Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 1

14

Fuse Feed Print ⇰ Distribute

Russian Hacking:
that the Russians are our implacable enemies. interference in the French and German elections –
The second provides the emotional charge for the they are not retracted even after they have been
first. Both seem to me problematic. With respect discredited. Retraction or correction is almost

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO to the first, the hacking charges are unproved and
may well remain so. Edward Snowden and others
beside the point: the false accusation has done its
work.

THE NEOLIBERALS
familiar with the NSA say that if long-distance Some people and institutions have more power
hacking had taken place the agency would have than others to define what constitutes an
monitored it and could detail its existence without agreed-on reality: the power to create the
A story that had circulated during the campaign compromising their secret sources and methods. ‘common sense’ of an entire society. Even if
without much effect resurfaced: it involved the In September, Snowden told Der Spiegel that the much of that society is indifferent to or suspicious
charge that Russian operatives had hacked into NSA ‘probably knows quite well who the invaders of the official common sense, it still becomes
the servers of the Democratic National were’. And yet ‘it has not presented any evidence, embedded among the tacit assumptions that set
Committee, revealing embarrassing emails that although I suspect it exists. The question is: why the boundaries of ‘responsible opinion’. So the
damaged Clinton’s chances. With stunning not? … I suspect it discovered other attackers in Democratic establishment (along with a few
speed, a new centrist-liberal orthodoxy came the systems, maybe there were six or seven Republicans) and the major media outlets have
into being, enveloping the major media and the groups at work.’ made ‘Russian meddling’ the common sense of
bipartisan Washington establishment. This Both the DNC hacking story and the one the current moment.
secular religion has attracted hordes of converts in involving the emails of John Podesta, a Clinton The most immediate consequence is that, by
the first year of the Trump presidency. In its campaign operative, involve a shadowy bunch finding foreign demons who can be blamed for
capacity to exclude dissent, it is like no other of putatively Russian hackers called Fancy Trump’s ascendancy, the Democratic
formation of mass opinion in my adult life, though Bear. The name Fancy Bear was introduced by leadership have shifted the blame for their
it recalls a few dim childhood memories of Dimitri Alperovitch, the chief technology officer of defeat away from their own policies without
anti-communist hysteria during the early 1950s. Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the questioning any of their core assumptions. For
The centerpiece of the faith, based on the DNC to investigate the theft of their emails. the DNC, the great value of the Russian hack story
hacking charge, is the belief that Vladimir Putin Alperovitch is also a fellow at the Atlantic Council, is that it focuses attention away from what was
orchestrated an attack on American an anti-Russian Washington think tank. In its actually in their emails. The documents revealed a
democracy by ordering his minions to interfere report Crowdstrike puts forward close to zero deeply corrupt organization, whose pose of
in the election on behalf of Trump. The story evidence for its claim that those responsible were impartiality was a sham. Even the reliably
became gospel with breathtaking suddenness and Russian, let alone for its assertion that they were pro-Clinton Washington Post has admitted that
completeness. Like any orthodoxy worth its salt, affiliated with Russian military intelligence. And ‘many of the most damaging emails suggest the
the religion of the Russian hack depends not on yet, from this point on, the assumption that this committee was actively trying to undermine Bernie
evidence but on ex cathedra pronouncements on was a Russian cyber operation was unquestioned. Sanders’s presidential campaign.’
the part of authoritative institutions and their When the FBI arrived on the scene, the Bureau
The Democratic Party has now developed a
overlords. Its scriptural foundation is a confused either did not request or was refused access to
new outlook on the world, a more ambitious
and largely fact-free ‘assessment’ produced last the DNC servers; instead it depended entirely on
partnership between liberal humanitarian
January by a small number of ‘hand-picked’ the Crowdstrike analysis. Crowdstrike, meanwhile,
interventionists and neoconservative militarists
