Urges National Security Staff to Check for Possible Cyber-Fraud before Publicly Responding to Anti-Armenian Attacks
WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on President Obama’s National Security Staff to investigate and publicly assure the integrity of the White House’s “We the People” petition system against foreign manipulation before answering Baku-initiated petitions attacking Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh).
In a letter to Special Assistant to the President Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian asked the National Security Staff to “to perform due diligence in investigating the prospect of foreign fraud in relation to a public, Baku-based effort to manipulate the White House’s ‘We the People’ petitions, a vital avenue for civic discourse with our president.”
Hamparian stressed, “In the interest of safeguarding the integrity of American civic dialogue and the public standing of this important initiative, this matter should be publicly resolved by the White House in a serious and satisfactory manner prior to any petition response.” Copies of this letter have been shared with Congressional offices.
The ANCA made specific reference to a Feb. 1, 2013 Russian-language interview with Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Elman Abdullayev, during which he stated, “Any Azerbaijani can connect this petition because, regardless of nationality, social origin, people have the right to raise his voice in order to finally triumphed justice. … This step is a positive tendency of the Azerbaijan Republic and the Azerbaijani people.” The complete interview is available at www.1news.az/interview/20130201050206185.html.
Last week the ANCA formally asked the White House for information about the types of safeguards the administration had put in place to protect its popular “We the People” online petition system against foreign attempts to manipulate American civil society discourse. The White House has yet to issue a response. In a letter to White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, the ANCA referenced the Armenian-American community’s concern regarding “a number of petitions addressing Armenian topics, including one that echoes, nearly word for word, the message of Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev’s well-funded, unfounded, and hateful campaign to misrepresent Azerbaijan’s well-documented history of aggression against Armenia and the independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabagh.” Hamparian went on to ask for greater clarity regarding rules related to international participation, and an explanation about any safeguards that have been put in place against “against fraud and to protect this important arena for dialogue with our government from being abused by foreign entities.”
Several petitions echoing Azerbaijani government attacks on Karabagh rapidly collected tens of thousands of online signatures in recent days. The text of one, in particular, titled “pay close attention on the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. 20% of Azerbaijan territory was occupied by Armenian military,” has a direct link to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a project headed by President Ilham Aliyev’s multi-billionaire wife, Mehriban Aliyeva. Unlike other “We the People” petitions, where the city and state of a majority of signers is typically posted, the anti-Armenian petitions, by and large, do not have any geographic identification.
News of Azerbaijani government manipulation of online metrics and social media statistics to boost the image of Aliyev came out earlier this month in Azadlyg newpaper, with reports of pressure on government employees to “Like” Aliyev’s Facebook page in the run-up to his 2013 election.
Aliyev, who has repeatedly announced that “our main enemies are Armenians of the world,” flew into an anti-Armenian tirade on Twitter a few months ago, stating that “Armenia is a country of no value.” He has also called Yerevan an Azerbaijani city, occupied by Armenia. The ANCA documents and informs Congress, the administration, and the media about Azerbaijan’s threats and acts of aggression against Armenia and Karabagh. The ANCA widely circulates a fact sheet highlighting the direct correlation between the increase in Azerbaijan’s military budget and the number of ceasefire violations on the line of contact with Armenia and Karabagh, at www.anca.org/assets/pdf/Azeri_rhetoric_summary.pdf.
The complete text of the Feb. 21 ANCA letter to Sherwood-Randall is provided below.
***
Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
European Affairs on the National Security Staff
National Security Staff
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Ms. Sherwood-Randall:
We are writing to ask the National Security Staff to perform due diligence in investigating the prospect of foreign fraud in relation to a public, Baku-based effort (see attached example) to manipulate the White House’s “We the People” petitions, a vital avenue for civic discourse with our president.
We have written on this subject to Ms. Valerie Jarrett, in the Office of Public Engagement. In our inquiry to her (see attached), we asked three vital questions: “1) Are non-U.S. residents allowed to sign White House petitions? 2) What safeguards are in place to ensure compliance with any citizenship, residency, or other rules related to participation in White House petitions? and 3) What systems has the White House put in place to guard against fraud and to protect this important arena for dialogue with our government from being abused by foreign entities?”
The White House’s responses to these questions would hold great meaning for our community and also for all Americans who are concerned about protecting our country’s internet-based communications against the possibility of foreign cyber-attacks. In the interest of safeguarding the integrity of American civic dialogue and the public standing of this important initiative, this matter should be publicly resolved by the White House in a serious and satisfactory manner prior to any petition response.
Thank you for your attention to our concerns.
Sincerely,
Aram S. Hamparian
Executive Director
CC: Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate
Yep, Americans should listen to ANCA as an authority on what is good for US public discourse. In the meantime, here is what the leading US newspapers have said about ANCA:
Washington Post: “The two senators are being cheered on by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a particularly noxious lobby that claims to represent Armenian Americans, many of whom live in California.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092306510.html
New York Times has said something similar about ANCA, although I cannot easily now locate the link. But I am sure you remember what I am talking about (around the time ANCA was blocking Bryza, and ANCA issues a “rebuttal” to NYT), something like saying that ANCA is putting the parochial interests of a small minority over the US national security interests, being held hostage to tribal vendettas.
But no worries. .. I am sure White House will issue something ANCA likes. Besides, it is a helpful thing to mention in their next donation drive letters. We Azeris should not worry. Once (not if) the war with Iran starts, Americans will see clearly who is their friend, and who is a Russian lackey and an Iranian ally. Then no amount of ANCA lobbying will be able to obfuscate reality.
Oh you mean the reality of the Zionist/Neo-con run State department that ignores thousands upon thousands of pages of our own US archives written in real time, depicting the systematic murder and theft of wealth of a whole race of Armenian people? All just so we can lie for Turks that made up their own history so it stays intact? How is that good for the beacon of democracy and for moral justice that the US is supposed to stand for?
Dude your people are a sham. You don’t even belong there and pretend that your history was there for millennia. What nonsense.
The problem with you Turks are that it always seems okay for your people to rape, murder and steal others but it’s horrible if it happens to? Your people are not that special. Get over yourself. I would worry about your horse face, weak leader stealing everything from your own first.
God bless the ANCA…
I especially like the following part from the link “”After first telling us that Mr. Menendez was concerned about Mr. Bryza’s wife, his office backpedaled, saying that what worried the senator was “ties to Turkish government officials.” Our request for the names of those officials, and an explanation of why “ties to officials” of a major NATO ally would be of concern, went unanswered.)”””
Thank you for another good article. This is definitely worth examining. The dictator-style practices of the President of Azerbaijan and his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, are very disconcerting. We have seen how Mrs. Aliyeva’s foundation uses suspicious methods to manipulate their social media statistics, so this news is hardly surprising.
In response to Ms. Pavlovna’s comment, it is true that the First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva is corrupt, so it’s no surprise that the foundation she heads is hijacking the White House’s “We the People” petitions online. Free speech and the right to petition are two of the perks of democracy. Is it any wonder that dictator Mehriban Aliyeva is slightly confused on the workings of these democratic institutions?
Yes! Anyone can see that Mehriban Aliyeva’s hand is at work here. Her foundation is always involved in shady things like this. She uses that foundation to mask many of her illegal operations. Lying about social media metrics and website statistics may seem like a minor thing, but it actually exposes how corrupt and dishonest she is.