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You are here: Home / Archives for Foreign Affairs / Countries / Russia

Russia

The Russian Bounties On US Soldiers Stuff

by Adam L Silverman|  April 15, 20219:52 pm| 42 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

Stuff is a technical term…

Earlier today, commenter Wyatt Salamanca, asked my take on the news that the US Intelligence community has determined that the Russians may not have put bounties on the heads of US service members deployed in Afghanistan. I’ve now had a chance to read the reporting and I have the same basic reaction as Marc Polymeropoulos. Polymeropolous is a retired Senior Intelligence Service officer who served 26 years in the CIA.

This headline appears to be incorrect. How is US intel walking anything back? The low to medium confidence level is exactly what was previously reported, that’s my recollection from press accounts. Seems like nothing changed. https://t.co/2xSJmWUw3T

— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) April 15, 2021

From The Daily Beast:

“The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate confidence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019 and perhaps earlier,” a senior administration official said.

According to the officials on Thursday’s call, the reporting about the alleged “bounties” came from “detainee reporting”–raising the specter that someone told their U.S.-aligned Afghan jailers what they thought was necessary to get out of a cage. Specifically, the official cited “information and evidence of connections to criminal agents in Afghanistan and elements of the Russian government” as sources for the intelligence community’s assessment.

Without additional corroboration, such reporting is notoriously unreliable.

The senior Biden official added on Thursday that the “difficult operating environment in Afghanistan” complicated U.S. efforts to confirm what amounts to a rumor.

I remember the reporting last year the same way that Polymeropoulos does. Specifically that we had intelligence, but that there was a significant debate within different parts of the Intelligence Community about how valid it was. What today’s statement tells us is that we have a single source – the detainee – and that the Intelligence Community has been unable to further validate his information. And, of course, because detainees will try to use anything and everything to get out of detention, this could be solid intelligence or it could be useless information. So without further corroboration from other sources, the analysts deemed it to be of low to moderate confidence.

What does low to moderate confidence mean in reality? It means it is actionable – as in we will do something as a result of the information – in regard to force protection/keeping US and coalition personnel safe in Afghanistan. But it is not actionable – as we will not do something as a result of this information – in regard to escalating a response in regard to our relations with Russia. That said, the administration did tell Russia that they are taking this seriously, even if it cannot be validated by other sources and methods, and therefore Russia should take note and act accordingly.

“We have noted our conclusion of the review that we conducted on the bounties issue and we have conveyed through diplomatic, intelligence, and military channels strong, direct messages on this issue, but we are not specifically tying the actions we are taking today to that matter,” a senior administration official told reporters in reference to the bounty claims.

This happens. Despite what people both inside and outside the Intelligence Community would like to believe, while a lot of it is rooted in social and behavioral science and methods, it is as much artisanry as it is science. And sometimes even a solid lead, which this may or may not be, cannot be validated by further investigation.

Sound_Advice_From_Dr_Strangelove

Open thread!

The Russian Bounties On US Soldiers StuffPost + Comments (42)

Russian Mobilization, Ukraine, and What the Hell Is Going On?!?!?!

by Adam L Silverman|  April 8, 20219:32 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: China, Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Israel, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Silverman on Security, War

“Probe with bayonets. If You encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw.” 

— Vladimir Lenin

Sorry for the delay, been a busy week, but I wanted to take a few moments and do the promised post on what is going on with Russia and Ukraine.

Reports have been trickling in from a variety of sources that Russia has been repositioning significant military assets near its western border with Ukraine. This has followed an increase over the past ten days or so of Russian Information and Psychological Operations directed at Ukraine, the US, NATO, and the EU.

While the Russian Ministry of Defense did announce military exercises along the border, these satellite images of the known Pogonovo training ground are worth pointing out amid heightened tensions between Russia and and Ukraine. https://t.co/73J1vLnSMs

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) April 8, 2021

Alongside the Iskander, which likely belongs to the 119 Missile Brigade, @JanesINTEL has identified an influx of Central Military District troops to Vorenezh:

‣ 74th and 35th Motorized Brigades
‣ 120th Artillery Brigade
‣ 6th Tank Regimenthttps://t.co/Nm0opK90pg

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) April 8, 2021

The official US position is that this is just repositioning for a military exercise:

A US official tells CNN that the US does not see the amassing of Russian forces as posturing for an offensive action, but that they are conducting training and exercises and intelligence has not indicated military orders for further action.https://t.co/JXNL0VuwP7 pic.twitter.com/uLXebN0YeP

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 8, 2021

This includes reports that Russia has mobilized all of its military assets everywhere.

