Russia is no friend to the American people. Its transgressions are very real and so is the threat still posed by its nuclear weapons. Many of us remember the specter of nuclear war which inspired “duck and cover” exercises just as regularly as fire drills in our community schools.
Russia’s conventional military strength pales in comparison to the United States, but its arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles did not vanish in 1991 with the end of the Cold War. I have personally visited our men and women in uniform who staff facilities in Nebraska’s Panhandle which house nuclear missiles and remind us of the ongoing nuclear threat from Russia.
President Trump and his predecessors were right to encourage dialogue and open communication between our countries. The danger of poor communication between nuclear powers was on full display in 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear holocaust for 13 days as the United States and Soviet Union faced off during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Even still, there is no excuse for Russia’s behavior which has been nothing short of abhorrent. From meddling in our elections at home to its blatant aggression in Eastern Europe and support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Russia is no partner for peace.
In 2014, Putin staged a sham referendum in Crimea which he then used as justification to annex the former Soviet territory given its strategic importance as a base of operations in the Black Sea. Russia continues its campaign to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty by supporting separatists in its eastern regions who many believe are comprised in part by Russian soldiers out of uniform.
It has also become clear Russian operatives conducted a coordinated effort to delegitimize our 2016 elections through a sophisticated hacking operation and online propaganda disguised as American dissent. While these efforts and their connection to the Kremlin have been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, I find it unsettling that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between President Trump and Russian hackers has turned into a self-perpetuating free-for-all with no end in sight.
This is not to say Mueller’s investigations are without merit. To the contrary, his recent indictment of 12 Russian intelligence operatives for election meddling shows we may have only uncovered the beginning of Russia’s treachery. However, shifting objectives have allowed the president’s detractors to use the mere existence of Mueller’s investigation to support unfounded assertions of Trump-Russia collusion despite the investigation not having produced one shred of information supporting such a claim.
For this reason, any such evidence of collusion should be made public, or Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion should be brought to a swift end. Any otherwise ongoing investigations into Russia’s actions should be conducted separately and with vigor, unclouded by assertions of collusion. Russia must be held to account for its transgressions, which risk undermining our democratic institutions.
While I had hoped for a more assertive posture from President Trump at his July 16 summit with President Putin, I support his efforts to establish dialogue. Such a negative reaction from President Trump’s detractors is ironic given many of them were supportive of President Obama’s foreign policy which emboldened North Korea, left Iran virtually unconstrained, and allowed Russia to trample both Ukraine’s sovereignty and our political system.
Just last year I joined a nearly unanimous majority to levy increased sanctions against Russia which, in addition to low oil prices, led its economy to contract over the past two years and severely limit its growth potential. However, sanctions without dialogue are only half the equation for changing Russia’s behavior. President Trump must make clear to President Putin that his actions are unacceptable and the American people will not stand for further offenses.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denies any “collusion” with the Russians, while his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says it’s not even a crime. Case closed? Not exactly.
Giuliani is right that the term “collusion” isn’t a precise one when it comes to U.S. law. But that doesn’t change the potential legal fallout stemming from the Russia investigation, which could touch on laws against computer hacking, election fraud and conspiracy against the United States.
A look at the buzz term “collusion” and what we’re really talking about:
GIULIANI on Fox News on Monday: “I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime…Collusion is not a crime.”
TRUMP on Twitter on Sunday: “There is No Collusion!”
THE FACTS: Giuliani is technically right that election collusion isn’t a precise legal term. (While we’re at it, election “meddling” isn’t either.) The U.S. code mostly uses the term “collusion” in antitrust laws to address crimes like price fixing.
But there are plenty of specific laws on the books that could apply if Trump’s presidential campaign is found to have collaborated with Moscow, including a conspiracy to defraud the United States. There are also laws against election fraud, computer hacking, wire fraud and falsifying records, if those apply.
So far, special counsel Robert Mueller has accused the Russians of hacking into Democrats’ computers and stealing emails, as well as trying to stoke U.S. tensions before the 2016 election using social media. Mueller has already accused Trump’s former campaign chairman and another top aide of working as foreign agents for Ukrainian interests and funneling millions of dollars from the work into offshore accounts used to fund lavish lifestyles.
Mueller might decide, for example, that a crime was committed if he finds evidence that an American was involved in the hack of Democrats, either by soliciting it or paying someone to do it.
The investigation also has exposed Moscow’s aggressive outreach to the Trump campaign, including a promise of “dirt” on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a meeting attended by Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
If Trump or his aides knew in advance that Russia had the trove of stolen emails and did nothing to alert federal authorities, they could be accused of covering up the crime of stolen emails or working as foreign agents. Although it’s rare for the Justice Department to charge people for not reporting illegal behavior, it’s also not often that a special counsel team, with a wide-ranging mandate to find wrongdoing, is on the case.
As well, a conspiracy to defraud the United States can be used to refer to any two people using “deceit, craft, or trickery” to interfere with governmental functions, such as an election.
In other words, “collusion” might be shorthand. But if it relates to Russia and U.S. elections, it can still be very much against the law.
EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures

Public Intelligence
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security and fusion centers around the country are warning that terrorists are interested in using fire as a weapon, particularly in the form of large-scale wildfires near densely populated areas.  A newly released DHS report states that for more than a decade “international terrorist groups and associated individuals have expressed interest in using fire as a tactic against the Homeland to cause economic loss, fear, resource depletion, and humanitarian hardship.”  The report notes that the tactical use of fire as a weapon is “inexpensive and requires limited technical expertise” and “materials needed to use fire as a weapon are common and easily obtainable, making preoperational activities difficult to detect and plot disruption and apprehension challenging for law enforcement.”
