The US has identified the Russian agents behind alleged hacking ahead of the presidential election won by Donald Trump in November, reports say.


The agents, whose names have not been released, are alleged to have sent stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks to try to swing the vote for Mr Trump
.
Russia denies any involvement and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source.

Intelligence officials are due to brief Mr Trump, who doubts the claims, later.

Vice-President Joe Biden lambasted the president-elect on Thursday
for attacking the intelligence community over the claims, saying it was "absolutely mindless" not to have faith in the agencies.



At about the same time, President-elect Trump appeared to question the intelligence agencies' findings in a tweet, asking why they decided not to request to examine computers belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
What are the hacking allegations?
Mr Biden said he had read a US intelligence report outlining Russian involvement, the details of which are emerging in US media.
According to CNN , the Washington Post and NBC News citing intelligence sources, agencies had intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election showing senior Russian government officials celebrating Donald Trump's win over rival Hillary Clinton.
They had also identified go-betweens who delivered stolen Democratic emails to the Wikileaks website, sources said, without providing further details.
NBC News says the alleged Russian hacking targeted not just the DNC but also the White House, joint chiefs of staff, the department of state and large US corporations.
National Intelligence Director Gen James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey are due to brief President-elect Trump on the report in New York on Friday.
An unclassified version will be made public next week.


What do US politicians say?
Vice-President Joe Biden told the PBS network that the report clearly confirmed Russia had tried to "discredit the US electoral process" as part of a systematic campaign to undermine Mrs Clinton.
Her campaign manager, John Podesta, was among those whose emails were hacked, as well as the DNC.
Mr Biden also criticised Mr Trump for ignoring intelligence on the hack.
"The idea that you may know more than the intelligence community knows - it's like saying I know more about physics than my professor. I didn't read the book, I just know I know more."
Gen Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the hack, and said the motive would be revealed next week.

Republican Senator John McCain, a leading Russia critic in Congress who chaired the hearing, said it was in the interests of all Americans to confront the problem of foreign hacking.
"There is no national security interest more vital to the US than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference."


Last week President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the US over the alleged hacking. Russia has said it will not reciprocate



What's Mr Trump's view?


Mr Trump has repeatedly rejected allegations that the Russian government was behind the hacks.
On Wednesday, he repeated a suggestion that "a 14-year-old" may have been responsible for the breach.
On Thursday, he said he was a "big fan" of intelligence agencies, but later went on to raise questions about how they responded to the security breach.
Mr Trump promised last week to reveal information about the hacking, but no announcement came.
His inauguration will take place on 20 January.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38528329

Cc. lalasticlala

ok

Putin is ma re'dawg! U feel me?....but come oo, Trump is an idiot to discredit his country's intelligence agencies..am secodus btw.

tommynico:
Putin is ma re'dawg! U feel me?....but come oo, Trump is an idiot to discredit his country's intelligence agencies..am secodus btw.

Why Americans voted that man ..na dem know

All join...

tommynico:
Putin is ma re'dawg! U feel me?....but come oo, Trump is an idiot to discredit his country's intelligence agencies..am secodus btw.

. How is He an idiot? Have you forgotten that this are the same sets of intelligence reports that 'confirmed' Iraq had weapons of Mass Destruction? Besides, how did the alleged Russian hacking caused Hillary to lose the election when she actually overwhelmingly won the majority vote? ;\

Appleyard:
. How is He an idiot? Have you forgotten that this are the same sets of intelligence reports that 'confirmed' Iraq had weapons of Mass Destruction? Besides, how did the alleged Russian hacking caused Hillary to lose the election when she actually overwhelmingly won the majority vote? ;\

My opinion wasn't about the election but the personality of Donald trump. Even if russia was not the real culprit which i seriously doubt, it still doesn't mean you should back and praise a well knwn foreign adversary at the cost of your own intelligence agencies' credibility. There's no intelligence agency in the world that has never given a false intel, even the soviet union of then gave a wrong intel to the egyptians during the arab-israeli conflict. My point is that why choking the life out of thesame agencies you would still come to rely on to protect and guide you frm the same power you are warming ur hrt to thereby reducing public confidence in the nation's intel agencies and i believe there should be other ways to show your disagreement rather than painting them black in public.

tommynico:

My opinion wasn't about the election but the personality of Donald trump. Even if russia was not the real culprit which i seriously doubt, it still doesn't mean you should back and praise a well knwn foreign adversary at the cost of your own intelligence agencies' credibility. There's no intelligence agency in the world that has never given a false intel, even the soviet union of then gave a wrong intel to the egyptians during the arab-israeli conflict. My point is that why choking the life out of thesame agencies you would still come to rely on to protect and guide you frm the same power you are warming ur hrt to thereby reducing public confidence in the nation's intel agencies and i believe there should be other ways to show your disagreement rather than painting them black in public.

