Why Did the Obama Administration ‘Stand Down’ During 2016 Russian Hacking?

There is a two-and-a-half-year-old story constantly simmering in the background of the American consciousness. It peeks out every now and then, as it did last week with Trump’s removal of Obama’s 2012 “Presidential Policy Directive 20,” that had reset the rules for response to cyberattacks on the US.

The deeper story is this: The deliberate refusal to act by the Obama administration to Russian hacking and cyber-interference in the 2016 election. Its incredibly, irresponsibly weak response raises serious questions. But first, some history:
The “Stand-Down” Order is Given

The recently-published book: Russian Roulette, The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, contains the following damning paragraph:

At his morning staff meeting, Daniel [Michael Daniel – former White House Coordinator of Cybersecurity] matter-of-factly said to his team that it had to stop work on options to counter the Russian attack: “We’ve been told to stand down.” Daniel Prieto, one of Daniel’s top deputies, recalled, “I was incredulous and in disbelief. It took me a moment to process. In my head I was like, ‘Did I hear that correctly?’” Then Prieto spoke up, asking, “Why the hell are we standing down? Michael, can you help us understand?” Daniel informed them that the orders came from both Rice and Monaco. They were concerned that if the options were to leak, it would force Obama to act. “They didn’t want to box the president in,” Prieto subsequently said.

This passage was attacked by some as unproven, but Daniel corroborated it himself in his June 20, 2018 testimony before a Senate committee investigating the Russian interference. Russian Roulette co-author Michael Isikoff, chief investigative reporter for Yahoo News noted Daniel’s confirmation in a Yahoo News article in June.

The Stand-Down Order Raises Serious Questions

Question #1: Why would the Obama administration have told the cyber-security services to “stand down”?

Question #2: If the Obama people assumed that “the next administration” would take care of the problem (as they claimed in Senate testimony), was that partly because they assumed it would be a Clinton administration?

Question #3: Is there a chance they may have been led to believe that whatever Russian interference would come, it might be in Clinton’s favor?

Question #4: If the Obama group ordered the stand-down, and assumed it could be fixed in a later administration, why are Democrats switching the narrative to a collusion accusation, and attacking Trump instead?

Question #5: Is it possible the whole thing blew up in their face and part of their reaction is a classic denial maneuver — i.e., they might blame their inaction on political opponents to deflect blame from themselves and make the Trump campaign look bad?

How Do Former Obama Officials Explain This?

Daniel and former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland claimed in recorded testimony that even though Daniel’s cybersecurity team had prepared some strong cyber-responses, they could not implement them due to a lack of coordination and centralized information.

However, Anthony Ferrante, another team member who was coordinating the US response to the hacking, gave 60 Minutes a much different explanation.

The Obama administration did not want to appear to be biased. We had a presidential candidate who was — campaigning on the fact that the election was rigged and he wasn’t certain he was going to get a fair shot at the presidency. …It was a very sensitive issue.

A host of other factors surfaced during the Senate hearings in June. Daniels and Nuland both admitted they knew a weak response would only encourage Putin to do more. They both stated the consensus was that the Russians were trying to weaken American confidence in our electoral system and...

The Face You Make...

Mollie Tibbetts and the Lower Alien Crime Rate Lie

Open border advocates say that immigrants come here to do jobs Americans won’t do. Well, excuse me, but we have Americans all too willing to kill their brethren. Murder is a job American criminals are quite willing to do and to those who say immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than American citizens, I say that all that proves is that we have enough criminals -- we don’t need to import more.

The blood of Kate Steinle and Mollie Tibbetts and others is on the hands of open border advocates and the sanctuary city loons who provide no sanctuary for the American citizen victims of illegal alien criminals.

Even if it were true that illegal aliens commit crimes, including murder, at rates lower than American citizens, that would be irrelevant. The murder rate for illegal aliens should be zero because none of them should be here and the indisputable fact is that Jamiel Shaw Jr., Kate Steinle, and Mollie Tibbetts would be alive today if the illegal aliens who slew them were still staring at the other side of a border wall liberals refuse to build.

But it is not true and it is a myth perpetrated by those who want to promote the open borders agenda:

According to a recent Associated Press article, “multiple studies have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born U.S. citizens.” But the issue isn’t non-citizens who are in this country legally, and who must abide by the law to avoid having their visas revoked or their application for citizenship refused. The real issue is the crimes committed by illegal aliens. And in that context, the claim is quite misleading, because the “multiple studies” on crimes committed by “immigrants” -- including a 2014 study by a professor from the University of Massachusetts, which is the only one cited in the article -- combine the crime rates of both citizens and non-citizens, legal and illegal…

These claims overlook disturbing actual data on crimes committed by criminal aliens. For example, the Government Accountability Office released two unsettling reports in 2005 on criminal aliens who are in prison for committing crimes in the United States, and issued an updated report in 2011.

The first report (GAO-05-337R) found that criminal aliens (both legal and illegal) make up 27 percent of all federal prisoners. Yet according to the Center for Immigration Studies, non-citizens are only about nine percent of the nation’s adult population. Thus, judging by the numbers in federal prisons alone, non-citizens commit federal crimes at three times the rate of citizens.

The findings in the second report (GAO-05-646R) are even more disturbing. This report looked at the criminal histories of 55,322 aliens that “entered the country illegally and were still illegally in the country at the time of their incarceration in federal or state prison or local jail during fiscal year 2003.” Those 55,322 illegal aliens had been arrested 459,614 times, an average of 8.3 arrests per illegal alien, and had committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, an average of roughly 12.7 offenses per illegal alien.

Needless to say, all of these crimes would have been off the books had the illegal aliens committing them not been here. Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, appeared with Tucker Carlson on Fox News and explained that despite libs cherry-picking their data, the fact remains illegals commit heinous crimes at a higher and astounding rate:

There’s something called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program [SCAAP] and you can extrapolate from that and get pretty reliable data. Now Alex [Nowrasteh] is very knowledgeable; that’s why it’s puzzling that he won’t acknowledge the overwhelming amount of data that shows that illegal aliens not only commit more crimes at a higher rate, that is than lawful residents, but more serious crimes at a far higher rate than lawful residents. And we’re not talking about a little bit; he conveniently mentioned Texas to...

Jacksonville Shooter Was Member of Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ – Referred to Trump Supporters at “Trumptards” – Murdered 4 People

Sunday afternoon, police responded to a ‘mass shooting’ at Jacksonville Landing in Florida which left 3 dead and 11 wounded.

According to witnesses, the killer, David Katz, began shooting shortly after he lost the Madden NFL gaming tournament.

Footage and audio of the shooting the moment it happened during a livestream at the Madden NFL tournament was captured.

A red laser dot appeared on the player wearing the red sweatshirt the moment the shooting started (video below).

A red laser dot appeared on the player wearing the red sweatshirt the moment the shooting started (video below).

Jacksonville police confirmed three deceased individuals were located at the scene at Jacksonville Landing on Sunday evening.

Killer David Katz was a member of the anti-Trump “resistance.”

He referred to Trump supporters as “Trumptards” on his Reddit page.

David Katz’s Reddit page is littered with anti-Trump garbage.
Via Ian Miles Cheong:

So will Democrats be forced to disavow this crazed killer by the media?

I think we all know the answer to that.

Morning Mistress

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #361

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside? 

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific, 

from the beautiful to the repugnant, 

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed, 

you could be inspired, you could be appalled. 

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. 

You have been warned.

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