Though law enforcement has been warning of the use of fire as a weapon for years, the recent fervor over wildfires as a potential terrorist tactic is largely due to Inspire magazine, a slick online publication that is reportedly produced by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  The most recent issue of Inspirefeatured multiple articles on the use of wildfire as a weapon in jihad, including a complete guide on creating an “ember bomb” that would likely have a “high failure rate when manufactured and utilized by untrained or inexperienced personnel” according to the DHS report.  The FBI has also separately warned about the latest issue of Inspire, which “instructs the audience to look for two necessary factors for a successful wildfire, which are dryness and high winds to help spread the fire. Specific fire conditions that are likely to spread fire quickly are Pinewood, crownfires (where the trees and branches are close together), and steep slope fires (fire spreads faster going up a slope).”  California and Montana are specifically listed in Inspire as potential targets.
How do you stop a person that wants to carry out a wildfire attack? The DHS report includes a list of potentially suspicious activities associated with the terrorist wildfire threat.  Are you conducting “unusual research” related to weather, dry seasons, winds, or types of forests and vegetation?  Have you done online research related to historical cases of arson?  Or maybe you “conduct reconnaissance” in “remote, wooded areas, especially at night”?  According to DHS, you might be a part of a terrorist plot to start wildfires all around the country.  Of course, you could just be interested in nature, studying for a criminology exam or lost in a rural area at night.  The report makes it clear that many of the suspicious activities listed are “constitutionally protected” and should not be considered alone as sufficient cause for investigation.  However, the list ends with an ominous warning: “Preoperational activities of violent extremists in the Homeland might be difficult to detect. Agencies with local or state oversight should monitor events that might be linked to a larger terrorist operation. Suspicious activities should be reported and shared immediately.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Chinese cyberespionage group called APT10 relentlessly attacks U.S. engineering, telecom and aerospace industries. Russian hackers last year compromised dozens of U.S. energy companies. Iranian hackers known as “Rocket Kitten” repeatedly target American defense companies in hopes of stealing information to boost Tehran’s missile and space programs.
While Moscow’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are widely known, spy services from China, Russia and Iran, along with their proxy hackers, also are hard at work trying to steal trade secrets and proprietary information from the United States, according to a government report released Thursday. A classified version of the report was sent to Congress.
“Foreign economic and industrial espionage against the United States continues to represent a significant threat to America’s prosperity, security and competitive advantage,” the National Counterintelligence and Security Center said. “China, Russia and Iran stand out as three of the most capable and active cyber actors tied to economic espionage and the potential theft of U.S. trade secrets and proprietary information.”
Cyberespionage is a relatively low-cost, high-yield way to access and acquire information from U.S. research institutions, universities and corporations, the report said. More vulnerabilities will emerge with the increase in cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the proliferation of vehicles, home appliances, medical devices and other items connected to the internet.
Cyberoperations are the preferred method for conducting economic espionage, the report said, but U.S. adversaries also acquire sensitive information by hiring sophisticated hackers, recruiting spies or gleaning material from foreign students studying at American universities.
Adversaries also are infiltrating computer networks of suppliers that serve large companies and then using that connection to worm their way up the chain into large corporate computer systems. Bill Evanina, the nation’s top counterintelligence official and director of the center, told reporters at a briefing that business leaders need to investigate the security of computer systems used by companies that supply their air conditioning and heating, printers and copiers and the like.
“Our economic security is our national security,” Evanina said “We cannot just get numb to our adversaries stealing our intellectual property.”
The report listed two dozen technologies that have piqued the interest of foreign intelligence collectors. They include oil, gas and coal-bed methane gas energies; smart grids; solar and wind technologies; biopharmaceuticals and new vaccines and drugs; defensive marine systems and radar; hybrid and electric cars; pollution control; high-end computer numerically controlled machines, which are used to control factory tools and machines in manufacturing; space infrastructure and exploration technology; synthetic rubber; rare earth materials; quantum computing; and next generation broadband wireless communications networks.
Michael Moss, deputy director of the government’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, said incidents of economic espionage are growing rapidly. “The thing that continues to surprise me is how fast it continues to accelerate. It’s getting faster and faster,” he said.
China uses joint ventures to try to acquire technical know-how, the report said. It said Beijing seeks partnerships with U.S. government labs to learn about specific technology and information about running such facilities and uses front companies to hide the hand of the Chinese government and acquire technology under U.S. export controls.
The Trump administration has railed against China, imposed new tariffs and called for Beijing to end the theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies. The administration also wants China to curb policies that require American and other foreign businesses to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
“If this threat is not addressed, it could erode America’s long-term competitive economic advantage,” the report said.
Economic espionage conducted by hackers linked to Russia is mostly aimed at finding ways to inflict damage on the United States, disrupt services or benefit its economic interests, according to the report.
“In support of that goal, Russian intelligence services have conducted sophisticated and large-scale hacking operations to collect sensitive U.S. business and technology information,” the report said. It also said that Russian “military modernization efforts also likely will be a motivating factor for Russia to steal U.S intellectual property.”
Iranian’s operations have typically targeted adversaries in the Middle East, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. But it also tries to infiltrate U.S. networks to acquire technologies to bolster economic growth, modernize its military and increase exports.
“The loss of sensitive information and technologies not only presents a significant threat to U.S. national security,” the report said. “It also enables Tehran to develop advanced technologies to boost domestic economic growth, modernize its military forces and increase its foreign sales.”