The Joint Statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security is a reminder of why the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) fails so very often.
The first paragraph:
The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.
…
Do you see any facts in that first paragraph?
I see the conclusion “…are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” but no facts to back that statement up.
Moreover, the second paragraph leaps for the “smoking gun” with:
Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company….
You would hope the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) would have heard of VPNs (virtual private networks).
No facts, just allegations that favor one party in the fast approaching U.S. presidential election.
Yes, intelligence agencies are interfering with the U.S. election, but its not Russian intelligence agencies.