We wrote last night that the story Scott–and no one else–has been reporting for the last week has been confirmed. The computers in the Executive Office of the President have been down for two weeks because they were hacked by a foreign power–the Obama administration now says Russia–and administration technical personnel are having trouble bringing them back on line. This is a huge story, obviously, and it is inconceivable that Power Line knew about it, but no one in the vast Washington press corps got wind of the fact that computer systems belonging to the White House and dozens of important federal agencies (National Security Staff, to name just one) had been hacked and were out of commission.
Another item from yesterday’s limited disclosure by the Obama administration: “U.S. officials were alerted to the breach by an ally.” This means that when the intrusion occurred, we were unaware of it. It also implies that it may have gone on for a long time before someone who spies on Russia–the British? the Israelis?–tipped us off. In other words, even to the extent it has been described by the administration, this was a major failure of American intelligence and technical expertise which could have significant national security repercussions. No wonder the Washington press corps, which consists almost entirely of Democrats, wanted to keep it quiet until after the election!
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