Midterms 2022 Under Attack: FBI Issues Warning About Three-Four Bad Actors

Three close and unfriendly U.S. foes

(Iran; China; Russia election bad guys)

North Korea jockeying as #4 U.S. foe 

(Kim, Jong-un)

Worried about domestic voting hanky-panky (true in mostly RED-run GOP states since 2020), but so from foes on this story from The Washington Examiner (right wing site I seldom read, but they have the following story with this headline):

“FBI Director Wray warns of China, Russia, and Iran trying to interfere in midterm elections”

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned about the governments of China, Russia, and Iran trying to meddle in or influence the 2022 midterm elections, saying in part: “I think we’re concerned about the same usual suspects in terms of nation states — Russia, Iran, China, each in their own way.”

The intelligence community concluded Russia worked to hurt President Joe Biden in 2020, but that Iran worked to undermine Trump in 2020.

There is some disagreement within our spy agencies about whether China sat on the sidelines or took steps to harm Trump’s reelection.

Wray pointed to an analysis from another FBI official who said earlier: “The Russians are trying to get us to tear ourselves apart, the Chinese are trying to manage our decline, and the Iranians are trying to get us to get out of their way, and the U.S. is not going to do any of the above.”

The FBI director then said he did not believe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would dissuade the Kremlin from attempting to influence the midterm elections, adding: “I’m quite confident the Russians can walk and chew gum, and the U.S. is prepared to counter any Russian efforts.”

Wray distinguished North Korea’s cyber-operations from those emanating from Russia adding in part: “North Korea in many ways is a cyber-criminal syndicate posing as a nation state.”

The DOJ warned of “alliances” between hacker groups and foreign nations such as China, Russia, and North Korea that work to be a “blended threat” posing both criminal and national security challenges to the U.S.”

Wray warned about “hybrid threats” (that begin in cyberspace but manifest in the real world) as he pointed to Iran’s past efforts pretending to be members of the Proud Boys in 2020.

The full story continues from here.

My 2 cents: Yep, those big three (Russia, China, and Iran) are without any doubt are our biggest adversaries – North Korea is a close 4^th but not as sophisticated as the Big Three yet.

We must stay alert on our toes as it were … we have a lot of political division in our country today and our enemies follow our up’s and down’s to look for weak links and disinformation avenues.

Now is not the time for any complacency on our part – not one bit.

Thanks for stopping by.