John Bolton, the hawkish former Bush administration official now reportedly under serious consideration for deputy secretary of state, suggested during a Fox News interview on Sunday that the reports of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election might be a « false flag » by the Obama administration, an accusation characterized as « insane » by observers.
« It’s not at all clear to me just viewing this from the outside that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation, » the former UN ambassador said. « The question that has to be asked is, why did the Russians run their smart intelligence service against Hillary’s server but their dumb intelligence services against the election? »
« False flag, that’s a very serious charge, » Shawn responded, apparently stunned by the accusation. « False flag by whom? »
« We just don’t know, » Bolton said. « But I believe intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree. »
A false flag is a conspiracy in which events are designed to appear as though they are being carried out by a group or nation other than the entity actually responsible for them.
ThinkProgress‘ Jedd Legum characterized Bolton’s charge as an « absolutely insane theory »:
4. Bolton called it a "false flag," which is a favorite term of InfoWars, the people who brought you pizzagate https://t.co/oRUPSkz7NV
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 12, 2016
If the U.S. election was interfered with by a foreign power, Bolton added, such actions should provoke a military response.
Watch the full interview here:
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