RUMINT (Rumor Intelligence) is rife with reports that Russian intelligence agencies are preparing to release emails “hacked” from Hillary Clinton’s rogue Internet email server.
Agreed, this sounds a bit like a blackmail plot in a 1940s radio detective thriller or a soap opera. Except it isn’t. We live in a world where blood gets spilled.
This is speculation. But Hillary's email was vulnerable to Russian (and other) hackers. So it is prudent to assume it was done.
That's one thing I worry about.
But the existence of the RUMINT itself raises questions.
Did the Russians fail--somehow!--to vacuum up the emails? Heads could be rolling in Russian intelligence services for failing to penetrate the server presented to them on a silver platter. Maybe the rumors are a Plan B to gain some prestige by claiming to have the emails even though they don't.
After all, if the Russians want to blackmail Clinton, wouldn't the Russians keep that ability secret?
Or is the RUMORINT from non-Russian sources in an attempt to derail the election of a president that would become the most flexible of all presidents (and have nothing to do with the plethora of yoga classes Clinton claims to have arranged on her private email system)?
Or perhaps the Russians have decided that they'd rather have President Trump than President Clinton?
Heck, perhaps the Russians have decided they'd rather have President Sanders! Lord knows what information the Russians have in their archives from socialist Sanders' honeymoon days in the Soviet Union.
It is even possible that Russia's short-term problems require a boast of Russian intelligence prowess at the expense of long-term advantage of using the material to blackmail a future President Clinton.
As long as I'm speculating, perhaps the rumors are based on Russian failure with a twist. Perhaps the Chinese managed to make the penetration, refuse to share with Russia, and now Russia wants to keep China from enjoying the fruits of having a pre-blackmailed President Hillary Clinton in office.
While getting the credit for making the hack to preempt the Chinese from getting the prestige.
As Bay says, this is all speculation. But something is true, and the only thing we know is false is that Hillary Clinton did not put American security at risk with her private email server that bypassed security systems and procedures.
UPDATE: I will forever be embarrassed that the Republican party nominated Trump. But the Democrats should be ashamed to have nominated the corrupt Clinton--although the path was paved by the DNC.
UPDATE: The Russians officially know way more about Hillary Clinton than the American public:
The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation was among the organizations breached by suspected Russian hackers in a dragnet of the U.S. political apparatus ahead of the November election, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Not that only knowing that Hillary Clinton is corrupt isn't enough to disqualify her from the Oval Office.
