Wonder why they would want to do this?
On February 10, The Musk/Trump/Vance Administration put the 17 staffers at the National Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) entrusted with ensuring election security on leave.
On February 14, with virtually no notice, they fired another 130 members of the division on its weekend purge of Homeland Security staffers including 200 people with FEMA.
Feel safe and secure people.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the first 17 staffers "have worked with election officials to provide assessments and trainings dealing with a range of threats — from cyber and ransomware attacks to the physical security of election workers...All were former state or local election officials who were brought in to build relationships across all 50 states and the nation’s more than 8,000 local election jurisdictions. They spent the past year meeting with election officials, attending conferences and trainings, and ensuring officials were aware of the agency’s various cybersecurity and physical security services."
The division has received bipartisan acclaim from Secretary of States offices headed by leaders of both political parties.
Aaron Thacker, the Communications Director for the office of the Arizona Secretary of State commented on the move to put 17 people on leave, stating:
"CISA has been an important part of keeping our elections safe and secure. What the Federal Government calls the agency doesn’t matter to us. What matters is that the services they provide continue to help ensure our democracy is safe, fair, and secure as it has been for quite a long time."
According to an anonymous source from Politico, the purging of the 130 people at CISA has created a talent hole at the agency, stating:
"They are just haphazardly cutting the people we need to respond to Russian and Chinese hacks, and they don’t even know it. No one asked us what these people even do.”
At best, this is another example of the gross incompetence displayed time and again during the first Trump Administration.
At medium, it is Trump taking retribution against an agency that would not follow his company line about willingly spreading misinformation about the 2020 elections and COVID.
At worst, it is willing aid and comfort to America's adversaries.
Either way, it is bad for the nation's security and the American People's well-being.
No comments:
Post a Comment