President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be briefed Friday on a report prepared by the U. S. intelligence community on Russian hacking activities in the presidential election — after he spent this week still questioning the veracity of their previous assessments .
On Thursday, President Obama received a briefing on the report — prepared by the CIA, FBI and NSA — which he had ordered in December. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday that an unclassified version of the report will be made public early next week. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Clapper previewed some of the report’s findings.
At a Senate hearing Thursday, U. S. intelligence officials remained resolute in their findings that Russia was behind a series of cyberattacks dur…
“Hacking was only part of it,” he said about Russia’s cyber activities during the election. “It also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news.”
Clapper will be one of four intelligence chiefs to brief Mr. Trump on the report Friday at Trump Tower in New York. The other briefers will be CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers.
For weeks, the president-elect has been questioning the U. S. intelligence community’s integrity and its assessment that Russia not only launched cyberattacks against the U. S. to sow doubt in the election, but to sway the outcome in favor of Mr. Trump. Since the final weeks of the campaign, he also doubted that Russia was responsible.
Mr. Trump claimed on New Year’s Eve that he had information no one else had on Russian hacking and that he would reveal it publicly this week, but he has not yet followed through on that statement. On Wednesday, he posted a tweet indicating he’s still not convinced Russia is to blame for cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC), other political groups and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.
The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!
A number of Republicans in Congress like Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, are adamant about the need for the new administration to develop a more clear-cut cyber policy and to punish Russia for its actions. McCaul expressed confidence in the intelligence Thursday, saying that the evidence he was briefed on in both classified and unclassified settings “was very clear,” and he said that it was clear the attacks were “nation state-based.”
“I think the incoming administration needs to take a strong stance against what has happened,” he told reporters.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and other Republicans warned at his committee’s hearing that Russia must suffer the consequences.
“Every American should be alarmed by Russia’s attacks on our nation,” said McCain. Later in the day, he told reporters that the Trump administration should work with Congress to craft a cyber policy.
“We’ll be glad to work with them, but they’ve got to have a policy and a strategy,” he said as he continued to blast the Obama administration for lacking a plan. “They’ve never had one. They’ve reacted to every single attack in a different way. It’s just crazy.”
Clapper, Rogers and undersecretary of defense for intelligence, Marcel Lettre, issued a joint statement Thursday, warning that Russia is a “full-scope cyber actor.”
“We assess that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based of the scope and sensitivity of the targets. Russia also has used cyber tactics and techniques to seek to influence public opinion across Europe and Eurasia,” they said. “Looking forward, Russian cyber operations will likely target the United States to gather intelligence, support Russian decision-making, conduct influence operations to support Russian military and political objectives, and prepare the cyber environment for future contingencies.”
Last week, the Obama administration announced a new series of sanctions against Russian intelligence agents and entities that the U. S. says were responsible for hacks into the DNC and other servers. In addition to the targeted sanctions, 35 Russian operatives were expelled from the U. S. in retaliation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said those actions weren’t good enough and had some advice for the president-elect: “When you listen to these people [in the intelligence community,] you can be skeptical, but you have to understand they’re the best among us.”
“I think what Obama did was throw a pill. I’m ready to throw a rock,” Graham said. “If we don’t throw rocks, we’re going to make a huge mistake.”
Over the next week, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to roll out legislation containing tougher sanctions against Russia.
“That hearing today gave a great boost to sanctions,” McCain said. Clapper’s testimony and Roger’s testimony this morning helps that process along and resolved any doubts as to what the intelligence part of our government thinks.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, appeared to side this week with WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange who again denied that their source for hacked emails was not the Russian government.
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
Several lawmakers slammed Mr. Trump for questioning the integrity of the intelligence community. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, asked Clapper, “Who benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community?”
“I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism,” Clapper said, “… I think there’s a difference between skepticism and disparagement.”
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, had positive, but qualified words for the intelligence community.
“I do have faith that our men and women in the intelligence community are doing an incredible job, sacrificing for our country,” he told reporters Thursday, “but there’s always room for improvement.”
On the question of whether Russians meddled in the presidential election, though, Ryan firmly believes the intelligence. “Did the Russians hack us? Yes. Is it right for any country to meddle in our elections? No,” he said on “The Jerry Bader Show.”

