British intelligence reportedly provided a vital tipoff to the US in 2015 about the extent of Russian hacking on the presidential election. The report on the UK’s involvement came after US intelligence agencies published an unclassified version of their finding that Vladimir Putin ordered a multi-pronged operation to interfere in the election in favour of Donald Trump.
The New York Times, citing “two people familiar with the conclusions” of the report, said British intelligence was “among the first” to raise the alarm in autumn 2015 that Moscow had hacked the computer servers of the Democratic National Committee.
The UK’s role suggests that the compromise of email exchanges among senior Democrats was spotted when voice intercepts, computer traffic or agents picked up content of the emails flowing towards Moscow.
Over the course the campaign, British officials were as alarmed as their US counterparts over the extent of contacts between Trump advisers and Moscow and by Trump’s consistently pro-Russian stance on a range of foreign policy issues.
However, those officials now say they are in a difficult position since the election, as Theresa May’s government is striving to solidify ties with the incoming Trump administration, in part to counter-balance the UK’s accelerating drift from Europe.
To that end, Downing Street took the unusual step last week of briefing against US secretary of state John Kerry for his denunciation of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, although his remarks closely reflected longstanding UK policy.
Allegations about the depth and nature of contacts between the Trump camp and Moscow have been passed to the FBI but it is unclear whether they are the subject of a full investigation.
There was no reference to them in the public version of the joint intelligence report on Russian interference in the election, compiled by the CIA, FBI and NSA.
A classified version has been prepared for Congress, and a top secret version has been shown to Barack Obama, Trump and a few other officials with high-level clearance.
British intelligence reportedly provided a vital tipoff to the US in 2015 about the extent of Russian hacking on the presidential election. The report on the UK’s involvement came after US intelligence agencies published an unclassified version of their finding that Vladimir Putin ordered a multi-pronged operation to interfere in the election in favour of Donald Trump.
The New York Times, citing “two people familiar with the conclusions” of the report, said British intelligence was “among the first” to raise the alarm in autumn 2015 that Moscow had hacked the computer servers of the Democratic National Committee.
The UK’s role suggests that the compromise of email exchanges among senior Democrats was spotted when voice intercepts, computer traffic or agents picked up content of the emails flowing towards Moscow.
Over the course the campaign, British officials were as alarmed as their US counterparts over the extent of contacts between Trump advisers and Moscow and by Trump’s consistently pro-Russian stance on a range of foreign policy issues.
However, those officials now say they are in a difficult position since the election, as Theresa May’s government is striving to solidify ties with the incoming Trump administration, in part to counter-balance the UK’s accelerating drift from Europe.
To that end, Downing Street took the unusual step last week of briefing against US secretary of state John Kerry for his denunciation of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, although his remarks closely reflected longstanding UK policy.
Allegations about the depth and nature of contacts between the Trump camp and Moscow have been passed to the FBI but it is unclear whether they are the subject of a full investigation.
There was no reference to them in the public version of the joint intelligence report on Russian interference in the election, compiled by the CIA, FBI and NSA.
A classified version has been prepared for Congress, and a top secret version has been shown to Barack Obama, Trump and a few other officials with high-level clearance.
Comments
Post a Comment