CNN:

US intelligence has identified the go-betweens the Russians used to provide stolen emails to WikiLeaks, according to US officials familiar with the classified intelligence report that was presented to President Barack Obama on Thursday.

[ … ]

Meanwhile, US intelligence has received new information following the election that gave agencies increased confidence that Russia carried out the hack and did so, in part, to help Trump win.

Included in that new information were intercepted conversations of Russian officials expressing happiness at Trump’s win. Another official described some of the messages as congratulatory.

“Happiness.”  “Congratulatory.”  Leading to the firm conclusion that the Russians carried out a hack to help Trump win.

What a damn joke.  What’s surprising is that they’re still keeping up this charade.  They’ve tried riots, bullying the electors, hysteria over so-called “fake news” (the only examples of which are found in the MSM), and now this.  But they’re not letting go of the “Russian monster-under-the-bed” meme.  It’s all they have left.

John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and other senators, rogue generals like David Petraeus and others are just butt hurt that their oil plays in North Africa aren’t going to work out without a whole lot more effort.  I guess DynCorp and money from George Soros isn’t going to be enough, is it?  How’s that seven country plan working out for you, Petraeus?  That bright idea from your Princeton days isn’t quite what you thought it was, no?

Sadly, Rich Lowry is confused about this.

Donald Trump and his most fervent supporters have seemingly made it a matter of principle not to admit that Russia interfered in our election, despite what appears to be overwhelming evidence (although the more we can learn about the intelligence behind this determination, the better). They evidently fear that admitting the Russia role will taint Trump’s win. It’s not particularly difficult, though, to do what Paul Ryan did yesterday – which is concede Russia’s interference, lament it, and point out that Trump legitimately won and prevailed for all sorts of reasons not directly related to the hacking. This would be a much better posture for Trump, and perhaps he will eventually adopt it, but so far he is doubling down on denial.

Rich is a beltway man and thus is missing the point(s).  Put aside the issue of hacking for a moment.  From all we know about the emails, Seth Rich is responsible for handing over the DNC cache to Wikileaks.  Someone else is responsible for handing over the Podesta cache to Wikilaks, possibly David Braverman.  Either way, we know it wasn’t a state actor.

The collective emails are damning, and point to corruption so deep, far and wide it may never be possible to root out the “deep state” that has been operating underneath the transient government, this deep state run by the CIA, military contractors, the State Department, The Clinton Foundation, big money donors, and rogue generals.

There is a reason that the existing “intelligence” apparatus wants the American people to believe that someone evil is culpable for the email leaks.  Most American people, if they knew of the depths of depravity associated with the deep state, wouldn’t be able to process it, and when they finally did, they would call for heads to roll.  Literally.

Furthermore, there are operations currently in process that, if they are stopped, stand to cause a lot of monetary loss for a number of powerful people.  As for whether Russia wanted Trump to be elected, I don’t blame them one bit if it’s true.  Hillary was posturing for an unnecessary and dangerous war with Russia.  Such a thing would be a catastrophe for both America and Russia.

Regarding hacking, besides the fact that it wasn’t the source of the emails to Wikileaks, I’ve spoken to this issue before.  I work for a very large company which sustains hundreds of thousands of hack attempts per month.  My understanding is that the chief culprit is China.  Russia hacks computer systems.  China hacks computer systems.  The Mossad hacks computer systems.  The CIA hacks computer systems, including those in Russia.  The drama over the alleged Russian hacking attempts comes across as “get thee to thy fainting couch, everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing.”  You don’t say?  Color me shocked.

Finally, note the red herring.  Whereas the real story is the content of the emails, the misdirect is how Wikileaks got them.  Again, notice what subject has the attention right now?  You guessed it, the fake news of Russian hacks has the attention, except among thoughtful men and women who see the code language in the emails, who see the communications between TCF and others concerning operations in North Africa, who are monitoring the operations of TCF and DynCorp, and who have never seen the deep state exposed quite like this.

It’s ugly, it’s awful, it’s dangerous, and they show no signs of stopping.  No wonder they want to shift the attention to something else.  One amusing comment pretty much says it all.

Their true ‘intelligence’ lies in their successful peddling of the Redirected Narrative.

From: HRC, the DNC, Abedin, Podesta are sleazy, and probably criminal people who should be prosecuted

To: Never mind the truth of the Contents, and let’s go after the Leaker. Er, hackers. Yes, that’s it — the Hackers. Russian hackers. Directed by Putin. And look there: a skittles-shitting unicorn!

But they’re only peddling it to idiots (no one else believes them) and liars who stand to lose big.  To close, it’s laughable that the intelligence community would simply think that they can trot out information from unidentified intelligence officials and analysts who won’t sign their name to the crap that’s in the report and assume that the people will just bend over and accept it.

Note to the CIA.  Go back to your hole.  You’re not wanted.