Source photo : U.S. National Center for Anti-spyware and Security Director Evinina spoke at the Washington Reuters Network Security Summit. (31 October 2017)
U.S. top intelligence officials have expressed concern about China, Russia and Iran intervening in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
U.S. intelligence agency's assessment is that China wants Trump to be no longer elected, Russia is trying to discredit Democrat Joe Biden, and Iran is trying to undermine U.S. democratic institutions ,'said Bill Evinina (Bill Evanina), director of the National Center for Counterintelligence and Security.
Evinina, in a statement, provided an update on U.S. intelligence assessments of the threat facing the November presidential election.
"Many foreign actors have their own preferences for who wins the election, which they express through a series of public and private statements; covert influence is rare ," Evinina said. "We are primarily concerned with ongoing and possible activities by China, Russia and Iran. "
Evinina said China considers Trump "unpredictable" and does not want to see him re-elected. He pointed out that before the November election, China had been expanding its influence, trying to influence the direction of American policy and to put pressure on what it saw as political opponents of Beijing.
"While China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, over the past few months China has increasingly criticized the current executive authorities for responding to the Coronavirus epidemic, closing down its consulate in Houston, and other issues ," he wrote. "
As for Russia, Evinina said U.S. intelligence officials assessed Russia's efforts to "denigrate" Biden and his supporters as anti-Russian "establishment ". He said it would continue Moscow's criticism of Biden's role in Ukrainian policy as Vice President and support for the Russian opposition.
For Iran, the assessment says Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and Trump, and divide the United States before elections.
"Iran's efforts in these areas may focus on cyber influence, such as the dissemination of false information on social media and the repeated posting of anti-American content ," Evinina wrote. "Part of Tehran's motivation for such activities is driven by the perception that Trump re-election will lead to continued U.S. pressure on Iran to bring about regime change. "
After Evinina's statement, The acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Florida's Republican senator Rubio (Marco Rubio), and vice chairman of the Committee, Virginia's Democratic Party senator Warner (Mark Warner), said in a joint statement, "The Evinina statement highlights the serious and continuing composition of our elections by China, Russia and Iran threat. and the need for everyone (including the voting population, local officials and parliament councillor) to be aware of these threat. and we should all work to prevent outside actors from interfering in our elections, affect our politics and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions. "
The two federal senator thanked the United States intelligence agencies for providing parliament with this information. They also believe that this information should be made public to the American people. A key lesson of the committee's cross-party survey of russia's intervention in the 2016 us presidential election is that one of the best ways to counter such efforts is to share as much information as possible with voters about foreign threat us elections.
They also called on US politicians not to use intelligence as a weapon against domestic political opponents.
"All political leader are encouraged not to weaponize intelligence for political gain, as this will only further push our opponents to split our goals ," the statement said. "
The article is based on the Associated Press report. )
