Another Nail in the Coffin?

Trump was supposed to revive his grand infrastructure program this week, but all he could come up with was scheme to privatize the nation's air traffic control system. There are many problems with privatizing government services. Many states have privatized their voting systems and that has allowed the Russians to interfere in last year's elections. A document leaked to The Intercept describes an NSA document that

Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document:


Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

The point here is that the Russians have clearly violated the integrity of the American political system. So much for Trump being the defender of American sovereignty.

The alleged leaker, Reality Winner, has been arrested. According to the Huffington Post she is 25 years old and a federal contractor.