Congress Should Recognize Our Biggest National Security Threat

Dear Lawmaker,

Remember that old movie, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!”? Well, may I — your constituent – ask you to turn your attention away from all the current partisan bickering and realize that the Russians are already here and infiltrating who-knows-how-many aspects of American life?

We know the Russians dispatched gangs of internet trolls to post fake news stories to influence our last presidential election. But what if Russian hackers are also working on ways to shut off America’s power grid or launch our nuclear missiles? What if they are funding organized crime to try to destabilize major American cities or figuring out how ways to disrupt our food supply?

Could you and your colleagues, please, knock off the distracting, never-ending partisan political fights (about everything!) and focus on the Russian threat to this country?

Thanks for reading this,

A concerned voter

That’s the letter I’d plan to send to each of my representatives in the U.S. Congress.

It seems crystal clear that Russian megalomaniac Vladimir Putin has had – and continues to operate– a massive internet-based campaign aimed at destabilizing the United States. He would like to see our democracy paralyzed and then eliminated. As American news reaches the Kremlin Putin surely giggles over his nightly vodka as he watches the political paralysis his cyber meddling has created.

Only the foolish would believe Putin is done trying to manipulate the American mindset. Yet the focus on Capitol Hill remains firmly entrenched in other issues punctuated by partisan preening, posturing and finger pointing – all with the apparent goal of getting face time on the evening news.

This is no way to tend to the nation’s business. I wish there were laws with teeth in them criminalizing political malingering and dereliction of duty.

Make no mistake, our nation remains under attack by the Russians, not in the traditional military sense but, rather, on the nearly invisible cyber war battlefield. Just because our presidential election has passed that doesn’t mean Putin and his band of internet vultures plan to pack it in and find other ways to spend their time. Under Putin’s guidance they are certainly focused on developing new ways to mess with America.

We are told the FBI is investigating. And there are two secret congressional investigations underway – one in the Senate, one in the House – also tasked with discovering and dissecting Russian activities surrounding our 2016 presidential election. How far did they go to try to manipulate U.S. public opinion? What did they actually accomplish? And, perhaps most important, were any Americans colluding with the Russians to sway election results? Rumors of treasonous scheming have been rampant, obviously coming from operatives inside both major political parties.

Odd how these political propagandists don’t realize who the enemy is. The real adversaries aren’t democrats or republicans they are Kremlinites under the direction of a sleight-of-hand despot who desperately needs to distract his people from their own sad plight under his leadership.

A new study of the 2016 election by researchers at Stanford and New York University concluded that, “Fake news didn’t actually sway the election.” While recognizing that social media did play a part in disseminating fake news the study found it was not a dominant source of news. “Even the most widely circulated fake news stories were seen only by a relatively small number of Americans … (probably) rabid partisans,” the study reported.

So, if the study is right and Russian attempts did not have a measurable effect on the presidential election what is Washington really investigating?

You bet I’m interested to know if anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the outcome of the election. I’m also interested to learn if Hillary Clinton’s camp engaged in a post-election dirty tricks campaign against President Trump to make her a more attractive candidate should she take another crack at the presidency in a couple years. And whether Obama loyalists have a plot to discredit Trump as he undoes so much of the former president’s legacy.

But, now what is most important is our national security. It is clear that battles, henceforth, will not require armed soldiers marching through streets. Future wars may very well begin and end with shadowy characters sitting at keyboards launching subversive tactics to demoralize and defeat their foes.

Let’s hope the outcome of all these investigations isn’t simply an exercise in political drama that ends with no definitive answers. And let’s pray our leaders aren’t so mired in the past that they myopically focus only on high-priced weaponry systems as a means to insure the nation’s security.

We need to strengthen our own army of keyboard warriors who can root out internet attacks before they do damage and, ideally, paralyze Putin’s cyber war effort.  We would all be safer for it.

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6 Comments

  1. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:44 am

    ABQ Journal Reader Bill Delzell writes:

    Diane:

    I just read your April 7th column regarding the role, real or alleged, the Russian have had in influencing our politics.

    While I am certainly no fan of Vladimir Putin, I don’t think the Russians are nearly as great a threat as two major domestic elements are in our country: the neocons and the neoliberals. These two groups include both Clinton and Trump as major culprits. Clinton has long advocated a preemptory war against Russian even at the risk of nuclear warfare. She is also willing to support any Israeli decision to war against and to racially persecute the Palestinians. As Secretary of State, she pursued brutal policies in Central America that led to the murder and torture of fellow feminists and human rights activists as Berta Caseres. Indeed, Caseres before her murder had very harsh words about Hillary’s policies toward Central America’s labor and human rights activists. She is also willing to risk the lives of young Americans from the safety of her air-conditioned office while she, her husband, and pampered daughter stay home enjoying their affluent lifestyles. Indeed, she is even worse than Donald Trump is on these issues although Trump himself is bad enough.

