100 days from election, top intel official warns of foreign interference

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN

The country's top counterintelligence official says that multiple foreign adversaries are actively targeting the November election in a variety of ways, from launching influence campaigns in social and traditional media, to targeting election infrastructure, to attempting to compromise the private communications of political officials.

"At this time, we're primarily concerned with China, Russia and Iran, although other nation-states and non-state actors could also do harm to our electoral process," Bill Evanina, National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) Director, said in a statement Friday. "Our insights and judgments will evolve as the election season progresses."

NCSC is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which coordinates the activities of the country's 17 intelligence agencies.

"Foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections are a direct threat to the fabric of our democracy," said Evanina, a career official who has served as NCSC Director since 2014. He was tasked with personally briefing relevant stakeholders – including Congress, political campaigns and candidates – on election security earlier this year.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/100-days-from-election-top-intel-official-warns-of-foreign-interference/ar-BB179Mgc?li=BBnb7Kz

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Interestingly, while the Trump administration tries to paint China and Russia as equally involved in election interference, former FBI agent Clint Watts who testified on Russian election interference recently posted that Russia is once again far more active in trying to interfere with the 2020 election:

https://www.fpri.org/fie/election-2020-russia-china/

Election 2020: Russia Cares, China Doesn’t

In anticipation of Chinese interference claims ahead of Election Day in November, the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s (FPRI) Foreign Influence Election 2020 (FIE 2020) project included Chinese outlet the Global Times alongside its analysis of the Kremlin’s Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik News. Our analysis of Global Times content from January 1, 2019 to present day shows China has published significantly less English-language content than Russia regarding the presidential election. Chinese state-sponsored articles about the 2020 election, either observed by the FIE 2020 team or viewed on the Alliance For Securing Democracy’s Hamilton 2.0 dashboard, hardly travel into the U.S. audience space when compared to RT and Sputnik News.

Furthermore, an examination of the paltry Chinese election coverage shows they spend remarkably little time seeking to elevate one candidate over another. The trade war, Huawei, COVID-19, and the Hong Kong protests dominate Global Times headlines—not the 2020 election. Of 1,211 mentions of the 2020 candidates over a 15-month period, more than 85% discussed President Trump. Trump’s mentions were far more negative than positive, and most always in the context of China’s foreign policy goals vis-à-vis the U.S. rather than the presidential election. When China discusses the 2020 election, it’s not about capturing a victory, but undermining the integrity of the American democratic process.

Conversely, Russia’s outlets talk about internal U.S. politics and the election all the time, with their state-sponsored news outlets authoring a high volume of stories and mentioning the candidates more than twice as much as China. It is clear the Kremlin prefers a second term for President Trump heading into the fall and strongly opposes the election of former Vice President Biden. Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly said he wanted Trump to win in 2016, and Russia’s overt propaganda portrays Trump far more positively than Biden. Although they’ve soured a bit on the president in recent months, taking the opportunity to bash him with respect to America’s failed COVID-19 response and the administration’s authoritarian response to racial justice protests in D.C., nothing Russia says negatively about Trump compares to how derogatory the Kremlin is toward Biden. Headlines trash Biden continuously, and Russian derision of Biden will hit full swing this summer when a curiously timed movie out of Russia-occupied Donetsk, Ukraine, titled “Alpha R” hits theaters warning of a “New Cold War” if Biden wins the election.

The Kremlin’s strategy since 2016 has remained consistent—“secure the base, split the opposition.” Facebook takedowns of the Kremlin’s troll farm in 2019 showed Russian content promoting President Trump, denigrating Biden and elevating Sanders. In March of this year, Facebook closed a Russian troll farm cutout operation in Ghana that sought to infiltrate American minority groups on Facebook and Instagram, presumably hoping to divide the political left and influence voters headed into Election Day.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I AM worried about Russia, not so much China or Iran.

Is Fakebook really doing anything substantial to stop them? I tend to think that Fuckerberg isn't too interested in stopping Russia and likely would like to work with them (if there is $$$$ to be made).

[beachbumbob]

2. Perhaps we can hope the hate of trump by china that chinese hackers are better than Russina hackers

and china tips the scale back to democrats. Why not?

[groundloop]

3. I'm certainly glad that McConnell passed strong measures to protect our elections

[lastlib]

4. Hey, MoscowMitch, you sonofabitch, RELEASE the god-damn money!

Millions of $$$ of funds for election security to secure our democracy, and you're sitting on it with your thumb up your ass, and putin's balls in your mouth! How much is putin paying you, you basturd???

[MissMillie]

10. this (n/t)

.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Vote early by mail.

And often, apparently.

[llashram]

6. laying the groundwork

for trump's spin when he has lost the election. That crook is going to have to be escorted from the WH just like Omarosa was and left standing in the rain gutter on Pennsylvania Ave. Metaphorically speaking of course.

[Lulu KC]

7. much worse

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/us/politics/election-interference-russia-china-iran.html

In a statement issued a few hours later, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was joined by the Senate Democratic leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and two key Democrats on intelligence oversight committees, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, in saying that the descriptions of malign activity were “so generic as to be almost meaningless.”

Mr. Evanina’s statement, said the four Democrats, who earlier called on the F.B.I. to give a briefing on disinformation campaigns to the entire Congress, “does not go nearly far enough in arming the American people with the knowledge they need about how foreign powers are seeking to influence our political process.”

[Bayard]

8. Very worried about Russia,

But I would think the other countries would want trump OUT of power.

[Hip2bSquare]

9. Most important election in my lifetime

This will probably be the most important and historic vote in a lifetime. We the People are facing a monster of resistance against us and it's from our own people. Not only are we fighting foreign interference that threatens our ballot box, media and social media...we are fighting our own leadership as it tries to destroy the post office, closing and limiting voting stations, and not providing adequate equipment or laws to prevent the spread of this deadly virus, and now these disgusting fed goons in camo.

If we come out of this election with a win in November, DU, we must do a collective and simultaneous popping of champagne (or sparkling grape juice for non-alcohol drinkers) across the country.

Keep Fighting! We MUST win!

[yellowdogintexas]

11. The most important in history perhaps

So much is riding on it