Trump is Suppressing Intelligence on Russia Election Interference

Update to ODNI confirms that Republican senators are dupes for Russian propaganda (excerpt):

Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman of the Washington Post report “President Trump’s own intelligence officials just released a statement confirming something we all know: Russia is interfering in our election with the express goal of harming Trump’s opponent, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.” Trump’s own intelligence officials just undercut efforts to smear Joe Biden:

The new ODNI statement contains this judgment:

We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment.” This is consistent with Moscow’s public criticism of him when he was Vice President for his role in the Obama Administration’s policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia. For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption – including through publicizing leaked phone calls – to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.

The widespread reporting of this intelligence briefing to Congress pissed off Putin’s puppet in the White House, who ordered his loyal toady ODNI John Ratcliffe to cease briefing Congress on Russian election interference last Friday (this is a violation of federal law).

His intent is to keep Congress in the dark, and by extension the American people in the dark, about how Russia is once again interfering in our elections to benefit Donald Trump. The New York Times reported, A shift on election briefings to Congress could create an information gap for voters.

The decision by the nation’s top intelligence official to halt classified, in-person briefings to Congress about foreign interference in a presidential election that is just nine weeks away exposes the fundamental tension about who needs to know this information: just the president, or the voters whose election infrastructure, and minds, are the target of the hacking?

The intelligence agencies are built to funnel a stream of secret findings to the president, his staff and the military to inform their actions.

President Trump has made it abundantly clear that he does not believe the overwhelming evidence, detailed in thousands of pages of investigative reports by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee and indictments of Russian intelligence officers by his own Justice Department, that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election, and is at it again.

One of the bitter lessons of the last election is that those defending against disinformation campaigns include not just the president and his staff but also state and city election officials; Facebook, Twitter and Google; and voters themselves, who need to know who is generating or amplifying the messages they see running across their screens.

And if they do not understand the threat assessments, they will enter the most critical phase of the election — those vulnerable weeks when everything counts and adversaries have a brief window to take their best shot — without understanding the battle space.

So it is no surprise that as soon as word leaked about the decision by the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, to give Congress only written updates about the latest intelligence, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. led the parade of accusations that Mr. Trump was paving the way for a second round of election interference.

“Nothing is more important than the security and integrity of our elections,” Mr. Biden, said in a statement on Saturday. “And we know that President Trump is unwilling to take action to protect them. That leaves Congress as the best defender of our democracy. “There can be only one conclusion: President Trump is hoping Vladimir Putin will once more boost his candidacy and cover his horrific failures to lead our country through the multiple crises we are facing,” Mr. Biden added. “And he does not want the American people to know the steps Vladimir Putin is taking to help Trump get re-elected or why Putin is eager to intervene, because Donald Trump’s foreign policy has been a gift to the Kremlin.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff announced in a joint statement:

“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has informed us that it will no longer provide briefings to Members of Congress, including the House and Senate Intelligence committees, on foreign efforts to interfere in our upcoming election.  This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy.  This intelligence belongs to the American people, not the agencies which are its custodian.  And the American people have both the right and the need to know that another nation, Russia, is trying to help decide who their president should be.

“The ODNI had requested the opportunity to brief the intelligence committees and the full U.S. House of Representatives in mid-September and has now cancelled those briefings and said it would hold no others.  This is shameful and – coming only weeks before the election – demonstrates that the Trump Administration is engaged in a politicized effort to withhold election-related information from Congress and the American people at the precise moment that greater transparency and accountability is required.  This keeps both the American people and the Congress in the dark, when both are in need of the information.

“Instead of transparency, the Trump Administration, including President Trump, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, has already sought to promote a false narrative of equivalence among the interests of several nations in U.S. elections and policy.  The aims and actions of Russia, China and Iran are not the same.  Only one country – Russia – is actively undertaking a range of measures to undermine the presidential election and to secure the outcome that the Kremlin sees as best serving its interests.

“We expect the Administration and Intelligence Community to keep us fully and accurately informed, and resume the briefings.  If they are unwilling to, we will consider the full range of tools available to the House to compel compliance.”

Former CIA Director John Brennan warns today, Trump will suffocate the intelligence community to get reelected:

[P]resident Trump has shown utter contempt for the independence, objectivity and apolitical integrity of the intelligence community. And, since he has made no secret of his intention to do whatever necessary to stay in office beyond January 2021, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he will attempt to suffocate the flow of any intelligence to Congress that could upend his ruthless ambition.

Which is why it is so worrisome that Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, in his position for only three months, informed Congress on Friday that lawmakers will from now on receive election-related intelligence primarily through written intelligence products rather than in oral briefings.

[H]is claim that sensitive sources and methods are better protected with the use of written products is specious.