This is actually a full mobilization of the Russian armed forces into combat readiness.

Everything from sleepy Siberian depots and air force bases to nuclear submarines and the tank divisions.#Russia https://t.co/ihO3Gxyh6m

— Petri Mäkelä (@pmakela1) April 6, 2021

And, of course, the Information Warfare and Psychological Operations are in full swing:

In Russian state TV, experts gladly discuss Russian nuclear strike in case of further escalation in Ukraine. “This will make Americans fear and we will be able to do what we want” – is the main message. pic.twitter.com/eEcbUg6U2B

— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) April 6, 2021

Yes, this is what they love to discuss. One friend of mine used to say “whoever Russia fights, it always imagines it fights the US troops”.

— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) April 6, 2021

Under Biden, games are over.

Instead of laughing about Trump’s embarrassing subservience to Putin, grim-faced experts on state TV anticipate harsh measures against the Kremlin by the Biden administration.

“We could end up living like we’re in Iran"https://t.co/kN4YZyQWY6

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 6, 2021

What I specifically think is going on with Russia vis a vis Ukraine is something similar to what we saw back in late Winter/early Spring of 2014 before Putin moved on eastern Ukraine and Crimea once the Olympics were over. Basic maskirovka principles of diversion. Russian media has been going 24/7 on and on about how Ukraine has mobilized additional assets and is preparing to take back eastern Ukraine and, perhaps, even Crimea by force. And that the US is going to move military assets into Ukraine, which is just hyperbolic fantasy for domestic Russian consumption.

The reporting also includes an explicit threat presented as real concern that this could become a tactical nuclear war, which ignores the fact that Ukraine doesn’t have nukes. But it is effective in the Information domain of reinforcing actual Russian military doctrine that, if the Russian military is unable to win a conventional fight, then Russia will use its nuclear weapons tactically to reverse conditions in the battle space. Putting out this type of information is itself part of Russia’s Information Operations/PSYOP doctrine for setting the battle space ahead of military operations. The purpose of this is to freeze the US and NATO from taking action because neither are willing to risk a nuclear strike by Russia or escalation to a nuclear exchange. I’m not really sure this information warfare is effective, but it is in line with Russia’s military doctrine of using Information warfare and PSYOP to set the battle space ahead of actual military operation at the same time that they are physically preparing to set the theater of operations.

At the same time, all of this also provides a convenient way for Putin to change the topic from the fact that Navalny appears to have contracted either COVID or TB from the other inmates on his cell block, that they’re torturing him using sleep deprivation, and that he’s now in the infirmary as a result of a combination of whatever respiratory infection/disease he’s contracted and the effects of his hunger strike.

Russia’s build up and increased Information warfare and Psychological Operations directed at Ukraine, the US, NATO, and the EU is also not happening in a vacuum. The Russians and the PRC are in fact quietly collaborating. We’ve been watching it in real time in Libya where the Russian backed Libyan general is being supported by not only Wagner mercenaries, but also Erik Prince’s Frontier Services Group, which is wholly owned by the PRC. The attempted coup in Jordan?* We already know one of Prince’s Israeli associates was involved. And Prince is the bridging node here between the PRC/Xi and MBS of Saudi and MBZ of the Emirates, who appear to have been behind the coup. So I have no doubt that there is, at least, informal coordination by Putin and Xi, as well as regional players like Muhammed bin Salman,  Muhammed bin Zayed, and Bibi because all of them suddenly are facing a very different strategic reality with the Biden administration than they did with Trump who didn’t actually give a damn about any of this stuff beyond being able to have these authoritarians say nice things about him while they took advantage of him.

One final point: this is basically the equivalent, by Putin and Xi at the geo-strategic level and Muhammed bin Salman and Muhammed bin Zayed and Bibi at the regional strategic level, of the bad guys increasing operations during a Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority (RIP/TOA) just as the outgoing units are almost out of the area of operations (AOR) and the incoming units are just fully taking control as the left seat/right seat ride comes to an end.

