Senior U. S. intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win.
The Armed Services Committee’s cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors — along with the director of national intelligence — on the investigation into Russia’s alleged hacking efforts. Trump has been deeply critical of their findings, even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.
The committee’s session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber-attacks against U. S. interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions.
„We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity,“ the committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said ahead of the hearing. „Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks. “
Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U. S. Cyber Command.
Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with a sweeping set of sanctions targeting Russia’s leading spy agencies — the GRU and FSB — that the U. S. said were involved. The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
But the sanctions against both Russian intelligence agencies could easily be rescinded by Trump, who has so far publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump earlier this week escalated his criticism of U. S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper. by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, „perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! “
Intelligence officials said there had been no delay.
Trump also suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia’s primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being „so careless. “
The sanctions imposed by Obama came after he pledged a „proportional“ response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and Clinton’s campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks.
CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency’s conclusion that Russia’s goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said „there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election. “
Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obama’s sanctions as an attempt to „harm Russian-American ties. “ Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U. S. approach after Trump takes office.
Trump praised Putin’s move and called him „very smart. “
To buttress the case for sanctions imposed by Obama and expose Russia’s cyber tactics, the Homeland Security Department released a report prepared with the FBI that for the first time officially tied cyberattacks into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee to hackers affiliated with the GRU and FSB.

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© Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article124661904.html
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Police arrested two suspects in Jerusalem and Kiryat Gat on suspicion of inciting against the panel of three IDF judges who convicted Sgt. Elor Azaria of manslaughter on Wednesday.
Police said that the Jerusalem suspect, in his 50s, expressed “extreme criticisms” of the judges. The suspect will be brought to the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Thursday, where police are seeking to extend his remand.
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In Kiryat Gat, a 22-year-old suspect was arrested for issuing threats against the judges on his Facebook on Wednesday; the suspect was released and banned from posting on Facebook for 30 days.
“Freedom of expression is a leg of democracy,” the Lakhish District Police said in a statement, adding that “the police will act harshly against those that exceed the limits [of expression] permitted to ensure justice.”
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(Tensions high ahead of verdict in Hebron shooting case)
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© Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/2-arrested-on-incitement-suspicions-against-Azaria-judges-477513
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TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter Wednesday in the deadly shooting of a badly wounded Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country.
The verdict, which marks an extremely rare case of an Israeli military court convicting a soldier for lethal action taken in the field, threatened to deepen the rift. Military commanders have condemned the soldier’s conduct while much of the public, along with leading members of the nationalist ruling coalition, have rallied behind him.
With Sgt. Elor Azaria’s sentencing believed to be weeks away, the country now faces a heated debate over whether he deserves clemency. Within minutes of the verdict, leading politicians were already calling for him to be pardoned. Under Israeli law, the country’s largely ceremonial president has the authority to issue a pardon.
Sgt. Azaria, an army medic, was caught on video in March fatally shooting a wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, was lying on the ground and already unarmed when Sgt. Azaria shot him in the head.
In delivering the verdict, which lasted nearly three hours, Col. Maya Heller, head of a three-judge panel, rejected Sgt. Azaria’s defense in painstaking detail.
She said there was no evidence to support his contradictory claims that the attacker was already dead or that he posed any threat at the time, telling him he “couldn’t have both sides of the stick.” She called his testimony “unreliable” and said he “needlessly” shot the assailant.
“We found there was no room to accept his arguments,” she said. “His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die.”
Sgt. Azaria faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars, though he is not expected to receive that much time. The military said he would be sentenced Jan. 15. The defense team said it would appeal.
The 20-year-old Sgt. Azaria entered the court smiling and appearing confident, and he was embraced by a few dozen relatives and friends. But as the verdict was delivered, he stared gloomily ahead, and tensions quickly boiled over in the cramped, crowded courtroom.
Members of Sgt. Azaria’s family clapped sarcastically as the decision was delivered, some screaming “Our hero!” A female relative was kicked out of the courtroom for screaming at the judges, and a second woman stormed out, shouting, “Disgusting leftists.”
After the judges walked out, Sgt. Azaria’s mother, Oshra, screamed, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Sgt. Azaria tried to comfort her and calm her as she wailed. Another family member whipped his jacket at a female reporter, missing his target and instead hitting another relative.
