FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Expose British for U.S. Election Interference, Violating U.S. Law
March 26, 2018 (EIRNS)—The British firm Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to formulate campaign strategy and advice for Republican candidates in 2014—in blatant violation of U.S. election law, the Washington Post’s Craig Timberg and Tom Hamburger reported today.
In 2014, its leadership roster included President Rebekah Mercer, Vice-President Steve Bannon, and CEO Alexander Nix, a British citizen who, according to the New York Times, specializes in dirty tricks.
It is no surprise that “The John Bolton SuperPAC” hired Cambridge Analytica for nearly $1.2 million in August 2014, to harvest data from Facebook to profile voters. This data was then provided to non-U.S. citizens working for Cambridge who were formulating strategy to win U.S. political campaigns.
Cambridge Analytica is a division of London-based SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communications Laboratories). London’s history of manipulating elections is legendary. U.S. regulations say foreign nationals must not “directly or indirectly” participate in the decision-making process of a political campaign, though they can be involved at lower levels. But, the Post reports, both Cambridge Analytica and SCL “were overwhelmingly staffed by non-U.S. citizens”—mainly Canadians, Britons, and other Europeans, who made decisions based on the mining of Facebook data.
Cambridge Analytica pioneered the collection of data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles under allegedly false pretenses, turning it over to campaigns to manipulate voters.
Facebook announced March 15 that it had suspended the account of “SCL/Cambridge Analytica” and two people involved in the data collection from Facebook.
Cambridge Analytica pioneered “Project Ripon” (named for the town where the Republican Party was founded) to use data to find “hidden Republicans,” the Post reports. Former research director Wylie said this initiative resembled previous SCL Group efforts used by international candidates in Kenya, Nigeria, and India—all former colonies, like the United States, which the British would like to rule again.
