The BIG Lie: The Entire Intelligence Community Agrees the Russians Interfered in the 2016 Presidential Election

Having worked with the Intelligence Community (IC) all my life, both in and out of uniform, and even went to Afghanistan

in support of a three-lettered agency, I completely trust the IC and agree 100% with the assessment that the Russians tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election but it was NOT the “entire IC” or “all 17 IC members.” 

Only three IC members investigated the issue and the findings, as accepted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were: "The CIA and FBI had high confidence that Putin and the Russian government wanted to help Donald Trump win, but that the National Security Agency had only moderate confidence in that judgment."   

 

This highlights how disingenuous many Politicians, the Washington Post (WaPo) and several other "news" sources have been in reporting on the Russian Interference story.  As I said, I have no doubt the Russians interfered but "ALL 17 Intelligence Community members" did NOT concur in that assessment as they have often reported.  Only those three IC Members even evaluated the Intelligence and the ODNI concurred with their assessment.  Does any sane person really believe that IC Members like the Coast Guard, the 16th Air Force or the Marine Corps spent any time on investigating this issue or even had the ability to if they had wanted?  Like I said, I agree with the CIA/FBI assessment but caution these people, and especially the WaPo, that exaggerating by stating "ALL 17 IC members concur with the assessment" only detracts from their credibility.

 

If you don’t believe me on this, research it for yourself. The report that was issued by the ODNI:  Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution

States this up front:

SCOPE: This report includes an analytic assessment drafted and coordinated among The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The National Security Agency (NSA), which draws on intelligence information collected and disseminated by those three agencies.

And here is the link to the ODNI Report:

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf