https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ns-trumps-government-isnt-helping-group-says/ Russian trolls are targeting American veterans, and Trump’s government isn’t helping, group says Russian trolls are targeting American veterans, and Trump’s government isn’t helping, group says The Trump administration has for nearly two years ignored mounting evidence that Russian operatives and other foreign actors were deliberately targeting U.S. troops and veterans with online disinformation amplified on a massive scale, a leading veterans group said. American veterans and service members enjoy a high degree of social respect, and ongoing manipulation campaigns aimed at them could be weaponized to sow social discord in their communities, Vietnam Veterans of America warned officials at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments in March 2018, among other agencies. But those agencies have brushed off VVA since they were presented with evidence that eventually became a detailed report and congressional testimony, said Kristofer Goldsmith, the veteran service organization’s chief investigator. And their plea to President Trump for help has similarly been ignored, Goldsmith said — suggesting the problem may be perceived as too complex or politically fraught for U.S. officials concerned to cross Trump, who has downplayed Russia’s role in election interference. “It’s easy to say ‘let’s send Javelins to Ukraine.’ People get that,” Goldsmith told The Washington Post. “It’s much more difficult for the secretary of VA to say ‘this is our plan to educate 9 million veterans who use our health care on how to spot a deep fake or falsified news.’ ” The group asked Trump to intervene in a Dec. 18 letter because no federal agency responded to their evidence of foreign “fraudulent activities ranging from identity theft to election interference,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Post. It was emailed to Jennifer Korn, Trump’s liaison to veterans groups, according to an obtained email message. VVA has not received a response. It is not clear whether any of those agencies have taken the lead or are focused on the exploitation of veterans in foreign disinformation campaigns, Goldsmith said, and none of them has asked for more information on the subject after he has become the veteran community’s most prominent cybersleuth. White House officials received the letter but declined to describe what, if anything, they did with it and would not comment on the report. But the administration “works every day to counter malign foreign influence, from identifying and exposing foreign actors to disrupting and imposing costs for these actions,” a senior official said, adding that “any attempt to undermine our democracy is a matter of national security.” The FBI said it does not comment on tips but takes the issue of foreign influence “very seriously” and provides information to the public on how to protect itself from online foreign influence. VA declined to discuss a perception of inaction. Susan Carter, an agency spokeswoman, issued a generic statement saying “veterans are the targets of many of the same types of fraud as the rest of society.” The Defense Department “has broad guidance and training about service member activity on social media,” including cyber-awareness training, said spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Carla M. Gleason. She did not mention any training specific to identifying foreign misinformation aimed at service members. The Pentagon provided the letter to U.S. Cyber Command “upon receipt,” Gleason said, and referred further questions to it. Cyber Command then referred back to the Pentagon’s statement. Memes, over-the-top political comments and false news articles created by adversarial governments and foreign troll farms intentionally sowed social chaos by championing veterans and denigrating liberals and minorities, VVA’s report found, and many carry pro-Trump messages aided by common perceptions that the military leans conservative. “Veterans as a cohort are more likely than others to participate in democracy. That includes not only voting but running for office and getting others to vote,” Goldsmith told The Post in September. The pages are often wildly popular, with some followings numbering in the hundreds of thousands. One fake VVA page generated about a quarter-million fans, which quickly dwarfed the real group’s Facebook following, Goldsmith said. In response to Goldsmith’s findings, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in March asked the FBI to investigate the “shadowy figures” behind the pages. The House Veterans' Affairs Committee held a hearing on foreign disinformation in November, but “none of these agencies have done enough to stop it,” committee spokesperson Jenni Geurink said. The committee will privately meet with the FBI this month on the issue, Geurink added. But a tepid response from officials has frustrated VVA, which called for a whole of government response on the heels of its congressional testimony and its report, which found persistent, aggressive targeting of veterans originating from at least 32 countries. For instance, the Russian Internet Research Agency — a troll factory with Kremlin ties and the target of U.S. indictments and cyberattacks — bought at least 113 online ads aimed at U.S. veterans and followers of veterans advocacy groups during and after the 2016 election, according to VVA’s