Secure Liberties Newsletter
Covering War, Peace, Militarism and Everything in Between
TOP LINE
Biden’s top national security nominees faced Senators’ questions on Tuesday. Avril Haines (Director of National Intelligence), Alejandro Mayorkas (Secretary of Homeland Security), Antony Blinken (Secretary of State), and Lloyd Austin (Defense Secretary) all met with their respective Senate committees to answer questions on key national security issues such as the war in Yemen, domestic surveillance, China policy, returning to the JCPOA, and Venezuela. Haines was confirmed 84-10 last night. MORE BELOW.
On his way out, Trump ratcheted up several conflicts by: designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization; ordering new sanctions on Iran and Venezuela; labeling Cuba a state sponsor of terror; and appointing loyalists to key national security positions. Trump also officially declared that China is committing a genocide in its northwestern region of Xinjiang.
As the fallout of the January 6 Capitol insurrection continues, concerns grow over Biden’s call for a new domestic terror law. Critics, including over 100 organizations and 10 Representatives led by Rep. Tlaib, argue that expanding the government’s vast surveillance powers will redound to wrongful targeting and surveillance of communities of color and activist groups. In part they argue the insurrection was planned in plain site, cloaked in white privilege, rather than secrecy.
Sen Wyden says the SolarWinds hack involved “hackers stealing encryption keys from USG servers” — which is a huge deal, considering every single effort to undermine end-to-end encryption made by the government has been based on the idea that they could keep such keys absolutely, 100% safe.
ARMS, INTEL, and NDAA
Despite announced U.S. exemptions for aid groups following the designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist organization, the U.N continues to express concerns that the terror designation will halt much needed commercial trade to Yemen, which sources 90% of food imports to the country.
U.N. officials warn that food prices may rise 400% and that “the likely humanitarian impact of the U.S. decision would be ‘a large-scale famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly 40 years.’” Humanitarian organizations working on Yemen have already begun ceasing operations for fear of being criminalized by the designation.
DNI nominee Avril Haines faced questions from Senators Heinrich and Wyden over surveillance, torture, and transparency during her confirmation hearing for top spy on Tuesday. Progressives have raised strong objections to the pick due to her involvement in Obama-era drone policy, her opposition to disciplining CIA officials who hacked into Senate computers during a major torture investigation, support for known torturers, and entanglements with controversial surveillance and defense firms. She acknowledged opposition to waterboarding and said she would seek to increase transparency around the purchasing of data, which is poised to be the next big surveillance fight.
Sen. Cotton almost held up Haines’s consideration last night until she made clear, however, that none of her commitments would amount to accountability for CIA officials who participated in torture. Indeed, on the Senate floor he claimed that she had even committed not to “holding it against them in potential future promotions or placements.”
While Russia withdraws from the Open Skies Treaty after the Trump Administration’s departure in May, Biden’s State pick Antony Blinken hints that the new administration will seek a five-year extension to the New START treaty, which has restricted both the US and Russia’s deployment of nuclear warheads, submarines, bombers, and missiles.
Afghanistan peace talks are effectively on hold as the negotiating parties wait to see President Biden’s next moves on the issue. The Taliban has called on Biden to honor Trump’s commitment to remove all U.S. military, intelligence and contractor personnel from Afghanistan by May. Last Friday, the Pentagon announced troop levels have dropped to 2,500, despite a congressional provision in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting the use of funds to lower the troop level below 4,000.
During Blinken’s hearing on Tuesday, he reiterated Biden’s previous calls to end US support for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, will “immediately” review the Houthi terror designation, rebuild a diverse and non-partisan diplomatic corps, and repeated Biden’s intention to rejoin the JCPOA — but indicated “we are a long way from that.”
Continuing with the foreign policy of the last few years, however, Blinken said the new administration will continue to recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s president, will not relocate the US’s new Jerusalem embassy, and supports a continued ‘tough on China’ approach.
Biden also named William Burns as his nominee for CIA Director — who would be the first career diplomat to lead the agency.
SURVEILLANCE
Was Facebook getting WhatsApp data this whole time? Many were worried an update in WhatsApp’s privacy policy, but now WIRED magazine reports that WhatsApp has been sharing user information and metadata with Facebook since August 2016. As they note the new privacy policies “don’t actually alter the messaging service’s behavior, it’s significant that users may have thought the company was offering an opt-out option all these years that didn’t actually exist.”
The DoD IG is probing the installation of a Trump loyalist as NSA general counsel. He’d served for a day before the investigation put him on leave. Michael Ellis, the loyalist, is also alleged to have mishandled classified information and — brace for irony — was one of the principal authors of the absurdly flawed, “aggressively dishonest” report on Snowden that HPSCI released in 2016.
Relatedly, CIA Director Gina Haspel reportedly threatened to resign over efforts to install Kash Patel, a former aid to Devin Nunes and Trump loyalist, as her deputy.
We’re excited to read the just-released Attorney General guidelines for Executive Order 123333 activities, which the ODNI released a declassified version of last week. More on that next edition, and be sure drop a note in the tip line if anything stands out to you!
ICYMI: Ronan Farrow’s piece on CIA laundering intel into a drug enforcement database is a must-read. The story tracks a whistleblower making serious claims amounting to “The C.I.A. has corrupted F.B.I. agents to violate basic rules as to how the Department of Justice does criminal prosecutions.”
RELEVANT, TOO
Prosecutions begin against dozens who participated in the January 6 Capitol riots, several of which are alleged to be members of extremist and white supremacist groups. Prosecutors arguing the case against Jacob Chansley (aka the “Q Shaman”) claim that “[s]trong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government.”
BOTTOM LINE
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