Secure Liberties Newsletter
TOP LINE
Backdoor Search Fix is back on the floor! After a 5-year hiatus, Reps. Lofgren and Massie (and Jayapal, Davidson, Eshoo, and Spartz) are bringing back their hallmark reform aimed at stopping the use of Section 702 of FISA to warrantlessly search Americans’ communications. A coalition of 28 groups called for support here. The vote could be any minute!
Catholic newsletter used data-for-sale to pin a priest to Grindr. This is not good news, and shows why some folks have been so fixated on the growing problem of spies for hire. Speaking of, Sen. Wyden had a chance to grill DOJ NSD nominee Matt Olsen (starting at 1:19:50 here). Our favorite bit: there must be accountability for spies for hire, and Olsen owes a written explanation about whether Internet browsing and search histories require a warrant. Over at SJC, Sen. Ossoff got Olsen to commit to some “legislative fixes” too.
Bi-partisan package of sweeping national security reforms makes a big splash. Last week, Senators Murphy, Sanders, and Lee co-introduced the National Security Powers Act, which would entail automatic funding cutoffs for unauthorized military action by the President, sunset all existing authorizations for the use of military forces (AUMFs), require affirmative votes for foreign arms sales that meet certain criteria, and provides for significant congressional checks over the use of presidential emergency powers, including key powers which presidents have used to implement broad economic sanctions.
SURVEILLANCE
DOJ using domestic terrorism label to go after environtmental activists, seeking enhanced sentences. As Politico noted, the DOJ “did not seek the terrorism enhancement at the sentence of the first Jan. 6 rioter.”
Prosecutors are withdrawing evidence from ShotSpotter while cops are asking for alterations, per this chilling Vice article. An analyst at ShotSpotter, which uses mics to try and record gunfire and is in use in over 100 cities, moved the source of gunfire to match a defendant’s location, and rather than let the court test the evidence, prosecutors withdrew it all. The article tracks another important case, which resulted in acquittal, where in response to requests from police analysts identified additional gunfire the system had not originally picked up.
The DOJ has dropped charges against five scientists in “China Initiative” cases (Lei Guan, Dr. Chen Song, Dr. Juan Tang, Xin Wang, and Kaikai Zhao, w/ thanks to apajustice.org) — without explanation. Another was dismissed the week before. Members of the AAPI have long decried such prosecutions as racist (see this recent roundtable from Reps. Chu and Raskin). We’re eager to find out how much this is connected to the “rogue, unaccountable police force” within the Department of Commerce.
FBI informants were involved in the plot to kidnap and kill MI Gov. Whitmer from the beginning, leading one reporter to describe it as “very similar to the type of sting operation we’ve seen targeting Islamic extremists.” Will the juries be more favorable to these defendants?
French Pres Macron switched phone and number after being targeted by NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, which we covered before. Meanwhile, Snowden called for a ban on international spyware trade in the aftermath of the ongoing scandal. And don’t forget, Pegasus isn’t alone.
Speaking of Pegasus, we liked the WaPo’s four key takeaways in their Cybersecurity 202 newsletter: “The stakes are extremely high,” “These are incredibly powerful hacking tools,” “The story is already having an impact,” and “NSO’s links with Israel’s government are unclear.”
The TSA, meanwhile, is mandating reporting of cyber incidents to federal authorities. We’re waiting on the “protect your data” part, though.
Check out our Keeping the Free Press Free panel! Relatedly, the DOJ has changed their (completely self-imposed) rules around getting reporters’ phone and email records.
ARMS, INTEL, and NDAA
You may have heard Biden is ending the US combat mission in Iraq. It’s not quite clear what would exactly change. The Biden Admin attracted headlines by announcing with the Iraqi Foreign Minister an end of the US combat role in Iraq by the end of the year, but it seems like it’s more of an on-paper reclassification of the more than 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq to a “training, advisory, and intelligence sharing” role alongside Iraqi Security Forces. As the Military Times notes, the US hasn’t even led a combat mission in years. Despite the White House’s attempt to brand this as a significant policy change, it definitely warrants skepticism. Daniel DePretis of Defense Priorities offers some that in his op-ed on the subject.