And in Putin’s case it conforms to Lenin’s statement: “Probe with bayonets. If You encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw.”

Right now Putin, as well as XI, Bibi, Muhammed bin Salman, Muhammed bin Zayed, and everyone else is probing to see what Biden and his team will do. In Putin’s case it is entirely possible that he is high on his own misinformation and agitprop supply that Biden is some sort of addled, neurologically ill mental case that is being taken advantage of by Ron Klain, Kamala Harris, and Tony Blinken who are really running the US government. Regardless, all of these bad actors, even the ones like Saudi, the UAE, and Israel that are supposedly partners and clients, are probing. If they find steel, they’ll withdraw. If they find mush, they’ll proceed.

That said, I’d like to see us call Putin’s bluff. The US Army has recently stood back up V Corps. It should be temporarily relocated to Kyiv and it should be plussed up with the 1st Armored Division and the rapid response brigade combat team – the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team – should be brought from FT Bliss and Vicenza respectively to keep them company. Operational Detachments Alpha (ODAs) from the 10th Special Forces Group, Civil Affairs Teams Alpha (CAT-As), and theater strategic Psychological Operations Teams should be added as enablers from Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). Let the conventional elements train with our Ukrainian, NATO, and EU partners. Have the 10th Group bubbas do some Foreign Internal Defense training, the CAT-As do some military support to government work, and the PSYOPers conduct some counter-Psychological Operations with their Ukrainian, NATO, and EU partners.

Open thread!

* It’s been a busy week. I’m nowhere near caught up, but hope to be by tomorrow noon. So I’ll hopefully get to the Jordan post I promised sometime this weekend.

Russian Mobilization, Ukraine, and What the Hell Is Going On?!?!?!Post + Comments (58)

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Exposing Putin As A Little, Little Man

by Anne Laurie|  March 21, 20215:32 pm| 59 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, President Biden, Russia

Russian newspapers react to Biden confirming he thinks Putin is “a killer”: “Biden has crossed a red line”, “The era of partnership that began with Gorbachev & Reagan has been buried.” #ReadingRussia @BBCNews @BBCWorld https://t.co/q9sKL9ZyQI pic.twitter.com/ERsVBuXK08

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) March 19, 2021

Masha Gessen, at the New Yorker, on “How Biden Rattled Putin”:

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have been having an unusually lively exchange. On Wednesday, in a televised interview, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he knew Putin and if he thought he was a killer. Biden responded, “Hmm, I do,” which most observers interpreted as a yes to both questions. Biden also twice promised that Putin would face repercussions, both for attempting to interfere in the 2020 election, on behalf of Donald Trump, and for being a killer. In response, Russia recalled its U.S. Ambassador to Moscow for consultations—a diplomatic move that says, “We are not talking to you.”…

Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the relationship between Russia and the United States had reached a dead end. Meanwhile, the Russian ruble lost ground against the dollar and the euro. Russian financial analysts believe that the drop, one in a long string of small and large blows to the ruble, resulted from Biden’s threat to make Putin pay, which presumably made currency traders nervous.

On Thursday night, Putin, clad in a fur-lined parka worn over a fleece, recorded a short video, in which he invited Biden to have a direct conversation, but only if the U.S. President would agree to talk live, broadcasting directly to the public. He sounded as if he were asking Biden to “take this outside.” Putin has always characterized his younger self as a thug, quick-tempered and vengeful, the kind to settle disputes with a sidewalk brawl. For the proposed showdown with Biden, Putin specified that he would only be available on Monday or Friday; over the weekend, he was planning to be in the taiga. Maybe he’d be wrestling bears. (On Friday, Biden responded to Putin’s offer, when a reporter asked him about it. “I’m sure we’ll talk at some point,” he said.)

