Analysts Say US, UK Election Hacking Ops Far Surpass Alleged Meddling by Russia

A newly exposed hybrid warfare program funded by London represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to UK, US and Israeli electronic interference and election meddling operations, analysts told Sputnik.

کد خبر: ۸۵۵۴۷۴

تاریخ: ۰۷ آذر ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۹:۱۶

According to documents released last week by the Anonymous hacktivist group, since 2015 the UK government has been funding an electronic and information warfare program designed to undermine Russian interests across the globe. The UK-based operation, dubbed the Integrity Initiative, is described in the documents as "a large-scale information secret service" created by London to counter Russian so-called propaganda.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a press briefing said the UK Integrity Initiative hybrid warfare project is aimed at defaming Russia's reputation in foreign countries.

Masters of Electronic War

Anonymous also claimed that the Integrity Initiative included covert structures to interfere in domestic affairs of several European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Norway, Serbia, Spain and Montenegro.

Retired US Army lawyer and historian Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik that the revelations exposed a common practice carried out by the United States and other Western allies.

"Is what the Brits have been revealed as doing a regular practice? Of course, it is, just as what the NSA [National Security Agency], the CIA, and other US agencies and their private sector information war ‘auxiliaries’ do constantly in countries such as Russia and our NATO allies," Pierce said.

The secret programs are designed to neutralize Russia’s influence while craftily shifting blame to Moscow for election interference, Pierce commented.

"In reality, it’s the US coalition which has been the initiator of election interference, and the primary operator in this sphere of activity, and has ever since the 1990s, to establish, since 1991, a US foreign policy of Full Spectrum Dominance across the globe," Pierce noted.

The NGO auxiliaries included companies such as the British SCL Corporation, Pierce explained, which used a sophisticated election interference apparatus to support extreme right-wing politicians during elections in Kenya, India, and the United States including to support US President Donald Trump.

The group of Western corporations specializing in the manipulation of electorates and election outcomes involved Israeli companies as well, Pierce pointed out.

"It also includes Trump’s favourite intelligence firm, the Israeli Black Cube firm, and the other Israeli firm, Psy Group, with all of these firms coming and going out of existence to conceal their activities when they become impossible to hide," Pierce said.

The UK government was now interfering in its allies’ internal political affairs because the Russians have now shown a capability of projecting power into the Middle East, which the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia also find troubling.

"Consequently, this information war is being waged by the US, Britain, and Israel against Russia by working against any politician who may not support the subversion of Russia," Pierce warned.

Russia Meddling Neglible

The Russian Justice Ministry press service told Sputnik on Tuesday that it has not received any data from the Anonymous hacking group on the UK-funded anti-Russian information warfare project.

Last week, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee at Russia's upper house of parliament, told Sputnik that the revelations regarding the covert actions of the UK intelligence services against Russia demand a thorough investigation.

University of Louvain professor and political commentator Jean Bricmont observed that the extent to which the United States has interfered in the domestic affairs of other states dwarfs any level of so-called meddling by Russia.

"They [US intelligence agents] also spy on their allies — puppets would be a better word — on top of exerting an immense influence, compared to which the ‘Russian interference’ is negligible," Bricmont told Sputnik.

Bricmont also pointed out that the United States was spying on its European allies well before "big bad Trump," came along.

The Anonymous disclosure about UK interference exposed a constant practice, Bricmont acknowledged, that could render a service to wake up audiences in the United States and allied countries.

"But it is good that those things are revealed to enlighten the gullible masses — and even more the gullible so-called liberal intellectuals," Bricmont concluded.