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The provincial governor of Afghanistan’s Baghlan province has said that an unknown gunman has killed 12 coal miners.
Abdul Satar Barez said the Friday attack occurred in the province’s Tala Wa Barfak district as the miners were on their way back to their villages after work. The unknown gunman killed 12 and wounded five, Barez said, adding that an investigation was underway in the area bereft of security posts. He did not elaborate.
Faiz Mohammad Amiri, the district’s governor, put the number of miners killed at seven and blamed the attack on the Taliban. He said all the miners were from the minority Shiite Hazara group.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The Latest on the federal sentencing trial of convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof (all times local):
11 a.m.
Authorities say Dylann Roof still embraces racist symbols, more than a year and a half after slaughtering nine black people at a historic South Carolina church.
FBI Special Agent Joseph Hamski testified Friday that the convicted Charleston church shooter wore shoes in jail with “racist symbols” scrawled on them.
Prosecutors displayed photos of the shoes Roof wore several weeks after his arrest in the June 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church. On them were crosses that Hamski said were symbols used by white supremacists.
Roof did not ask Hamski any questions on cross-examination. He is representing himself at his sentencing trial and has said he plans to put up no case in his own defense.
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10:20 a.m.
An FBI agent and prosecutors are reviewing evidence that lays out Dylann Roof’s movements the day of the shootings at Emanuel AME Church and his writings afterward.
Special Agent Joseph Hamski took the stand Friday as prosecutors re-introduced maps made from Roof’s GPS signal showing his car was driven to the church the night of June 17, 2015. Hamski also verified evidence showing a call from Roof’s home to the church as well as a handwritten list of other black churches that was found in his car.
Hamski also read some of Roof’s writings. In one, he talked about ways whites were superior to other races and what they could do to assert their power.
The same jury that last month convicted Roof of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion, is mulling whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. Roof has said he’ll put up no case in his own defense, and prosecutors say they expect to finish their presentations Monday.
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8:40 a.m.
More emotional testimony is expected from family members of some of the people killed in the June 2015 slaughter at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Federal prosecutors say they plan Friday to present testimony from relatives of Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lance and Susie Jackson. Assistant U. S. Attorney Jay Richardson said the government could wrap up its case against Dylann Roof on Monday with the family of Tywanza Sanders.
The federal government is seeking the death penalty for Roof, convicted last month in the nine shooting deaths. Roof has put up no case arguing he should get life in prison, cross-examining no witnesses and saying he plans to call none of his own.
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3:35 a.m.
One by one, friends and family members walked up to the witness stand and testified about the nine black church members gunned down during a Bible study in Charleston on June 17, 2015. They described personalities, future plans and final conversations.
The testimony came during the sentencing phase of Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial. The same jury that convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges will decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or death.
Roof faces murder charges in state court, where his trial had been slated to start later this month. But a state judge Thursday delayed that trial indefinitely because federal proceedings are ongoing.

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Last Updated Jan 5, 2017 7:39 PM EST
The country’s business chambers said the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week forced many stores and businesses to close and threatened supplies of basic goods and fuel.
Mexicans were enraged by the 20 percent fuel price hike announced over the weekend as part of a government deregulation of the energy sector. Protesters began blocking highways and gas stations and some people have broken into stores to carry off merchandise.
Authorities said one policeman was run over and killed and another was seriously injured when they tried to stop robberies at a gas station in Mexico City. Police in the capital said they had arrested 76 people for looting about 29 stores.
In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, a pickup truck trying to flee police during a store looting ran over a pedestrian, killing him, officials said.
Veracruz Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes Linares ventured out Thursday and tried to persuade a crowd not to attack a grocery store that had already been looted a day earlier. He offered the crowd coupons for 500 pesos ($23.25) if they would desist from looting.
In Mexico State, which borders Mexico City, 430 people had been detained as suspected looters. Four state police officers were fired and detained after they were caught on video taking some looted items and putting them in their patrol vehicles.
With blockades affecting everything from gas distribution terminals, seaports and highways to shopping centers and gas stations, the Communications and Transport Department announced it would cancel permits for any truckers who block roads.
Truck and taxi drivers have been among the most affected by the fuel price increases, which took effect as the government ends regulated prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans.