report. Many pages are operated from Asia and Eastern Europe, and some even have Iranian ties, Goldsmith said. One popular page created in the United States — “Vets for Trump” — was hijacked by an administrator in North Macedonia. The murky world of these pages unveils the direct and indirect relationship with Russian operations and their effective saturation on social media. One page, “Being Patriotic,” was cited in former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation as a product of the Internet Research Agency. It amassed 200,000 fans at one point, the Mueller report found. But other pages, like one focused on veterans but run from Vietnam, shared identical memes created by the IRA but with the page title cropped out. One common theme is referencing Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest of police brutality as an attack on troops and veterans. Others suggest using resources for veterans at the cost of immigrants and refugees. Both mimic the language of conservative Americans attacking liberals. One image of a military widow used to attack Kaepernick was shared by Trump on social media in 2018. Similar photos have been used by foreign administrators masquerading as veterans. Some pages deceive veterans into believing they are American-run but have a clear financial goal, like accumulating fans as a customer base for challenge coins and T-shirts, Goldsmith said. But Goldsmith said some pages generate similar disinformation with no clear financial incentive, while other sophisticated campaigns may sell items to appear innocuous as a smokescreen for more nefarious operations, such as Russian election interference. The Facebook page ‘Vets for Trump’ was hijacked by a North Macedonian businessman. It took months for the owners to get it back. Facebook and Twitter were pressed by lawmakers in the November hearing about their response. “We know that we are fighting against motivated adversaries in this space, and that we have to iterate and improve our approach to stay ahead,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s chief of security policy, said in his prepared remarks. Goldsmith is concerned that Russia’s constant barrage is designed to elicit sympathy and downplay their activities around the world, and neutralizing criticism from troops and veterans could be a strategy to undercut the Pentagon’s message that Russia and China top the list of global adversaries. “When you have service members believing Russia is not a threat to the elections, and didn’t interfere, they have friends and family convinced, it helps Russia get away with a serious attack on our democracy,” he said. Those concerns are echoed by the Pentagon. Russia peddles “false narratives about its ongoing aggression against Ukraine, the war in Syria and the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime,” among other issues, Gleason said. But Goldsmith sees a reluctance in the administration to aggressively pursue this issue, speculating that getting out front would draw fire from Trump — who has rejected the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s role in election interference and helped advance a conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible. Some lawmakers have taken interest, but Goldsmith said he stared at empty chairs at the House VA Committee hearing in November as he testified about the his findings. “There are not a lot of issues that people pretend to be bipartisan on,” he said. “But this is one everyone can agree is worth addressing. ”
"Russia, if you're listening...." https://thehill.com/policy/technolo...mpany-at-center-of-impeachment-inquiry-report Russia hacked Ukrainian gas company at center of impeachment inquiry: report Hackers affiliated with the Russian military have taken aim at Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, according to the New York Times. Hacking attempts began in early November against the company on whose board former Vice President Joe Biden’s son sat, The Times reported. At the same time the House was investigating a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. Security experts told the Times the hackers’ findings, as well as what they were looking for, remain unclear, but the timing indicates they could have been in search of the same sort of potentially embarrassing material on the family Trump sought when he asked Zelensky to launch the investigation. The hackers were affiliated with the G.R.U. military intelligence unit and used phishing emails to target usernames and passwords in a similar manner to the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee, according to the Times, in this case establishing mockups of Burisma subsidiaries and sending company employees emails designed to look like internal communications. The hackers successfully secured login credentials from some employees and successfully infiltrated one of the company’s servers, according to Area 1, the California-based security company that first caught wind of the hack. “The timing of the Russian campaign mirrors the G.R.U. hacks we saw in 2016 against the D.N.C. and [Hillary Clinton campaign chairman] John Podesta,” Area 1 co-founder Oren Falkowitz said, according to the Times. “Once again, they are stealing email credentials, in what we can only assume is a repeat of Russian interference in the last election.” Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted seven officers with the G.R.U in 2018.
