Secure Liberties

Call a plumber, we’ve got a leak. You’ve definitely seen by now the stories about the massive leak of classified documents. While a lot of the media is interested in the identity of the alleged leaker and the story behind it, we’re much more interested in what the documents have to say (and why some key information was being held from the public), like the fact that the US spying on the UN secretary general and the Mexican government. One story from the leaks revealed that the Biden admin knew that the Saudis were willing to negotiate on key Houthi demands which the State Department said publicly were non-starters, signaling that US pressure was likely a partial culprit in stalling forward progress on peace.

Another important revelation was the confirmation that the US, and other NATO countries, have special forces operating on the ground in Ukraine…

Rep. LaHood asserts he was the subject of unlawful FBI 702 searches. During a hearing with FBI Director Wray yesterday, Congressman LaHood made a startling assertion that he believes he was the subject of an unlawful backdoor search of 702 information. Section 702 of FISA, the extremely controversial warrantless surveillance authority is set to sunset at the end of the year. WIRED first reported about Demand Progress’s discovery of unlawful searching of FISA information “using only the name of a U.S. Congressman,” using “the names of a local political party,” and based on racial profiling last month. The name of the Congressman was unknown at the time. The revelations came from this recently declassified document. Rep. LaHood sits on one of the committees that oversees the Intelligence agencies and has been designated by Congressional leadership as the Intelligence Committee’s point person in charge of the 702 reauthorization. Privacy advocates are calling on the Biden administration to prioritize a complete overhaul of privacy protection for all Americans — members of Congress and beyond — before considering any reauthorization of this authority. Demand Progress’s statement and Twitter thread can be found here.

SYRIA WAR POWERS RESOLUTION

The number of Republicans voting to remove troops from Syria nearly doubled compared to last year…

Bipartisan stars aligning for defense spending cuts? Potentially, but it will take a lot of maneuvering. Capping government spending to 2022 levels was reportedly part of the concessions McCarthy made to win his speakership race. That would mean a $75 billion cut relative to FY 2023 levels (that relative figure will be even more substantial when FY 2024 baseline projections are released). Of course, it’s been a longstanding tradition for progressives in Congress to advocate for Pentagon cuts… only to get soundly rejected. But given the current circumstances, there may be an opportunity for unlikely alliances to pose a stronger challenge to the yearly hike in defense spending, and possibly cutting it back. Yesterday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary Austin asking for the DOD to curtail its ‘unfunded priorities’ wishlist, which entails billions of dollars of funding requested above the President’s budget proposals (recall that last year Congress approved nearly $45 billion in spending above Biden’s budget). While there are significant hurdles ahead, this is a promising sign. We’ll be tracking this fight closely in the coming months.

Military spending on Ukraine is also a target of scrutiny in the 118th…

Yemen truce breaks down. Over the weekend, the temporary truce between warring parties expired on Oct. 2, and for the first time since April, there was no agreement to extend it. Despite UN efforts to mediate a compromise, impasses exist in expanding the terms of the truce surrounding the payment of civil servants, the aerial and naval blockade, and road closures.

But before it did, Members of Congress sent a letter to Blinken urging the use of US leverage to lift Saudi blockade.

HUGE: The US military purchased access to over 90% of the world’s internet traffic data, including “people’s email data, browsing history, and other information such as their sensitive internet cookies.” Team Cymru, the private company selling this internet monitoring tool, “Augury,” states on its website that it provides “access to a super majority of all activity on the internet.” Motherboard’s investigation revealed that at least $3.5 million was spent by the US Navy, Cyber Command, and Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to access the tool. And, a US government procurement record indicates that Augury has over 550 collection points in at least 5 continents and “is updated with at least 100 billion new records each day.”

Senator Wyden wrote to the oversight branches of the DHS, DOJ, and DOD in response to a whistleblower contacting his office regarding the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s use of Augury. Senator Wyden’s letter requests an investigation into “the warrantless purchase and use of Americans’ internet browsing records… [to] ensure that the government’s surveillance activities are consistent with the Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision and safeguard Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.”

