Back in 2016, it was the Russians who interfered with the U.S. presidential election, stealing emails and computer files from the Democrats and giving them to WikiLeaks to publish, seeking to embarrass the party and damage nominee Hillary Clinton.
The culprit was the FSB, the Kremlin’s successor to the KGB, the old Cold War spy agency where Vladimir Putin rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he entered politics. Several Russians were prosecuted for this abject violation of American sovereignty.
This time, it is Tehran that is meddling in our democratic process. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency jointly conclude that Iranian agents have successfully stolen emails and computer files from the Donald Trump campaign. Most likely they got access through GOP operative Roger Stone, who was pardoned by Trump in the waning weeks of his presidency.
The feds also believe that the Iranians tried to hack into the Democrats’ campaign but were unsuccessful. At least they were bipartisan.
Meanwhile, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that Iran was successfully manipulating the protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”
So Iran arms and funds Hamas and then helps whip up street protests in America’s streets and campuses to support its cause.
Americans have plenty of opinions on politics and the war in Gaza; it shouldn’t be the mullahs pulling strings to achieve their aims — a hostile act by a hostile government.
They are not lobbing missiles and setting off bombs like their proxies are doing against Israel, but it is still a premeditated and pernicious attack against this country. It might not meet the definition of an act of war, but it is a war against our open society and our democratic process.
The Trump campaign was properly candid in declaring that it had been victimized. The Iranians may be trying to defeat the former president, who promised to get tough with Tehran, or they may just be trying to sow discord and cause division.
However, their motives with bolstering the Gaza protests are much clearer. Iran supports Hamas and opposes Israel. Having Americans marching and rallying in agreement serves their needs perfectly.
The Iranians, like the Russians, are trying to use our strengths of free speech and free assembly against us for their own purposes.
The mullahs see our open society as a soft target. But they are wrong. It is very hard, the foundation that we have built for almost 250 years in this experiment in self-government. Iran can’t defeat that unless we let them.
