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Wednesday, January 04, 2017

The Opera Mar-a-Lago: First Movement: Adagio Eppure Accelerando

adagio eppure accelerando:  slowly yet gradually getting faster



Mar-A-Lago, The Dress Rehearsal



Donald Trump Casts Doubt on Intelligence Community Over 'So-Called' Russian Hacking
By DAVID CAPLAN
2 hours ago    Good Morning America
https://gma.yahoo.com/donald-trump-casts-doubt-intelligence-community-over-called-023103102--abc-news-topstories.html
Donald Trump continues to remain indignant about claims that Russia is responsible for cyberassaults on the US, taking to Twitter Tuesday night to reiterate his skepticism.

In a single tweet, Trump questioned the prevailing notion that Russia has been hacking US entities -- despite 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concluding that top Russian officials helped orchestrate cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and members of Hillary Clinton's campaign -- and he also seemed to question the validity of such agencies overall.

The president-elect tweeted, "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!"

While the basis of Trump's tweet is that the intelligence briefing was slated for Tuesday and bumped to Friday, a source familiar with the matter tells ABC News that the briefing had always been slated for Friday.

Just last week, a joint FBI-Department of Homeland Security 13-page report linked the Russian government to hacks of Democratic organizations

Trump's skepticism is nothing new. On New Year's Eve, he expressed a lack of confidence in intelligence officials' findings.

"Well, I just want them to be sure, because it's a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure. And if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong," Trump said, when asked why he seems to doubt the intelligence analysis that Russia is behind the hacking, referring to the intelligence cited about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction leading up to the Iraq War...

I am interested mostly in the underlined section.
First, the UN Weapons Inspectors - a form of Intel, I suppose - told everyone that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and (2) I seem to recall George Tenant did hedge his evaluations of this business and the decision to go with a total fabrication was made by politicians. Eventually he went with a "slam-dunk" statement that there were WMDs, but that was after his reservations were dismissed by the President and his cabinet.

Mr. Trump is now a politician.
The politicians - whose group you are now in, Mr. Trump - were mistaken in their evaluation of the intel reports and chose to distort to achieve their dubious ends.

Now it is your turn to ignore history, reports, probabilities, caveats... we shall have one heck of A Night At The Opera!





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