民主黨郵件醜聞背後 普京暗助特朗普
WASHINGTON — An unusual question is capturing the attention of cyberspecialists, Russia experts and Democratic Party leaders in Philadelphia: Is Vladimir V. Putin trying to meddle in the American presidential election?
華盛頓——一個不尋常的問題正引起網絡專家、俄羅斯問題專家和身在費城的民主黨領導人的注意：弗拉基米爾·V·普京(Vladimir V. Putin)是否在干預美國總統選舉？
Until Friday, that charge, with its eerie suggestion of a Kremlin conspiracy to aid Donald J. Trump, has been only whispered.
這一指責，以及它所帶來的可怕暗示——克里姆林宮密謀協助唐納德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)——直到週五前都還只是捕風捉影。
But the release on Friday of some 20,000 stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers, many of them embarrassing to Democratic leaders, has intensified discussion of the role of Russian intelligence agencies in disrupting the 2016 campaign.
但週五公佈的約2萬封竊自民主黨全國委員會(Democratic National Committee)服務器的電子郵件，促使人們更迫切地開始討論俄羅斯情報機構對2016年競選的干擾活動，其中有不少郵件令民主黨領袖十分難堪。
The emails, released first by a supposed hacker and later by WikiLeaks, exposed the degree to which the Democratic apparatus favored Hillary Clinton over her primary rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and triggered the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party chairwoman, on the eve of the convention’s first day.
郵件最初來自一個據推測爲黑客的人，而後由維基解密(WikiLeaks)公佈。它們的內容揭示了在希拉里·克林頓(Hillary Clinton)和其主要對手佛蒙特州參議員伯尼·桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)的競爭中，民主黨機關嚴重偏袒前者，此事已導致該黨全國委員會主席黛比·沃瑟曼·舒爾茨(Debbie Wasserman Schultz)在全國大會即將開幕之際辭職。
Proving the source of a cyberattack is notoriously difficult. But researchers have concluded that the national committee was breached by two Russian intelligence agencies, which were the same attackers behind previous Russian cyberoperations at the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year. And metadata from the released emails suggests that the documents passed through Russian computers. Though a hacker claimed responsibility for giving the emails to WikiLeaks, the same agencies are the prime suspects. Whether the thefts were ordered by Mr. Putin, or just carried out by apparatchiks who thought they might please him, is anyone’s guess.
證明網絡攻擊的源頭非常困難，人所共知。但研究人員已經得出結論，全國委員會是遭到了兩個俄羅斯情報機構的攻擊，同一批人還在去年針對白宮、國務院和參謀長聯席會議發起了網絡行動。從泄露郵件的元數據來看，文檔由俄羅斯的計算機經手過。有一名黑客宣佈郵件是由他提供給維基解密的，但前述兩家情報機構被認爲有重大嫌疑。至於竊取郵件的行動是由普京下令進行的，還是手下的嘍囉爲了討好他而主動展開的，就各有說法了。
On Sunday morning, the issue erupted, as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, argued on ABC’s “This Week” that the emails were leaked “by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump” citing “experts” but offering no other evidence. Mr. Mook also suggested that the Russians might have good reason to support Mr. Trump: The Republican nominee indicated in an interview with The New York Times last week that he might not back NATO nations if they came under attack from Russia — unless he was first convinced that the countries had made sufficient contributions to the Atlantic alliance.
問題在週日早上爆發，當時克林頓的競選經理羅比·莫克(Robby Mook)在ABC的《本週》(This Week)節目上說，郵件是“俄羅斯人爲了幫助唐納德·特朗普”而泄露的，他說自己表達的是“專家”的看法，但沒有給出其他證據。莫克還提出，俄羅斯人支持特朗普是有原因的：這位共和黨候選人上週在接受《紐約時報》採訪時說，如果北約國家遭到俄羅斯的攻擊，他可能不會給予支援——除非這些國家先讓他確信，它們會向這個大西洋聯盟投入足夠多的資金。
It was a remarkable moment: Even at the height of the Cold War, it was hard to find a presidential campaign willing to charge that its rival was essentially secretly doing the bidding of a key American adversary. But the accusation is emerging as a theme of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, as part of an attempt to portray Mr. Trump not only as an isolationist, but also as one who would go soft on confronting Russia as it threatens nations that have shown too much independence from Moscow or, in the case of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, joined NATO.