#BestPeeps https://www.axios.com/nsc-official-on-leave-investigation-2a5bd356-0927-46e1-b175-8a0a45877461.html White House national security official on leave pending investigation Andrew Peek, the senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council, has been placed on administrative leave pending a security-related investigation, people familiar with the situation tell Axios. Driving the news: Peek had been expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week, where President Trump is expected to meet with a number of world leaders as the impeachment trial takes place back in the Senate. Peek declined to comment. White House and National Security Council officials declined to discuss the situation. "We do not discuss personnel matters," the NSC said in a statement to Axios. Why it matters: Peek's responsibilities at the NSC, and before that at the State Department, touch on a number of sensitive areas. He took on the same role as impeachment witnesses Fiona Hill and Tim Morrison. He joined the NSC in November after serving as a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, where he focused on Iraq and Iran. He previously served as a strategic adviser to now-retired Marine Gen. John Allen when Allen was commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. https://apnews.com/d62eab2291688a96acc7a3bb48a3eec2 AP sources: Security probe targets Trump’s Russia adviser WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House adviser on Europe and Russia issues has been placed on administrative leave pending a security-related investigation, two people with knowledge of his exit said Sunday. Andrew Peek was escorted off the White House compound on Friday, according to one of those familiar with his departure. In response to questions, the National Security Council, the foreign policy unit at the White House, said in a statement that “we do not discuss personnel matters.” Peek, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, has been in the position since November. His two predecessors in that position — Tim Morrison and Fiona Hill — both testified in the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Before joining the State Department, Peek was a fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas. He graduated from Princeton University in 2003, received a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2005 and earned a doctorate in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Peek was a U.S. Army intelligence officer serving in Afghanistan where he advised now-retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen on several matters, including intelligence and Pakistani aspects of the war. Before Afghanistan, he was an adviser to Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.
https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...w-says-he-never-lied-to-federal-investigators Michael Flynn now says he 'never lied' to federal investigators Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn denied ever having lied to the FBI in a new legal filing submitted Wednesday, two years after he pleaded guilty to making false statements about his communications with a Russian diplomat. Flynn claimed that prosecutors and his former legal team had pressured him into accepting a plea agreement despite his reservations about the charges. “In truth, I never lied,” Flynn said in the Wednesday filing as part of an effort to have the charges against him dismissed. "My guilty plea has rankled me throughout this process, and while I allowed myself to succumb to the threats from the government to save my family, I believe that I was grossly misled about what really happened," Flynn wrote. Earlier this month, Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea as a cooperation agreement he made with the special counsel's office deteriorated. In its own filing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said that in the event that Judge Emmet Sullivan, an Obama appointee, rejects Flynn’s plea withdrawal, the federal government would have no objection to Flynn being sentenced to probation without prison time. Earlier this month, the prosecutors had recommended up to six months in prison for the former three-star general. Flynn claimed in the filing that he “never would have pled guilty” if his initial defense team had told him federal agents said he “did not give any indication of deception” when questioned about conversations he had with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. “I tried to ‘accept responsibility’ by admitting to offenses I understood the government I love and trusted said I committed,” Flynn said. “I am innocent of this crime, and I request to withdraw my guilty plea,” he added. Flynn claimed in the filing that he had had numerous calls with foreign diplomats and that from his recollection his conversation with Kislyak did not seem out of the ordinary.
brb...Nunues leaks to daddy about intel briefing brb...It was Schiff! https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...48a0bc-5670-11ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html Trump makes veiled threat toward Schiff over classified briefing on Russian 2020 election interference President Trump on Sunday made a veiled threat toward House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff, claiming without evidence that the California Democrat had leaked information from a classified briefing in which a senior U.S. intelligence official told lawmakers that Russia wants to see Trump reelected. “Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media,” Trump tweeted. “Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience!”