The FBI on Monday announced it was investigating the embarrassing hack of Democratic National Committee e-mails — a breach the campaign of Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed on Russia, accusing Moscow of seeking to influence the US presidential election.
The e-mails leaked by Web site WikiLeaks, which reveal that party leaders sought to undermine the campaign of Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders, threw the Democratic National Convention into disarray on its first day and prompted the party’s chairwoman to resign.
While a series of experts pointed the finger at Moscow, others urged caution. Russia denied any involvement.
“The FBI is investigating a cyberintrusion involving the DNC [Democratic National Committee], and are working to determine the nature and scope of the matter,” the agency said, making no mention of possible culprits. “A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.”
Both the White House and the US Department of State deferred to the FBI on whether Russia was to blame, but highlighted that cybersecurity has been an ongoing issue of concern between Washington and Moscow.
“We know that there variety of actors, both state and criminal, who are looking for vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity of the United States and that includes Russia,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
US Department of State spokesman John Kirby added: “I think we need to let the FBI do their work before we try to form any conclusions here about what happened and what the motivation was behind it.”
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov batted away any suggestion that Moscow was behind the hack. He spoke ahead of a meeting yesterday with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Laos.
Lavrov, in Vientiane for a regional security forum, shrugged when asked by reporters if Russia was responsible.
“Well I don’t want to use four-letter words,” he said cryptically, before greeting Kerry with a handshake.
Kerry said later, after his talks with his Russian counterpart: “With respect to Foreign Minister Lavrov, I did raise the issue of DNC. As you know the FBI is investigating the incident and it’s important for the FBI to do its work before we draw any conclusion.”
However, Clinton’s campaign team — looking to tamp an internal party uproar just days before she becomes the first woman in US history to be formally conferred the presidential nomination by a major party — was quick to point fingers.
“It’s troubling that some experts are now telling us that this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping [Republican presidential nominee] Donald Trump,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told ABC.
Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading some to conjecture that Putin was working to put the real-estate billionaire in the White House.
Trump sought to use the internal Democratic rift to his advantage.
“She worked very, very hard to rig the system,” Trump said of Clinton at a campaign stop in Virginia on Monday. “Little did she know that China, Russia, one of our many, many friends, came in and hacked the hell out of us.”
However, even if Russians were involved in the hack, they were not necessarily behind the leak, said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It could just as easily be an insider using the Russians as an excuse,” he said in an e-mail.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the