那一刻是非同尋常的：即使在冷戰的嚴峻時期，也很難看到一個總統競選團隊對其對手做出這樣的指控，稱他實際上在祕密地爲美國的重要敵對國競逐總統職位。然而這項指控現在成了克林頓的一個競選主題，它的目標是把特朗普描繪成一個孤立主義者，不僅如此，他還會軟化美國針對俄羅斯的立場，與此同時後者正在威脅那些漸漸遠離莫斯科的國家，或者像立陶宛、拉脫維亞和愛沙尼亞這樣加入了北約的國家。
Mr. Trump has also said he would like to “get along with Russia” if he is elected, and complimented Mr. Putin, saying he is more of a leader than President Obama. Mr. Putin has in turn praised Mr. Trump. But Trump campaign officials on Sunday strongly rejected any connections between their candidate and efforts to undermine the Democrats.
特朗普還說，如果當選，他會“和俄羅斯好好相處”，並讚揚了普京，稱他是比奧巴馬總統更好的領導人。普京反過來也誇了特朗普。但特朗普競選團隊在週日強烈否認他們的候選人和破壞民主黨的行動有任何關聯。
“Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?” George Stephanopoulos, of “This Week,” asked Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman.
“特朗普、你本人或者你們的競選團隊與普京及其政權有什麼關係嗎？”《本週》欄目的主持人喬治·斯特凡諾普洛斯(George Stephanopoulos)向特朗普的競選經理保羅·馬納福特(Paul Manafort)發問。
“No, there are not,” Mr. Manafort shot back. “That’s absurd. And, you know, there’s no basis to it.”
“沒有，根本沒有，”馬納福特予以反駁。“這種說法很荒唐。你要知道，它沒什麼依據。”
One of Mr. Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., was more definitive, charging the Clinton camp with a smear campaign. “I can’t think of bigger lies,” he said on CNN. The younger Mr. Trump mockingly suggested that Mr. Mook’s “house cat at home once said this is what happened with the Russians.’’
特朗普之子小唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump Jr.)對此更加堅定，指責克林頓陣營對他們進行抹黑。“我想不出比這更大的謊言，”他在接受CNN採訪時迴應。小特朗普還語帶嘲諷地表示，莫克“家的貓說俄羅斯人是這麼幹的。”
It may take months, or years, to figure out the motives of those who stole the emails, and more important, whether they were being commanded by Russian authorities, and specifically by Mr. Putin. But the theft from the national committee would be among the most important state-sponsored hacks yet of an American organization.
可能要花數月乃至數年才能搞清楚竊取郵件者的動機，以及更重要的問題：他們是否受到俄羅斯當局的指使，尤其是普京本人。不過，民主黨全國委員會郵件泄露事件會是美國機構遭遇的由別國支持的最嚴重的黑客襲擊之一。
Evidence so far suggests that the attack was the work of at least two separate agencies, each apparently working without the knowledge that the other was inside the Democrats’ computers. It is unclear how WikiLeaks obtained the email trove. But the presumption is that the intelligence agencies turned it over, either directly or through an intermediary. Moreover, the timing of the release, between the end of the Republican convention and the beginning of the Democratic one, seems too well planned to be coincidental.
迄今爲止獲得的證據顯示，這起網絡攻擊是至少兩家不同的情報機構所爲，二者似乎在不知道對方也侵入了民主黨計算機系統的情況下各自行動。目前還不清楚維基解密是如何獲得這些郵件的。不過，外界的推測是這兩家情報機構直接或者通過中間人將郵件提供給了維基解密。而且，這些郵件公佈的時機是在共和黨大會結束之後、民主黨大會舉行之前，這樣的精心策劃看來不可能是巧合。
Mr. Trump himself leapt on the news after the WikiLeaks release on Saturday. In a Twitter message he wrote: “Leaked emails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders. Mock his heritage and much more. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. RIGGED.”
維基解密週六公佈郵件之後，特朗普本人馬上對這個消息做出反應。他在Twitter上寫道：“從民主黨全國委員會泄露的郵件證明存在試圖摧毀伯尼·桑德斯的計劃。嘲笑他的猶太人身份，以及其他種種。來自維基解密的在線爆料，好歹毒。黑箱！”
The experts cited by Mr. Mook include CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that was brought into the Democratic National Committee when officials there suspected they had been hacked.