It’s rare for Putin to spend this much time speaking directly to the camera, apparently unscripted, on a single issue. One gets the feeling that he will be coming back to this topic in the days to come. Such is the effect on Putin of the U.S. President saying something that’s true, even if it’s just “Hmm, I do.”

show full post on front page

And Putin’s new American cheerleaders are even smaller. Remember when the GOP Death Cult worshipped Reagan and abhorred ‘commies Rooshians’?…

Keep in mind the zero-sum view Putin and his media present Russian relations with the US and the West in general. Either Russia is winning bigly or relations are bad. TLDR: you don't want these guys to be happy, ever. https://t.co/ABrsygkNxV

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 21, 2021

So you’re saying he should have said “You think our country’s so innocent?’” https://t.co/YHqZk4zXQn

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 21, 2021

Putin is talking about the Russians being genetically "different" from Americans (meaning, no doubt, "superior"), the head of RT keeps talking about how stupid and uneducated Americans are, and here is Fox News, also rootin' for Putin, against Americans.https://t.co/TLEUwh3Hpy

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 19, 2021

Well of course Putin never challenged Trump to a debate. They shared too many of the same writers.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 19, 2021

Because Russia is basically governed as a white, ultra-conservative, authoritarian Christian ethnostate and Putin has cultivated a far right view of the “culture wars” that aligns with theirs. And the lovefest between the right and Putin preceded Trump.https://t.co/lzdZf92zmQ https://t.co/0v9uY3Mk2F

— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) March 20, 2021

I was a Reagan-era anti-Soviet cold warrior. After 1991, I argued for better relations with Russia, and even for giving Putin a chance. It is clear I and others who thought that way were wrong. This GOP / FOX turn toward Russia is just anti-liberal spite and it is traitorous.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 19, 2021

Well, 20+ years ago, nobody knew who Putin was.
But if you asked Thomas Jefferson 220 years ago if the Republican Party was going to become the British monarchy cheerleading squad… Well, he'd ask you what a "cheerleading squad" is first, but you get the idea. https://t.co/Vzqozs8Hmx

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) March 20, 2021

Exactly. This is one reason Putin liked Trump as he had the same premise. https://t.co/yg7hEoci4W

— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) March 18, 2021

Fun fact.
Nobody in Russia, save for old, befuddled people and crooks in power, worships Putin as much as American Trumpists do.
In Russia, people often call him "an old man in a bunker" and make fun of his inane pronouncements. Hey, that explains Trumpists' love, come to think! https://t.co/9oYUsiT3C0

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) March 20, 2021

Ha ha Biden triggered Putin who had to whine to erdogan to back him up. What a bunch of snowflakes. ?????? https://t.co/81glAOCYMm

— Wonder Woman Demands Justice (@AlsoWonderWoman) March 20, 2021

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Exposing Putin As A Little, Little ManPost + Comments (59)

Friday Evening Open Thread: Talk About Yer COLD War!

by Anne Laurie|  March 19, 20216:23 pm| 183 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, President Biden, Russia

"He will pay a price," Biden said on Putin. "We had a long talk, he and I, when we—I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off I said, 'I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared."
Stephanopoulos: "You think he's a killer?"
“I do.” https://t.co/i2uKbEkwOr

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 17, 2021

I’m not a professional, like Adam, so I can just enjoy the diss track…

show full post on front page

Based on these screenshots from Putin's response to Biden calling him a killer, he seems to be taking it well. pic.twitter.com/2VDfzMWNHe

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 18, 2021

Biden: Putin is a killer.
Putin: I know you are but what am I? Debate me!
Biden: Nah, you should debate a Russian opposition leader. Oh, that's right, they're dead or in jail. Because you're a killer.

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 19, 2021

Putin doing this in an attempt to get his swagger back shows that the "killer" remark stung. It's no "Vladimir, Poisoner of Underpants," but it's earthy. Putin craves legitimacy and respect. "Killer" is a common criminal. (Also why "Putin Vor! (thief)" is the best chant.)

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 19, 2021

Weakening Putin's grip in Russia depends on isolating him internationally. Send the message to his gang that they & their families won't be accepted in the civilized world as long as Putin is in charge. Make him untouchable. No more dialogue or engagement that props him up.

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 19, 2021

UPDATE: My father, who is more fluent in this particular flavor of Russian, contends that this more like the Southern "bless his heart."

