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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2018)
NATION/WORLD Tuesday, July 17, 2018 East Oregonian Page 7A TRUMP: ‘Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse’ Continued from 1A an American president in mem- ory.” House Speaker Paul Ryan, who rarely criticizes Trump, stressed there was “no question” that Russia had interfered. Even staunch Trump backer Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, called Trump’s comments “the most serious mistake of his presidency” and said they “must be corrected — immediately.” Former CIA Director John Bren- nan, who served under President Barack Obama, called Trump’s words “nothing short of treason- ous.” Brennan tweeted: “Not only were Trump’s comments imbe- cilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???” In a Fox News Channel inter- view after the summit, Putin pro- nounced the meetings “the begin- ning of the path” back from the West’s past efforts to isolate Rus- sia. “I think you see for yourself that these efforts failed, and they were never bound to succeed,” he said. As he flew home to Washington aboard Air Force One, Trump tried to clarify his position via tweet, saying: “As I said today and many times before, ‘I have GREAT con- fidence in MY intelligence people.’ However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past — as the world’s two larg- est nuclear powers, we must get AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday. along!” In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired later Mon- day, Trump said “it’s a shame” that he and Putin were being asked questions about the Russia probe while they were trying to discuss issues like Syria and nuclear pro- liferation. “We’ve had a phony witch hunt deal drive us apart,” he said. In their totality, Trump’s remarks amounted to an unprece- dented embrace of a man who for years has been isolated by the U.S. and Western allies for actions in Ukraine, Syria and beyond. And it came at the end of an extraordinary trip to Europe in which Trump had already berated allies, questioned the value of the NATO alliance and demeaned leaders including Ger- many’s Angela Merkel and Brit- ain’s Theresa May. The two leaders’ long-awaited summit began with a private face- to-face sitdown — just the leaders and their interpreters — that lasted more than two hours, before addi- tional meetings joined by senior aides. The pair had held lengthy talks before — on the sidelines of world leader meetings in Germany and Vietnam last year — but this was their first official summit and was being watched closely, especially following the announcement Fri- day of new indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking Democratic emails to help Trump’s campaign. Asked about the indictments, Putin suggested that Moscow and Washington could jointly conduct the investigation, inviting special counsel Robert Mueller’s investi- gators to come to Russia to inter- view the 12 people — an idea Trump hailed as an “incredible offer.” Putin said he’d expect the U.S. to return the favor and cooperate in the Russian probe against Wil- liam Browder, a British inves- tor charged with financial crimes in Russia. Browder, an outspoken Putin critic, was a driving force behind a U.S. law targeting Rus- sian officials over human rights abuses. The summit began just hours after Trump blamed the United States — and not Russian elec- tion meddling or its annexation of Crimea — for a low-point in U.S.-Russia relations. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse,” Trump tweeted Monday morning, blam- ing “many years of U.S. foolish- ness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” The Russian foreign ministry responded by liking Trump’s tweet and then replying, “We agree.” Asked whether Russia was responsible at all, Trump said “we’re all to blame” for the soured relations. U.S. arrests, accuses woman of acting as Russian hacker WASHINGTON (AP) — A 29-year-old gun-rights activist served as a covert Russian agent while living in Washington, gathering intelligence on American officials and political orga- nizations and working to establish back-channel lines of communications for the Kremlin, federal prosecu- tors charged Monday. The announcement of AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin A man walks past the building of the Russian military intelligence service in Moscow, Russia, Saturday. Russian hackers used U.S. online infrastructure against itself WASHINGTON (AP) — Exactly seven months before the 2016 presidential election, Russian govern- ment hackers made it onto a Democratic committee’s network. One of their carefully crafted fraudulent emails had hit pay dirt, enticing an employee to click a link and enter her password. That breach of the Dem- ocratic Congressional Cam- paign Committee was the first significant step in gain- ing access to the Demo- cratic National Committee network. To steal politically sen- sitive information, pros- ecutors say, the hack- ers exploited some of the United States’ own com- puter infrastructure against it, using servers they leased in Arizona and Illinois. The details were included in an indictment released Friday by special coun- sel Robert Mueller, who accused the GRU, Rus- sia’s military intelligence agency, of taking part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presi- dential election. The com- panies operating the serv- ers were not identified in the court papers. The Russians are accused of exploiting their access to inexpensive, powerful serv- ers worldwide — conve- niently available for rental — that can be used to com- mit crimes with impunity. Reaching across oceans and into networks without borders can obfuscate their origins. The indictment