In a recent briefing held by the U.S. Intelligence Community Foreign Malign Influence Center, the U.S. Government Inter-Agency Task Force on Foreign Interference in the American Elections provided an update on October 22, 2024.
The meeting saw participation from various representatives of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security, and even the U.S. Coast Guard.
According to Gateway Pundit, the formal statement released post the session, which was attended by over 40 media representatives, stated, Foreign actorsparticularly Russia, Iran, and Chinaremain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests, even as their tactics continue to evolve. The IC expects foreign influence efforts will intensify in the lead-up to Election Day, especially through social media postssome of which are likely to be AI-generated or -enhanced.
The ODNI-led team appeared to categorize the foreign threat into two segments: pre-election social media efforts and post-election attempts to incite discord and violence. However, concerning actual foreign interference in the election process and manipulation of vote numbers, referred to as the election administration process by the IC, the team displayed a confidence that may be premature.
The inter-agency team from ODNI stated, To date, though, the IC has no information that any foreign actor intends to compromise the integrity of the election administration process. The IC will provide updates if it acquires such information. Even if they decided to try, foreign actors almost certainly would not be able to manipulate election processes at a scale that would materially impact the outcome of the Presidential election without detection.
However, a mere three days later, the Inter-Agency Team found themselves in an embarrassing situation. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese had managed to infiltrate the networks of U.S. telecommunications firms to target the phones of former President Donald Trump, his running mate, JD Vance, and individuals affiliated with Vice President Kamala Harriss presidential campaign.
This breach raises serious questions about the security of the U.S. election infrastructure. If the Chinese can hack the phone of President Trump, it is plausible they could hack the election infrastructure. It also raises concerns about whether the Chinese are sharing the intelligence they collect on President Trumps location with Iran.
During the October 22 update briefing by the ODNI, a significant 90% of the oral question and answers were focused on Russia. This hyper-focus on Russia by the American IC and legacy media seems disproportionate when compared to the threats posed by Iran and China. For every $1 Russia spends on influence operations, Iran spends $3, and China spends $20.
The prioritization of the collection effort, dictated through Intelligence Community Directive ICD 204, seems skewed. More resources and attention are focused on Russia, less on Iran and China, which could explain the distortion of the IC.
When questioned about China and Iran, the ODNI responded, Various foreign influence actors Russia, Iran, China address similar themes, but we havent seen collaboration on those activities. This assessment contradicts the reality of the Chinese-Russian No Limits partnership to topple American world leadership.
The second action of the 2nd Trump Term should be to re-order the Intelligence Collection Stack to prioritize China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela in that order. This should follow the first action of firing Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and placing him under investigation.
The IC Careerists should be reminded that they are Excepted Service Employees and that any evidence of political mischief will be grounds for dismissal. The Department of Justice should be scrutinized to identify those who felt it was a crime for Virginia Governor Youngkin to enforce 18USC611, a Federal Law which makes it clear that only US Citizens can vote in Federal Elections.
The ODNI needs to clarify why the DNI did not consider foreign citizens voting in American elections as a foreign threat to the election process. There also needs to be accountability for those in the IC who did little but cheerlead the Chinese/Iranian assassination plot against President Trump, in addition to finding the IC J6 plotters.
Finally, there needs to be complete transparency on the role of the CIA in interfering in the elections of other countries, starting with Israel and Brazil. This is crucial to ensure the integrity of the election process and to uphold the principles of democracy.
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