Per @Facebook, the posts in Kurdish & Arabic, contained "criticism of non-Kurdish politicians and public figures,the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Change Movement and the opposition party New Generation"
Other posts spread "alleged ties between some politicians and #Turkey, the Libyan civil war, and #ISIS" per @Facebook "A small portion of this activity included posts about local response to the #coronavirus pandemic"
The accounts, traced back to #Zanyari Agency and the Kurdistan Regional Government intelligence service, has about 4.4 million followers, per @Facebook
The fake accounts also spent about $270,000 for ads on Facebook, paid for mostly in US dollars
The accounts "typically supported the Kurdish political party the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) & its co-leader Lahur “Sheikh Jangi” Talabani & criticized the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) & its leaders from the Barzani family"
For context, the #Zanyari Agenci is one of two intelligence agencies in Iraqi Kurdistan and reports to Lahur Talabani, and is aligned with the PUK
The fake accounts ran "a consistent undercurrent of commentary that criticized the KDP & the Kurdish regional government" per @Graphika_NYC
"Often, the content that they shared was originally posted by one member of the network posing as a news outlet and then amplified by other assets" per @Graphika_NYC "This pattern has been observed in many other influence operations..."
NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash & Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were charged in June 2008 & then again in May 2012 for their alleged roles in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on #NewYork's World Trade Center & the Pentagon
JUST IN: US issues new National Counterintelligence Strategy
Updated strategy, signed by @POTUS Thursday, based on 3 pillars, per @NCSCgov:
-outmaneuver/constrain foreign intelligence entities
-protect US strategic advantages
-invest in the future
"Foreign intelligence and security services & their proxies persist in seeking to acquire our most
sensitive information, technology, and intellectual property" per @POTUS in the just-released strategy
"Non-state actors are following suit"
Foreign intelligence entities "also seeking to take advantage of the proliferation of commercially available tools to conduct surveillance; collect vast amounts of previously unavailable personal data;
& position themselves to disrupt our infrastructure..." per @POTUS
Some nuggets from @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies...
#ArtificialIntelligence & #Election2024-"We are, of course, seeing & I've been warning about this for some time, the role of AI to enhance efforts that our foreign adversaries have already been engaged in" per @FBI's Wray
"It's not that it [#ArtificialIntelligence] changes fundamentally what it is our adversaries want to do...it allows them to amplify to do it, to make it more sophisticated, more deceptive, cheaper, faster" per @FBI's Wray