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 18, 2021

Here is the sad little walk-back, in all its original-Russian infamy:https://t.co/AXOjR3iDGZ

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) March 19, 2021

Exactly. This is one reason Putin liked Trump as he had the same premise. https://t.co/yg7hEoci4W

— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) March 18, 2021

Trump liked to refer to people as "killers" if he wanted to imply that they were tough. But he repeatedly demurred when asked if that descriptor was fitting for Putin.

Now we see how little Putin likes it.https://t.co/oZBVr0wryQ

— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 19, 2021

Russia recalls its ambassador to the U.S. “for consultations,” the country's foreign ministry says, just hours after comments from President Biden criticizing Russia's President Putin. https://t.co/DD8djPulXu

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 18, 2021


‘Course, Vladimir has American supporters, too…

Watching Fox News openly root for Putin is a really remarkable moment in what the American Right has become, captured for posterity. https://t.co/FD9BevwbeB

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 19, 2021

In some respects Trump's praise and enablement of Putin is a result, not a cause, of this phenomenon. He'd watch FoxNews and see all the praise for Putin being "strong" and "decisive" and he'd follow suit. He's always been a guy who likes to sound smart by repeating the last guy.

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) March 19, 2021

Friday Evening Open Thread: Talk About Yer COLD War!Post + Comments (183)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Has Released Its 2020 Election Assessment & the Executive Summary of Its 2021 Domestic Violent Extremism Assessment

by Adam L Silverman|  March 18, 20217:38 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Ammosexuals, China, Crazification Factor, Domestic Politics, domestic terrorists, DPRK, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Iran, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

I had originally planned on covering the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) assessment of Foreign Threats To the 2020 US Federal Elections on Tuesday night, but decided we needed something on the then just happened domestic terrorist attack in Atlanta. Yesterday, ODNI also released the executive summary from a recently completed threat assessment into domestic violent extremism. Given that the two assessments overlap in a key finding, I’ve decided to basically deal with them in one post. Especially because the assessment on foreign threats to the 2020 elections basically tracks with everything we covered here between my Black PSYOP series of posts beginning in October 2019 and Cheryl’s posts on the topic here and at her Nuclear Diner. In other words, between Cheryl and I, you all were getting pretty close to the same assessment that ODNI has put together. On behalf of Cheryl: we demand a raise!!!!  

You can click across and read the whole assessment for yourself, but here’s the key findings:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Has Released Its 2020 Election Assessment & the Executive Summary of Its 2021 Domestic Violent Extremism Assessment

You’ll notice that Key Judgement’s 2, 3, and 4 all track with what we’ve been discussing here since October 2019. In the Black PSYOP 1 and 2 posts we covered what misinformation and agitprop was being laundered, by whom, and why. Including this lovely little item dated May 2014, which I misdated to April 2014 in the post:

Anyone surprised by these findings, such as self declared information warfare expert Thomas Rid, quite simply, didn’t want to know about them because they had their own agendas. Specifically downplaying that anything that has actually been happening since at least 2014 if not 2011 in terms of Russian information warfare was actually happening. He’s suddenly surprised because he’s spent the past several years writing, publishing, and defending a book on information warfare that essentially denies it is actually occurring.

We also covered what Rudy Giuliani, Chanel Rian, and OAN News were doing to mule this Russian misinformation and agitprop to Trump, his surrogates in the House and the Senate, in the conservative movement, and in the conservative news media. As well as what Senators Johnson, Grassley, and Graham were doing with that material in the Black PSYOP Part X. And while it was reported at the time, in July 2020, we now have confirmation directly from Democratic members of Congress that Congressman Nunes received this fabricated material directly from Andreii Derkach. As in the Democrats actually have the delivery receipt!

The executive summary of the ODNI’s report on domestic violent extremism brings us to the overlap. Here are the findings:

(U) The IC assesses that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021. Enduring DVE motivations pertaining to biases against minority populations and perceived government overreach will almost certainly continue to drive DVE radicalization and mobilization to violence. Newer sociopolitical developments—such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence—will almost certainly spur some DVEs to try to engage in violence this year.

(U) The IC assesses that lone offenders or small cells of DVEs adhering to a diverse set of violent extremist ideologies are more likely to carry out violent attacks in the Homeland than organizations that allegedly advocate a DVE ideology. DVE attackers often radicalize independently by consuming violent extremist material online and mobilize without direction from a violent extremist organization, making detection and disruption difficult.

