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Social Media Skills a Gift and Curse for Spying

Social Media Skills A Curse and A Blessing for Spies
Social Media Skills A Curse and A Blessing for Spies

LONDON — Before the Internet, being a spy was more challenging.

Now, spies have Facebook and LinkedIn and other social-media networking sites to expand their contacts, say former and current U.S. and British intelligence officials. And younger spies may be more skilled using social media to do their jobs.

Western governments accuse Russian intelligence services of exploiting social media platforms as propaganda, where they can plant “fake news,” deepen political discord and try to influence Western public opinion. But Russian spies — as opposed to trolls — also use networking sites in highly sophisticated ways to work their way into Western political circles.

FILE - Maria Butina speaks at a rally in support of legalizing the possession of handguns, in Moscow, Russia, April 21, 2013.

The case of Maria Butina -- who came to the United States in 2014 on a student visa and whom U.S. prosecutors allege is a Russian female spy -- shows how social media can assist covert influence operations, says a U.S. counter-intelligence official who asked not to be identified for this article.

“Butina was using old tradecraft, turning up at political events, making contacts," the official said, "and then befriending them on Facebook or LinkedIn and vice versa. Social media platforms are useful in mapping out friendship networks and opening doors.

This courtroom sketch depicts Maria Butina, in orange suit, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist suspected of being a covert Russian agent, listening to her attorney Robert Driscoll, standing, as he speaks to Judge Deborah Robinson, left.

Butina, 29 and a recent graduate at American University in Washington where she attended the School of International Service, was charged last week with acting as an agent for the Kremlin in the United States. The Justice Department alleges she was in regular contact with Russian intelligence services. She has been indicted for conspiracy to operate on behalf of the Russian government and failing to register as a foreign agent.

She has not been formally charged with espionage, which would indicate stealing state and military secrets. Experts see her focused on getting into U.S. political circles in ways that would be useful for Russia’s foreign policy, including further seeding division between political parties in Western countries, and opening avenues of influence.

Federal prosecutors accuse Butina of conspiring with two American citizens, one with whom she cohabited, and the other a top Russian official. They are accused of trying influence U.S. policy more favorably toward Russia by infiltrating the National Rifle Association gun rights group and other conservative special interest groups that could be influential with the Trump administration.

FILE - Public figure Maria Butina (R) attends a meeting of a group of experts, affiliated to the government of Russia, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on July 17, 2018.

U.S. prosecutors allege in a memorandum filed in support of a request for Butina to be held in detention while she awaits trial. The memorandum says that the Russian gun-rights activist “maintained contact information for individuals identified as employees of the Russian FSB,” or Russian Federal Security Service.

Additionally, prosecutors claim FBI surveillance observed Butina having a private meal with a Russian diplomat whom the U.S. government expelled in March 2018 for suspicion of being a Russian intelligence officer.

From court papers filed by U.S. prosecutors last week it remains unclear whether her operation was initiated by Russia’s FSB, or whether it was conceived by her patron, Alexander Torshin, a Russian central banker, as a way to boost himself within the Kremlin administration.

Court papers unsealed Monday, July 16, 2018, photographed in Washington, shows part of the criminal complaint against Maria Butina.

Many Russian intelligence officers occupy high-ranking positions in the government of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer.

Among the more traditional techniques Butina allegedly used was offering sex to cozy up to U.S. politicians and lobbyists; in one case, according to U.S. prosecutors, to try to secure a job with an American special interest organization she had targeted. She lived with a Republican political operative twice her age. He has been identified in U.S. media as lobbyist Paul Erickson. She chafed, though, at the cohabitation, and, according to prosecutors she treated the relationship “as simply a necessary aspect of her activities.”

Posts are seen on Maria Butina's Twitter page. Butina has been arrested on charges of conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government in the U.S. without notifying the attorney general.

Butina has pled not guilty. Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, says she was only trying to help improve relations between the United States and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He denies she’s a spy, telling CNN Friday that much of the case against her was “taken completely out of context.”

Butina founded a pro-gun group in Russia called Right to Bear Arms and used gun activism in what U.S. prosecutors allege was a “calculated, patient” plan directed by Torshin to infiltrate the NRA and conservative special interest groups.

Social media platforms were highly useful as she cut a swathe through U.S. conservative politics, boasting on her Facebook page of meetings with, among others, former Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Scott Walker, the current Wisconsin governor.

In one e-mail to Butina, disclosed in court papers, Torshin praised her efforts, comparing them to Kremlin agent Anna Chapman, another flame-haired Russian who gained international notoriety after her 2010 arrest in the United States. Chapman and a handful of other Russians were deported to Russia in July 2010, as part of a prisoner exchange.

“You have upstaged Anna Chapman,” Torshin declared.

Journalist Michael Isikoff at Yahoo! News had a front seat view to Butina’s methods. With co-author David Corn, he published “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story Of Putin's War On America And The Election Of Donald Trump” and had been tracking Butina’s activities.

He said she and Torshin had been working to influence American conservative political organizations. He told the American public broadcaster NPR in an interview:

“As we reported in the book — David Corn and I — there's a Republican lobbyist who remembers being approached by her at a CPAC conference — Conservative Political Action Conference — and just being struck by how solicitous she was, how she wanted to stay in touch with him and become his Facebook friend.

