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by tomp 3466 days ago
Was it any different with Iraq WMD?
1 comments

Yes. Many, many parts of the intelligence community produced reports contradicting any claims of WMD evidence, and were summarily ignored by a very not-bipartisan administration. There is basically total consensus among every intelligence agency that the evidence points to Russia.
Not just ignored, but specifically worked around.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/05/12/selective-intel...

Basic sources on the total consensus?
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-departme...

> The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.

This is an official joint statement from the USIC, which is an official body composed of 16 different intelligence organizations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Com...

That report presents no evidence, comes from political appointees, and generally only says that it might be consistent with something Russia would like to do without explaining why.

Also, not sure how the agency count helps anything. Exactly what did agencies like the NRO and Coast Guard contribute here?

My understanding was that they had agreed on the likely Russian origin of at least one system from which emails were obtained, but that they had disagreed on the motivation for the leaks.