RUSSIA HACKING ANACT OF WAR, SAYS US SENATOR

Senate committee sets probe of Kremlin interference to back Trump

WASHINGTON— Russia’s alleged cyberattacks on US political organizations—hacking which the intelligence community concluded amounted to meddling in the US election —were an “act of war,” senior US Sen. John McCain said on Wednesday.

“It’s an act of war,” said McCain, a hawkish Republican and critic of the Kremlin.

“If you try to destroy the fundamentals of democracy, then you have destroyed a nation,” he said.

McCain modulated by insisting there are “gradients” to acts of war.

“I’m not saying it’s an atomic attack. I’m just saying that when you attack a nation’s fundamental structure, which they are doing, then it’s an act of war,” McCain said.

McCain has been a staunch critic of Moscow, insisting Washington must hit President Vladimir Putin’s government with harder sanctions than the ones President Barack Obama’s administration announced last week for Russia’s role in US election-related hacking.

He has also been critical of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly cast doubt over intelligence community conclusions about the cyberattacks.

Hackers obtained thousands of e-mails and documents from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, which were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Some of the documents were embarrassing to the Clinton campaign and analysts said they likely contributed to Trump’s victory.

On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee, led by McCain, holds the first public hearing in Congress on the hacking, with witnesses including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers.

The American public could get a better idea of the strength of the evidence on the alleged hacking as McCain’s committee holds a hearing.

In tweets this week, Trump ridiculed the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation conclusions, which are supported by outgoing President Barack Obama, that hackers working at the bidding of the Russian government stole embarrassing Democratic Party documents from the party’s computers and leaked these to WikiLeaks to undermine the presidential campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton.

Referring to a planned presentation to him by intelligence chiefs, Trump tweeted: “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on socalled ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”

He then added to the insult by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his dismissal of the findings of multiple US agencies that Russia was behind the hacking.

“Julian Assange said ‘ a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’—why was DNC so careless?” Trump said, referring to the thousands of e-mails and documents robbed from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta.

Trump’s taunts have boosted pressure on the White House, the CIA and the FBI.—