So lets blame Russia for meddling in elections in USA, but what about CIA in France? https://wikileaks.org/cia-france-elections-2012/ Will CIA be ordered to help who Trump wants to win in France now? Damned it, i need something to do instead of reading on internet
Just playing devils advocate here but the leaked orders only seem to instruct people to infiltrate the orginizations in order to discover information. Far as I can tell there is nothing about influencing an outcome.
Clearly since the President of the US is a "Russian agent" that would simply be an extension of Russian efforts! *cough* Anyway, IIRC there's actually quite a bit more to the CIA/France story, including soft coverups for fly-overs to black sites and "extraordinary" renditions (kidnapping) and the like, according to Wikileaks. It's worth checking out if you've the time. As Markoth said however it seems at least at first glace (haven't gone into it more) to simply be an espionage thing... which is something pretty much everyone does. While that can easily be a prelude to interference it can also simply be to get information for dealing with whomever wins (which is still gaining leverage), or otherwise to see what is going on behind the scenes. Russia wasn't accused by the CIA of meddling in the election for trying to hack the DNC and RNC... it was accused of it by leaking (accurate) information about Clinton and her campaign staff (including their taking money from foreign governments... which apparently is not them meddling in the election but hey), via Wikileaks.* So if we see the Washington Post or NBCNews start posting leaks about French candidates than maybe it'd be a good idea to question if the CIA is trying to interfere but just information gathering? It's shady business but it's not quite the same. *(Apparently the Green Party candidate thought it might mean they intruded into the voting machines themselves and pleaded for a re-count... in spite of the government acknowledging that there was no significant intrusion in the voting while still calling for DHS to take over for some reason.)
There is no dirt on this earth of which we do not monitor in some way. The more opportunity/risk a situation has, the more assets are thrown at it until the objective amount of information and influence is achieved. This is not a partisan thing. This is a true power thing. And as such, goes way beyond borders and political leaders.
