Battlespace 911
In the early morning hours of December 7, 1941 a U.S. Army private noticed a large flight of planes on his radar screen approaching Oahu, Hawaii. He was told to ignore them. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began at 7:48 AM. At the end of the ninety minute attack, 2,403 people were dead. The following day, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later the U.S had entered World World II.
Later investigations into Pearl Harbor indicated that U.S intelligence officials had been aware that Japanese aggression was probable. There was no intelligence on when, where, or how this aggression would manifest itself. Despite knowing the Japanese had the means and the intent, the attack on Pearl Harbor was still a surprise.
The strike on Pearl Harbor shook the nation to its core. Men and women signed up to fight to defend their country. The surprise September 11th Terrorist Attack had the same impact.
In his address to a Joint Session of Congress on September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush said, “Americans have known the casualties of war — but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks — but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day — and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.”
Those horrific and historic attacks reminded us that we were not immune from acts of war and our intelligence community went to work to understand what went wrong and to make sure such attacks never happen again.
In 2016, with a combination of cyber and psychological warfare, Russia succeeded in a surprise attack on America’s democracy.
Cyber warfare is defined as the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes. It uses cyber elements in both offensive and defensive operations pertaining to the threat of cyber attacks, espionage and sabotage. Psychological warfare involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups.
In 2016 Russian intelligence officers successfully hacked into computers owned by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. They used the stolen data to help the campaign of presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. Analytics as well as emails were stolen. That data and emails were strategically used to target specific voters. Analytics were used to understand the strategy the Clinton campaign was using to pinpoint likely voters. While this is speculative, this could explain why Trump showed up in Michigan and Wisconsin days before the election. A campaign is only as strong as its analytics.
Podesta’s emails were released by Wikileaks to the media in a constant drip from October 7, 2016 until election day, and nothing since. The first batch of emails were released within hours of the infamous Access Hollywood tape becoming public in which Donald Trump bragged about grabbing women without permission (using a crude term). The emails quickly consumed the news cycle and directed attention away from the damaging audio/videotape. They also served an additional purpose; exacerbating the discord that existed in the Democratic Party between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders’ supporters.
John Podesta’s emails were harmful to the Clinton campaign. They showed that the DNC favored Clinton and sought to shut out Senator Sanders from the start. This validated the claim made by many of Sanders’ supporters. Seeing it play out through the release of the emails was all many of them needed to either stay home or to vote for one of the third party candidates, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein–candidates that had no viable pathway to victory in the 2016 U.S presidential election.
Even more disturbing, Russia went further than just coordinating the release of Podesta’s emails through Wikileaks. They also stoked social, racial, and cultural angst. They strategically exacerbated anxieties around the Black Lives Matter movement, Islamophobia, and immigration, among other things using social media. The racial tension from which our country was suffering was highlighted by events such as Charlottesville, arguments around Confederate monuments, and NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest policing in America.
Trump supporters will declare they proudly voted for Trump based on the information they knew about him and the information they knew about Clinton. It is a popular talking point for Trump surrogates. They are pleased with that declaration because it keeps his election legitimate.
Likewise, there is no evidence that the Russian cyber attack physically changed any votes. But it didn’t actually need to. Fewer voters were identifying as Republican — a trend that continues today. A suppressed voter turnout benefited Republicans. Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college by 77,744 votes across three states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. That’s all it took. One doesn’t have to change votes. One need only to suppress them.
At the behest of the head of the Russian government, our country was attacked. Just because the weapons of choice were bits and bytes instead of bullets and bombs, as in every war, there were casualties. The biggest casualty in this cyber attack was our trust — trust in American institutions, in our system of government, in our free press, in law enforcement, and trust that America remains a moral compass for the world.
When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of twelve Russian intelligence officers for the hack of the DNC, he refused to name a victim. “When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and instead to think patriotically as Americans. Our response must not depend on which side was victimized,” he said. He was right.
As global citizens we depend on intelligence officials around the world to work together to thwart terrorist attacks and acts of war. The diligent and dangerous work of these officials, while not always perfect, prevents hundreds of aggressions globally and saves countless lives.
Advances in technology have changed the way many of us perform everyday tasks. Technology has also changed the way nations engage in war. Unmanned drones allow the military to surveil inaccessible terrain and have replaced the need for ‘boots on the ground’. The controversial predator drones have the ability to fly for up to 40 hours nonstop to take out their targets with incredible, deadly precision.
Make no mistake about it, we are at war with multiple nations. We have little evidence that the U.S is prepared to adequately protect us. This war must be fought with the same precision it took to propel us to victory in WWII and to take out Osama bin Laden. This war can neither be won with B-17 bombers and Sherman tanks, nor can it be won with Black Hawk helicopters and SEAL teams. The battleground is now digital.
It was reported that Iran has laid groundwork for extensive cyber attacks on infrastructure in the U.S and Europe. Cyber attacks have also come from North Korea and China. Like Japan in 1941, there are many actors that have the means and the intent to launch an attack against us. It is only a question of when. Are we ready?
When we think of war, we think of weapons of mass destruction that can inflict maximum damage on their targets. The aftermath of their use is easily identified by the bodies of the dead. Casualties of cyber and psychological warfare leave no bodies, but there are nonetheless victims.
It doesn’t matter if you voted for Secretary Clinton or Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter which one you love or hate. When it became evident that the Russian government hacked the DNC, it was no longer a Republican or Democrat issue. America was attacked and every citizen should be, at the very least, alarmed. A foreign government has interfered with our elections. This is an attack on the core of what makes us who we are. If we do not take steps to call out the perpetrator and condemn this attack, we are no longer a democracy.
