by Phil Stilton
VERMONT-The Washington Post last week was a willing ally in President Obama’s factless assault on Russia, reporting, “Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security.”
Now, the liberal based newspaper which was under fire for its poor election coverage in 2016 has said no such event took place.
“An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far,” the paper said in a retraction today. “The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.”
No evidence made available to the public or media suggests or proves the hacking was tied to Russia either.
In an interview this week with George Stephanopoulos, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer questioned the President’s motives on the sanctions and expulsion of Russian diplomats.
“I think one of the questions that we have is why the magnitude of this?” Spicer said. “I mean you look at 35 people being expelled, two sites being closed down, the question is, is that response in proportion to the actions taken? Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t but you have to think about that.”
Incoming President Donald Trump said he will be holding an intelligence meeting this week. In a conversation New Year’s eve with the media, the President-elect touched on the Russian hacking issue.
“I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure. If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong,” Trump said. “It could be somebody else, and I know things that other people don’t know. So they cannot be sure of the situation.”
Although Washington has raised allegations of Russian hacking, no solid proof has been provided to the American public to date. Security expert John MacAfee, said this weekend that he is confident the attacks were not originated in Russia. MacAfee said that if Russia was behind the attacks, their tracks would have been well hidden.
He said that a skilled attacker would mask his footprints to make the attacks appear as if they were coming from a third party. He aded, if all of the tracks left lead back to Russia, it was not Russia and a skilled hacker simply made it appear that way.