Democratic leadership blocks Rep. Chuy García’s attempt to reverse Trump’s Cuba remittance restrictions, per The Nation. This week the Rules committee, led by Rep. McGovern, blocked an amendment from being voted on that would have raised a Trump-era cap on the amount of remittances that US citizens could send back to their families in Cuba, as well as removing blacklists on the main financial vehicles to do so. Previously, the Biden campaign had come out against “Trump’s war on family remittances” to Cuba on the campaign trail, but he has so far not pushed to reverse these policies. On the broader topic, we recommend Assal Rad’s piece in Responsible Statecraft linking the fight to end endless wars with economic warfare, such as the 60-year blockade on Cuba.
We are sad to see that a key Yemen blockade amendment was not made in order for SFOPs. A proposed amendment to the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill by Rep. Dingell, which would have blocked funds for US maintenance, spare parts, or logistical support of Saudi warplanes used to enforce the brutal blockade on Yemen, was blocked by the Rules Committee. This amendment would have settled some huge issues with the Administration’s ambiguous definition of ending support for Saudi’s “offensive operations.” It’s unclear the reasoning for its removal, but we will follow up with this in a future SLN. However, a non-binding amendment by Rep. Dingell “to highlight opposition to U.S. political or diplomatic support for the Saudi blockade of Yemen” was allowed to move forward for a vote.
ICYMI, check out Demand Progress Education Fund’s briefing on the Yemen blockade from last week, which featured experts and advocates explaining Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, US complicity in the blockade, and ways Congress can get involved.
Biden’s first strikes in Somalia raise questions and shows us again why the 2001 AUMF is far too broad. Last week, the US conducted two airstrikes against al-Shabab targets fighting Somali military forces. These were the first strikes in Somalia since January — before Biden took office and paused drone strikes in places like Somalia that are not considered conventional war zones. The first strike, which was not ordered directly by Biden, drew condemnation from lawmakers and legal experts for its lack of congressional authorization and the dubious use of “collective self-defense” justification under international law. The second strike was justified by the administration under the 2001 AUMF, highlighting yet again how the authorization has been used as a blank check to justify endless wars around the globe (specifically, 41 operations in 19 countries).
Little transparency in OLC opinion on Soleimani strike. On July 16, the Justice Department released a redacted copy of a memo by the Office of Legal Counsel over the justification of the January 2020 assasination of Iranian General Soleimani (thanks to Protect Democracy’s FOIA request). As you may expect, the document is basically a black box — literally. The amount of redacted information makes it difficult to conduct a thorough analysis of the document, and what legal precedents it may set. However, Scott Anderson from the Lawfare Blog had a few interesting takeaways from some of the lines that saw the light of day.
DOJ defends weapons sales to the UAE, saying that the country’s past malign conduct is not a good enough reason to block the sale. In the lawsuit organized by the New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs (NYCFPA) to challenge the $23 billion arms sale to the UAE, which was initiated by Trump and continued by Biden, the DOJ argued that the arms sales are disconnected from the UAE’s pattern of human rights abuses and previous misuse of US military equipment. As Akbar Shahid Ahmed notes, this contradicts some of the Biden Admin’s previous statements and actions concerning US arms sales. We particularly liked NYCFPA’s simple, succinct summary of the issue at hand: “If somebody is throwing rocks into the water and you give them more rocks, guess what they’re probably going to do? Throw those extra rocks!”
But lawmakers still are wary of sending weapons to bad actors, with Nigeria being the latest case. Senators Menendez and Risch, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively, have held up a proposed arms sale to Nigeria which entailed attack helicopters and precision weapons systems worth $875 million, citing human rights violations, civilian casualties, and authoritarian drift of the government as reasons for further scrutiny before moving the sale along.
RELEVANT, TOO
Bloomberg doesn’t disclose potential conflict in op-ed promoting Israel arms deal
Congress Tried To Force Trump to End the Yemen War. Now They’ll Have To Do the Same With Biden.
OLC: Biden Legal Team Decides Inmates Must Return to Prison After Covid Emergency
AAJC and ACLU Appeal FBI’s Refusal to Disclose Government Records on the “China Initiative”
Long-Withheld Office of Legal Counsel Records Reveal Agency’s Postwar Influence
BOTTOM LINE
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