Reports: Second FSB Agent Arrested; Possible Links To U.S. Election Hacking

[deminks]

http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-fsb-agent-arrested-u-s-election-hacking/28261397.html

Russian media have reported that another Federal Security Service (FSB) officer has been arrested on treason charges in a case that may be linked to cyberattacks targeting the U.S. presidential election campaign.

The reports by Rambler News Service on January 26 come a day after the Kommersant newspaper reported that a senior officer of the cyberintelligence department of the FSB -- Russia’s lead security agency -- had been arrested.

Kommersant said Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief of the FSB's Center for Information Security, had been arrested in December on treason charges.

(snip)

The newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that Mikhailov is suspected of providing U.S. intelligence with information about King Servers, a hosting service owned by Russian citizen Vladimir Fomenko.

King Servers was used as a platform by hackers who targeted state-election computer systems in Arizona and Illinois last year. Fomenko, who rents space on his servers, has denied any links to the perpetrators of the cyberattacks.

(end snip)

There are reports of additional arrests.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wow-it-gets-bigger

[marybourg]

1. We need some State Department expertise

to decipher all this. . . Oh wait. . .

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. He's on the job!

?w=300&h=226

[onecaliberal]

3. Everyone at state is gone. The FBI is trumps bitch. We're just completely screwed

[NightWatcher]

4. I hope these aren't CIA assets that Flynn and trump are outing to Putin

This is what happens in the void of professionals in Intel.

[GliderGuider]

5. I think they were shopped by Flynn. nt

[get the red out]

7. Yep

My first thought.

[justiceischeap]

6. I suspect if the CIA finds this to be the case

it will be leaked. The swamp may get drained from all these leaks springing up in DC.

[Rex]

8. Everyone is fleeing the illegitimate Trump presidency.

[crazylikafox]

9. Putin is just hiding the evidence.

I expect to see them "disappeared"

[Iggo]

15. They're charged with treason. No disappearing necessary. Bullet to the head and they're done.

[GliderGuider]

16. They will be executed.

Putin is either going to invite them to a polonium tea party, or tie them to a board with piano wire and feed them, alive and conscious, feet-first into a crematorium furnace. I hear there's a precedent for both of those.

[MaeScott]

10. Here's another link...

These are US assets being outed by someone over here.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/americas-alleged-spy-in-the-heart-of-russian-cybersecurity-56945?utm_source=CGI+Daily+Russia+Brief&utm_campaign=d22e6a1966-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_814a2b3260-d22e6a1966-281732809&mc_cid=d22e6a1966&mc_eid=ba2db135c1

[hedda_foil]

14. Possible but more likely it's propaganda. It is in the Moscow Timess, after all.

[hedda_foil]

11. Whether they did it personally or not, they'd have a LOT to share about the hack and Putin's role in

So Putin is locking them away so they'll keep nice and quiet.

[OregonBlue]

12. They were Flynn's collaborators and now they must disappear.

[GliderGuider]

17. No, I think they were legitimate US agents, and Flynn sold them out.

He may have just found out about them recently.

[Sunny05]

18. Okay ...

and quick note -- this is my second Q of you on this topic. The other was on another OP thread.

Now I think I'm getting it (different Q from the one earlier today): Your notion is that Flynn, in effort to help the Russians (not to pretend to be on U.S. side) outed this guy to Russians.

Yeah, I know, but it took a while for details to sink in, even the one stated in any post on this topic. There's so much going on that I cannot wrap my head around it.

[GliderGuider]

19. I sympathize. I can't keep track of it all either.

That's what "shock and awe" is all about.

Yes. A likely scenario that fits the facts is that they were agents in deep cover helping the CIA. Then Flynn came in as a deep-cover Russian agent himself, with loyalty to Putin and Dugin. In the course of coming up to speed as National Security Adviser he found out who they were and promptly outed them.

[Cracklin Charlie]

21. Repercussions?

He outed his own employees?

No one is safe.

[GliderGuider]

25. That's what happens when you get foreign agents in positions of power.

Enormous FUD is generated, with a loss of trust everywhere. Things grind to a halt. Except for Executive Orders, of course.

[Sunny05]

23. Thanks and sinking in better.

This is terrifying. Of course, all that we have known (even if just generalities) for a long time and thus the many things we suspected have left us all terrified for some time.

Well, my God. Time will tell where the CIA or at least its leadership or key staff/agents or majority of agents all stand ... It seems like that is what things are coming down to. I mean, there's no foreseeable help from Congress (next elections too far off). The FBI is not an option. I don't know about the rest of U.S. agencies, how things are going there. So, based on the major institutions and agencies I know of, it seems as if our well-being, if not our existence, rests on where the CIA loyalties lie.

I think I'm going to move to Mexico and pay them for it.

[GliderGuider]

27. I concur.

This is far beyond anything any of us have imagined, which is why it's so hard to make any sense of what's happening. And I don't think it's going to slow down any time soon. There are going to be a lot of people with that "deer in the headlights" stare over the next few months as things really get rolling.

[Iggo]

13. Look. See? We caught the bad men who hacked your election. Friends again? (Because you're stupid.)

-- Signed: Russia.

[moondust]

20. Litvinenko also knew too much.

Before he decided to drink that nasty polonium stuff.

[hollowdweller]

22. Obama said there would be retaliation.

[Qutzupalotl]

24. We need to do the same with our FBI:

clean house of the traitors and Russian sympathizers.

[Duppers]

29. You mean Trump sympathizers

?

[HoneyBadger]

26. Looks like Kaspersky Labs anti virus is at the heart of this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8539194

[Initech]

28. Hey Infowars fans, this is what an actual conspiracy looks like!

[orangecrush]

30. C.I.A. Assets being rolled up?

What an unsuprising coincidence.

[Tom Rinaldo]

31. Umm, when was it exactly that Trump got the full secret Intelligence Agency briefing?

I assume that briefing included highly classified information about CIA Assets in Russia and information shared with Trump to dispel any doubt about why the Intelligence community had such high confidence that the Russians were behind the hacking. And now the Russians are rounding up people they have come to believe are traitors. Hmmm.