General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA, says the U.S. response to Russian hacking of the 2016 election must be calibrated to avoid a hacking war between the two sides.
At a conference sponsored by Harvard University’s Belfer Center in Washington on Friday, Petraeus said there will have to be a U.S. response to the Russian hack, but the question is how to craft that response “knowing that we are more vulnerable than any other country” to further escalation in cyberspace.
“We’ve been through this with other countries in other cases,” he said. In those cases, the U.S. has had to find “something we could do to them that they would see; they would realize that - 98 percent - that we did it but it wouldn’t be so obvious that they then have to respond very visibly.”
On Russia specifically, according to Petraeus, the question is whether to take highly visible steps, which would risk Putin thinking “he has to up the ante” or doing something more ambiguous.
Petraeus also discussed the direction of President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy and was complementary about some of the picks for national security spots by Trump, who refuses to blame Russia for the hack.
Petraeus praised retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who he said “will do a fine job as national security adviser.” He described Flynn as “exceedingly hardworking,” “focused,” and “determined.”
He called retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, Trump’s expected Defense Secretary, “a phenomenal Marine soldier, a terrific military leader.” Mattis is a “deeply reflective, very well-read student of history,” and “very thoughtful, very deliberate.”
Petraeus called Mattis, with whom he served in Iraq and at the Pentagon, and who succeeded Petraeus as Central Command commander, a “hugely talented guy, a great guy, an inspirational guy, and the troops, I think, will be very, very appreciative of his concern for them.”
In addition, Petraeus, whose name was circulating as a possible Trump Secretary of State himself, said he has “enormous respect” for the President-elect’s ultimate choice, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has had extensive business ties with Russia.
Tillerson, he said, runs “what is either the No. 1 or No.2 organization in the entire world” - depending on the price of Apple stock and oil.
“That is a serious credential and it’s an organization that is much larger than the State Department, with a bigger budget … if he can run it … that does give some indication of some extraordinary leadership and managerial skills, which then you can translate over, obviously.”
Petraeus was also complimentary about Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), set to become Trump’s CIA director, describing him as someone “for whom I have considerable respect.”
He said Pompeo will have to be a bridge between the CIA, an agency “that I think is a jewel" and “a national asset for our country of the highest order” and an administration “that in some cases has questioned some of what at least had been leaked.”
“[Pompeo] is going to have to both represent that workforce, defend that workforce, sometimes … and present the analysis of that workforce effectively, and he will then have to ensure that the commander-in-chief is getting the benefit of that.”
Finally, Petraeus described David McCormick, a hedge fund manager who may be in line to be Deputy Secretary of Defense, as a “superstar.”
The two were together at West Point, and Petraeus described him as “terrific” when he was a Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs and “hugely impressive” as president of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.
On the President-elect, Petraeus said he was not sure he could define a “Trump Doctrine” at this point, saying that when he met with Trump he found him to have a “very pragmatic” and not “hidebound” approach, one that Petraeus found to be appropriate for the moment.
“To try to get some great grand strategy that is going to wrap all problems within it is exceedingly difficult to do,” he commented.
“It doesn’t mean you don’t have certain principles and norms and objectives and ideals and so on, but I think this is going to be a transactional period.”
Steve Hirsch is the senior national security editor at The Cipher Brief.
