BoiseBYU wrote:
I am not up to speed on the 12 Russian intelligence officers charged with crimes under federal criminal law...I assume they did more than just post on FaceBook?
Again, even Trump has admitted that Russia meddled, and he admitted that long before this past week. I'm also pretty sure that violating other countries' laws is part and parcel of an intelligence officers' job, even those working for the US.
The idea that we should push for their extradition to face charges for election meddling is laughable. The last thing the US wants to do is create a precedent that intelligence staffers are subject to extradition to face charges for interfering/meddling in foreign elections.
Once we start arguing for the extradition of Russian operatives, are we going to volunteer to allow extradition of US intelligence officers who have meddled in:
- Iran
- Nicaragua
- Venezuela
- Egypt
- Libya
- Ukraine
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Congo
- Vietnam
- Afghanistan
- Indonesia
- Pakistan (I believe Pakistan has even gone so far as to request extradition of our operatives)
- Italy (okay, admittedly that one was in the 1940s during wartime, but still....)
- Chile
- Honduras (under Secretary of State Clinton)
In Latin America there's even a joke:
Q: Why has there never been a coup in Washington D.C.?
A: Because there is no US Embassy there.
So, are we really that upset that Russia meddled when that's pretty much been what we do all over the world? What's ironic is that if we're against foreign powers meddling in elections, why are people upset that Trump is trying to gut the National Endowment for Democracy--the organization through which our government does a large part of its meddling.
I get being concerned or outraged at the idea of collusion--a US candidate working with foreign powers to undermine his opponents. Regular old meddling and interference by governments in other governments' elections is just par for the course.