NOT JUST RUSSIA: In response to a new U.S. intelligence assessment that China prefers Joe Biden for president and that Russia is actively working to reelect President Trump, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday there will be “severe consequences” for any country that attempts to interfere in America’s free and fair elections.
“Whether their leaders prefer Joe Biden or prefer Donald Trump, it doesn’t matter. We’re Americans. We’re not going to have foreign countries deciding who our next president is going to be. That’s outrageous,” O’Brien said on the CBS program Face the Nation.
A Friday statement from Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, noted that China’s public rhetoric has grown increasingly critical of Trump in recent months but stopped short of accusing Beijing of covert influence efforts.
But O’Brien went further, arguing China is also trying to hack into candidates’ private communications and election infrastructure. “It’s not just Russia,” he told CBS’s Margaret Brennan. “We know it’s China. We know it’s Russia. We know it’s Iran.”
“Tampering with election infrastructure?” Brennan asked. “Absolutely,” O’Brien responded. “Trying to access secretary of state websites and that sort of thing, collect data on Americans, and engage in influence operations, whether it’s on TikTok or Twitter or in other spaces.”
“There are a lot of people around the world that aren’t happy with America because they don’t share our values. And that shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. And we’re going to take every action necessary to keep folks out, whether it’s China or Russia or Iran,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to fight against that, and we’re going to take every step necessary to harden our election infrastructure, harden our cyber infrastructure, and protect our elections, 100%.”
WHAT THE INTELLIGENCE STATEMENT SAID: The statement, a follow-up to a July 24 warning about efforts of adversaries, including “malicious cyber actors,” seeking to gain access to state and federal networks as well as foreign nations using “influence measures in social and traditional media” in an attempt to sow discord and sway voter preference.
“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” Evanina said Friday. “We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.”
Here’s what Evanina said of each country:
China: “We assess that China prefers that President Trump — whom Beijing sees as unpredictable — does not win reelection,” the statement said. But while China has been “expanding its influence efforts” and has stepped up its public rhetoric critical of political figures it views as opposed to its interests, it “will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action.”
Russia: Moscow, on the other hand, is actively “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and to “undermine” his candidacy and the Democratic Party. “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,” the statement said.
Iran: The unclassified assessment also judges that Iran seeks to undermine Trump and to divide the country because Tehran believes Trump’s reelection “would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”
But the statement indicated that Iran’s efforts will likely be limited to public propaganda and “probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content.”
PELOSI ARGUES FALSE EQUIVALENCY: In appearances on Fox News Sunday and CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted there’s no comparison between China’s public criticism of Trump and Russia’s “24/7” interference.
“The Chinese, they said, prefer Biden — we don’t know that, but that’s what they’re saying, but they’re not really getting involved in the presidential election. … But for them to give some equivalence is not right. It doesn’t really tell the story,” she told Fox’s Chris Wallace.
“Russia is actively, 24/7, interfering in our election. They did so in 2016, and they are doing so now,” Pelosi said on CNN. “The American people, I believe, think they should decide who the president of the United States is, not Vladimir Putin making that decision for us.”
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HAPPENING TODAY: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departs later today to travel to Prague and Pilsen, Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland.
The weeklong trip comes ahead of a key vote this week in the United Nations on a U.S.-drafted resolution that would extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran, which is set to expire Oct. 18.
The Security Council’s mission is to maintain international peace and security,” Pompeo said last week. “The Council would make an absolute mockery of that mission if it allowed the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons freely.”
Pompeo issued a not-so-veiled threat to “invoke snapback sanctions” if the vote on the resolution fails, as expected. “There are nations lining up to sell weapons that will destabilize the Middle East, put Israel at risk, put Europe at risk, risk American lives as well. We’re not going to let it happen. And so we’re using every diplomatic tool we have in the toolkit,” he told reporters.
“I don’t want to be too cute. We’re deeply aware that snapback is an option that’s available to the United States, and we’re going to do everything within America’s power to ensure that that arms embargo is extended. And I’m confident that we will be successful.”