I gat your drift... But the agencies got it coming.. in fact, the major reason why the US was voted as the greatest threat to World peace, is due to the covert and overt military and coup interventions and overthrow of lots of legitimate government by the CIA and Co across the globe, since 1953.

What Iraq, Libya and Syria is passing through today was as a result of the same criminal agencies that have wrecked untold havoc across the world. Trump is simply calling a spade a spade, and that's exactly why he was voted in at the first place-saying it as it is.

Appleyard:


I gat your drift... But the agencies got it coming.. in fact, the major reason why the US was voted as the greatest threat to World peace, is due to the covert and overt military and coup interventions and overthrow of lots of legitimate government by the CIA and Co across the globe, since 1953.

What Iraq, Libya and Syria is passing through today was as a result of the same criminal agencies that have wrecked untold havoc across the world. Trump is simply calling a spade a spade, and that's exactly why he was voted in at the first place-saying it as it is.

the majority of the Gov't toppled by the americas were tyrants or do you suppose the russians or the greedy and proud chinese be in charge? America is a spoilt apple but those two, especially the chinese are rotten mangoes and btw, america's pedigree and heftiness serves as a balance in the world and as regards trump, he's threading on the skirt of being silenced in america if he is not careful because the institutions and established powers won't let him disrupt their plans, and worse case is that they would use those closest to him to destroy him so he's gat to be very careful and mend the bridge btw him and the intel agencies.

tommynico:

the majority of the Gov't toppled by the americas were tyrants or do you suppose the russians or the greedy and proud chinese be in charge? America is a spoilt apple but those two, especially the chinese are rotten mangoes and btw, america's pedigree and heftiness serves as a balance in the world and as regards trump, he's threading on the skirt of being silenced in america if he is not careful because the institutions and established powers won't let him disrupt their plans, and worse case is that they would use those closest to him to destroy him so he's gat to be very careful and mend the bridge btw him and the intel agencies.

Tyrants replaced by corrupts.. puppet and spinless jerks

Branzy:



Tyrants replaced by corrupts.. puppet and spinless jerks

Pls don't see me as a defender of the stars n stripes, those pple let themslvs to be corrupt and wat do u suppose the other powers (ruskis n chinkoes) would av done if in the position of the united states, even nigeria would do worse to secure her interests.

tommynico:

Pls don't see me as a defender of the stars n stripes, those pple let themslvs to be corrupt and wat do u suppose the other powers (ruskis n chinkoes) would av done if in the position of the united states, even nigeria would do worse to secure her interests.

Sorry oh, but their intervention in Libya has had a direct negative effect on Nigeria with the Boko haram arms coming from there... Just to add some perspective...

Meanwhile, my honest take on the whole saga is that they are asking that Trump admits that he was rigged into office and hence affecting his legitimacy... It will be hard for anyone to do that... Shalom

Smooth278:


Sorry oh, but their intervention in Libya has had a direct negative effect on Nigeria with the Boko haram arms coming from there... Just to add some perspective...

Meanwhile, my honest take on the whole saga is that they are asking that Trump admits that he was rigged into office and hence affecting his legitimacy... It will be hard for anyone to do that... Shalom

You are quite right there bro, trump doesn't want to fall for the trap but still there should be other ways to show ur dissagreement rather than the twitter show he's running. Btw, the libyan crises caused a spillover directly in mali but the nigerian story was an exploit by our politician to achieve an aim. I would boldly state that no nigerian participated in the libyan crises as it withnessed more of the tauregs 4rm mali, our politicians only use the avenue to acquire cheap weapos to give some jobless nutcases to cause problem to the then nigeria administration and even if they weren't able to get them, they would av worked another plan. There are no saints.