CIA chief warns against in-kind retaliation for Russian hacking: NPR

Reuters
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan participates in a session at the third annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, DC, U.S. on September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan has warned the U.S. government against a tit-for-tat response to Russian hacking during the presidential election. "I don't think we should resort to some of the tactics and techniques that our adversaries employ against us. I think we need to remember what we're fighting for," Brennan told National Public Radio in an interview that aired on Friday. (http://n.pr/2ily7zS) "We're fighting for our country, our democracy, our way of life, and to engage. And the skullduggery that some of our opponents and adversaries engage in, I think is beneath this country's greatness," Brennan said on NPR's "Morning Edition." U.S. officials have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of supervising his intelligence agencies' hacking during the U.S. presidential election in an effort to help Republican Donald Trump. Russian officials have denied accusations of interference in the Nov. 8 election won by Trump.. President Barack Obama, who has asked spy agencies to deliver an analysis of Russian meddling in the election before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, last week strongly suggested that Putin personally authorized the election hacking. He also left the door open to retaliation, possibly under a Trump administration. U.S. Republican and Democratic senators have called for a special bipartisan panel to investigate cyber attacks against the United States by foreign countries with a focus on Russia's alleged efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election. Brennan also predicted that despite the fall of eastern Aleppo to forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, there would be no end to the violence there. "Aleppo's fall, to me is not a sign that there is going to be an end to this conflict because I am convinced that many, many of those oppositionists, the ones who are trying to reclaim their country for their families, for their neighbors, for their children, will continue to fight," he told NPR. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)