Pompeo's Marriott hacking claim simply preposterous
Give a dog a bad name and hang it. That is exactly what the United States was trying to do when it pointed an accusing finger at China on Wednesday, claiming that the country was behind the massive hacking of data from hotel giant Marriott, involving some 500 million of its customers.
Yet instead of concrete and credible evidence, such a serious accusation has so far been based on nothing other than "we believe" and "we suspect" - perfunctory assumptions - as made when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a Fox News program that Washington believes China masterminded the Marriott data theft, and when officials from the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security told the Senate Committee on the Judiciary that China is working to steal trade secrets and intellectual property from US companies in order to harm its economy.
An investigation is now under way into the Marriott data theft, but given how arduous and complicated it could be - since the hacking is known to date back to 2014 at least - such presumption of guilt can only be politically motivated.