Senator Gary Peters was elected in 2014, as Senator to represent the State of Michigan in the U.S. Senate. His focuses include uniting communities by fighting for the common needs of his people such as proving an equal opportunity for everyone to succeed. His achievements range from having the most bills signed into law than any other member of his party upon being elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1994, to his more current leading efforts in Congress to eliminate wasteful spending and reduce the overall deficit.
However, it was his concern for the threats of terrorism and information warfare that motivated Senator Gary Peters’ visit to the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia on 17 June 2017.
Following his visit, however, Senator Gary Peters was briefed by the 8th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum in Riga on June 19. This briefing led by Latvian parliament speaker Inara Murniece (National Alliance), Solvita Abtolina (Unity), the chairwoman of the Latvian parliamentary committee on national security, and Congressman Pittenger, U.S.
Ambassador to Latvia Nancy Bikoff Pettit and Pawel Chorazy, stressed the importance of strengthening strategic communication in order to provide the general public accurate information as a counter attack to politically motivated cyber-attacks. As a result, the 8th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum highly encouraged international cooperation as an attempt to strengthen information and cyber security.
In order to further support this cause, Senator Gary Peters paid a visit to the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, where he was presented informational brief led by Colonel Vytautas Reklaitis, Chief of Staff, and Lt Col Bernd Soelter, Doctrine, Concept and Experimentation Branch Chief. The brief provided an in-depth look at all projects the Centre is currently working on such as Russia’s ifnromation activities in the cyber domain, Daesh recruitment strategies, the impact of the internet trolling as well as all the different ways in which the center is supporting NATO’s aims and attempts to combat terrorist disinformation campaigns and propagandas.