Socio-Economics History Blog

Socio-Economics History Blog

Believing the Russian ‘Hacking’ Claim

by mosesman

  • Believing the Russian ‘Hacking’ Claim
    by David SWANSON, http://www.strategic-culture.org/
    When the U.S. public was told that Spain had blown up the Maine, or Vietnam had returned fire, or Iraq had stockpiled weapons, or Libya was planning a massacre, the claims were straightforward and disprovable.
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    Before people began referring to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, somebody had to lie that it had happened, and there had to be an understanding of what had supposedly happened. No investigation into whether anything had happened could have taken as its starting point the certainty that a Vietnamese attack or attacks had happened. And no investigation into whether a Vietnamese attack had happened could have focused its efforts on unrelated matters, such as whether anyone in Vietnam had ever done business with any relatives or colleagues of Robert McNamara.
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    All of this is otherwise with the idea that the Russian government determined the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. U.S. corporate media reports often claim that Russia did decide the election or tried to do that or wanted to try to do that. But they also often admit to not knowing whether any such thing is the case.
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    There is no established account, with or without evidence to support it, of exactly what Russia supposedly did. And yet there are countless articles casually referring, as if to established fact to the…
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    “Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election” (Yahoo).
    “Russian attempts to disrupt the election” (New York Times).
    “Russian… interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election” (ABC).
    “Russian influence over the 2016 presidential election” (The Intercept).
    “a multi-pronged investigation to uncover the full extent of Russia’s election-meddling” (Time).
    “Russian interference in the US election” (CNN).
    “Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election” (American Constitution Society).
    “Russian hacking in US Election” (Business Standard).”
    “Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking” we’re told by the New York Times, but what is “election hacking”? Its definition seems to vary widely. And what evidence is there of Russia having done it?
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    The “Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections” even exists as a factual event in Wikipedia, not as an allegation or a theory. But the factual nature of it is not so much asserted as brushed aside.
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    read more.

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