analysts – as James Clapper, the director of was being forced to retract another claim, that the
than existed under the cautious Obama. This
National Intelligence, described them – from the Russians had successfully hacked the guidance
may be the most disastrous consequence for the
CIA, the FBI and the NSA. It is not the first time systems of the Ukrainian artillery.
Democratic Party of the new anti-Russian
the intelligence agencies have played this role. The chatter surrounding the hack would never orthodoxy: the loss of the opportunity to formulate
Once again, the established press is legitimating have acquired such urgency were it not for the a more humane and coherent foreign policy. The
pronouncements made by the Church Fathers of accompanying assumption: Russia is a obsession with Putin has erased any possibility of
the national security state. Clapper is among the uniquely dangerous adversary, with which we complexity from the Democratic world picture,
most vigorous of these. should avoid all contact. Without that belief, creating a void quickly filled by the monochrome
It’s hard for me to understand how the Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s meetings with fantasies of Hillary Clinton and her exceptionalist
Democratic Party, which once felt skepticism Russians in September 2016 would become allies.
towards the intelligence agencies, can now routine discussions between a senator and foreign
We find that there is a significant and
embrace the CIA and the FBI as sources of officials. Flynn’s post-election conversations with
meaningful relationship between a
incontrovertible truth. One possible explanation the Russian ambassador would appear
community’s rate of military sacrifice and its
is that Trump’s election has created a permanent unremarkable. Trump’s cronies’ attempts to do
support for Trump.’ Clinton’s record of uncritical
emergency in the liberal imagination, based on the business in Russia would become merely sleazy.
commitment to military intervention allowed Trump
belief that the threat he poses is unique and Donald Trump Jr’s meeting at Trump Tower with
to have it both ways, playing to jingoist
unprecedented. It’s true that Trump’s menace is the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya would be
resentment while posing as an opponent of
viscerally real. But the menace posed by George transformed from a melodrama of shady intrigue
protracted and pointless war. Democrats may
W. Bush and Dick Cheney was equally real. What to a comedy of errors – with the candidate’s son
want to ‘re-examine their foreign policy posture if
is unprecedented about Trump is his offensive expecting to receive information to use against
they hope to erase Trump’s electoral gains among
style: contemptuous, bullying, inarticulate, and yet Clinton but discovering Veselnitskaya only wanted
constituencies exhausted and alienated by 15
perfectly pitched to appeal to the anger and to talk about repealing sanctions and restarting
years of war’. If the insurgent movements within
anxiety of his target audience. His excess has the flow of Russian orphans to the United States.
the Democratic Party begin to formulate an
licensed overt racism and proud misogyny among And Putin himself would become just another
intelligent foreign policy critique, a re-examination
some of his supporters. This is cause for autocrat, with whom democracies could engage
may finally occur.
denunciation, but I am less persuaded that it without endorsing.
justifies the anti-Russian mania. Skeptical voices have been drowned out by a Jackson Lears,
Besides Trump’s supposed uniqueness, there din of disinformation. Flagrantly false stories, like Professor of History, Rutgers
are two other assumptions behind the furor in the Washington Post report that the Russians had More @ London Review of Books
Washington: the first is that the Russian hack hacked into the Vermont electrical grid, are
unquestionably occurred, and the second is published, then retracted 24 hours later. www.lrb.co.uk
Sometimes – like the stories about Russian

Whitethorn BBQ To You


Construction Homemade
Mobile Barbecue Chef for Hire.
sauce- Ethnic Specialties
Retail Lumber & Building Services
Non-BBQ- Organic & Vegan options available
Garden & Sustainably
e c ue
Barb
Building Harvested
Supplies Hardwoods
a v e e l”
“ H a v
Big selection of
Liquor, Beer & Wine
‘Those&who&contemplate&the&beauty&of&
Wil l Tr
the&earth&find&reserves&of&strength&that&
Great Burgers, Pizza, endure&as&long&as&life&lasts.”
;Rachel&Carson
Sandwiches & Chicken
(707) 986-7416 Moses Danzer
545 Shelter Cove Rd.
3262 Redwood Drive, Redway 986-7299 / 845-4247
Whitethorn CA 95589
www.greenfuse.work

You might also like