Back in 2016, it was the Russians who interfered with the U.S. presidential election, stealing emails and computer files from the Democrats and giving them to WikiLeaks to publish, seeking to embarrass the party and damage nominee Hillary Clinton.

The culprit was the FSB, the Kremlin’s successor to the KGB, the old Cold War spy agency where Vladimir Putin rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he entered politics. Several Russians were prosecuted for this abject violation of American sovereignty.

This time, it is America’s adversaries in Tehran who are meddling in our democratic process. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency jointly conclude that agents of Iran have successfully stolen emails and computer files from the Donald Trump campaign. Most likely they got access by hacking GOP operative Roger Stone, who was pardoned by Trump in the waning weeks of his presidency.

The feds also believe that the Iranians tried to hack into the Democrats’ campaign, but seem to have been unsuccessful. At least they were bipartisan.

However, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines did go public last month that Iran was successfully manipulating the protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, saying: “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”

So Iran arms and funds Hamas (and Hezbollah and the Houthis) and then helps whip up street protests in America’s streets and campuses to support their cause.

Americans have plenty of opinions on presidential politics and the war in Gaza and it shouldn’t be the mullahs pulling strings to achieve their aims. It is a federal crime and a very hostile act by a hostile government.

They are not lobbing missiles and setting off bombs like their proxies are doing against Israel, but it is still a premeditated and pernicious attack against this country. It might not meet the definition of an act of war, but it is a war against our open society and our democratic process.

The Trump campaign was properly candid in declaring that it had been victimized by the Iranians, who may be trying to defeat the former president, who promised to get tough with Tehran, or they may just be trying to sow discord and cause division in this country without taking sides in the election.

However, their motives with bolstering the Gaza protests are much clearer. Iran supports Hamas and opposes Israel. Having Americans marching and rallying in agreement serves their needs perfectly. We assume most protesters are not willing dupes of Iran’s foreign policy and they should object to being used.

The Iranians, like the Russians, are trying to use our strengths of free speech and free assembly and free elections against us for their own purposes — purposes at odds with U.S. national interests.

Terrorists like Hamas look for soft targets to attack, like a music festival for young people. The mullahs see our open society as likewise a soft target. But they are wrong. It is very hard, the foundation that we have built for almost 250 years in this experiment in self government. Iran can’t defeat that unless we let them.

New York Daily News/Tribune News Service

Editorial cartoon by Joe Heller (Joe Heller)