(Adnkronos) – Alarms are growing among US intelligence officials about foreign interference, particularly from Russia, on Election Day. And even after the vote, after the challenge between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for the White House. The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Odni) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) say they have “observed foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting further influence operations aimed at undermining public confidence in the integrity of the US elections and fueling divisions among Americans.”
A ‘commitment’ that, the three agencies say, will intensify throughout Election Day and even after the vote, with greater ‘attention’ to the key states of Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
“Russia is the most active threat,” they said in a joint statement. The accusation against “influence actors” linked to Russia is that they create fake videos and fake ‘news’ to undermine the legitimacy of the vote, to scare voters. “Efforts” that, the agencies say, “risk inciting violence.”
“We anticipate,” they clarify, “that Russian actors will spread other content packaged with these themes on Election Day and in the days and weeks following the close of polls.” “Actors” who, they say, “have also produced and amplified a recent video that falsely shows an interview with a person” who talks about alleged “voter fraud in Arizona” to “favor Kamala Harris”. Claims, they add, already labeled as fake by the Arizona authorities.
Iran has also launched “malicious cyber activity” aimed at ‘hitting’ Trump. And, they say, it remains determined to retaliate for the death of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed in January 2020 in a US air raid in Iraq ordered by Trump.
