As Obama Plans Retaliation Against “Russian Hacking”, A Problem Emerges
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Dec 18, 2016
In a fiery press conference on Friday, shortly before departing for his last Hawaiian vacation, president Obama accused the press of being responsible for Hillary Clinton’s loss, slammed “domestic propagandists” who he said were responsible for the risk of “fake news” and assisting foreign counter-US propaganda, but more importantly Obama vowed to “send a clear message to Russia” in retaliation for its election hacking – of which the CIA still has to demonstrate evidence – as both a punishment and a deterrent. However, a problem has emerged as the outgoing president plans how to “punish or deter” Russia – according to the NYT, some of the options were rejected as ineffective, others as too risky.
If the choices had been better, one of the aides involved in the debate noted recently, the president would have acted by now, although the fact that he hasn’t demonstrates just how ineffective US counter-cyberwar planning has been despite spending billions of dollars in preparation for just this eventuality.
In its latest expose on US-Russian cyberrelations, the NYT writes that over the past four months, American intelligence agencies and aides to Obama had assembled a menu of options to respond to Russia’s hacking during the election, ranging from the obvious — exposing President Vladimir V. Putin’s financial ties to oligarchs, and something which has already been done on various occasions in the past — to the innovative, including manipulating the computer code that Russia uses in designing its cyberweapons.
The Rest…HERE