(U) The IC assesses that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs) present the most lethal DVE threats, with RMVEs most likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks against civilians and MVEs typically targeting law enforcement and government personnel and facilities. The IC assesses that the MVE threat increased last year and that it will almost certainly continue to be elevated throughout 2021 because of contentious sociopolitical factors that motivate MVEs to commit violence.

(U) The IC assesses that US RMVEs who promote the superiority of the white race are the DVE actors with the most persistent and concerning transnational connections because individuals with similar ideological beliefs exist outside of the United States and these RMVEs frequently communicate with and seek to influence each other. We assess that a small number of US RMVEs have traveled abroad to network with like-minded individuals.

(U) The IC assesses that DVEs exploit a variety of popular social media platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and encrypted chat applications to recruit new adherents, plan and rally support for in- person actions, and disseminate materials that contribute to radicalization and mobilization to violence.

(U) The IC assesses that several factors could increase the likelihood or lethality of DVE attacks in 2021 and beyond, including escalating support from persons in the United States or abroad, growing perceptions of government overreach related to legal or policy changes and disruptions, and high-profile attacks spurring follow-on attacks and innovations in targeting and attack tactics.

(U) DVE lone offenders will continue to pose significant detection and disruption challenges because of their capacity for independent radicalization to violence, ability to mobilize discretely, and access to firearms.

And it is the last sentence of Key Judgement 2 regarding US officials and prominent Americans promoting the Russian misinformation and agitprop against Biden that was key to Putin’s efforts to effect the 2020 election outcome and the final sentence of the first finding on domestic violent extremism –  narratives of fraud about the election, calling “patriots” and “real” American to the Capitol to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes, use of racial slurs when referring to COVID-19, etc – overlap. Because we’ve seen the same US officials and prominent Americans within the conservative movement and conservative news media promote Putin’s misinformation and agitprop and promote the conspiracy theories about the election being stolen, calling “patriots” and “real” Americans to action to do something about it, and using racial slurs to refer to COVID-19. Additionally, as in Key Judgement 2 and the fourth finding on domestic violent extremism, we see the connection to foreign actors promoting, facilitating, and encouraging Americans to act on either Russia’s misinformation and agitprop, a variety of conspiracy theories, and white Christian supremacy. It is well documented that the Russians have funded, supported, and manipulated American white supremacists, Christian supremacists, and anti-government extremists.

Do take the time to read both documents, neither is very long, and you’ll get both a real solid understanding of how the Intelligence Community understands these problem sets and an appreciation for having professional, mature leadership running the US Intelligence Community.

Open thread!

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Has Released Its 2020 Election Assessment & the Executive Summary of Its 2021 Domestic Violent Extremism AssessmentPost + Comments (73)

Not Everything Is Russia: Oldsmar, Florida’s Water Treatment Facility Edition

by Adam L Silverman|  February 8, 202111:05 pm| 121 Comments

This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Foreign Affairs, Iran, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security

Last Friday someone was able to access the Oldsmar, Florida water treatment facility computer system and adjust the levels of sodium hydroxide, aka lye, that would be added to the water. The Tampa Bay Times has the details:

Local and federal authorities are investigating after an attempt Friday to poison the city of Oldsmar’s water supply, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

Someone remotely accessed a computer for the city’s water treatment system and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100, Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. The chemical is used in small amounts to control the acidity of water but it’s also a corrosive compound commonly found in household cleaning supplies such as liquid drain cleaners.

The city’s water supply was not affected. A supervisor working remotely saw the concentration being changed on his computer screen and immediately reverted it, Gualtieri said. City officials on Monday emphasized that several other safeguards are in place to prevent contaminated water from entering the water supply and said they’ve disabled the remote-access system used in the attack.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, along with the FBI and the Secret Service, Gualtieri said.

Nobody has been arrested, Gualtieri said, though investigators have some leads. They do not know why Oldsmar was targeted, he said.

Though some cities obtain water through Pinellas County, Oldsmar provides water directly to its businesses and roughly 15,000 residents, Gualtieri said. The computer system at the water treatment plant was set up to allow authorized users to remotely access it for troubleshooting.

