Thread by @AtlanticCouncil

VIDEO THREAD

The Atlantic Council’s @JohnEdHerbst introduces @GenMhayden who will close out #StratComDC.

“One of the good features of American life is how distinguished officials don’t simply disappear when they leave office. They remain part of the national conversation.” 1/

For his talk closing #StratComDC, @GenMhayden says he’ll approach his talk as an intelligence officer: “The Russians did it…to mess with our heads ✅ …to Punish Hillary Clinton because [Putin] hates her ✅ …to invalidate & delegitimize the inevitable President Clinton ✅…” 2/

“Jim Clapper says something I do not say… Jim says in his book ‘They flipped the vote’,” says @GenMhayden.

“I do not say that. I firmly believe they affected the vote but the effect itself is not just unknown but unknowable.”

#StratComDC 3/

“There’s probably good evidence that the intelligence community… was slow to warn,” says @GenMhayden.

“If the intelligence guys were a little late… the policy guys were also late to respond.”

#StratComDC 4/

“We had a debate that would have rivaled medieval theologians at a Jesuit university,” says @GenMhayden. “It was a doctrinal debate—are we in the cyber dominance business or information dominance?”

The US went cyber, he says, but “the Russians went to Door #2.”

#StratComDC 5/

With a shoutout to @selectedwisdom, @GenMhayden cites the example of trumped up concerns in alt-right media over the 2015 “Jade Helm” military exercises in Texas let the Russians know “We can play with these guys.” #StratComDC 6/

“President-elect Trump refused to embrace the IC assessment,” says @GenMhayden.

“The President-elect’s team went out and promptly lied… that the IC had assured them the Russians had no effect on the election, which…no one in the room had said.”

#StratComDC 7/

Quoting NSA chief Rogers, @GenMhayden: “‘The Russians have not yet been made to pay a sufficient price. They have not suffered enough pain for what they did to us’…This is about dissuasion, not defense. This is about punishment or the threat of punishment.”

#StratComDC 8/

Rogers’ successor at cyber command, Gen. Nakasone, gave the same answer—that the Russians haven’t suffered a sufficient cost, says @GenMhayden.

“The implication being, I can do that for you if I had the authority. This was a plea… to take the handcuffs off.”

#StratComDC 9/

“The Russians aren’t really the heart of our problem,” says @GenMhayden. “We are drifting as a society into what can be fairly described as a post-truth world” where people make decisions based on feeling, preference, emotion, tribe, loyalty, grievance and fear.

#StratComDC 10/

Retelling a story of connecting with Americans outside the beltway for perspectives to include in his book, @GenMhayden says he saw widespread belief that President Obama had, in fact, tapped Trump Tower.

“Really? I used to run NSA. I know how this works!”

#StratComDC 11/

“We’ve had presidents who have argued with us about what was objective reality… But at least objective reality is part of the conversation,” says @GenMhayden.

“Objective reality is not the instinctive departure point for what the administration says or does.”

#StratComDC 12/

“If we did what the Russians did, we’d call it ‘covert influence.’ I can tell you an iron law of physics when it comes to covert influence: you never create a division in a society,” says @GenMhayden.

“You identify and exploit preexisting conditions.”

#StratComDC 13/

“The institutions that have had the highest friction with the current administration are intelligence, law enforcement and the judiciary, scholarship, science, and journalism,” says @GenMhayden.

“What do those professions have in common? They’re all fact-based.” #StratComDC 14/

“How do these institutions push back against a norm-busting administration without busting their own norms,” asks @GenMhayden, closing #StratComDC with a challenge—“How do they do that without actually making the problem worse by getting out of their own lanes?” #StratComDC 15/

ICYMI: Watch @GenMhayden’s closing keynote at #StratComDC on YouTube: 16/end

Did you miss @GenMhayden’s keynote remarks closing #StratComDC? You’re in luck—here’s our video thread recapping his thoughts on how Russia is not America’s top problem & we must first heal our society’s divisions so we’re no longer vulnerable to malign foreign influence.

Agree?

https://twitter.com/AtlanticCouncil/status/1047586641597149184