The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, says the U.S. intelligence community has “observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.” Haines made the disclosure in a July 9, 2024 press release. She said it was for the purpose of “informing the public of foreign efforts to influence our democratic processes.”
“In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza,” Haines said. “Americans who are being targeted by this Iranian campaign may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government.”
The U.S. intelligence community typically functions separately from law enforcement, but in the past, some federal prosecutors have brought cases about attempted Iranian influence on American public opinion. President Biden pardoned one such figure in 2023 as part of a deal to obtain the release of American hostages held by Iran.
Haines, a Biden appointee who was deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration, took care not to portray all anti- Israel protesters as Iranian dupes. “I want to be clear that I know Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza – this intelligence does not indicate otherwise. Moreover, the freedom to express diverse views, when done peacefully, is essential to our democracy,” she wrote, “but it is also important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes.”
Haines said she’d be offering more updates on foreign influence efforts as the 2024 campaign season progresses.
Absent from the statement was any explanation about what the U.S. government is doing to try to stop the Iranian meddling. Has it tried to shut down the bank accounts or social media accounts that the Iranians are using? Has it conveyed a diplomatic message through the Embassy of Switzerland or through other channels to Iran to cut it out?
A foreign policy official who served in the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump administrations, Elliott Abrams, has a post up on his Council on Foreign Relations blog calling out the ineptitude of the Biden administration in Middle East diplomacy, writing, “As I have watched U.S. diplomacy since October 7, the phrase that has kept on coming back to me is Casey Stengel’s after his 1962 Mets racked up a modern record of 120 losses: ‘Can’t anybody here play this game?’”
“Isn’t it obvious that as between Iran and the world’s greatest superpower, Iran and not the United States should be afraid of escalation?” Abrams writes. “The record is clear that the Iranian leadership shies away from confrontation with the United States, so why are our diplomats expressing the greater fear of escalation?”
Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election spawned endless investigations and news articles and accusations. It’d be strange if the disclosure of Iranian activity in the U.S. in the midst of the 2024 campaign fails to arouse similar levels of concern.