Hundreds of the soldier’s supporters, many of them young religious men wearing skullcaps, gathered outside the military court in Tel Aviv ahead of the verdict. The crowd, holding large Israeli flags and banners, periodically scuffled with police.
Some demonstrators chanted veiled death threats against the Israeli army’s chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, insinuating he would face the same fate of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated 20 years ago by an ultranationalist Israeli.
“Gadi, Gadi, watch out. Rabin is looking for a friend,” the demonstrators chanted. The crowd was quickly dispersed without any further violence.
With the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank approaching, the highly charged trial had fueled a debate about military ethics and the place of the army in Israeli society. The shooting occurred at the height of what has become more than a yearlong wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Sgt. Azaria’s defenders said he shot the assailant in self-defense and accused the army of abandoning a soldier on the battlefield, and hard-line politicians have said he should be either cleared or released with a light penalty. But his detractors, including senior military commanders, have said his actions violated the army’s code of ethics and procedures.
The uproar has put the army, the country’s most respected institution, in a delicate position. Military service is compulsory for Israel’s Jewish majority, and there is widespread sympathy for soldiers, since virtually every family has a member who is serving or has served in the past.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initially defended the military’s handling of the case, later softened his position and called Sgt. Azaria’s parents to console them and urged Sgt. Azaria be pardoned immediately.
“Today, a soldier who killed a terrorist who deserved to die and who had tried to slaughter a soldier was put in handcuffs and convicted like a criminal,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, who wants to unilaterally annex the 60 percent of the West Bank where Israeli settlements are mostly clustered.
The dispute helped fuel the resignation of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who sided with the military, earlier this year. His successor, Avigdor Lieberman, visited Sgt. Azaria in court.
Mr. Lieberman, who heads a hard-line nationalist party, said he disagreed with the “difficult” verdict but urged the public to respect the court’s decision. He said the defense establishment would do “everything it can” to help Sgt. Azaria and his family.
“We must keep the army outside every political argument … and keep it in the widest consensus in Israeli society,” he said.
Miri Regev, a popular Cabinet minister from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party and a former military spokeswoman, and Shelly Yacimovich, a leading opposition lawmaker, also called for him to be released.
President Reuven Rivlin’s office said a pardon request would be weighed only “following a conclusive judicial ruling.” With Sgt. Azaria still facing sentencing and an appeals process, that means the matter may not come before the president for some time.
The statement gave no indication whether Mr. Rivlin would support a pardon, saying only that he would consider a request “in accordance with standard practices and after recommendations from the relevant authorities.”
Israeli rights groups have accused the army of failing to prosecute soldiers who commit unnecessary violence against Palestinians, and trying a soldier for a crime as serious as manslaughter is virtually unheard of. According to the army, the only manslaughter conviction “in recent years” came in 2004 over the fatal shooting of a pro-Palestinian British activist.
It is rare for a military court to rule against a soldier over lethal action taken in the field, not only in Israel but also elsewhere in the world. But for a country that claims to have the “most moral army in the world,” it had no choice but to come down hard on a soldier that the top brass was convinced had strayed, said Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Israeli Democracy Institute think tank.
“If you want the justice system to be taken seriously, you have to punish something like this,” he said. “The court can’t be influenced by the changing political climate.”
And Gilad Grossman of Yesh Din, a rights group that monitors the Israeli military justice system, said the video of Sgt. Azaria shooting the Palestinian gave the military no choice but to prosecute.
Sharon Gal, a spokesman for the Azaria family, accused the court of siding with human rights groups over a soldier on a battlefield.
“It was like the court was detached from the fact that this was the area of an attack. I felt that the court picked up the knife from the ground and stabbed it in the back of all the soldiers,” he said.
Lt. Col. Nadav Weissman, a military prosecutor, said this was “not a happy day.”
“We would have preferred that this didn’t happen. But the deed was done, and the offense was severe,” he said.
In Hebron, the slain Palestinian attacker’s father welcomed the decision.
“I feel good. It is fair. This is an achievement of the court that it condemned the soldier,” said Yousri al-Sharif.
Mr. al-Sharif gathered with his family in his home to watch the verdict being read live on Israeli television.
“I was exhausted and tense,” he said. “I smoked two packs of cigarettes while watching the verdict.”

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