Turkey Converting Hagia Sophia Back Into A Mosque
ALLEN: President Trump has told "The Washington Post" that the U.S. staged a cyber attack on a Russian troll farm in 2018. The covert operation against the Kremlin linked Internet research agency was aimed at stopping Russian interference in the U.S. midterm elections. It's the same organization accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Let's turn to CNN's Fred Pleitgen. What are you learning about this, Fred?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to what Trump said in that interview, all this was happening in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. One of the things going on in the U.S. is that people from the security apparatus were saying they were seeing evidence there was Russian meddling going on again before the midterm elections. A lot of that influence campaign by the Internet research agency that had been so active in 2016. As you recall, in the run-up to the midterms, we heard then Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats literally say he believed the United States was under attack. At that point, especially Democrats were calling for stronger action by the Trump administration. Now President Trump confirming that, yes, apparently they did take action. And he authorized this cyber attack, an offensive cyber attack against the Internet research agency. We heard before, we know that the intelligence services believe the attack was successful and succeeded at getting the Internet research agency offline and stopping some of the influence operations that were going on at that point in time. Of course, a lot of this happening via social media. A lot of this there to sow that the U.S. intelligence agencies put it, sow discord within the American public and also tried to undermine the belief in American institutions, as well.</s>ALLEN: Try to get it offline. Is the Internet research agency still active?</s>PLEITGEN: It's very active still. One thing about the IRA, the Internet research agency, It's changed names and structure over the past years, as well. There's been organizations that have been going after it. The Mueller report, indicted some of the folks from the Internet research agency. So they've changed the way they operate a little bit. But the goals are pretty much the same. You see that some of the things they're doing have become more sophisticated. Some of the posts in 2016, were crude with grammar and spelling mistakes. A lot of it is cleaned up, as well. Some of it was outsourced to African nations. But it's still very much going on. The Internet research agency is still operating. And what many folks in the intelligence community believe, Natalie, is that the goals are still very much the same. They are still trying to sow discord in the United States, with the run-up to key votes. One thing we have to keep in mind, is that it's part of a large empire, by a businessman that is known to be very close to Vladimir Putin. So certainly, all of the operations will still continue to be fairly well-funded, even as, for instance, U.S. intelligence services seem to be going after the Internet research agency have done so many in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.</s>ALLEN: Thanks so much, Fred Pleitgen, for us in Warsaw, Poland. Turkey's president has issued a presidential decree that will convert Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. For much of the past century, the UNESCO World Heritage site has been used as a secular museum. The announcement has sparked an outcry around the world. CNN's Arwa Damon has more about it from Istanbul.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hagia Sophia is quite spectacular, a convergence of both Islam and Christianity. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site although that status may now be in jeopardy. Hagia Sophia was the first Christian cathedral built by the Roman empire back in the Byzantine empire in 1453, when the Ottomans conquered what was Constantinople. It was converted it to a mosque. Fast forward to modern-day Turkey, the president and founder of Turkey as we know it today, issued a presidential decree to have it converted into a museum. What's happened now is that the Turkish courts have annulled that decree. And President Erdogan has issued his own decree, moving the administration of Hagia Sophia from the ministry of culture to the presidency of religious affairs. Now internationally, this is viewed by and large as being a highly controversial move. Prior to all of this, you had U.S. secretary of state Pompeo, the Greeks and Russians, even UNESCO urging Turkey not to go in this direction. Why now? Many are saying, because when it comes to the vast majority of the Turkish population, this is a fairly popular move. And some are saying that the president is playing politics, given that the economy here has been on the decline and his popularity has been called into question. Now the Turkish presidential spokesperson is saying that, despite this move, the Christians icons, the Christian art inside will continue to be preserved. The fact that it is going to be open for prayer should not impact its status as a World Heritage site. But this is a highly controversial move, especially when you look at it from the international perspective -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.</s>ALLEN: A tropical storm made landfall in the U.S. Northeast. Karen Maginnis will have the latest on Fay coming right up.