    On neoliberal economics ideas, both Clinton and Trump support Ayn Rand’s pro-plutocrat theories of letting the rich take everything away not only from the poor, but from what is left of our once great middle class.

    Trump, for his offenses, is a xenophobe who advocates torture and mass murder just like Clinton does.

    Finally, our criticisms of Russia meddling into our affairs are very hypocritical. Our country has interfered with other countries’ internal affairs all over the world, including those of Russia. We even rigged elections in Western Europe, especially in Italy and France during the 1940’s and early 1950’s. We overthrew a democratically elected government in Chile on September 11, 1873 and installed a brutal dictator Pinochet who was far worse than Allende, the person he overthrew.

    So, I’m sorry, Diane, but I have trouble taking your complaints about Russia very seriously until you address the international violations that our country has committed since 1945.

    Bill Delzell

  2. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:45 am

    ABQ Journal Reader Gunhild Vetter writes:

    Is there a reason when talking about the tampering with the presidential election that only the Russian influence is mentioned but never anything about the Democrats giving Hillary the questions to one of the debates before the debate. Would that not also be considered tampering with the election? Or is that one of those things that has been sweep under the carpet and we don’t talk about things like that. I don’t trust the Russians, BUT I think I distrust the shadow government that runs Washington even more. Just wondering.

    Keep up the good work, you are getting results with the guardianship mess I see in the paper.

    Gunhild Vetter

  3. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:47 am

    Noozhawk Reader GeeWillikersWally writes:

    I certainly hope Ms. Dimond does send her letter to every member of Congress. It is level headed and on point in all aspects.
    Must admit though, my the partisan side of me does want to see Trump in handcuffs over all this Russian collusion. Not gonna happen though. He’s probably just smart enough to have his fall guys all lined up for sacrificing.

  4. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:49 am

    Noozhawk Reader Neil_Baker writes:

    Russia is hardly our biggest national security threat and it’s doubtful they’re a threat at all.
    Our biggest national security threat now and for the past century has been Zionism.
    The latest evidence of Zionist power was the recent fake news about Syrian gassing of its own children followed by the cruise missile attack on a Syrian airbase. These actions are the most recent steps in completing the Israeli Yinon Plan designed to balkanize the Middle East giving Zionist Israel hegemonic power there.
    Israel is the source of terrorism in the world today and they use the United States as an unpaid enforcer of their wicked policies.
    Trump was lying when he declared America would be first. Israel is first just like they were with Obama, Bush and Clinton. Israel is the master and we’re the slaves.
    9-11 was a Zionist job and any hope that Trump would order the long overdue establishment of an INDEPENDENT 9-11 INVESTIGATION were dashed when he finally showed his cards revealing he’s as big a Zionist as Hillary.
    There is the possibility that Americans would rise up and force the President to establish a 9-11 investigation but Zionists control our mainstream media and thus control most of the minds of Americans.
    We’re screwed

    NOTE FROM DIANE; WHILE I DISAGREE WITH THIS READERS SENTIMENTS I BELIEVE IN THE RIGHT OF EVERYONE TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINION. ~ DD

  5. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:50 am

    ABQ Journal Reader Denise Robles writes:

    Please stick to crime reporting and your admirable role as a spokesperson for those who are unable to speak for themselves.

  6. Diane Dimond on April 10, 2017 at 11:51 am

    Noozhawk Reader AN50 writes:

    No Diane, the biggest enemy to the republic are the idiots making up its population. If it isn’t some animated dig bats making up wild conspiracies, then it’s lunatics believing them. From 911 truthers, to birthers, Haarpers, chemtrailers, Russian collussioners and the biggest whopper, man made climate change, all we have is made up BS that has most of our uneducated, mindless lunatic population chasing the next boogeyman.

    Our penchant to believe every scare story is phenomenal. Perhaps it’s a life that isn’t hard enough to keep the mind focused on the real problems, so we fall prey to the media hype. In the middle east, we have a nasty dictator gassing his own people with aid from Russia. But the biggest enemy there is Iran, the real power and finance behind every inhumane and despicable act. Yes the Russians are playing democrats like a fiddle and the dems, so blinded by hatred of Trump and so disoriented by the election loss, are obliged to make fine music.

    At some point, some AH in another part of the world will refocus attention, sort of like Assad just did. Then we can stop all the partisan bickering and boogeyman following and be adults.

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