Secure Liberties Newsletter
TOP LINE
Another hurdle cleared for NDAA’s passage in the Senate. Action expected this afternoon. When we clocked out last night, there was yet another impasse for the Senate NDAA regarding lack of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. We woke up, however, to news that a tentative deal has been reached to move things forward. The Nord Stream 2 sanctions amendment is now slated for a vote, along with 21 other amendments. The catch: to move the amendment votes forward today, Senators must reach unanimous consent, Politico reports. That means some last minute wrenches can still be thrown into the works. Consideration of the NDAA is on the docket for noon today according to the Senate schedule. We’re hoping this nightmare of a process will be over by our next edition (fingers crossed)
Data broker founded in Singapore tells Sen. Wyden its data is being used by DHS, IRS, military, and more for warrantless tracking — “of devices both at home and abroad,” according to The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau. This is a significant update for this story because it’s still unclear (to the public) what exact route the government is using to acquire information about people in the US (without court or judicial authorization). Relatedly, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman and Sen. Mark Udall called for further investigation into this practice in the NY Daily News.
Finding common ground on war powers: Bi-partisan group of lawmakers sends letter to Biden on unauthorized airstrikes. On November 18, Reps. DeFazio, Mace, and Bowman led more than 30 others in a letter questioning the Biden Administration’s legal justification for two airstrikes this year in Syria which were not authorized by Congress. The letter debates the President’s invocation of his Article II defensive authorities, and suggests that the airstrikes were in contravention to the War Powers Act of 1973. At the end, the representatives request the administration directly respond to a list of specific questions in order to clarify its legal position on war powers.
ABROAD
New co-sponsors and org support for action to block Saudi arms deal. Momentum is gaining towards the vote on a joint resolution of disapproval (JRD) to the pending $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with Senators Wyden, Leahy, Markey, and Warren joining Senators Paul, Lee, and Sanders on S.J.Res.31. To bolster the effort, on Monday, a group of 46 organizations sent a letter to Members of Congress urging them to support the JRD. Besides the fact that the sale will continue US support for Saudi’s war and blockade on Yemen, the letter also argues that the sale would contravene the Leahy Laws, Foreign Assistance Act, and Arms Export Control Act given the Kingdom’s “pattern of unlawful attacks on civilians and human rights violations.” Sen. Paul indicated yesterday he will force a vote on the matter “within the next week.” In the meantime, we recommend William Hartung of the Center for International Policy’s piece in Forbes, which lays out the case against the sale.
Iran and US negotiators head back to Vienna to continue JCPOA talks. We’ll be following closely, but not much to report on yet. Somewhat significant is the agenda: the first order of business was the sanctions lifting working group yesterday, followed by the working group meeting today to discuss Iran’s nuclear commitments. This reflects Iran’s firm stance that it must see concrete guarantees of US’s return to its commitments (i.e. lifting crippling sanctions) if the nuclear deal is to survive. We recommend following Laura Rozen’s helpful updates in her Substack, Diplomatic.
Is the Biden admin continuing Trump-era covert warfare plans? That’s what we’re asking after a Yahoo! News report revealed that Trump signed off on a massive “200-page package of options” for covert activity against Iran — including potentially lethal sabotage and psyops — at the end of his presidency, with the knowledge that most of it would be carried out under Biden. While the report focuses on the various tensions between the Trump administration, the Pentagon, and the CIA, we’re left with a giant, scary question mark after reading this sentence: “It is unclear whether the Biden administration has continued to pursue the Trump-approved operations.”
Speaking of, the former head of Israeli Military Intelligence research speaks on “colossal” and counterproductive policy failures towards Iran. We recommend reading the full Times of Israel interview.
New Poll: Jewish voters in the US strongly favor diplomacy with Iran; Iran low on political radar. We just wanted to share a new poll passed along by J Street, which polled the American Jewish community on a number of issues. On the question of Iran, 69 percent of respondents wanted the US to re-enter the nuclear agreement with Iran, and 65 percent favored diplomacy over use of force even if an agreement isn’t reached within the next 6 months. Out of 13 issues of concern given to choose from, only 3 percent of respondents ranked Iran as a top issue.
High-level investigation ordered on deadly 2019 Syria airstrike which a New York Times report revealed last month to have killed more than 80 civilians. A previous internal inquiry was suppressed by officials, but after scrutiny, Secretary of Defense Austin is commissioning General Garrett to head a 90-day review of both the airstrike and the initial inquiry. Over 20 organizations sent a letter yesterday to the leaders of the congressional armed services committee requesting public hearings with top Pentagon officials on the issue.
