Clinton camp accuses Republicans over leak
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2016-07-27 10:39:45
Russia’s intelligence agencies have long made it their business to gather political dirt from inside the Washington beltway, but allegations that the Kremlin is now using its capabilities to try to manipulate the US presidential election mark a new phase in the stand-off between Moscow and the west.
It has been over a month since US cyber security company CrowdStrike first alleged that Russian government-backed hacking groups were behind a breach of the Democratic National Committee’s computer network.At first the attack was played down as an apparent exercise in political information gathering. But whoever leaked 20,000 sensitive emails on Friday, on the eve of the Democratic convention, to WikiLeaks clearly intended to shake up the convention.
The Clinton campaign swiftly tried to deflect attention from the controversy by pointing the finger at their Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Almost as soon as the emails surfaced, Robby Mook, the Clinton campaign manager, said Russia had done so “for the purpose of helping Donald Trump”, triggering a swift response from the Republican camp.
“New joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC emails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me,” tweeted Mr Trump yesterday.In Russia, too, there is bemusement in some quarters at the notion the Kremlin is trying to install Mr Trump.
Still, Claire McCaskill, a Democratic senator from Missouri, said there was no doubt that Russia was behind the leak. “In the metadata you see that it’s been through Russian computers. The experts are saying this was Russia,” she told CNN. “And it’s no question they’re doing this to try to impact our elections.”The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now involved. “[We] are working to determine the nature and scope of the matter,” the agency said yesterday. “A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously.”
Experts at three other cyber security companies contacted by the Financial Times as well as members of the Atlantic intelligence community say they share the assessment of CrowdStrike and the DNC — and that the body of evidence leaves them in little doubt Russian intelligence is responsible.