Post-mortems are of no value and Barack Obama’s last ditch effort before he quits office will have no political fallout. But it is of interest that Obama has ordered American agencies to produce a full report on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 Presidential elections. He also directed them to develop a list of “lessons learnt” from the broad campaign the US has accused Russia of carrying out to steal e-mails, publish their contents and probe the vote- counting system. Obama expects to receive this report before he quits office. The report is supposed to trace the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and on prominent individuals like John Podosta, Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaigns. Intelligence agencies and the FBI are unlikely to make public any of their findings as that would expose Russia’s involvement. President- elect Donald Trump has consistently questioned whether hacking happened and if so whether Russia was responsible. It may on the other hand be an effort to discredit him and his endeavour to cement relations with Russia. He has rejected the allegation.
The accusation stemmed from a joint statement issued by the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper Jr. and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson. They said that Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic committee and had the approval of the highest levels of the Russian government. There is no doubt that before the election, Trump went out of his way to cozy up with Vladimir Putin. Hillary Clinton has however issued a stern warning against the proliferation of fake news.
