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NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 7, 2017
U.S. report: Putin ordered effort to help Trump, hurt Clinton
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Russian President Vladimir
Putin ordered a hidden
campaign to influence Amer-
ica’s presidential election in
favor of Donald Trump over
Hillary Clinton, U.S. intel-
ligence agencies declared
Friday in the government’s
first
formal
allegation
supporting sensational claims
that Trump and his supporters
have staunchly resisted.
The intelligence report,
an unclassified version of
a more-detailed classified
account given earlier to
Trump, the White House
and congressional leaders,
withheld the government’s
evidence to back up its asser-
tions.
Trump, in a brief interview
with The Associated Press,
said he “learned a lot” from
his discussions with intelli-
gence officials, but declined
to say whether he accepted
their assertion that Russia had
meddled in the election on his
behalf.
“It was a really great
meeting, I really like those
people a lot,” said Trump,
who has challenged the
intelligence
community
since winning the election. “I
learned a lot and I think they
did also.”
Trump would not detail
what evidence he was
presented with, saying only
that he learned “a lot of
confidential things.” Because
Trump is not yet president, he
is legally constrained from
AP Photo/Jon Elswick
A part of the declassified version Intelligence
Community Assessment on Russia’s efforts to
interfere with the U.S. political process is
photographed in Washington on Friday.
revealing classified informa-
tion.
In an earlier written
statement, Trump said it was
clear Russian email hacking
did not deliver him the pres-
idency.
The unclassified version
of the intelligence report
was the most detailed public
account to date of Russian
efforts to interfere with the
U.S. political process, with
actions that included hacking
into the email accounts of
the Democratic National
Committee and individual
Democrats like Hillary
Clinton’s campaign chairman
John Podesta. Russia also
used state-funded propaganda
and paid “trolls” to make
nasty comments on social
media services, the report
said. There was no suggestion
that Russia affected actual
vote counting or tampered
with ballot machines.
President Barack Obama
requested the report last
month and wanted it
completed before inaugura-
tion day.
The report, for the first
time, explicitly tied Putin
to the hackings, called it
the “boldest effort yet” to
influence a U.S. election, and
said the Russian government
provided emails to WikiLeaks
— something the website’s
founder, Julian Assange, has
repeatedly denied.
The intelligence agencies
also said Russia will continue
to try to influence future
events in the U.S. and world-
wide, particularly among
U.S. allies.
Since Election Day, the
intelligence agencies said,
Russia has launched a “spear-
fishing” campaign to try to
trick people into revealing
their
email
passwords,
targeting U.S. government
Trump on border wall:
Mexico will pay us back
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— President-elect Donald
Trump on Friday tweeted
that Mexico will reimburse
American taxpayers for a
new border wall and that U.S.
money spent will be for the
“sake of speed.”
His tweet came as congres-
sional Republicans and his top
aides consider a plan to ask
Congress to ensure money
is available in U.S. coffers
for the wall without passing
any new legislation. Instead,
they would rely on existing
law that already authorizes
fencing and other technology
along the southern border.
The potential approach
was disclosed Thursday by
two congressional officials
and a senior transition official
with knowledge of the discus-
sions; all spoke on condition
of anonymity because they
were not authorized to discuss
the matter publicly.
Trump said in a tweet
early Friday: “The dishonest
media does not report that any
money spent on building the
Great Wall (for sake of speed),
will be paid back by Mexico
later!” Mexico’s president
and other senior officials
have repeatedly insisted that
Mexico won’t pay for a wall.
During his campaign,
Trump repeatedly told voters
if elected he would build a
wall along the U.S. southern
border and make Mexico pay
for it.
But Trump never settled on
a mechanism for how Mexico
would pay. He floated various
options, including compelling
the country to cover the cost
through higher visa and border
crossing fees and threatening
to target billions of dollars
in remittances sent home by
immigrants living in the U.S.
Trump
transition
spokesman Sean Spicer said
putting U.S. money up-front
“doesn’t mean he’s broken
his promise.” In an interview
Friday on ABC’s “Good
Morning America,” Spicer
said: “I think he’s going to
continue to talk to them (the
Mexican government) about
that.”
