Secure Liberties Newsletter
Covering War, Peace, Militarism and Everything in Between
TOP LINE
Memo confirms the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is buying bulk location data about people in the US without warrants, claims Carpenter doesn’t apply. In a memo written for Senator Wyden, the DIA disclosed it had been buying bulk smartphone data from unidentified brokers and have used the data to carry out investigations, some of which involved US citizens. Former Judge Andrew Napolitano argues the practice is bogus and unconstitutional. This comes on the heels of several other stories over the past year, including similar allegations aimed at CBP and ICE.
Thousands rally across the world to say “No to War on Yemen.” 386 organizations in more than 17 countries participated in a global day of action — with both online and in person demonstrations — demanding: an end to foreign aggression in Yemen, weapons and war support for the Saudi/UAE-led coalition, lifting the blockade, and restoration and expansion of humanitarian aid for the Yemeni people.
Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch renewed civil society calls to declassify the torture program: “[T]here remains simply no legal justification for maintaining the fiction that disclosing the full details of the torture program would harm national security. The danger in not doing so is far greater.”
ARMS, INTEL, and NDAA
Cleaning house at the Pentagon: Biden’s new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sacked all members of 42 DoD advisory boards and halted all their activities until the completion of a “zero-based review.” The move is a response to the appointment of Trump loyalists to these boards after the November election.
It’s time for a new relationship with Saudi Arabia according to 10 top Democratic lawmakers, who sent a letter this week urging the administration to undertake a wider reevaluation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, including accountability for the Khashoggi assassination, withdrawing U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and reversing the Foreign Terrorist Organization on the Houthis.
Biden Admin calls the review of Saudi and UAE arms sales “a routine administrative action,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Some lawmakers are hopeful this signals a reversal of the Trump Administration’s last-minute sale of billions of dollars of arms to the two countries, which received heavy pushback from Democratic lawmakers and human rights advocates. While the Saudi sales are frozen, the UAE deal is only under review, in part, for the role the sale may have played in last year’s Abraham Accords negotiation. However, the UAE doesn’t seem to be too worried about the review.
Italy went all the way, however, and announced they are permanently suspending their arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE over their involvement in the war in Yemen.
Movement towards ‘ending endless wars’ gains momentum as Rep. Lee led a letter to Biden with the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rules Committee, Intelligence Committee, and Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee urging an immediate repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), a thorough review of the 2001 AUMF, and stricter guidelines for any new AUMFs.
29 organizations and 200 foreign policy experts signed a letter in support of Robert Malley after a concerted smear campaign by proponents of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign in an attempt to pressure Biden to drop his Iran envoy pick.
1 in 5 defendants in the Capitol insurrection are current or former military, according to NPR, bolstering calls to root out extremism and white supremacy in the military. Last Friday, Representative Jackie Speier wrote President Biden, Secretary Austin, and Director Haines, urging more effective screening mechanisms for members of the armed services and to officially identify white supremacy and violent extremism as major threats.
Biden designated Myanmar’s military takeover as a coup and threatened to reimpose previously lifted sanctions.
A coordinated return to the JCPOA within the realm of possibility, said Iran’s top diplomat, Javad Zarif, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour this week. Zarif suggested that a top EU official could synchronize a mutual return to compliance, a shift in his previous public position, which called for US sanctions to be lifted prior to a return. The US State Department said there were many steps until proposal’s like Zarif’s would be entertained, but did not reject the idea outright.
Things are a bit less tense in the Persian Gulf as the US moves its aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, out of the region and Iran agrees to free the crew of an impounded South Korean ship following a pledge by the South Korean government to move quickly in addressing $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets in Korean banks.
SURVEILLANCE
FBI agents are reportedly knocking on the doors of DC residents whose phones pinged cell towers around the Capitol on January 6. (Did this happen to you? Let us know what happened!)
You can’t fight fascism by expanding the police state, argues Evan Greer of Fight for the Future: “Expanding the U.S. government’s already bloated surveillance state will only bring more terror and harm to the same communities that Trump targeted with his racist policies and rhetoric.”
Yet some intelligence and law enforcement entities are driving attention to secure messaging platforms, even as encryption may be actively keeping sensitive information stolen during the attack on the Capitol safe from prying eyes.
Reminder from our last edition: Over 100 organizations and 10 Representatives led by Rep. Tlaib also argued that expanding the government’s vast surveillance powers will redound to wrongful targeting and surveillance of communities of color and activist groups.
Parler made surveillance of users easy, for literally anyone. One savvy researcher snatched all the data before the platform went dark, including precise location information of its users in real time.
RELEVANT, TOO
SolarWinds continues to drive the news, as Chinese hackers allegedly also got in on a different exploit.
BOTTOM LINE
Interested in seeing this newsletter grow? Be sure to invite your colleagues to sign up!
Sign up here! (Forwards welcome.)
This is a project of Demand Progress Education Fund.
What are we missing? Send us an email here.
Archives at www.secureliberties.org.
Like this newsletter? Check out the First Branch Forecast, too!