President Joe Biden, 78, 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan look poised to slap 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin with economic and travel sanctions of the 2020 SolarWinds hack. Sullivan said the U.S. is only weeks away from responding to the Kremlin with a “broad range of responses” including sanctions. Putin has put the U.S. and European Union [EU] on notice that any new trade and travel sanctions could be met with the Kremlin cutting diplomatic relations. U.S. and EU officials were up in arms over the incarceration, prosecution, conviction and sentencing of 44-year-old dissident Aleix Navalny. Navalny claims to have been poisoned by Russia’s FSB security service at Putin’s direction last August in Siberia, then flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment, eventually returning to Moscow Jan. 13.
U.S. and EU officials see Navanly as a pro-Democracy activist, challenging the 20-year authoritarian reign of Putin. Putin and his 71-year-old Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the U.S. and EU to stop meddling in Russia’s internal affairs, handing Navalny a two-year-eight month prison sentence for violating his probation. Sullivan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the U.S. was only weeks from responding to the hack of SolarWinds Software Company, the network management program used by many government agencies and the military. Breaches in SolarWinds programs were found in the U.S. Treasury Department, Homeland Security, something that went undetected for months. Sullivan said U.S. Intelligence task force said the hack of SolarWinds was “likely Russian in nature.” “We believe we can go further than that,” Sullivan said, talking about possible sanctions.
Whether some faction of the Kremlin hacked into SolarWinds software or not, it’s clear U.S. government officials were caught flatfooted, blindsided by what looks like illegal cyberactivity. There’s zero evidence from any intel source that Russia hacked into any government or military computers systems but rather targeted SolarWinds software before they issued their update to U.S. and military programs. So, it’s not accurate to say the Russia’s FSB or SVR foreign security service hacked directly into U.S. computer systems. If the State Department wants a scapegoat, they should look no further than SolarWinds, whose cybersecurity protection failed miserably. SolarWinds CEO Kevin B. Thomson has been eerily quiet about how SolarWinds cybersecurity failed, leaving it vulnerable to foreign or domestic hacking. Thomson has not answered basic questions about SolarWinds’ failed cybersecurity.
Sullivan was quick to respond to what looks like a bloodthirsty U.S. media looking for a confrontation with the Kremlin. Surely Biden’s National Security Adviser gets the implications to lashing out at the Kremlin, over a matter between alleged Russian hackers and SolarWinds. “We are in the process of working through, with the intelligence community, and his national security team, a series of steps to respond to SolarWinds, including steps that will hold who we believe is responsible for this accountable, and you will be hearing about this in short order,” Sullivan said. Biden administration officials should be skeptical of the U.S. intelligence, especially knowing they’ve made some egregious mistakes in the past. Everyone knows what happened when the intel community said Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, posing a threat to U.S. national security.
When you look at the U.S. news media, they look like they’re egging the Biden administration on to take draconic action against Russia. That same media accused former President Donald Trump of colluding with the Kremlin based on the best U.S. intel. Turns out, all the intel was false, based on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA “The Steele Dossier.” Does the Steele Dossier sound like solid intel to Biden, Blinken and now Sullivan? Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, confirmed the intel community is zeroing in on the SolarWinds hack. Neuberger said intel services are “looking at who is responsible,” leaning toward Russia. Down in the weeds, Sullivan can’t see the bigger picture of starting a new Cold War with Russia at a time of emerging threats around the globe.
Sullivan must recognize that to the 24/7 Cable News Business, starting a war with Russia would be good for ratings, until it crashed the economy and lost audience share. Instead of letting sensation-hungry Cable News shows push the Biden White House into destroying relations with Russia, Sullivan and Neuberger should exercise more restraint. “The hackers launched the hack from inside the United States, which further made it difficult for the U.S. government to observe their activity . . .” Neuberger said, already with a new twist that the hack took place in the U.S. Not one U.S. official asks why SolarWinds security software didn’t prevent the hack, leaving government and military computers using SolarWinds software vulnerable. Instead of focusing on finding moles, Sullivan and Neuberger should ask SolarWinds why their cybersecurity network management software failed.
