Clinton leaks

Suspicions that the arrests of alleged cyber spies that have been taking place in Moscow since the middle of December are in some way connected to the US intelligence community’s allegations of Russian hacking of the DNC and Podesta have received more support from a report by the Russian news agency Interfax that Sergey Mikhailov – a former FSB officer – and Dmitry Dokuchaev – now also revealed to be an FSB officer and apparently Mikhailov’s deputy – are being charged with passing on information to the CIA.

The dragnet in Moscow of cyber experts caught up in what is increasingly looking like a spy inquiry continues to widen with news that a third individual – named as Dmitry Dokuchaev, whom The London Times calls “a cyber-spy and former hacker” (whatever that means) – has also been arrested on treason charges.

A week ago, following release of Grizzly Steppe, the FBI/Homeland Security report supposedly substantiating the US intelligence community’s report that Russian intelligence was behind the hacking of the DNC and of Podesta, I said that the Russian hacking scandal is starting more and more to resemble the Iraq WMD debacle, with one dodgy dossier succeeding another.

The Senate hearings into the Russian hacking scandal that took place on Thursday 5th January 2017 came across to me as something of a damp squib.
Director James Clapper provided no actual evidence to support the allegation that Russia was responsible for the Clinton leaks, and refused to go along with Senator McCain’s wildly over-the-top claim that Russia’s alleged interference in the election was an “act of war”.