December 14, 2016

The CIA’s allegation that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump is “fake news” being peddled by the Washington Post and New York Times.

Did the Russians sabotage voting machines in the Midwest? That’s the sort of stuff U.S. spy agencies would brag about discovering. But no.

Russia is accused of hacking the computer of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta and giving embarrassing information to WikiLeaks. But Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, denied Russia was the source. (Politico, Nov. 3)

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina nonetheless declared, “I’m going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. … I think they did interfere with our elections, and I want Putin personally to pay the price.” (Washington Post, Dec. 10)

It wasn’t Russia that set up the Electoral College that’s sending Trump to the White House, even though he got 2.8 million fewer votes than Clinton. As Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar has pointed out, the Electoral College was established to protect slavery. (Vox, Nov. 12)

And it was not Russia that suppressed African-American and Latinx votes.

The CIA claims against Russia are old news. “‘We have not drawn any evidentiary connection to any Russian intelligence service and WikiLeaks — none,’ said one U.S. official,” That’s what the Washington Post reported back on July 27.

So why the clamor now? It probably has something to do with most of Aleppo being liberated by Syria’s elected government, which is aided by Russia and Iran. It’s a big defeat for the CIA.

Attacking Russia for allegedly aiding Trump is also a way to attack this super-bigot from the right.

Millions of people may be coming to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20 to protest Trump’s inauguration. Blaming Russia is an attempt to divert the struggle.

It’s easier to knock Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Trump’s apparent secretary of state nominee, for deals with Russia than to attack the oil giant for, say, exploiting Yemen.

Democrats like New York Sen. Charles Schumer are yelling the loudest against Russia, while capitulating to Trump’s nomination of a virtual junta of generals in his cabinet.

During the election campaign the ruling class and its capitalist state were split. The biggest banks and the CIA supported Clinton. Most of the small banks, oil frackers like Harold Hamm — the sort of forces that backed Barry Goldwater in 1964 — were for Trump.

The FBI was also for Trump, and FBI Director James Comey may have helped tilt the elections by raising Clinton’s emails late in the campaign.

The split between these two Gestapo-like agencies — the CIA and the FBI — has continued, with the FBI discounting the CIA’s claims about Russia. (CNN, Dec. 11)

What’s ironic about the CIA’s “fake news” is that U.S. election consultants boasted about how they helped re-elect Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996. (Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1996) Wall Street used Yeltsin to help overthrow the Soviet Union, a tragic defeat for poor people and workers everywhere.

Russia today has a capitalist government, but it’s not a vassal state like Saudi Arabia. To U.S. generals like “Mad Dog” James Mattis — Trump’s choice for defense secretary — Russia is 6 million square miles to attack and occupy.

Our enemies are in the corporate boardrooms and the Pentagon, not in Moscow.