A plant operator was monitoring the system at about 8 a.m. Friday and noticed that someone briefly accessed it. He didn’t find this unusual, Gualtieri said, because his supervisor remotely accessed the system regularly.

But at about 1:30 p.m. the same day, Gualtieri said, someone accessed the system again. This time, he said, the operator watched as someone took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment, worked inside it for three to five minutes and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.

The attacker left the system, Gualtieri said, and the operator immediately changed the concentration back to 100 parts per million.

“At no time was there a significant adverse effect on the water being treated,” the sheriff said. “Importantly, the public was never in danger.”

Even if the operator hadn’t caught it, he said, it would have taken more than a day for the water to enter the water supply.

“The protocols that we have in place, monitoring protocols, they work — that’s the good news,” said Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel. “Even had they not caught them, there’s redundancies in the system that would have caught the change in the pH level.

“The important thing is to put everyone on notice,” he said. “There’s a bad actor out there.”

Much more at the link, including a profound statement by Florida’s senior senator Micro Rubio.

Malcolm Nance immediately jumped to conclusions:

WARNING: A Remote access hack occurred Friday at a water treatment plant in Florida were someone remotely operated the computer controls, while staff watched and attempted to raise the amount of LYE chemicals in the water 1,000%. Both Russia & Iran have tried this before. https://t.co/D11RMlrwGL

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) February 8, 2021

ALWAYS BET ON BLACK: Predicted? No, but I did write several warnings on Russian remote seizure attacks that seem almost identical to the Florida incident in @hackamericabook Page 102 … in 2016. Also see @TAPSTRIMEDIA & my 2015 book #HackingISIS. #GoRead https://t.co/Y8QnzYf3MO pic.twitter.com/lxXIociBME

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) February 8, 2021

These conclusions were then picked up and broadcast to everyone by Rachel Maddow on her show this evening.

I know a little something about Oldsmar, Florida. Largely because the Balloon Juice Bunker compound in the cypress scrub is adjacent to Oldsmar. For lack of a better geographic locator, since the post office refuses to recognize Balloon Juice Bunker Compound, Cypress Scrub, FL, USA as a legitimate address*, I ACTUALLY FUCKING LIVE IN OLDSMAR!!!! And I can honestly say NO ONE WHO DOESN’T LIVE IN OLDSMAR OR NORTH PINELLAS COUNTY OR WESTERN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY OR SOUTHERN PASCO COUNTY OR KNOWS SOMEONE WHO DOES EVEN KNOWS THERE IS AN OLDSMAR, FL!!!!!!

You can sneeze across Oldsmar if the wind is blowing the right way. Oldsmar is about a dozen stoplights running north-south and east-west at the northwestern most point of Tampa Bay. It got its name because RE Olds and his family had their winter home here, which they named Oldsmar. As in Olds by the sea. Or the sea of the Olds. And given the amount of venerable elders, Olds by the sea is an appropriate name!

I could be wrong, but I would be highly surprised if this was the Russians. I’ve been working on the Russian active measures, hybrid warfare, and political warfare problem set since January 2014 when I was assigned, under temporary assigned control, as the Cultural Advisor/Senior Civilian Advisor to the Commanding General of US Army Europe. I have published, in Special Warfare**, which is the professional journal of the Special Warfare community***, about how the Russians have probed for vulnerabilities and weaknesses in order to target a variety of utilities and the systems that control them. Three years before my article was published, in May of 2016, I included this strategic concern in a briefing I gave at FT Bragg to a room full of American and allied general officers and senior staff that partially dealt with Russia and its geo-strategic and regional strategic ambitions. My professional assessment, given what we know now, is that it is highly unlikely that this is the Russians. I have also published, just last July, on political warfare, which included this concern. This isn’t something I’ve just started thinking about today, I’ve been considering the problem off and on for over seven years as part of my professional work.

There are several reasons why I doubt this was the Russians. The first is that right now Putin does not want to do anything to further stress Russian relations with the US. President Biden and his team are not Trump and his team. And President Biden has already made it clear to Putin that he is not going to tolerate Putin’s actions the way Trump did. The second is that since almost no one in most of Florida, let alone the rest of the US knows that Oldsmar existed, at least before today, that it is a very strange place for Putin’s merry band of mischief makers to target a water treatment facility.

