Indeed, at one time the CIA committed terrible crimes in the form of serial regime changes around the world. I often wonder how much that period of “secret government” pursued in the interests of oil barons and other corporate entities, fueled the distrust of government that Republicans since Reagan have so thoroughly and successfully exploited to our collective detriment.
Nevertheless, defending Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Wikileaks’ manipulative exposure of those emails as either payback or “information the American public had a right to know” reminds me of American communists in the 1930’s — so stuck in their ideology that they refused to condemn Stalin or even Hitler.
The American public had no more right to the DNC emails than they have to mine. Privacy is a cornerstone of democracy. The DNC is a private, not a governmental, organization and is entitled to as much privacy as I am.
No country has the right to meddle in another’s elections, and while past crimes may invite present ones, they do not justify them.
Kathe Geist
Charlemont