The Russia watchIntelligence community challenged; mysteries of Russia’s Fancy Bear hackers; “digital Watergate,” and more
• The intelligence community has never faced a problem quite like this
• Facing one troubling Russia revelation after another, election officials work to prevent a “digital Watergate”
• With Trump in thrall to Putin, the NSA and Cyber Command go rogue
• Coats faces greater scrutiny as fallout from Russia summit spreads
• The strategy Mueller is using to protect his investigation
• Unanswered questions trail a Trump DOJ official with a Russia tie
• Inside Bannon’s plan to hijack Europe for the far-right
• Mueller finally solves mysteries about Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ hackers
• Collective disbelief among intelligence officials
• How much damage did Trump cause in Helsinki?
• “No way to run a superpower”: The Trump-Putin summit and the death of American foreign policy
• Kavanaugh, Mueller and efforts to have it both ways on Morrison
The intelligence community has never faced a problem quite like this (David Ignatius, Washington Post)
The American intelligence community has never faced a problem quite like President Trump — a commander in chief who is suspected by a growing number of Republicans and Democrats of deferring to Russia’s views over the recommendations of his own intelligence agencies.
What Trump offers Russia isn’t the information he knows but his role as a human wrecking ball against America’s traditional allies and trading partners. What will be different in the spy world in the aftermath of this jaw-dropping week? Probably not much. … The president remains the first customer, and most veterans of the spy world can’t imagine withholding information from him. Officials may be more cautious, briefing especially sensitive details first to the national security adviser, say, or cautioning the president that he doesn’t want to know how a piece of information was obtained. What about the agents who are risking their lives in Moscow or Beijing to spy for America? Will they balk now? Again, probably not … Agents who have helped America because it represented something different from Putin’s authoritarianism may have second thoughts, however. That’s the hidden intelligence cost of Trump’s presidency: We’re a less admirable nation. Will foreign spy services that share sensitive intelligence through what’s termed ‘liaison’ reduce the flow? Once again, probably not. … If Trump continues to speak of the European Union as a ‘foe’ … that cooperation could eventually change. But our foreign partners need U.S. intelligence, however much they dislike Trump.
“At the end of the day, our work is what endures,” Wray said here. His commitment to the law and the facts offered a moment to appreciate that Trump is checked, not by some imaginary “deep state,” but by patriotic men and women doing their jobs.
Facing one troubling Russia revelation after another, election officials work to prevent a “digital Watergate” (Alan Greenblatt, Governing)
States are stepping up their election security but face many challenges: a president still skeptical of Russian interference, a lack of money, and reliance on private vendors for voting equipment and software, to name a few.
With Trump in thrall to Putin, the NSA and Cyber Command go rogue (Maya Kosoff, Vanity Fair)
Absent any direction from the White House, both organizations are going forward with their own
