What Obama Said to Putin on the Red Phone About the Election Hack

[.99center]

Source: NBC News

Determined to stop Russia's interference in the presidential campaign, at least one of President Obama's senior advisers urged him to make the ultimate threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. officials told NBC News:

Mess with the vote and we will consider it an act of war.

But Obama opted not to issue a warning that specific when he spoke to Putin about the hacking during a September meeting at the G-20 summit in China, said intelligence officials offering NBC News exclusive new details.

This time Obama used the phrase "armed conflict."
"International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace," said part of a message sent over the Red Phone on Oct. 31, according to a senior U.S. official. "We will hold Russia to those standards."

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-obama-said-putin-red-phone-about-election-hack-n697116

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Handled like a true Proffessional.

Those days are gone for the foreseeable future .

[Captain1way]

2. I'm not so sure about that

The president told Putin that if he continued he would consider it an legitimate reason to start an armed conflict with Russia

Put in continued as he was doing, now the ball is in the presidents court

Do you think we're gonna see anything close to an armed conflict?

Or did Putin call Obama's bluff?

[Sunlei]

5. not a bluff, you steal our shit we're going to fight back.

[.99center]

7. President Obama warned Putin about directly manipulating voting results.

"He meant that the nightmare scenario officials feared didn't occur: An attempt by Russia to manipulate the voting results or throw them into question."

[Kolesar]

9. So there may be no retaliation by the US eom

[groundloop]

13. Are we CERTAIN Russia didn't manipulate voting totals???

I want to believe that it couldn't happen, but on the other hand I'm not positive that it didn't.

[.99center]

14. Based on President Obama's past use of Stuxnet against Iran

I think he would've authorized the use of another digital weapon on Russia's infrastructure if our intelligence agencies confirmed they hacked or got into our voting tubes.

[Ilsa]

18. I agree, and I bet

he's already turned the NSA or whomever on to a retaliatory project. It'll be so top secret, Trumputin won't find out about it until it's over.

My guess is it'll be something to cause distrust between putin and his friends, or destroy his holdings or cause him to lose power.

[.99center]

19. There's no reason for them to conceal any operation from Trump.

Trump won't comprehend the few PDB's he bothers to read.

[triron]

15. I think the paper by Ron Baiman

may indicate this but unfortunately there are so many forms of election interference (e. g. suppression of minority vote with Cross check) it would be difficult to isolate.

http://www.cpegonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Unexplained-Patterns-in-2016-and-Earlier-U.S.-Elections.pdf

[mopinko]

17. something would have happened.

i am not certain, but i am pretty sure that they were watching the whole thing very closely on the day.
if anything funky would have happened it either would have been stopped before it happened, or stopped when it happened.

he sure would have shared the intel w hillary's campaign, and pretty sure if there were any, she would have challenged it.

[triron]

21. may have already happened

covertly and stayed hidden throughout voting. Forensic examination of voting machines may have shown something but that was not allowed.

[mopinko]

22. i wonder, tho.

the cia could prolly get a look at any voting machine they were interested in. i mean, they are the cia.

[yurbud]

25. Republicans are far more likely to manipulate voting totals, but for some reasons, it's easier

for corporate Democrats to attack RUSSIA than their opponents with a track record of doing this shit.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Watch and see.

Putin is depended on foreign trade currency coming from two sources,Oil and Minerals. Watch for a major down spike in Oil.

If someone thinks we do Military,for get about it.

[Captain1way]

11. Sorry

I was speaking into my phone

Did you really need to insult me?

[Xipe Totec]

12. How's the Russian ambassador to Turkey doing these days? nt

[triron]

16. Why would we target him?

[LanternWaste]

27. Ignoring that's it includes but is not limited to armed conflict is the flaw in your premise

Ignoring that's it includes, but is not limited, to armed conflict is the fatal flaw in your premise (specifically, a fallacious use of the 'or' qualifier).

Conflict by its very nature, is a multi-faceted concept, including (but not limited to... see how it works?) covert action, cyber-action, sanctions, diplomatic language, etc.

Try not to limit yourself, you can be so much more.

[JudyM]

3. How is he holding Russia to those standards now that we have agreement from both the FBI and CIA?

[Sunlei]

4. should have sent the blue screen of death attached to any files they took

[BumRushDaShow]

20. !!!

Actually they may have already done that which might be why Putin ordered a M$ Outlook ban just a couple months ago.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. So

there are so many news stories, and newsy stories ...
did anyone figure out what went on in MI WIS PA? They stopped
all the recounts, there were more votes than voters in some places,
the voter logs or books are missing, some have shown how to hack
remotely (I think vote-flipping) was what they were talking about.

If we don't count, and can't reconstruct the trail, there's no evidence,
and we have nothing to go on, perhaps thankfully since we have nothing
to go to armed conflict on.

There were stories in the 1990s about "walking around money". Campaigns
would come to town and sprinkle cash, supposedly to hire/motivate
party loyalists and GOTV. Did we look there?

Something motivated every last fool to vote, more so than sometimes voters.

[Nitram]

23. Russian cyber attacks and interference in our elections is an attack on the nation.

Russia's actions under Putin are a clear and present danger to our democracy.

[heaven05]

24. well, it didn't help

we still ended up with putin calling the bluff, as I see it.

[Devil Child]

26. Putin called Obama's bluff

Putin knew he could act with impunity and any US response would be tepid at best. Considering how easily Putin has outmaneuvered Obama he will have no problem playing Trump for the fool he is.