I think it is far more likely that either a disgruntled current or former employee of the City of Oldsmar or of Pinellas County who knew that this point of access existed and exploited it for their own purposes. Or that a local mischief maker went probing for an access point, found one, and decided it was party time. We do have a small, but sizable white supremacist, neo-NAZI, and domestic right wing extremist presence in the area, so it is also possible one fo them did it. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out that an actual authorized user who was teleworking and on the system stepped away from their computer for a few minutes without logging out to get something to drink or use the facilities and their cat walking across the computer desk or their toddler wanting to help daddy or mommy work unintentionally reset the levels. I think the Russians attacking Oldsmar, Florida through a water treatment facility that only supplies Oldsmar is, in my professional opinion, a big stretch. Is it possible it was the Russians? Sure. Is it probable and plausible? I think it likely improbable and implausible.

We’ll know more when we know more. And I know enough about what I don’t know to state that I could be wrong.

Open thread!

* I personally blame Louis DeJoy.

** I apologize for the random capitalizations, I’m pretty sure whoever copyedited this decided these were operational terms of art and capitalized them.

*** It was nice of them to hide their professional journal in plain sight.

Not Everything Is Russia: Oldsmar, Florida’s Water Treatment Facility EditionPost + Comments (121)

AHEM!!!!! The National Security Agency, As Well As Other US Intelligence Agencies, Are Prohibited From Conducting Electronic and Signals Collection Inside the US. But Not In Russia

by Adam L Silverman|  January 18, 20218:36 pm| 187 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security

Parler is back online now by routing 100% of its user traffic through servers located within the Russian Federation.

Raise your hand if you understand the very significant impact this has on the ability to surveil and target insurrectionists who organize on Parler.

— Chris Vickery (@VickerySec) January 18, 2021

There are two interesting takeaways here.

The first is that anyone in the US planning further acts of low intensity warfare and political violence in the US on Parler are now going to be much, much, much, much easier for US intelligence to track. Because Parler’s now being hosted in Russia. MORONS!!!

The second is that this supports the theory that Parler was always a Russian data collection, surveillance, misinformation, and disinformation op to begin with. As this detailed Twitter thread, which I’ll excerpt, seems to suggest:

So let’s talk about Parler. Where did it come from? Founder John Matze met his now wife, Alina Mukhutdinova, in May 15, 2016 in Las Vegas. Alina is from Kazan, Russia. She was on a two week road trip “vacation” across the USA with a friend.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

(This sounds a lot like this USA road trip taken by Anna Bogacheva and Aleksandra Krylova in 2014.) https://t.co/xBBwAoqQXl

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

John and Alina were married December 2, 2017 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. They were married in a government facility overseen by Alina’s mother, Gulnara Mukhutdinova, a longtime government functionary. Gulnara’s mother was an “Honored Builder of Russia” in Soviet times.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

John and Alina traveled in Russia and in Europe extensively between December and July 2018. They returned to Vegas and launched Parler with Jared Thomson in August 2018. Almost no one joined between August and December 2018; it was in early alpha stages.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

Now let’s talk money. Parler LLC is owned by two member entities: John Matze and NDMASCENDANT LLC. There is no public record of who comprises NDMASCENDANT LLC. It is a Delaware corporation. The company has not raised any traditional VC rounds that we can see.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

However none of this passes the sniff test: any company aiming to challenge firms at Twitter scale needs a massive supply of funds to hire employees competitively and pay for rapidly scalable computing infrastructure.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

Additionally, flooding the zone with shit noise about the company’s ownership would seem to be a way of deflecting attention away from valid questions about that exact question. Who does own it? Where is the money, tech talent and infrastructure coming from? Follow the money.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 13, 2020

Much more at the Twitter thread. It doesn’t mean that The guy with the Russian wife, whose mother in law  who is a long time Russian government functionary, and who can’t provide a straight answer about his funding is getting his funding from Russia, but that is a question that needs to be answered.

Open thread!

AHEM!!!!! The National Security Agency, As Well As Other US Intelligence Agencies, Are Prohibited From Conducting Electronic and Signals Collection Inside the US. But Not In RussiaPost + Comments (187)

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