The approach could also
stave off a legislative fight
that Trump might lose if he
tried to get Congress to pass a
measure authorizing the kind
of border wall he promised
during the campaign.
It’s not clear how much
could be done along the 2,000-
mile border without addi-
tional actions by Congress.
Lawmakers passed the Secure
Fence Act of 2006, but most of
those 700 miles have already
been built. Some areas are in
much better shape than others,
though, and long stretches are
made up of fencing that stops
vehicles but not pedestrians.
But whatever steps might
be taken without Congress’
approval would be likely to
fall short of the extravagant
new wall on the border
that Trump repeatedly said
Mexico would pay for during
his campaign for the White
House. And despite Congress’
involvement in approving any
spending, such an approach
might also open Trump to
charges of circumventing the
House and the Senate to take
unilateral actions, something
he repeatedly criticized Presi-
dent Barack Obama for doing.
A spending bill including
money for border construc-
tion could also provoke a
legislative showdown given
potential opposition from
Senate Democrats.
Still, several lawmakers
and congressional officials
said the administration could
have significant flexibility
in taking additional steps
without Congress’ approval.
“There’s a lot of things that
can be done within current
law,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-
Balart, R-Fla., a longtime
proponent of comprehen-
sive immigration reform,
though he emphasized that
a lasting solution on immi-
gration would take action
by Congress. “You cannot
minimize the potential impact
of the administration doing
what they can do under the
law,” he said.
However, some immigra-
tion hard-liners have already
expressed the desire to see
Congress take a vote, given
how prominent the wall was
during Trump’s presidential
campaign, and their desire to
act on the issue.
Trump’s vow to build an
impenetrable, concrete wall
along the southern border
was his signature campaign
proposal. “Build the wall!”
supporters would chant at his
rallies. “Who’s going to pay
for it?” Trump would ask
them. “Mexico!” Trump often
promised the wall would be
built of hardened concrete,
rebar and steel as tall as his
venues’ ceilings, and would
feature a “big, beautiful door”
to allow legal immigrants to
enter.
Most experts viewed
such promises as unrealistic
and impractical, and Trump
himself sometimes allowed
that the wall would not need
to span the entire length of
the border, thanks to natural
barriers like rivers. After
winning the election, he said
he’d be open to stretches of
fencing.
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employees and think tanks
that specialize in national
security, defense and foreign
policy.
The report lacked details
about how the U.S. learned
what it said it knows, such
as any intercepted conversa-
tions or electronic messages
among Russian leaders,
including Putin, or about
specific hacker techniques
or digital tools the U.S. may
have traced back to Russia in
its investigations.
Exactly how the U.S.
monitors its adversaries
in cyberspace is a closely
guarded
secret,
since
revealing such details could
help foreign governments
further obscure their activi-
ties.
The unclassified version
included footnotes acknowl-
edging that it “does not
include the full supporting
information on key elements
of the influence campaign.”
It said its conclusions were
identical to the classified
version, which was more
detailed.
The unclassified report
said the Russian effort was
both political and personal.
“Russia’s goals were to
undermine public faith in
the U.S. democratic process,
denigrate Secretary Clinton
and harm her electability
and potential presidency,” it
said. “We further assess Putin
and the Russian government
developed a clear preference
for President-elect Trump.”
Putin most likely wanted
to discredit Clinton because
he blames her for inciting
mass protests against his
regime in late 2011 and
early 2012, and because he
resents her for disparaging
comments she has made
about him, the report said. It
said the Russian effort was
the “boldest yet” intended to
affect a U.S. election.
The report was released
shortly after intelligence offi-
cials finished briefing Trump
— a move probably intended
to bolster the intelligence
findings against pushback
from the president-elect.
Trump could use the lack
of supporting details in the
public version to fuel his
dismissiveness of the find-
ings, even though he has now
been briefed on the classified
portion.
Trump has been dismis-
sive of the intelligence
agencies’ claims of Russia’s
involvement for months, long
before he saw the classified
information Friday.
