Whatever Russia did, CIA has its own history of meddling in elections
News that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency believes that Russian hackers meddled in the recent American presidential election has dominated the news agenda this week.
On Dec. 15, the Obama Administration suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally authorised the hacking of the Democrats' emails, something the Russian leader denies.
"It certainly would be unprecedented in terms of a power, such as Russia, a great power, intervening directly in the elections of the United States," says Richard Immerman, a history professor at Temple University and the author of several books about the CIA.
"The CIA is a very professional agency," Immerman tells The Current's Friday host Piya Chattopadhyay.
"I have no reason to suspect that the CIA assessment is anything other than an honest assessment on the part of the CIA," he says.
Immerman believes the CIA is not being politicised because of the election of president-elect Trump.
So is the CIA hypocritical in its accusations?
Immerman says that since it's creation the CIA has a long history of influencing foreign elections.
"The CIA was established in 1947 and received its authority to engage in covert action 1948."
He adds that in 1948, the CIA became involved in attempting to influence the election in Italy.
So while Immerman believes one can't excuse Russia's behaviour, the U.S. once worked the same way.
"History shouldn't work that way," he says.
"There is an irony, but history is replete with ironies."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post.
This segment was produced by The Current's John Chipman.