ERIC ZUESSE -- Debate: Is ‘Russiagate’ a CIA Hoax?

Debate: Is ‘Russiagate’ a CIA Hoax?

Eric Zuesse

July 31, 2020

There now is a public debate regarding whether or not ‘Russiagate’ was/is a CIA-generated hoax, instead of (as it has been reported) a Russian Government hacking operation. Whatever it was, did spark massive U.S. economic and other sanctions against Russia, and is therefore important in today’s U.S. international relations. Had the CIA actually created the “evidence”? Were those sanctions based upon a U.S. Government fraud? That is the question here.

On July 30th, the former Technical Director of the NSA — America’s top position on cyber intelligence including computer-hacking — Bill Binney, summarized, by a ten-minute presentation, the latest up-to-date information that exists regarding, and discussing, the actual sources of the various unauthorized releases, to the public, of emails and other documents from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and of John Podesta who headed the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Binney alleged there that the raw data prove conclusively — not just speculatively — that the CIA tampered with the evidence, in order to become enabled to accuse Russia as having been involved in those unauthorized information-releases. He further alleged that Robert Mueller’s report on the Democratic Party’s charges that Russia and Trump were involved in these matters was false when it unquestioningly accepted the CIA’s assertions against Russia and on that basis accused the Internet Research Agency, in Russia, as having “hacked” the data. Consequently: if Binney’s case is correct, then recent U.S. history is based upon fraud by the U.S. Government itself. This would be a case like America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, but perhaps even worse.

One of the news-sites that published his presentation was Silver Doctors. A reader-comment there, from an anonymous “Fred,” challenged Binney’s reconstruction of what had occurred. Here below is Fred’s reader-comment, and Binney’s response to it: 

• Fred
  
  OMG, what a quack, I watched the video and as a cyber security professional, the man knows spews a lot of terminology but really knows nothing. First, time stamps can change every time files are moved to a new source. Of course they would be very close to each other when copying in bulk. Emails are mostly text if they don't have attachments which takes up very little space. Depending on the system  all the emails can be contained in one file, so when that 1 file is transferred and of the contents would be the same time stamp. 2nd, of course data can be transferred at much high rates than 19mbs, what is he living in the 20th century? We have gigabyte internet now., data can be transferred well over 100 mbs. 3rd. he presents no evidence directly linking CIA other than to say, who else could have done it. His whole theory is just an opinion, absolute rubbish. No wonder he's not taken seriously.
  
  Reply
• 
  Eric Zuesse     Fred
  
  "Fred," I sent your comment to Bill Binney and asked him to respond. His response included an attachment, which probably won't be able to be included here, but I now am pasting here his reply to you:
•  Eric, here are my comments to this “professional.”
•    "OMG, what a quack,”
• When people don’t have any substance to address,  they throw labels out to try and prejudice the issue.
• " I watched the video and as a cyber security professional, the man knows spews a lot of terminology but really knows nothing.”
• I guess I achieved the position of Technical Director of the World Geopolitical and Military Analysis and Reporting at NSA by knowing nothing.  Sure!  This is a typical baseless assertion that
• Sophists make all the time.  And our country has thousands of people like this.
•  "First, time stamps can change every time files are moved to a new source. Of course they would be very close to each other when copying in bulk. Emails are mostly text if they don't have attachments which takes up very little space. Depending on the system  all the emails can be contained in one file, so when that 1 file is transferred and of the contents would be the same time stamp.”
• The last modified times on the DNC emails had different times all rounded to the nearest even number.  See attachment.  For comparison, this file contains the DNC email last modified times (LMT) showing FAT file
• properties and the Podesta emails LMT’s that do not show FAT file properties.
• " 2nd, of course data can be
  
  Reply
  
  Eric Zuesse    Eric Zuesse
  
  (continued):
• "2nd, of course data can be transferred at much high rates than 19mbs, what is he living in the 20th century? We have gigabyte internet now., data can be transferred well over 100 mbs.:”
• While the ISP standard is Mbps = mega bits per second and MBps = mega bytes per second, I believe Fred is referring to mega bytes per second.  What he says is true but only for shorter distances - not
• across the Atlantic to Europe let alone Russia.  In our testing, the further east we went; the lower speeds we got.  In other words, assuming there was a hacker, he/she would have to have a high speed line
• all the way from the target to the hackers location.  The WWW does not support that.   If Fred thinks it does, he needs to illustrate/prove where and how that can be achieved.  So far, no one has done that -
• not even NSA/CIA/FBI or private security companies.
• " 3rd. he presents no evidence directly linking CIA other than to say, who else could have done it. His whole theory is just an opinion, absolute rubbish. No wonder he's not taken seriously.”
• Does Fred work for CIA?  Or, is he just an advocate for them?  In either case, I pointed out what evidence we have which is circumstantial and not absolute.  But, in terms used in the ICA of CIA/NSA/FBI,
• I have “high confidence that CIA did it."
• Note: all this data including Guccifer 2.0 files and speed calculations have been provided to lawyers in several currently on-going court cases.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.