Dina Titus Questions Expert About Combatting Foreign Information Attacks Aimed At ‘Weakening NATO’

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) questioned Julianne Smith, former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO in the U.S. Department of State, about information attacks.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. I now recognize the representative from Nevada, Ms. Titus, for five minutes.

00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:13Thank you. All right, this is taking a little different tack.

00:19We've seen Russia launch information attacks in European countries that are insensitive,

00:29political context, and we've seen it in Georgia.

00:32We've seen it in Moldova.

00:34It's also extended to NATO countries like Romania in their recent election,

00:39and all these attacks are aimed at causing confusion.

00:42They deepen political and social divisions.

00:45They destabilize societies, and the ultimate goal is weakening NATO, I believe.

00:51So, Ambassador Smith, I'll start with you.

00:54Can you tell us how NATO is working with allies, partners, and private sector actors

01:01to kind of identify, expose, and address, and combat this foreign disinformation that's coming from Russia?

01:08Thank you very much, Representative, for raising Russia's hybrid tactics.

01:13They use a variety of tools to try and divide societies from within

01:17and divide Europeans from each other and Europe from the United States.

01:21They fly into NATO airspace. They use disinformation campaigns.

01:25There have been incidents of sabotage where suddenly we've seen arson attacks

01:30of warehouses full of weapons destined for Ukraine.

01:34We've seen undersea cables cut.

01:36So this is a standard playbook on the part of the Russians.

01:39NATO has increasingly turned to improving and strengthening its toolkit.

01:43We have better cybersecurity tools.

01:46We now exercise and train to test where we would hit that Article V threshold

01:53under some potential hybrid attack from Russia.

01:56We have better surveillance in the Nordic-Baltic space looking for incidents

02:01where they're about to clip another undersea cable.

02:04So NATO is the place where we can work hand in glove with our European allies

02:09to get a stronger and better toolkit to deal with Russian gray zone tactics.

02:16I'm glad to hear we're doing those things, but at the same time we're eliminating the Global Engagement Center.

02:21Can you address how that might work to our disadvantage?

02:24Well, that's unfortunate because right now in the U.S. government it seems that this administration

02:30is not placing any importance on those types of efforts to combat disinformation stemming from not only Russia,

02:39but Iran, from China.

02:41These countries work together to share messages, to learn from one another in how they promote these pieces of disinformation.

02:50And the U.S. traditionally has been a leader in helping allies understand how to counter those efforts.

02:57But right now, with the elimination of the Global Engagement Center,

03:01we will likely not be the beating heart of those efforts going forward.

03:06Can I add one thing on that, ma'am?

03:08The Trump administration didn't get rid of the Global Engagement Center.

03:11Congress did.

03:12You allowed its authorities to expire last December.

03:15I agree it's a mistake.

03:17But what the Trump administration has done is gotten rid of the Voice of America and most of the other distribution systems,

03:22which is a mistake.

03:23That tells the truth about America for people to hear.

03:27When I lived in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe

03:31are what you could hear there to hear the American story.

03:33So I'm disappointed in the Trump administration for that.

03:36But I don't blame them for the Global Engagement Center.

03:38You and Congress allowed that to expire in December of last year.

03:41I didn't.

03:42Don't say I did, but yeah.

03:44Some did.

03:45You.

03:46Okay.

03:47Well, you have done a few things, too.

03:50Let me ask you this.

03:51Shifting over here to you, Admiral.

03:53Excuse me for saying general.

03:55We're fixing to go to the NATO summit in The Hague.

03:58Now, we've got two allies in a part of the world that needs more and more attention,

04:02the eastern Mediterranean.

04:04So many things are happening in that area, from Israel, Syria, Lebanon, you name it.

04:10We've got two NATO allies there.

04:12We've got Greece and Turkey.

04:13Greece is a friend.

04:14Turkey is not such a reliable ally.

04:16What's the message we should be sending to Turkey when we go to The Hague next week?

04:20I agree with you.

04:22And I'm glad we're selling Greece F-35s.

04:24I think we should continue to sell Greece significant weaponry as necessary so they can

04:29do their job securing the age and southeastern Europe.

04:34Turkey needs to get a strong message from us that they should not be eligible for the F-35 until

04:40they completely give up the S-400.

04:42I'm very concerned that the administration is going to, you know, remove one little part,

04:47direct the movement one little part from the S-400 and then say Turkey can buy F-35s.

04:51That's a mistake.

04:52Turkey needs to be held accountable for its bad decision-making on the S-400s and on its support for Hamas.

04:59And I think that's the strong message that needs to be delivered by the administration in The Hague and elsewhere.

05:07I yield back.

05:08I now recognize the representative, Ms. Kim.

05:13Good morning, everyone.

05:14Thank you, Chairman Self and Ranking Member Keating for holding today's

05:18meeting.

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