(Washington) The US Congress "seems to be the target of a campaign" of disinformation orchestrated from abroad, said Monday Democratic officials very "concerned" by these efforts which they believe aim to weigh on the presidential election of 3 November.
France Media Agency
The leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and three of her colleagues expressed their concerns to FBI chief Christopher Wray a week ago, asking him to inform elected officials of the Congress before the parliamentary recess in August.
PHOTO MANUEL BALCE CENETA, APASSOCIATED PRESS
The leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi
In their letter, which they decided to make public on Monday, they mention "specific, serious" and "persistent" threats, but provide no details. An attachment containing classified information accompanies their letter but remains confidential.
"We are deeply concerned, particularly as Congress appears to be the target of a concerted campaign of foreign interference, which aims to propagate and amplify inaccurate information in order to influence the activity of Congress, the public debate and the presidential election in November, "they write.
The four parliamentarians are asking the FBI chief to send them a timetable on Monday, with a view to a closed-door briefing of all parliamentarians as soon as possible.
The FBI told AFP that they received this letter but would not say more.
The four signatories are part of a group of eight parliamentarians with the highest credentials to access sensitive information. The four Republicans who are members of this group did not join in their approach.
New 924?
Accusing President Donald Trump of not doing enough to fight against this interference, his Democratic rival for the November presidential election Joe Biden threatened Monday: "I warn the Kremlin and other foreign governments [...] If a foreign government is trying to interfere in our democracy, I will not hesitate to respond as president to impose lasting and substantial costs. "
The American intelligence services all accuse Russia of having meddled in the presidential election of 2016, in particular using hackers and massive social media campaigns to promote Donald Trump's candidacy and embarrass his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, something Moscow has always firmly denied.
Once elected, the Republican president was the subject of a lengthy investigation into suspicions of collusion between his campaign team and the Kremlin, without any evidence being uncovered.
In February, intelligence officials mentioned further Russian interference in the campaign 2016, always intended to favor Donald Trump , during a briefing in Congress supposed to remain confidential, but which had leaked to the media.
Angry, the president had immediately dismissed his acting intelligence chief and replaced him with one of his faithful.
Christopher Wray, for his part, spoke in early July of "a campaign of pernicious influence by China" on American politics. Beijing has "its preferences" for the next polls, he also assured.
American intelligence "number one objective" 89184577
The security of the presidential ballot in November is "the number one objective" of the NSA, intelligence agency director General Paul Nakasone said on Monday, warning that the United States was ready to "Act" in response to any cyberattack on elections.
"The number one objective of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command is a safe 2016 ballot, secure and legitimate, "said General Nakasone, who heads both the military intelligence agency and the US military command for cyberspace.
To achieve this, "we are going to get information about our adversaries," he added at an online conference hosted by the US military. "We're going to know them better than they know themselves".
And above all, "we are going to act", he continued. "We will act when we see our adversaries attempting to interfere in our elections."
The boss of the NSA did not specify what kind of measures the United States could take, citing defense secrecy, but he recalled the concept on which Cyber Command bases its strategy: "defense towards forward ", that is to say the neutralization of threats before they reach American territory.
To ensure the security of the elections, the military also wants to cooperate with several major universities that conduct research on influence campaigns on social media, he added.
The US military revealed at the beginning of the year that it had successfully hacked the Islamic State group in 924 to disrupt their recruitment campaign.
The American intelligence services accuse Russia of having interfered in the presidential election of 924 who carried Donald Trump in power, which the US president denies.