Newly disclosed OLC memos uncover the Executive’s war on congressional war powers…

One-year anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Last week marked a year since the final day US troops left Afghanistan, ending our two-decade occupation. Long deemed a failed operation by US officials (even though they hid the fact from the public), the war cost hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars. Laying in the wake are millions of Afghans facing a severe humanitarian crisis. To add insult to injury, the Biden admin continues to withhold $7 billion of Afghanistan’s independent central bank’s reserves, which are crucial to stabilizing the country’s economy. Additionally, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has only approved less than 2% of Afghan applications it processed for a humanitarian parole program.

Unauthorized tit-for-tat war with militias in Syria continues; Biden continues stonewalling Congress over key war powers questions…

As Congress threatens to pass a War Powers Resolution, the truce in Yemen is extended for 2 more months. The UN announced that the warring parties in Yemen have agreed to extend the current truce for two more months, which was originally set to expire yesterday. However, thorny issues still remain unresolved, leading to a shorter truce with weaker terms than expected. This comes as 113 representatives and 8 Senators have cosponsored the Yemen War Powers Resolutions (H.J.Res.87 and S.J.Res.56, respectively), which would end US support for Saudi-UAE-led coalitions’ offensive operations in Yemen.

Last month, the House passed a $839 billion National Defense Authorization Act…

More than 5 dozen orgs welcome the ceasefire in Yemen, and call on Congress to pass a War Powers Resolution to end US support for the war on Yemen once and for all. A national coalition of diverse organizations penned a letter to Congress urging the immediate passage of a War Powers Resolution to end the US’s support for the Saudi-UAE-led coalition’s war on Yemen. The letter calls for Congress to take advantage of an important window for diplomacy the two-month UN-brokered ceasefire provides and incentivize Saudi Arabia to stay at the negotiating table by supporting a forthcoming War Powers Resolution promoted by Reps. Jayapal and DeFazio. Part of the current ceasefire’s terms include lifting the Saudi-imposed blockade. Already, some previously barred fuel ships have been able to enter Yemen’s Hodeidah port, though complications have arisen in lifting the air blockade on Sanaa airport as last week the first commercial flight out of the airport in six years was indefinitely postponed, with both sides exchanging blame. However later in the week, Saudi Arabia announced they were releasing 163 Houthi prisoners in order to further solidify the truce.

The FBI queried warrantlessly obtained Section 702 data as many as 3.4 million times last year…

Biden’s new budget proposal increases military spending; Progressives push back. The President’s new FY 2023 budget request is out, and to the chagrin of advocates hoping to lower – or even flatten – defense-related spending, the budget calls for a whopping $813 billion in military spending, a $31 billion increase from the recently passed FY 2022 appropriations bill (and $60 billion more than what Biden requested last year). This would put the US on track to spending $8 trillion on military over the next decade. Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders released a statement rallying against the increased Pentagon spending (noting half of it will likely go to private defense contractors) and asking why in the face of unquestioned military spending increases, they have been “forced to pinch pennies for decades when it comes to investments in working families.” Jake Johnston, writes more on this at Common Dreams. Paul Waldman asks another important question in WaPo: will this increase in military spending even make us safer?

The Ukrainian government is receiving access to facial recognition technology…

After Zelenskyy’s plea to Congress, Biden approves another $800mn in military assistance. After Ukrainian President Zelenskyy addressed US Congress, using the imagery of 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and Mount Rushmore to ask for further sanctions on Russia and for the imposition of a no-fly zone (which could lead to some seriously bad consequences), Biden approved another $800mn in emergency military assistance, bringing this week’s total to $1 billion. Last week Congress passed a $13.6 billion aid package to Ukraine as part of the omnibus spending package, $3 billion of which is for weapons. While military support for Ukraine is quite popular in the media right now, we wanted to share some critiques of flooding more weapons into the conflict, and potential unintended consequences that you may have otherwise missed.

CIA black site detainee Ammar al-Baluchi “was repeatedly slammed against a wall while naked until all trainees received ‘certification,’”…