Secure Liberties Newsletter
TOP LINE
Biden’s new National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism triggers alarms because it doubles down on DHS’s controversial and ineffective community prevention strategies, critics say. A new report from the Brennan Center takes a deep dive into these strategies’ failures, including their inability to identify violent people, lack of empirical support, and disparate impacts. Cato’s Pat Eddington, meanwhile, notes that it’s “hard to imagine how the FBI and DHS could possibly provide more information to their” counterparts, another major focus of the strategy. There’s also some language that may point toward increased checkbook surveillance, and the MPD gang database story below doesn’t help things, either.
Hacked MPD emails show gang database has 6, 5, 3, 2, and <1-year-olds, among other problems, per a review by The Intercept. The documents were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency collective that is also behind BlueLeaks. The documents reveal the “hazy criteria” that MPD and other gang databases use — and that the information is shared expansively. Among the criteria is “‘associating’ with validated gang members” and “being identified as a gang member by an ‘unproven informant.’” Many groups have been critical of these databases for years, for instance by calling for IG audits.
The House approves 2002 AUMF repeal; the Senate keeps dragging its feet. In a show of bi-partisan support, the House voted 268-to-161 to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, which was welcomed by Biden. The Senate, however, has delayed its vote after five members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee penned a letter requesting further hearings. See Tess Bridgeman and Ryan Goodman’s take on the Senators’ letter in Just Security.
Gitmo detainees decry worsening conditions under Biden, VICE News reports. Complaints include deteriorating hygiene facilities, harsher treatment from guards, and a slowdown in even basic medical treatment. Last week, 2 more detainees were approved for transfer to a foreign country, but Biden has yet to appoint a special envoy to handle these transfers or the broader closure of the facility. We recommend this piece by Valerie Lucznikowska, a member of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, in which she evaluates a May letter by 8 GOP senators calling on Biden to maintain the detention facility.
ARMS, INTEL, and NDAA
Are we surprised that four of Khashoggi’s killers were trained in the US? Not really, but it’s still a big deal. If you’ve followed even a little bit of US foreign policy, it shouldn’t really be a shocker to hear another story about how we helped train people that ended up doing bad things — especially where Saudi Arabia is concerned. But we still think it’s important to highlight a new report on how the State Department, under both the Obama and Trump Administrations, greenlit the paramilitary training of four Saudi Royal Guardsmen on US soil who were later responsible for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
What does the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s new president mean for the JCPOA? We aren’t really sure, but Raisi did not rule out continued negotiations. In a press conference he indicated that he thinks any negotiations shouldn’t be dragged out, quickly dismissed the possibility of meeting directly with Biden, and did not agree with including non-nuclear related issues in the current talks. Yesterday President Rouhani’s chief of staff told the media that an agreement had been reached with the US to remove all Trump-era insurance, oil, and shipping sanctions, but there was no specified timeline. Raisi will officially take office in August.
Following the Iranian election, however, the US did take down a bunch of Iran-linked news sites. On Tuesday evening, the Justice Department confirmed it had seized the domains of 33 news websites linked to the Iranian government and the Iraqi paramilitary organization Kata’ib Hezbollah (which, if you remember, was a target of Biden’s February airstrike). Interestingly, for the Iran-linked websites, the Justice Department cites Trump-era sanctions designations which were based on ‘electoral interference.’ This could potentially set a dangerous precedent for US action against other, non-Iranian news sources.
The US votes yet again against a UN resolution calling to end the embargo on Cuba, but a majority of Americans disagree. For 24 years the US has voted against a UN General Assembly opposing its economic embargo on Cuba. However, a new poll by Data for Progress and Progressive International shows that 57% of Americans believe the US should support the resolution. The only time the US abstained was under Obama in 2016, but so far Biden has for the most part continued Trump’s Cuba policy. For more on the effects of the US embargo on Cuba, we recommend this Oxfam report and this piece in Vice News.
In more sanctions news, the Treasury Department has issued COVID-19 related general licenses for Iran, Venezuela, and Syria. In a move that appears partly in response to growing pressure by lawmakers and civil society to mitigate the negative effects US sanctions policies have on global COVID-19 responses, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued general licenses to explicitly allow pandemic-related transactions with the three countries. However, it is unclear whether these licenses are sufficient to overcome the complex hurdles for humanitarian trade that US sanctions pose.
A new poll shows likely voters support legislation conditioning US aid to Israel. The Data for Progress poll indicates that 55% of respondents support preventing US taxdollars from supporting: the military detention of Palestinian children; the seizure or destruction of Palestinian property and homes; or, support for Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territory. These are all key tenets of a bill introduced by Rep. McCollum earlier this year.
SURVEILLANCE
Spying on Schiff shifts spying debate, argues Liza Goitein at the Brennan Center. As Congress figures out what to do about the DOJ spying on (at least) two of its own, and of course more than a handful of journalists, Goitein says the Biden admin’s response fails “to recognize the inherent sensitivity of communications information.” Congress should act, she argues, because “[i]t would be a mistake to settle for a policy that protects only a select few, while leaving the rest of us.” Speaker Pelosi and HPSCI Chair Schiff have called for an Inspector General investigation (which the IG has initiated), which wouldn’t reach either goal, while civil society has called for Congressional action. Senate Judiciary has asked for documents.
Speaking of Schiff and surveillance, Techdirt notes the irony given his recent and historical support for surveillance.
Advancing Justice – AAJC calls for a case to be dropped and for a moratorium on the “China Initiative,” following a deadlocked jury in a case against a University of Tennessee professor. The group argues the “case was built on fabricated evidence and flimsy charges rooted in racial bias and profiling.” The case is new to us, but it wouldn’t be the first time.
ICE sought to chill speech by punishing and surveilling immigrant advocates for peaceful protests, per excellent reporting by The Intercept. The protests came after a DACA recipient died in ICE custody. Per the family’s lawyer: “ICE didn’t bother to conduct the forensic autopsy their standards required, correct the false record of Jean’s criminal history, or reveal to Congress and the American people that he held valid DACA status up until the moment he died. But they found time to digitally surveil his memorial in Kansas City and a protest in Nashville against the CEO of a private prison company.”
Defense contractors are critically vulnerable to ransomware, according to a new report. “100% of large R&D companies displayed network vulnerabilities” and 28% of small-to-medium sized contractors “fall short of basic, tier-1” standards. As noted by Cybersecurity 202, they’re “using outdated software that hadn’t been patched against known computer bugs,” and this negligence creates “a far easier path to infecting one of the larger and better-protected companies” — or agencies. This is how SolarWinds happened, folks!
SCOTUS says trivial offenses don’t justify warrantless entry in another win for the Fourth Amendment. The case revolved around a man playing music loudly on an empty highway (to the danger zone).
RELEVANT, TOO
Op-ed: Wars will last forever if Congress won’t acknowledge they’re over
Rep. McGovern to Biden: Lift all Trump-era secondary and sectoral sanctions on Venezuela
DHS still evades review of no-fly orders
Op-ed: Don’t Listen to the Pundits: Withdrawing from Afghanistan Is Incredibly Popular
How the Biden Administration Should Take Torture-Derived Evidence Off the Table
POGO: 45 Organizations Urge Congress: Reject the Pentagon’s Request for FOIA Secrecy (Again)
Marcy Wheeler: PCLOB: The Essential Oversight Link Designed to be Inadequate
New York’s Vaccine Passport Could Cost Taxpayers $17 Million
Germany: Civil Society, Tech Giants Oppose State’s Trojans Plans
BOTTOM LINE
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