painstak- ingly reconstructs the hack- ers’ movements using web servers and a complex bit- coin financing operation. Two Russian hacking units were charged with tasks, including the creation and management of a hack- ing tool called “X-agent” that was implanted onto computers. The software allowed them to moni- tor activity on computers by individuals, steal pass- words and maintain access to hacked networks. It cap- tured each keystroke on infected computers and took screenshots of activity dis- played on computer screens, including an employee viewing the DCCC’s online banking information. From April to June 2016, the hackers installed updated versions of their software on at least 10 Dem- ocratic computers. The software transmit- ted information from the infected computers to a GRU-leased server in Ari- zona, the indictment said. The hackers also created an overseas computer to act as a “middle server” to obscure the connection between the DCCC and the hackers’ Ari- zona-based server. Once hackers gained access to the DCCC net- work, it searched one com- puter for terms that included “hillary,” ‘’cruz,” and “trump” and copied select folders, including “Beng- hazi Investigations.” In emails, the hackers embedded a link that pur- ported to be a spreadsheet of Clinton’s favorability rat- ings, but instead it directed the computers to send its data to a GRU-created website. Meanwhile, around the same time, the hack- ers broke into 33 DNC computers and installed their software on their net- work. Captured keystrokes and screenshots from the DCCC and DNC comput- ers, including an employee viewing the DCCC’s bank- ing information, were sent back to the Arizona server. The Russian hackers used other software they developed called X-Tunnel to move stolen documents through encrypted chan- nels to another computer the GRU leased in Illinois. Despite the use of U.S.- based servers, such vendors typically aren’t legally lia- ble for criminal activities unless it can be proved in federal court that the opera- tor was party to the criminal activity. A 1996 federal statute protects internet vendors from being held liable for how customers use their ser- vice, and except for a few exceptions, provides immu- nity to the providers. The law is considered a key part of the legal infrastructure of the internet, preventing pro- viders from being saddled with the behemoth task of monitoring activity on their servers. “The fact that someone provided equipment and or connectivity that was used to engage in data theft is not going to be attributed to the vendor in that circum- stance,” Eric Goldman, a professor of law and co-di- rector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Uni- versity School of Law, said. A notable exception, how- ever, is if federal prosecu- tors are bringing a criminal charge for violations of a federal criminal law. In that case, “we’re going to require a high level of knowledge of their activity or intent,” Goldman said. BRIEFLY However, “that changed,” he said, “as of about four hours ago.” Putin ridiculed as “sheer non- sense” allegations that Russian intelligence agencies had col- lected compromising information on Trump during his visit to Mos- cow years before the election, say- ing that he had no idea Trump was even visiting. Trump also dismissed the idea in his interview with Hannity, add- ing, “If they had it, it would have been out.” Still, Putin said he had indeed wanted Trump to win the election — a revelation that might have made more headlines if not for Trump’s performance — but had taken no action to make it happen. “Yes, I wanted him to win because he spoke of normaliza- tion of Russian-U.S. ties,” Putin said. “Isn’t it natural to feel sym- pathy to a person who wanted to develop relations with our coun- try? It’s normal.” At the closing press conference, Putin, riding high after hosting a successful World Cup, unveiled a gift he’d brought for Trump: a red and white soccer ball, which he tossed to Trump at the neighbor- ing lectern. Trump passed it over to his wife, and said they’d give it to their soccer-loving 12-year-old son, Barron. Out on the streets, the summit attracted a grab-bag of protesters, including anti-fascist protesters, free traders, anti-war Ukrainians and gay rights supporters. the arrest of Maria Butina came just hours after Pres- ident Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and just days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials with directing a sprawling hack- ing effort aimed at swaying the 2016 election. Mueller didn’t file the charge against Butina, but court papers show her activities revolved around American politics during the 2016 campaign and included efforts to use con- tacts with the National Rifle Association to develop rela- tionships with U.S. poli- ticians and gather intelli- gence for Russia. Court papers also reveal that an unnamed Amer- ican who worked with Butina claimed to have been involved in setting up a “private line of communi- cation” ahead of the 2016 election between the Krem- lin and “key” officials in an American political party through the NRA. The court papers do not name the political party mentioned in the October 2016 message. GoodHealth LIVE WITH JENNIFER POSTE, M.D., ENDOCRINOLOGIST Ecdocricology & You Join Dr. Jennifer Poste as she shares common conditions she cares for right here in Hermiston. Wednesday, July 25 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Good Shepherd Health Care System Conference Center 1 and 2 610 NW 11th Street | Hermiston, OR 97838 A healthy dessert with light refreshmects will be provided Space is Limited. Register today! Call 541.667.3509 or Register Online at www.drposte.eventbrite.com Can’t Make it to the Event? Watch Live at www.facebook.com/gshcsnews
