Russia determined to keep hacking polls: US intel chief

Bloomberg

State-led Russian hackers remain a “major threat” to the U.S. government and will keep up their attacks after seeking to influence the 2016 presidential vote, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said in an annual “Worldwide Threat
Assessment.”
Coats, in a statement prepared for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, stood by past intelligence community assertions that only Russian officials at the highest level could have orchestrated the 2016 operation. Such “influence operations” will continue in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, he said.
“In 2017, Russia is likely to be more assertive in global affairs, more unpredictable in its approach to the United States, and more authoritarian in its approach to domestic politics,” Coats said in the statement summarizing the yearly joint report to Congress by the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Coats appeared before the committee along with other intelligence agency leaders, including Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. But much of the attention turned to Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, making his first public appearance in that role since President Donald Trump fired James Comey on May 9.
Asked if he promised to inform the Intelligence Committee of any efforts to interfere in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the Russian meddling and whether anyone close to Trump colluded in it, McCabe said simply, “I absolutely do.”
Coats’s 26-page statement offered an overview of myriad challenges facing the U.S., from high-profile concerns such as the actions of Russia, China and North Korea, to more amorphous threats like those posed by slowing global economic growth, the rise of artificial intelligence and the possibility of U.S. adversaries exploiting genome-editing.
North Korea
In findings that echoed previous assessments, Coats said North Korea’s nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs pose an “increasingly grave national security threat to the United States and its interests,” while Iran is stepping up its role as a regional actor, backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
China continues construction on islands and other geographic features in the South China Sea, according to the statement, and will have its first long-range, sea-based nuclear capability when it finishes developing its JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile.
On North Korea, the statement says Kim Jong Un’s regime is “poised to conduct its first” flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile this year, “which would serve as a milestone toward a more reliable threat to the U.S. mainland.” While the administration has said it will talk with Kim’s regime if it shows a willingness to abandon its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, the report signaled that any such move is unlikely. Pyongyang’s actions show “Kim does not intend to negotiate” an end to his weapons program “at any price.”
Troop Plan
The report also offered assessments devoid of traditional diplomatic obfuscation or niceties.
On Afghanistan, Coats said the situation “will very likely continue to deteriorate, even if international support is sustained.” He said Afghan forces will remain dependent on foreign military help to keep from collapsing, and the Taliban will continue to make gains.
The Trump administration is considering sending 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to help train Afghan security forces. Coats said Afghan troops suffer from “combat casualties, desertions, poor logistical support and weak leadership.”
“Kabul’s political dysfunction and ineffectiveness will almost certainly be the greatest vulnerability to stability in 2017,” he wrote.

Acting FBI chief contradicts Trump over bureau support for Comey

Bloomberg

The acting head of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, contradicted White House assertions that the agency’s rank and file had lost confidence in James Comey, who was fired as the bureau’s director by President Donald Trump this week. “I can tell you Director Comey enjoyed broad support in the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe said in a response to a question at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday. McCabe, who took office May 9 after Comey was dismissed, also said he held Comey in “the absolute highest regard” and called working with him “the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life.”
McCabe was making his first public appearance since Comey was fired less than two days ago. Many Democrats have questioned whether his dismissal was connected to the bureau’s continuing probe of Russia’s role in the presidential election. McCabe promised to tell lawmakers if he comes under any political pressure that interferes with the continuing investigation into possible links between Russia and associates of Trump.
“The investigation will move forward, absolutely,” McCabe said. “It is my opinion and belief that the FBI will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely.”
The exchange was one of several between senators and McCabe on Comey’s dismissal, which took center stage at the Senate hearing on global threats faced by the U.S. Several Republicans, including Richard Burr, the North Carolina senator who is leading his committee’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump’s aides and campaign officials, peppered McCabe with questions about the probe.