莫克援引的專業機構包括網絡安全公司CrowdStrike。民主黨全國委員會的官員懷疑自身被黑客攻擊之後，聘請了這家公司進行調查。
In mid-June the company announced that the intruders appeared to include a group it had previously identified by the name “Cozy Bear” or “APT 29” and been inside the committee’s servers for a year. A second group, “Fancy Bear,” also called “APT 28,” came into the system in April. It appears to be operated by the G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence service, according to federal investigators and private cybersecurity firms. The first group is particularly well known to the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence unit, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies. It was identified by federal investigators as the likely culprit behind years of intrusions into the State Department and White House unclassified computer system.
到了6月中旬，該公司宣佈侵入者似乎包括一個它之前稱爲“安逸熊”(Cozy Bear)或“APT 29”的團體，並表示他們侵入委員會的服務器已經有一年。另一個被稱爲“奢華熊”(Fancy Bear)或“APT 28”的團體在今年4月侵入了該系統。聯邦調查人員和私人網絡安全公司透露，它似乎由俄軍總參謀部情報總局(GRU)指揮。對美國的聯邦調查局(FBI)反間諜部門、中央情報局(CIA)和其他一些情報機構而言，第一家組織尤其熟悉。聯邦調查人員認爲，它有可能是美國國務院和白宮非保密級別的計算機系統遭多年侵入的罪魁禍首。
Russian intelligence agencies went to great lengths to cover their tracks, investigators found, including meticulously deleting logs, and changing the time stamps of the stolen files.
調查人員發現，俄羅斯情報機構不遺餘力地掩蓋其蹤跡，包括仔細刪除運行日誌，修改盜竊文件的訪問時間。
Officials at several other firms that have examined the code for the malware used against the Democratic National Committee and the metadata of the stolen documents found evidence that the documents had been accessed by multiple computers, some with Russian language settings. Moscow has outsourced politically motivated hacking to outside groups in the past. A crippling attack on Estonia in 2007, for example, was attributed to the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth organization. Intelligence officials and security researchers believe this outsourcing is done, in part, to preserve a measure of plausible deniability.
還有其他幾家公司對用來對付民主黨全國委員會的惡意軟件的代碼和被盜文件的元數據進行了分析。這些公司的工作人員找到了這些文件被多臺計算機訪問的證據，其中有些帶有俄羅斯語言設置。莫斯科過去曾將帶有政治動機的黑客任務外包給外部機構。比如，2007年給愛沙尼亞造成嚴重損失的攻擊，就被認爲是由支持克里姆林宮的青年團體“納什”(Nashi)所爲。情報官員和安全研究人員認爲，這次之所以進行外包，部分原因是爲了能讓自己保留進行貌似合理的否認的可能性。
Intrusions for intelligence collection are hardly unusual, and the United States often does the same, stealing emails and other secrets from intelligence services and even political parties. But the release to WikiLeaks adds another strange element, because it suggests that the intelligence findings are being “weaponized” — used to influence the election in some way. The story has another level of intrigue involving Mr. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman. Working through his lobbying firm, Mr. Manafort was one of several American advisers to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the Russian-backed leader of Ukraine until he was forced out of office two years ago. Mr. Yanukovych was a key Putin ally who is now in exile in Russia.
爲了蒐集情報而侵入計算機的現象並不少見，美國也經常這麼做，從情報機構甚至政黨竊取電子郵件和其他機密。但將其透露給維基解密讓事情變得更加奇怪，因爲這表明發現的情報正被“武器化”——在某種程度上被用來影響選舉。事情涉及特朗普的競選經理馬納福特這一點又增添了一份神祕。馬納福特是得到俄羅斯支持的烏克蘭前領導人維克托·F·亞努科維奇(Viktor F. Yanukovych)的幾名美國顧問之一，通過他所在的遊說公司開展工作。兩年前被迫下臺的亞努科維奇是普京的主要盟友，目前流亡俄羅斯。
In April, asked on Fox News about his relationship with Mr. Yanukovych, Mr. Manafort said he was simply trying to help the Ukrainians build a democracy that could align more closely with the United States and its allies.
今年4月被Fox新聞頻道(Fox News)問及與亞努科維奇的關係時，馬納福特表示他只是在努力幫助烏克蘭民衆建立一個能與美國及其盟友更緊密地團結在一起的民主國家。