Just hours before he was
briefed, Trump dismissed
the assessment and told The
New York Times the focus
on Russia’s involvement is
a “political witch hunt” by
adversaries who are embar-
rassed they lost the election.
“They got beaten very badly
in the election,” Trump said.
“They are very embarrassed
about it. To some extent, it’s
a witch hunt. They just focus
on this.”
After finally seeing the
intelligence behind the claims
of the outgoing Obama
administration,
Trump
released a one-page statement
that did not address whether
Russia sought to meddle.
Instead, he said, “there was
absolutely no effect on the
outcome of the election.”
The top U.S. intelligence
official, James Clapper, told
Congress on Thursday that
intelligence agencies had
no way of gauging what
influence this meddling had
in the outcome of the elec-
tion. It was unclear Friday
what evidence Trump had to
support his claims.
As Trump met in New
York with intelligence offi-
cials for his briefing about
Russia’s campaign, Congress
tallied the Electoral College
votes, officially confirming
Trump’s November victory.
Trump acknowledged in
his statement that “Russia,
China, other countries,
outside groups and people”
are consistently trying to hack
U.S. networks, including
the Democratic National
Committee’s.
He said, as did the intelli-
gence report, that “there was
no tampering whatsoever
with voting machines.”
Trump said that as
president he would appoint
a team to develop a plan to
“aggressively combat and
stop cyberattacks.”
Before the intelligence
agencies
completed
their assessment, Obama
announced sanctions against
Russia late last year. Trump
has not said whether he will
undo them once he takes
office.
Crimes against whites equals
small percentage of hate crimes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
(AP) — The horrific beating
of a mentally disabled white
man in Chicago by four
black assailants broadcast on
social media is highlighting
anti-white hate crimes at a
time of increased racial strife
in the United States.
But federal statistics
and experts say anti-white
incidents remain a smaller
percentage of overall hate
crimes. Anti-black hate
crimes are still the largest
number of cases.
According to the 2015
FBI hate crime statistics,
the latest available, there
were 613 anti-white-
related crimes out of 5,850
total cases. That’s around
10.5 percent of all reported
hate crimes, and within the
yearly average, federal
numbers show.
By comparison, the FBI
reports there were 1,745
anti-black hate crimes or
about 30 percent of all
reported incidents. Jews
were the most targeted
religious group that year
and were victims of 11
percent of all hate crimes.
It’s not clear how many
anti-Jewish hate crime
victims were attacked
because of their race.
That
data
also
suggested that blacks
and
Jews
remain
disproportionally targets of
hate crimes compared to their
population as opposed to
whites. African-Americans
are only 13 percent of the
U.S. population, while
non-Hispanic whites are 61
percent.
The FBI defines a hate
crime as a “criminal offense
against a person or property
motivated in whole or in part
by an offender’s bias against
a race, religion, disability,
sexual orientation, ethnicity,
gender, or gender identity.”
Filing reports for the
federal count is voluntary.
Experts say the FBI data
on hate crimes isn’t a full
picture since anti-black cases
are skewed lower by the lack
of reporting participation
by some southern law
enforcement agencies.
The FBI does classify
attacks based on disability as
a hate crime.
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FLU SEASON
MASKING
• VISITORS • PATIENTS • VENDORS
CHI St. Anthony Hospital is committed to protecting our
patients from infl uenza (the fl u). This fl u season, we are
asking all visitors who have not received a fl u vaccine this
year to please wear a mask while you are visiting our hospital.
If you would like to receive a fl u shot, they are available to
anyone ages 18 and over free of charge. Please have a staff
member contact the nursing supervisor if you are interested in
this service, if you are under 18 please contact your primary
care provider for fl u vaccine information. In addition, if you
have cough/cold symptoms and need to visit the hospital, we
kindly ask that you wear a mask while you are here. Thank
you for helping us to keep our patients safe!
1729 SW Court Avenue
541.276.2243
PENDLETON@AAAOREGON.COM
For More Information
Contact:
EMILY SMITH
MSN, RN, CMSRN
541-278-2627
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