CHILLING ARREST IN HONG KONG: Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai this morning under a new national security law in what critics see as a frontal assault on press freedoms.
“Lai, 71, is an outspoken pro-democracy figure who regularly criticizes China’s authoritarian rule and Hong Kong’s government,” reports the Associated Press.
“Democracy needs heroes, and Jimmy Lai used his media empire to advance the cause of freedom in Hong Kong,” said Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a self-described “China hawk.”
“The Chinese Communist Party hated him for it and didn’t hesitate to declare him a threat to national security. Tech executives in the U.S. and abroad should be disturbed by this news and fully understand who they’re dealing with when they supplicate before the CCP.”
AFGHANISTAN TO RELEASE LAST OF TALIBAN PRISONERS: After a weekend of tense deliberations, the gathering of about 3,000 members of a traditional council known as a loya jirga agreed to release the last 400 Taliban prisoner held by the Afghan government in order to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.
In an interview on Fox over the weekend, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the Afghan peace process is “not perfect, but it’s moving forward slowly.”
“You know, it’s a windy road. It’s a rough road,” Esper told Fox’s Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, echoing Trump’s prediction that the U.S. will be able to withdraw at least 3,000 additional troops from Afghanistan by Election Day. “We’re going down to a number less than 5,000 by the end of November. We need to brief Congress from what that looks like.”
Esper said the planned troop reduction will be “conditions-based,” but that “right now, we think that we can do all the core missions, first and foremost being ensuring the United States is not threatened by terrorists coming out of Afghanistan — we can do those at a lower level.”
NO DAYLIGHT: In that interview, Esper downplayed the difference between what he said and what the president said in the immediate aftermath of the massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands more.
Trump said generals believed the blast might have been the result of an attack, while Esper said it was believed to be an accident.
“It’s regrettable that some in the media, not you, but some in the media rather than taking into consideration this great tragedy that fell upon the American people, are trying to draw divisions within the administration, between maybe me and the president and others. And it’s simply not true,” Esper told Pirro. “The bottom line is we still don’t know. You know, on the first day, as President Trump rightly said, we thought it might have been an attack. Some of us speculated it could have been, for example, a Hezbollah arms shipment that blew up,” he said. “And each day, we learn.”
FDD ON LEBANON: In a report prepared before the blast that destroyed much of central Beirut, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies warned that Lebanon was already teetering on the brink of financial disaster. The report, “Crisis in Lebanon: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” concludes that Lebanon’s currency is now subject to hyperinflation, the banking sector is insolvent, and “money transfers aid money laundering to support global terrorism.”
“Lebanon today is broke. The entire country has been picked clean by terrorists, criminals, elites and the political class,” writes author James Rickards.
NEW VCSO: The Pentagon has announced that Trump has nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. David Thompson to get his fourth star and serve as vice chief of space operations, U.S. Space Force.
Thompson is vice commander, Air Force Space Command (redesignated U.S. Space Force), at the Pentagon.
INDUSTRY WATCH: The U.S. Navy commissioned the newest littoral combat ship USS St. Louis on Saturday.
The ship, built by Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine, brings the fleet to 19 ships.
