{"id":87970,"date":"2020-08-08T06:37:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T11:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=87970"},"modified":"2020-08-08T06:37:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T11:37:07","slug":"auto-draft-137","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/08\/08\/auto-draft-137\/","title":{"rendered":"US election 2020: China, Russia and Iran &#8216;trying to influence&#8217; vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-87971 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina.jpg 600w, https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-24x16.jpg 24w, https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-36x24.jpg 36w, https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Evanina-48x32.jpg 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>BBC \u2014 China, Russia and Iran are among countries seeking to influence the US presidential election this year, a top US intelligence chief has warned.<\/p>\n<p>A statement issued by the director of US counterintelligence said foreign states were using &#8220;covert and overt influence measures&#8221; to sway the vote.<\/p>\n<p>It said China did not want President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election while Russia wanted to hurt Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Intelligence chiefs accuse Russia of interfering in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p>They say Russia wanted to help boost Mr Trump&#8217;s campaign, including by spreading disinformation online. Russia has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Asked at a press conference on Friday what he planned to do about the report on election interference, President Trump said his administration would look &#8220;very closely&#8221; into it.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement comes amid claims by Mr Trump about the dangers of mail-in or postal ballots. He has suggested that the vote be delayed to prevent &#8220;the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history&#8221;, prompting a backlash even among members of his own party.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-51070020\">All you need to know about US election<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-52326166\">Does Trump have power to delay election?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-53353404\">Does US postal voting lead to \u2018tremendous fraud\u2019?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It also follows complaints by Democratic lawmakers that US intelligence agencies are not releasing information to the public about foreign interference in this year&#8217;s vote.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican president Mr Trump is seeking to win a second term in office. His challenger is Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">What does the statement say?<\/h2>\n<p>William Evanina, head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), released <a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dni.gov\/index.php\/newsroom\/press-releases\/item\/2139-statement-by-ncsc-director-william-evanina-election-threat-update-for-the-american-public\">the statement<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign countries are trying to sway voter preferences, change US policies, &#8220;increase discord&#8221; in the country &#8220;and undermine the American people&#8217;s confidence in our democratic process&#8221;, Mr Evanina said.<\/p>\n<p>The counterintelligence chief however added that it would be &#8220;difficult for our adversaries to interfere with or manipulate voting results at scale.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"social-embed\">\n<div class=\"social-embed-post social-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed-region\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Twitter post by @ODNIgov\"><a class=\"off-screen jump-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/election-us-2020-53702872#jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/ODNIgov\/status\/1291804634177310725\">Skip Twitter post by @ODNIgov<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-wrap\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=BBCWorld&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1291804634177310725&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Felection-us-2020-53702872&amp;siteScreenName=BBCWorld&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1291804634177310725\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-report\"><a class=\"embed-report-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/contact-us\/editorial\" aria-label=\"Report Twitter post by @ODNIgov\">Report<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/ODNIgov\/status\/1291804634177310725\" class=\"off-screen\" tabindex=\"-1\">End of Twitter post by @ODNIgov<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<p>Many countries &#8220;have a preference for who wins the election&#8221;, he said, but the counterintelligence director said they were &#8220;primarily concerned&#8221; about China, Russia and Iran:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">China &#8220;prefers that President Trump &#8211; whom Beijing sees as unpredictable &#8211; does not win re-election&#8221;, the statement says, and has been &#8220;expanding its influence efforts&#8221; ahead of the vote<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Russia is seeking to &#8220;denigrate&#8221; Mr Biden&#8217;s candidacy and other members of a perceived &#8220;anti-Russia &#8216;establishment'&#8221;. Mr Evanina added that some other actors linked to Russia &#8220;are also seeking to boost President Trump&#8217;s candidacy on social media and Russian television&#8221;<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Iran is trying to &#8220;undermine US democratic institutions&#8221;, Mr Trump, and &#8220;divide the country&#8221; ahead of the vote by spreading disinformation and &#8220;anti-US content&#8221; online. Their efforts are driven partially by a belief a second term for the president &#8220;would result in a continuation of US pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At Friday&#8217;s press conference, Mr Trump said Russia &#8220;could be&#8221; meddling in this year&#8217;s election, but dismissed the idea the country might be trying to help him win a second term. &#8220;I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump,&#8221; he said, saying that &#8220;nobody&#8217;s been tougher on Russia than I have, ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also said China would &#8220;love&#8221; if he lost the election, alleging that &#8220;they would own our country&#8221; if Joe Biden won.<\/p>\n<p>The release of the statement comes after members of the Democratic party voiced concern about attempts by foreign nations to influence the vote.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-53699084\">US imposes sanctions on Hong Kong chief executive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said the intelligence about current efforts to sway the vote &#8220;should be available to the American people&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In his statement, Mr Evanina said his agency &#8220;has and will continue to provide classified election threat briefings&#8221; to candidates and politicians.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The steps we have taken thus far to inform the public and other stakeholders on election threats are unprecedented for the IC [Intelligence community].&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">What happened in 2016?<\/h2>\n<p>A number of US intelligence agencies and officials have concluded that Russia helped influence the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Former FBI director Robert Mueller &#8211; appointed as a special counsel to investigate that vote &#8211; did not establish that Mr Trump colluded with that effort, but said the president was not exonerated by his report.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-51399568\">Russian disinformation &#8216;ongoing problem&#8217; says FBI <\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-40138733\">The Trump-Russia saga in 350 words<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A number of people on Mr Trump&#8217;s campaign have been jailed due to a variety of charges linked to Mr Mueller&#8217;s investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Charges against ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn &#8211; convicted of lying about contacts with Russian government officials &#8211; were dropped in July. <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-53603915\">An appeals court will rehear arguments later this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And Roger Stone, a long-time ally of Mr Trump, <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-53398575\">had his jail sentence for witness tampering and lying to Congress commuted<\/a> the president in July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC \u2014 China, Russia and Iran are among countries seeking to influence the US presidential election this year, a top US intelligence chief has warned. A statement issued by the director of US counterintelligence said foreign states were using &#8220;covert and overt influence measures&#8221; to sway the vote. It said China did not want President [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}