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Russia: We did not hack the US Democrats. But if we did, we're immune from prosecution:
The Russian government has denied having anything to do with hacking the US Democratic party in 2016, although in a court filing this week stressed that even if it did break into the DNC's servers, it is immune from prosecution.
And furthermore the Kremlin claimed America is "one of the most prolific practitioners of cyberattacks and cyber-intrusions on the planet." So, nerr!
"The [Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act] FSIA provides that foreign sovereign states enjoy absolute jurisdictional immunity from suit unless a plaintiff can demonstrate that one of the FSIA's enumerated 'exceptions' applies," argued [PDF] the Russian government this week in a New York court in response to a lawsuit from the DNC.
The DNC claims that it was subject to a "military attack" by Kremlin intelligence, causing Russia to argue back that any act of its military is a sovereign action and so therefore it can't be sued for it.
It's an amazing defense though one the DNC foresaw. It argued in its initial court paperwork [PDF] that "Russia is not entitled to sovereign immunity because the DNC's claims arise out of Russia's trespass onto the DNC's private servers - a tort allegedly committed in the United States.
"In addition, Russia committed the trespass in order to steal trade secrets and commit economic espionage, two forms of commercial activity undertaken in and directly affecting the United States."
Of course this being 2018 and Russia, the Putin administration can't leave it at that, and takes the opportunity to troll the US government by pointing out that the immunity provision is also heavily relied upon by Uncle Sam and its officials abroad.
"The United States benefits significantly from the sovereign immunity that it enjoys (and US officials enjoy) in foreign courts around the world with respect to the United States' frequency acts of cyber intrusion and political interference," Russia's response reads. "As current and former US officials have acknowledged on many occasion, the United States - acting primarily through the National Security Agency (NSA) with the US Department of Defense - is one of the most prolific practitioners of cyberattacks and cyber-intrusions on the planet."
Pot calling the kettle black?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @01:56PM (1 child)
Just to be clear, your theory is that the CIA was directed by Obama to hack the DNC and frame the Russians. Then the CIA released the data to the Trump campaign through Wikileaks. And this was all an elaborate ruse because they expected the "dirt" to get out eventually and they wanted to have something bad to say about the source of the data?
And the "dirt" we're talking about is a few emails can be taken out of context to look sorta bad for the Democrats?
Oh, and they happened to pick a country to frame that was running a major astroturfing campaign on the same election? Or was the Obama CIA running the pro-Republican astroturfing campaign and framing the Russians?
And you think the Russiagate theory sounds absurd?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday November 16 2018, @06:45AM
Truth is stranger than fiction. The 'ruse' as it was is really a simple media campaign to keep peoples' attention, and to divert it from embarrassing revelations. It's working wonders. Everybody went (still going) for it. The old high ranking incumbents are still there. "Hollywood" magic works like a charm. The only provable fact is that nobody knows who revealed the documents, sure somebody knows, but they're not talking beyond the hyped narrative.
And you think the Russiagate theory sounds absurd?
No, of course not. It is still wildly successful. It's a great story. I really can't argue with the power of faith.
Sorry, "Russiagate" has no legs. A republican defeat in 2016 would have produced a perfect role reversal. They were already complaining about "Russian Interference"® favoring the democrats. The gimmick was prepackaged by GOP/DNC to work either way. How else do you get people to vote for the two worst possible candidates on the ballot during the primaries and the general? I mean, besides hacking the totally unaccountable machines...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..