Residents pilfer gasoline and diesel from a gas station following protests against an increase in fuel prices in Allende, southern Veracuz State, Mexico, late Tuesday Jan. 3, 2017.
The change boosted the average price for a liter of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes 4 liters, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico’s just raised minimum wage for a day’s work — 80 pesos (about $4).
President Enrique Pena Nieto said Wednesday that he would try to help groups hit hard by the increases.
“I understand the anger and irritation felt by the general public” over the price increases, Pena Nieto said. But, he added, “If this decision had not been taken, the effects and consequences would have been far more painful.”
The Mexican Council of Bishops urged the government to reconsider the price increases, which it said especially hurt the poor.
“One has to be sensitive to the daily needs of the people,” the bishops said in a statement. “It is not right to impose laws without taking into account peoples’ realities and their feelings.”
But the bishops also called on protesters to stop looting and “use peaceful and creative means to express their feelings.”
The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores of Mexico said in a statement Wednesday night that more than 79 stores had been looted and 170 were closed or blockaded in central Mexico, including the capital.
The unrest “resulting in the theft of merchandise put at risk the lives of clients and workers in the stores, primarily in Mexico State, Michoacan, Hidalgo and Mexico City,” the statement said.
In the city of Veracruz, 50 establishments including convenience stores, supermarkets and big-box outlets suffered looting, according to a preliminary count by the local chamber of commerce Wednesday. Store guards were overrun by crowds who carried off clothing, food, washing machines, televisions, DVD players and refrigerators.
Extra police patrols were deployed, and at least 14 people were detained, the state government reported. At one supermarket officers fired into the air to disperse the multitudes.

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Tilikum, an orca that killed a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010, has died.
SeaWorld said in a statement posted online that Tilikum died on Friday. A cause of death has not yet been determined, although the killer whale was being treated for a persistent bacterial infection. He was estimated to be 36 years old.
Tilikum was profiled in the documentary Blackfish, which helped sway popular opinion against keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld parks.
SeaWorld’s most prolific male orca sired 14 calves in the 23 years he was at Orlando.
Criticism over keeping orcas captive grew after Tilikum grabbed trainer Dawn Brancheau following a “Dine with Shamu” show and pulled her into the pool, killing her.
Tilikum was also involved in the deaths of two other people in the 1990s.
SeaWorld president and chief executive Joel Manby said: “Tilikum had, and will continue to have, a special place in the hearts of the SeaWorld family, as well as the millions of people all over the world that he inspired.
“My heart goes out to our team who cared for him like family. ”
Tilikum was noticeable for his size at more than 22ft and 11,800lb.
He was born off the waters of Iceland and moved to the Sealand of the Pacific aquarium in Canada after being captured.
While at Sealand in 1992, Tilikum and two female orcas were responsible for the death of a part-time trainer who slipped and fell into their pool and was submerged by them.
Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld Orlando a short time later, and Sealand later closed.
In 1999, a naked man who had eluded security and sneaked into SeaWorld at night was found dead the next morning draped over Tilikum in a breeding tank in the back of Shamu Stadium.
But it was the death of Ms Brancheau that left the biggest impact on the future of orcas at SeaWorld parks.
She was interacting with Tilikum before a live audience at SeaWorld Orlando when he pulled her from a platform by her arm and held her under the water. A post-mortem said Ms Brancheau drowned but also suffered severe trauma, including multiple fractures.
SeaWorld Entertainment officials announced in March last year that the tourist attraction would end its orca breeding programme and theatrical shows involving killer whales. The decision came six years after Ms Brancheau’s death and three years after the release of Blackfish, which chronicled Tilikum’s life and Ms Brancheau’s death.
The documentary argued that killer whales held in captivity become more aggressive towards humans and each other. After the documentary played at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on CNN, several entertainers pulled out of planned performances at SeaWorld sites and animal rights activists increased their demonstrations outside the parks.
Attendance at SeaWorld parks dipped, the company faced falling profits and Southwest Airlines ended its 25-year relationship with the theme park company.
In March, Mr Manby acknowledged that the public’s attitude had changed about keeping killer whales captive and that the company would end its orca breeding programme.
“We needed to move where society was moving,” he said.
AP

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