Bunya January 27th, 2017 at 14:24
I have this terrible, sinking feeling that we’re all f*cked. I honestly don’t know if the US will still exist in the year 2020.
mea_mark January 27th, 2017 at 15:56
If it does, it probably won’t be the US we know today. Change is coming, hopefully we will have some control over that change and will be able to make sure it is positive change. I remain hopeful we conquer the obstacles and bring about positive change, it just might take a lot of work and perseverance.
crc3 January 27th, 2017 at 16:15
It may be too late to stop anything now. Even though we (may) have a mid term election in 2018 damage by then may be irreversible. The democracy may be totally gone by then….
The Original Just Me January 27th, 2017 at 20:23
Is it the same feeling you get as when a Doctor does a Postrate Exam ?
StoneyCurtisll January 27th, 2017 at 20:49
Just wait until they do a biopsy on your prostrate…
Thats when the fun begins, (not)
granpa.usthai January 27th, 2017 at 12:47
strange that Edward Snowden’s name doesn’t pop up from time to time?
maybe because his asylum in RUSSIA is only ‘temporary’?
robert January 27th, 2017 at 16:08
The NSA info Ed has must be completely useless and or Vlad has given strict orders to keep his name out of the daily news.
burqa January 27th, 2017 at 14:07
If I ever go on trial, I hope like hell that dave dr-gonzo is not on the jury.
Russian purges under cover of treason charges, used to mask other motives, have been common for the last 100 years.
Bu-ut, just for the hell of it, let’s imagine the Russian state-controlled media is giving us the straight scoop and these guys were spying.
What evidence is there that they were spying for the U.S.?
Other countries commit espionage. Lots of them do.
amersham1046 January 27th, 2017 at 16:02
Keep in touch with the German, French and UK intel sources, with Trump in charge the CIA, be considered unreliable
Willys41 January 27th, 2017 at 17:24
You think the Germans are going to tell Trump anything if someone on his payroll burned this guy? Sorry, they’re not that stupid.
amersham1046 January 27th, 2017 at 18:12
select media people had contacts in the CIA for releasable intel , the same with foreign security services, there will be intel they would like to get leaked to the media
robert January 27th, 2017 at 16:04
Somewhat troubling that one arrest happens to work at a antivirus company.
No computer will be safe anymore
Willys41 January 27th, 2017 at 17:22
If it’s true, it’s the last bit of real intell that Trump and his hyenas will get from any legitimate source.
StoneyCurtisll January 27th, 2017 at 19:10
Some Call it Treason…
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQFio6nMdocZTbcQEj8tmz_v8q5pOcF7iOgtEJTsKjiIqHi6qYKag
Carla Akins January 28th, 2017 at 06:22
I don’t think there’s any question that Trump and his inner circle can’t be trusted with the keys to the liquor cabinet much less the launch codes.With all the talk of changing DC and career politicians – at least those self-serving bastards understand there was a line that couldn’t be crossed.
AnthonyLook January 29th, 2017 at 00:53
Our Constitution and Justice System will catch this serial liar and crook soon enough.
Benjaman Johnson January 29th, 2017 at 00:54
China Deploys Nukes to Russian Coast in response to “Trumps Aggression”
NOT a peep on FOX, Alan, can you put a birdie in their ear please?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/china-deploys-long-range-nuclear-cpable-missiles-russian-coast-us-president-donald-trump-a7548296.html