This practice will sharply reduce the ability of members of Congress to raise questions and to gain a fuller appreciation of the nature and intent of interference activities, whether carried out by Russian or other intelligence services.

* * *

Ratcliffe’s strong record as a Trump defender makes it highly likely that he is bowing to White House pressure to stifle the flow of intelligence to Congress that might be detrimental to Trump.

As a result, it will be up to other leaders of the intelligence community as well as members of Congress to push back aggressively against the authoritarian whims of Trump. The oath they swore to the Constitution of the United States demands it.

The Washington Post editorializes today, The director of national intelligence is providing cover for Putin:

In effect, Mr. Ratcliffe is providing cover for Vladimir Putin’s influence operation. If Americans are not aware of precisely what Moscow is doing to sow misinformation, they are more likely to be swayed by it. Congress could subpoena Mr. Ratcliffe to publicly testify about the ongoing operation, and it should. But the Trump administration demonstrated during the impeachment proceedings that it will defy subpoenas. Mr. Trump, who has spoken to Mr. Putin frequently by phone this year — including at least three times since May — showed in 2016 that he will do whatever he can to facilitate and exploit Russia’s interference. Some might call that collusion.

This “collusion” between the Trump campaign and his Russian master Vladimir Putin is showing up in Russian dezinformatsiya tactics, e.g., manipulated images and “deep fake” videos being used by Republicans on social media. Republicans are flooding the internet with deceptive videos and Big Tech isn’t keeping up:

A series of deceptively edited and misleading videos shared by prominent Republicans have run up millions of views across Facebook and Twitter in just the past few days. And while both companies have pledged to combat misinformation, their responses to these videos followed a familiar pattern: often they act too late, do too little, or don’t anything at all.

Between Sunday and Monday, high-profile Republicans, including President Donald Trump, shared at least four misleading videos online.

One that circulated widely was a false video about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden posted to the Twitter account of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise. Twitter labels Scalise tweet of Biden interview about police funding ‘manipulated media’ before he took it down:

The video splices together footage from an interview between, Ady Barkan, who has ALS and speaks using a computerized artificial voice, and Biden.

In the original video, Barkan asks Biden if he can agree that “we can redirect some of the funding,” for police departments toward mental health services, to which Biden replies, “Yes.”

The clip tweeted out by the number two Republican in the House splices in the words “for police” from one of Barkan’s other questions to make it sound as if Barkan is asking Biden if he agrees they can “redirect some of the funding for police.”

Scalise used the tweet to promote the popular talking point that Democrats are responsible for sowing unrest as protests continue nationwide following shootings of Black people by police, adding in his tweet: “No police. Mob rule. Total chaos. That’s the result of the Democrat agenda.”

Barkan tweeted to Scalise before he took down the tweet, “These are not my words. I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts. You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain. Please remove this video immediately. You owe the entire disability community an apology.”

Biden also tweeted Sunday demanding that the video be taken down.

“This video is doctored — and a flagrant attempt to spread misinformation at the expense of a man who uses assistive technology,” Biden said. “It should be removed. Now.”

A Twitter spokesperson said the tweet was labeled based on its, “synthetic and Manipulated Media policy.” The issue with the video was the audio manipulation of Barkan, originally adding words to the audio Barkan didn’t say in that context.

“The manipulated media label is just that, however — a label appearing below the video when people look at the specific tweet to which it has been applied. It’s small and potentially missed by users, and though it may potentially make some users pause before sharing a given video, it does not actually stop them if they decide to go ahead anyway.”

The video was also posted to Facebook. While the video appears to have been taken down by Scalise, it does not look like Facebook took action against the video. Facebook declined to comment.

CNN continues from above:

Another video containing misinformation was shared on Twitter by White House social media director Dan Scavino Sunday evening. The video was edited to make it falsely appear as if Biden was asleep during a TV interview. By the time Twitter labeled it as manipulated, roughly 18 hours after Scavino tweeted it — and at least 24 hours after the video had started circulating on the platform thanks to tweets from other users — it had roughly 1.3 million views. Monday night, Twitter removed the video entirely, not because it was misinformation but due to a copyright claim. By then it had 2.4 million views.

Crooks and Liars adds more details, Another Day, Another Doctored Biden Video Tweeted By Team Trump:

Dan Scavino, Trump’s White House Director of Social Media, tweeted a doctored video of a local news interview that made it appear as if Joe Biden had fallen asleep. Guess what? It was actually an interview with Harry Belafonte. You can even hear the anchorwoman address the person as “Harry.” They spliced Joe Biden into the split screen instead of Harry Belafonte, and also spliced the anchorwoman’s introduction to take out most references to Harry Belafonte.

