#TikTok "shows a little bit of the haphazardness of this administration" Senate Intel Vice Chair @MarkWarner tells #AspenSecurity
"Is TikTok a problem? Yes. But on the hierarchy of problems we're talking about an app that allows you to make funny videos..."
"...that potentially the Chinese are taking that information and storing it or retaining back in #China & they may be limiting the ability to critique the Chinese gvt" per @MarkWarner
"Should we be concerned if you're a member of the military or the IC if you have #TikTok on one of your devices? Yes" per @MarkWarner "But that is a completely different scale of problem than #Huawei"
"Your telecommunications system, that is an issue of concern, of much greater nat'l security interest than #TikTok" per @MarkWarner "Yet, the president has taken more drastic action & a more drastic threat against TikTok than he's ever taken against #Huawei"
"This lack of a sophisticated approach, in a sense, gives fodder to other countries like #India & #Brazil & others who are suddenly going to say if America's taking out #TikTok, we can preclude @Facebook or @Google" per @MarkWarner
"If we cry wolf too often, the rest of the world is not going to accept American credibility when we have to call out a bad actor" warns Senate Intel Committee Vice Chair @MarkWarner
"What we have not done yet, though, is I think, make the level of disclose that we need to make to the American public" per @MarkWarner "I am going to continue to push the administration to get this information out in a way that protects sources and methods"
Asked what #Russia#China#Iran are doing to impact #Election2020, @MarkWarner says "That is the job of the director of nat'l intelligence to take this information & move it through a declassification process & inform the American public..."
"...But I do feel very very strong that the 1st document that was put out was not sufficient" per @MarkWarner "I have been assured this has been the 1st step in what will be a number of disclosures" about foreign meddling w/#Election2020
"We've gotten much better at the electoral level-the actual machines, the tabulations, the voting systems" per @MarkWarner, but says there are still concerns about the voter registration systems/data
#Election2020#MailInBallots - "We are hearing horror stories from around the nation where it seems as if the postal system is being gummed up almost on purpose" per Senate Intel Vice Chair @MarkWarner
"There are some real questions that need to be answered by the new Postmaster General, who seems his best qualification is he is very much a Trump loyalist" per @MarkWarner
"I'm almost more concerned, in terms of vote by mail, abt what's going on within the running of our postal system domestically than I am at this moment in time about a foreign government trying to interfere with somehow the mail system" per Senate Intel Vice Chair @MarkWarner
#Russia bounties-#Afghanistan - "We have had briefings on this. I have not been fully satisfied w/those briefings" per @MarkWarner "There was clearly public testimony that there was I believe at least as late as March meetings held on this subject on the chief deputies level"
Declining quality of US intelligence - "This is a concern of mine" per Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner "The mantra of the IC [intelligence community] is to 'speak truth to power' but we've seen under this president anyone who speaks truth to power gets fired"
"Some of the remaining leaders have not continued to show the level of independence that I would like" per @MarkWarner "We need to restore their independence"
"There is a growing fear in the [intelligence] community that if you speak truth to power, if you highlight what the #Russia|ns are doing right now in an election that might be embarrassing to this White House it could cost you your job" per Senate Intel Committee's @MarkWarner
.@MarkWarner says acting Senate Intel Committee Chair, Republican @marcorubio agrees w/need to restore independence to the intelligence community
"We're trying to send that signal but it is a challenge"
"The biggest thing we could do to return independence to the IC [intelligence community] is change who lives in the White Hose" per @MarkWarner
"The constant berating by the White House of the IC, I think has an effect on morale. I think it has an effect on the ability to recruit and retain some of the best" per @MarkWarner
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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
HAPPENING NOW - US intelligence chiefs testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee:
@ODNIgov Dir Avril Haines
@CIA Dir William Burns
@FBI Dir Christoper Wray
@NSAGov Dir Gen Timothy Haugh
@DefenseIntel Dir LtGen Jeffrey Krause
@StateDept Asst Sec for Intel Brett Holmgren
Noting that the current era is as challenging as ever, with a wide variety of threats, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair @MarkWarner calls for "redefining what we think of" when it comes to national security
@MarkWarner "We are no even seeing the possibility of foreign adversaries weaponizing space" in ways that could be detrimental to US way of life, per @MarkWarner
NEW: @FBI joins White House, Senate intelligence committee chair in sounding alarm about foreign interference in #Election2024
"This election cycle, the US will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace & enabled by new technology
per Dir Christopher Wray at @INSAlliance
#ArtificialIntelligence advances "lowering the barrier to entry-making it easier for both more & less-sophisticated foreign adversaries to engage in malign influence" per @FBI's Wray
"Making foreign influence efforts by players old and&new more realistic & difficult to detect"
@FBI Where are US adversaries focused?
“The attack surface for the bad guys is the private sector” per @FBI's Wray "The intelligence that we need is in the hands of the private sector, often”