"And this is a somewhat elderly gentleman, balding, wasn't used to this kind of attention from a young, attractive Russian woman.”

Hiding in plain sight on the Internet holds risks, too. Being active on Facebook increases the chance of exposure, prompting the attention of counter-intelligence watchers, as well as journalists. In an e-mail exchange with VOA, Isikoff noted, he “friended’ her [on Facebook] in order to get in touch so I could interview her.”

And a U.S. counter-intelligence official says Butina drew attention to herself on social media as much as her personal activities. She was called to testify earlier this year by the Senate Intelligence Committee, during which, according to CNN, she disclosed that her gun activism received funding from Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev, another Kremlin-tied oligarch.

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US college students face muted graduations amid Gaza war protests

US college students face muted graduations amid Gaza war protests
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Commencement ceremonies are being scaled back or canceled at U.S. universities because of security concerns over pro-Palestinian student protests. While some campus demonstrations have resulted in concessions, others have led to violent confrontations. VOA’s Tina Trinh has the story from New York.

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Police arrest 33 at George Washington University protest encampment

In this photo taken from video, demonstrators protest the Israel-Hamas war at the George Washington University campus in Washington on May 8, 2024. Police say they arrested 33 people while clearing out an encampment on campus.
In this photo taken from video, demonstrators protest the Israel-Hamas war at the George Washington University campus in Washington on May 8, 2024. Police say they arrested 33 people while clearing out an encampment on campus.

Police in Washington cleared a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday, arresting 33 people, authorities said.

Arrests were made on charges of assault on a police officer and unlawful entry, the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department said.

A congressional committee canceled a hearing on the university encampment Wednesday. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith had been scheduled to testify about the city’s handling of the protest before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

University parents and faculty members gathered Wednesday afternoon for a press conference to condemn the handling of the protests by police and school leaders.

Hala Amer, mother of a George Washington University student, speaks at a press conference with faculty and alumni to call on the university to negotiate with student protesters, May 8, 2024, in Washington. (Melos Ambaye/VOA)
Hala Amer, mother of a George Washington University student, speaks at a press conference with faculty and alumni to call on the university to negotiate with student protesters, May 8, 2024, in Washington. (Melos Ambaye/VOA)

“The university clearly does not value the students at all and has endangered the safety of our children by unleashing officers dressed in full riot gear to assault and spray our children in their eyes with pepper spray,” said Hala Amer, whose son participated in the campus protests.

Police said they dispersed demonstrators because "there has been a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest."

American University professor Barbara Wien said she stayed in the encampment with GW students. She described the student protesters as democratic and peaceful.

Police started to shut down the tent encampment after dozens of protesters marched to GW President Ellen Granberg's on-campus home on Tuesday night. Police were called, but no arrests were made.

Speakers at the conference called for Granberg’s resignation because, they alleged, she refused to meet and negotiate with student protesters.

“You keep inciting violence and ignoring the students,” Amer said about Granberg in an interview with VOA after the conference. “It will just lead to more violence. You need to talk to your students.”

GW officials warned students that they could be suspended for engaging in protests at the school’s University Yard, an outdoor spot on the campus.

"While the university is committed to protecting students' rights to free expression, the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations," a GW statement said.

More than 2,600 people have been arrested at universities across the country in pro-Palestinian protests, according to The Associated Press.

Students are calling on their university administrations to divest investments from Israel or companies with ties to Israel. Demonstrators have gathered in at least 50 campuses since April 17, carrying signs that read "Free Palestine" and "Hands off Rafah."

Rafah is Gaza’s southernmost city, where most of the territory’s population has clustered. The area is also a corridor for bringing humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.

Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, while shutting off the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, drawing criticism from humanitarian groups. Israel said Wednesday that it had reopened Kerem Shalom.

The nationwide campus protests started in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza that began after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel warned it could "deepen" its operation in Rafah if talks failed to secure the release of the hostages.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.

What to ask on a college visit

FILE - Passers-by walk on the campus of Harvard University, Dec. 12, 2023, in Cambridge, Mass.
FILE - Passers-by walk on the campus of Harvard University, Dec. 12, 2023, in Cambridge, Mass.

Sarah Wood lists 32 questions for applicants to learn more during a campus visit. (April 2024)

US is now the most desirable country for international students

FILE - People take photographs near a John Harvard statue, Jan. 2, 2024, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.
FILE - People take photographs near a John Harvard statue, Jan. 2, 2024, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.

That’s according to this year’s Emerging Futures research survey, from education consultant IDP Connect. Other Western countries have slipped due to new visa restrictions and caps on international students. Read a summary of the research from ICEF Monitor. (April 30, 2024)

Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment

Pro-Palestinian supporters tear down the wall as they retake the encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 6, 2024.
Pro-Palestinian supporters tear down the wall as they retake the encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 6, 2024.

Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.

Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.

"Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT's direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense," he said.

Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.

The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won't hold it's main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.

The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.

Columbia's decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.

"Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families," officials said.

Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia's sports complex, officials said.

Speakers at some of Columbia's still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.

Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.

Emory's ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

"Please know that this decision was not taken lightly," Fenves wrote. "It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses."

The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.

Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its "core demands" and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

"Cease-fires are temporary," said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. "There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here."

At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.

The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.

Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters "amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges" if they moved.

"Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest," the school said. "Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students."

A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.

Other universities took a different approach.

Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face "involuntary leave." That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.

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