And today, less than an hour after Joe Biden’s fantastic speech on police brutality and Trump’s encouraging violence in cities across the nation, another manipulated video begins to circulate:

On Monday the Trump campaign’s “War Room” account tweeted a three-second clip of Democratic nominee Joe Biden saying, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Trump War Room is an official Trump account. Deliberately editing Joe Biden’s statement out of context for their own purposes.

Twitter slapped a warning on that video as well, but at this point, why isn’t the entire Trump team simply restricted from sharing videos on Twitter (and Facebook?)

Because here’s what we know for a fact. President Obama’s social media team would NEVER allow such a thing to happen. And if they, by some strange occurrence managed to do such a thing even by accident, the GOP would be screaming bloody murder and calling for his head. Jesse Lee would know — he had the job under Obama that Dan Scavino has now.

Dan Scavino needs to be fired, and thrown off all social media platforms. Yesterday.

On Tuesday, Facebook took down Russian operation that recruited U.S. journalists, amid rising concerns about election misinformation:

Facebook took down a small network of fake accounts and pages associated with Russian operatives that had recruited U.S. journalists to write articles targeting left-leaning readers on topics such as racial justice, the Biden-Harris campaign, and President Trump’s policies, the company said Tuesday.

The network of 13 fake accounts and two pages was in its early stages of attempting to build an audience, Facebook said, which the company argued was evidence of its growing effectiveness at targeting foreign disinformation operations ahead of the 2020 election. The actions emerged as a result of a tip from the FBI and was one of a dozen operations tied to the Russian Internet Research Agency, or individuals affiliated with it. The company has taken action on since the last presidential election, when IRA-backed pages amassed millions of views on the platform. The pages had about 14,000 followers.

“They’ve gotten better at hiding who they are, but their impact has gotten smaller and smaller,” said Facebook’s Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher, of the foreign operations.

In addition, Facebook also took down a disinformation network associated with a U.S. public relations firm that the company said had spent millions to target users primarily in Latin America. The firm had previously advised foreign clients that used Facebook, according to news reports.

Facebook said the Russian operatives created fictitious personas on Facebook to direct people to a new site called Peace Data, which billed itself as a “global news organization” whose goal was to “to shed light on the global issues and raise awareness about corruption, environmental crisis, abuse of power, armed conflicts, activism, and human rights.”

* * *

A report on Tuesday by Graphika, a network analysis firm based in New York that received the Facebook data in advance, found that the Russian effort was small but echoed past efforts to undermine support for Democratic Party candidates by appealing to left-wing U.S. voters.

“The operation seemed designed to divide Democratic supporters, and to depress support for Biden and Harris,” said Camille Francois, chief innovation officer for Graphika.

* * *

One article posted on Facebook about the far-right militia movement known as the boogaloo featured a headline that read, “USA Far Right is Growing Thanks to President Trump,” according to a report provided by Facebook.

In 2016, Russian operatives tied to the Internet Research Agency ran widespread disinformation campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, garnering huge audiences with content that attempted to sow division among U.S. voters. The technology platforms faced significant blowback from Congress and the public for failing to prevent foreign meddling, and since then have invested significant resources in countering such activity.

The big tech companies are still failing us miserably. The biggest violator is Donald Trump himself and his campaign, yet the tech companies do nothing to stop his obvious Russian dezinformatsiya campaign.




3 thoughts on “Trump is Suppressing Intelligence on Russia Election Interference”

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  2. The Trump campaign and the RNC are running a fully integrated campaign with the Russian intelligence services. That makes them traitors.

    Back in July, the Trump campaign ramped up Biden mental fitness attacks in their ads, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-campaign-ramps-biden-mental-fitness-attacks-allies-warn-blowback-n1233821

    Today we learn that “In early July the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of an intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement agencies of a Russian scheme to promote “allegations about the poor mental health” of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to internal emails and a draft of the document obtained by ABC News.” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dhs-withheld-july-intelligence-bulletin-calling-russian-attack/story?id=72747130&cid=social_twitter_abcn

    Note the same time frame.

    Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of blocking the release of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/biden-blasts-trump-over-homeland-security-report-on-russians-health.html

    “Trump does not want to expose the degree to which his political partners in the Kremlin are propagating this message for his benefit,” said Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Democrat Biden’s campaign.

    “He is blocking the intelligence community from sharing with federal and state law enforcement a crucial finding: that Russia is disseminating false and scurrilous attacks on the health of Joe Biden — one that aligns with Trump’s own constantly-backfiring attacks,” Bates said.

  3. Beware the smokescreen! Getting us to concentrate on the manipulation of voters allows the “trump forever” people the cover they need to manipulate the actual processing and counting of the votes. We just aren’t doing anything about the integrity of the vote counting systems because we are being distracted.

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