Human rights research groups have more questions for Sec. Austin on US-caused civilian deaths with an eye towards Yemen. Yesterday the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana and the Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Clinic sent a letter to the Pentagon asking for accountability over U.S. military operations between 2017-19 in Yemen which killed, according to the organizations’ report, 38 civilians and injured 7 more. The organizations found issue with the DoD’s previous response to their findings, and are now calling for a public apology, opening of new investigations, provisions for transparency, and ex gratia payments to the surviving family members of civilians killed by the US military in Yemen.
Some hopeful news: Official end of the Korean War nearing. The U.S. and South Korea are finalizing text to officially declare an end to the Korean War, which ended in armistice in 1953. Such an overture may jumpstart further peace negotiations in the region.
AT HOME
Fmr Rep. Holtzman and Sen. Udall: Is our government buying our data? We need a federal investigation, they argue in this compelling NY Daily News op-ed. See our top story for more on Sen. Wyden’s efforts to get to the bottom of this controversy.
Sen. Durbin just called for closure of Guantánamo, calling the detention facility “an affront to our system of justice and the rule of law,” and “where due process goes to die.” He’s pushing for an amendment to the NDAA. The big question is whether Durbin as Chair of Senate Judiciary, Rep. McCollum as Chair of the Approps Subcommittee on Defense and advocate for closing GTMO in her own right, and the rest of the coalition can push this over the big hill together.
This should be fun: Fmr SecDef Esper is suing the Pentagon over improper redactions of a new book. According to WaPo, Esper’s attorney (natsec specialist Mark Zaid) says he’s “the highest-ranking government official to sue for prior restraint related to a book.” They say the redacted text is “crucial,” and that Esper wants to provide a “‘full and unvarnished’ accounting of his tenure” under Trump.
Julian Assange extradition would lead to “serious human rights violations,” according to Defending Rights & Dissent policy director Chip Gibbons. We’re waiting for news of the British High Court’s ruling in response to an appeal by the United States.
A straw off the camel’s back: Customs and Border Protection released new guidelines for pregnant and infant detainees, requiring changing stations and some medical support, according to The Hill. The inspector general previously found that 24 babies had been born under CBP custody between 2016 and 2020, and in 2020 one woman “gave birth while wearing pants and holding onto a trash receptacle.”
Why not here?: Clearview AI Risks $23 Million Fine for Snooping on Brits. A preliminary review said “the firm violated data protection rules ‘in several ways,’ including by failing to ‘have a lawful reason for collecting the information’ and for ‘failing to inform people in the U.K. about what is happening to their data.’”
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
12/8 at 4: The Digital Deportation Machine: How Surveillance Technology Undermines Chicago’s Welcoming City Policy (RSVP here via Zoom, put on by Just Futures Law, Organized Communities Against Deportation, University of Chicago Law School’s Immigrant Rights’ Clinic, and Mijente, about this related report)
RELEVANT, TOO
Chinese province targets journalists, foreign students with planned new surveillance system
Because of China (and North Korea): US Seeks to Bolster Facilities in Guam, Australia
S. Korea Confirms Permanent Deployment of US Helicopter Unit
Dark money network pushes pro-UAE/Saudi policies from New York
About the NDAA: Expand Five Eyes to Nine? That’s Four Too Many
HBO sets December premiere for Alex Gibney’s “The Forever Prisoner” on the story of Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA’s torture program.
I’m a Defense Industry Worker. It’s Time to Cut the Pentagon Budget.
McGurk’s Dangerous Overconfidence in Military Action
‘Hate crime’ attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians spike in the West Bank
Anti-BDS Laws Could Upend the Constitutional Right to Engage in Boycott
Congressional oversight leaders ask for GAO review of FBI whistleblower protections
Amazon wages secret war on Americans’ privacy, documents show
(“When the law passed, Democratic state lawmakers touted it as the ‘first of its kind in the country to protect individual privacy rights associated with biometric identifiers.’
Amazon’s public-policy team had a different take in a 2017 U.S. policy update on digital devices: The team, it said, had negotiated ‘favorable changes’ that meant the law would have ‘little, if any, direct impact on Amazon’s practices.’”)
Caught in the Act? An analysis of Germany’s new SIGINT reform
Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race and Rights releases three Muslim Identity lectures: Post-Colonial Legality and Human Rights by Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An’Naim, Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts Against Domestic Violence by Professor Juliane Hammer, and Terrorism, Hate Crimes, and the Framing of White Supremacist Violence by Professor Shirin Sinnar
Stop Rubber-Stamping Exorbitant Defense Spending
BOTTOM LINE
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