“The littoral combat ship is a fast, agile and networked surface combatant, and the primary mission for the LCS includes countering diesel submarine threats, littoral mine threats and surface threats to assure maritime access for joint forces,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Tom Cotton calls TikTok a ‘Trojan horse on American cellphones’
Washington Examiner: National security adviser says countries attempting election interference will face ‘severe consequences’
Washington Examiner: State Department sends texts to Iranians and Russians offering $10M for info on US election meddling
Washington Examiner: Hollywood and humor come to service of defense intelligence agency
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sanctions Chinese Officials Over Hong Kong Policy—Including Carrie Lam
AP: China sanctions 11 US politicians, heads of organizations
New York Times: U.S. Official Praises Taiwan During Highest-Level Visit in Decades
Forbes: New Intelligence Shows China Is Building More Type-075 Assault Carriers
AP: Russia Warns It Will See Any Incoming Missile As Nuclear
CNN.com: U.S. To End Deployment Of U.S. Marines In Norway After Boosting It In 2018 Amid Russian Tensions
Marine Corps Times: Marine Amphibious Assault Vehicle Successfully Recovered With Remains Of All 8 Missing Service Members On Board
Task & Purpose: 10 Marines Punished Following Investigation Into Death Of Former Green Beret In Iraq
Military Times: New Military Coronavirus Cases Show Lowest Increase In Months
USNI News: Carrier Eisenhower Returns From Deployment After Spending Almost 7 Months at Sea
Air Force Magazine: Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, 1925-2020
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Why China is warning Trump of war
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Turkey threatens Greece and Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea
Calendar
MONDAY | AUGUST 10
10 a.m. — Association of the U.S. Army’s Thought Leaders webinar with Chris Brose, author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. Register at https://info.ausa.org.
10 a.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace book discussion webcast: “America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy,” with author Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president and former deputy secretary of State; and former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. https://carnegieendowment.org/events
11 a.m. — Atlantic Council webinar: “Navigating Pakistan’s National Security Challenges,” with Moeed Yusuf, assistant to the prime minister of Pakistan on national security division and strategic policy planning; Sahar Khan, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute; and Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
3 p.m. — Brookings Institution webcast: “Why the World is at a Turning Point with Artificial Intelligence and What to do About It,” with John Allen, president of Brookings; and Darrell West, director of governance studies at Brooking, co-authors of Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence; and Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. https://www.brookings.edu/events
TUESDAY | AUGUST 11
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to Prague and Pilsen, Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland, Aug. 11 to Aug. 15. https://www.state.gov/secretary-pompeos-travel
9 a.m. Intelligence and National Security Alliance webcast with Janice Glover-Jones, diversity, equality and inclusion officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. https://www.insaonline.org/event
11:30 a.m. — United States Institute of Peace webinar: “Conflict, COVID and Compassion,” with the Dalai Lama and USIP President Nancy Lindborg. https://www.usip.org/events
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 12
10 a.m. — U.S. Institute of Peace webinar: “How ISIS Really Ends,” with Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander, U.S. Central Command; Amb. Bill Roebuck, deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS; and Nancy Lindborg, president and CEO, U.S. Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/events/how-isis-really-ends
12 p.m. — SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. webinar: “Bolton’s Book: Trump Administration’s Foreign Policymaking,” with Trita Parsi, executive vice president, Quincy Institute; Mike Doran, senior fellow, Hudson Institute; and Kadir Ustun, executive director, The SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
THURSDAY | AUGUST 13
9 a.m. — Atlantic Council webinar: “Countering the Maduro Regime’s Global Web of Illicit Activities,” Navy Adm. Craig Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command; Douglas Farah, president of IBI Consultants; and Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council’s Latin America Center. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
9 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies webcast on North Korea and inter-Korean relations, with Tae Young-ho, member of the Republic of Korea National Assembly. https://www.csis.org/events/online-event
9:30 a.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual roundtable: “Air Force International Affairs,” with Deputy Air Force Undersecretary for International Affairs Kelli Seybolt. https://www.ndia.org/events/2020
10 a.m. Pentagon Briefing Room — Department of Defense Education Activity Director Thomas Brady press briefing to discuss fall school schedule during COVID-19. https://www.defense.gov/Watch/Live-Events/
12 p.m. — Association of the U.S. Army AUSA Noon Report webinar with Maj. Gen. J.P. McGee, director of the Army Talent Management Task Force. https://www.bigmarker.com/ausaorg
FRIDAY | AUGUST 14
1 p.m. — National Press Club Newsmaker Program virtual book discussion on “The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1942: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor,” with author Paul Dickson; and Michael Freedman, president of the National Press Club. https://www.press.org/events/headliners
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t want foreign governments to support Joe Biden to influence our elections. I don’t want foreign governments to support President Trump to influence our elections. The American people should decide our elections.”
Robert O’Brien, assistant to the president for national security affairs
