Secure Liberties Newsletter

Hajar on February 3, 2022

TOP LINE

The IRS is forcing taxpayers “to submit to facial recognition in exchange for being able to complete a range of basic tax-related activities online,” according to The Atlantic. We first heard of this through Brian Krebs’s excellent blog, and while the IRS claims taxes can still be submitted without facial recognition in paper, civil liberties advocates consider the move an extreme step in the wrong direction. Per The Atlantic, “the company frames its technology in misleading ways,” and as a reminder, NIST previously studied facial recognition and found “false positives for Asian and African American faces relative to images of Caucasions. The differentials often ranged from a factor of 10 to 100 times.” WaPo has more here, and Edward Hasbrouck detailed how hard it is to avoid the new system here.

Thursday: DHS Intelligence and Analysis nominee, Ken Wainstein, heads to HSGAC with major questions looming over his involvement with illegal surveillance, and that’s before getting to Portland. Among the big questions is his involvement with controversial surveillance procedures that allow the NSA to “contact chain” (think: map) Americans. BGov has more here.

Leaked US proposal to Russia shows no agreement on NATO expansion while Biden deploys thousands to eastern Europe. Russia’s long standing demand that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO was formally rejected by the US, leaked documents revealed yesterday. However there was a bit of a silver lining: the US did keep the door open for “reciprocal transparency measures” to ensure that both countries refrain from stationing offensive missile capabilities on sensitive borders. But Putin has strongly reiterated the central importance of the NATO issue. There was a bit of a media back and forth on whether Ukraine’s Zelenskyy was pissed off at Biden’s insistence that a Russian invasion was imminent or not, thereby unnecessarily increasing tensions. Maybe not? Either way, tensions are still increasing as Biden moves 3,000 troops to Poland and Romania, while Russia has not (to our knowledge) drawn down troop presence near the Russia-Ukraine border. Congress is also looking to triple military aid to Ukraine and impose massive economic sanctions, which the New York Times reports would have major impacts on civilians.

AT HOME

Nearly 50 civil liberties groups called on HJC and SJC to hold hearings on the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, including the ACLU, Americans for Prosperity, and Demand Progress. According to Politico, one Democratic aide is blaming January 6th tensions for the hold-up, despite 20 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate and “dozens” of co-sponsors lined up in the House.

Following Pegasus: A very, very bad month in the fight between civil liberties and the NSO Group:

Also be sure to check out Haaretz’s NSO File: A Complete (Updating) List of Individuals Targeted With Pegasus Spyware

DOJ dropped another China Initiative case against MIT professor Dr. Gang Chen. The New York Times notes that this follows seven other dismissed cases as well as the September acquittal of professor Anming Hu. MIT Technology Review called Dr. Chen “one of the most prominent scientists charged.” Dr. Chen added: “While I am relieved that my ordeal is over, I am mindful that this terribly misguided China Initiative continues to bring unwarranted fear to the academic community, and other scientists still face charges.” You can hear Dr. Chen’s thoughts directly here.

Whisper app’s unsecured databases leaked over 1 billion records. WaPo reports that this anonymous secret sharing social media app leaked “some combination of shared secrets, geolocation and timestamps for those secrets, usernames and nicknames” from two separate databases: approximately 1.2 billion records from one database, and approximately 361 million records from the other. Bob Diachenko of Comparitech states that enough identifying information was leaked for hackers to identify users and engage in “blackmail, stalking, harassment, or other crimes.” The first instance of compromising user data was in 2020, but Whisper rejected the concerns claiming that app data is intended to be public.

New IG report finds NSA is misusing information acquired through Section 702, per CNN. The NSA “failed to follow both court-approved and internal procedures designed to prevent officials from using a controversial foreign surveillance law to inappropriately monitor Americans’ communications.”

Biden’s Homeland Security Advisor engaged in cyber strategy prior to divesting financial interests. According to The Intercept, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall “held vested employee stock options at two growing companies in the cybersecurity industry” when she joined the White House in January 2021. “She chose to wait 85 days to exercise the stock options. They were vested. She could have sold them on January 20, the day she started her new job,” said Walter Shaub of POGO

Big Tech NatSec: FTC Chair Lina Khan and numerous organizations, including the American Economic Liberties Project, rejected claims that antitrust action poses a national security risk. This comes after a dozen former defense and intelligence officials with ties to Big Tech warned against pursuing the ongoing antitrust crackdown.

US government misbehaved in Assange case, James C. Goodale writes. He argues that the UK’s supreme court should take the Assange case and slap down the DOJ for inappropriate handling of the case.

Biden admin changes course on torture-obtained evidence in GTMO case. According to Just Security, Biden’s DOJ “categorically rejected the use of statements obtained through torture at any stage in the proceedings and promised that the government will not seek to admit any statements the petitioner made while in CIA custody.” The DOJ’s Monday brief in the Al-Nashiri case took a starkly different stance on torture-obtained evidence than prosecutors took in the case’s pre-trial proceedings. As we previously covered, experts decried that pre-trial posture, arguing that “[n]o court has ever sanctioned the use of torture in this way.”

Speaking of torture, FBI Agents Became CIA Operatives in Secret Overseas Prisons, according to Carol Rosenberg at The New York Times. This new information “undermines” the FBI narrative that its agents walked out of the CIA’s torture black sites — in fact, the CIA and FBI “arranged for nine FBI agents to temporarily becomes CIA operatives.” Those agents are now considered “CIA assets … and so their identities are classified.”

ABROAD

US deploying more military to UAE, as anniversary of Biden’s announced Yemen policy shift approaches. This Friday marks one year since Biden announced an end to US support for the Saudi-UAE-led offensive on Yemen. Though critics say he hasn’t done enough, given that the US still props up the Saudi Royal Air Force’s capabilities. The same airforce that has been on a bombing spree in Yemen as of late. As mentioned in the last SLN edition, UAE-backed forces have been getting more involved in Yemen, leading to Houthi attacks on UAE soil. In response, the UAE has asked the Biden admin to relist the Houthis as a terrorist organization. No word on if that’s happening yet, but Defense Secretary Austin announced yesterday that as a defensive measure, the US is sending in fighter jets to the UAE and bringing in the USS Cole to partner with Emirati forces. Dr. Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute weighs in here. 

Iran negotiators say they’re “in the final stretch,” a deal is “in the ballpark,” or whatever sports idiom you prefer. After some internal disagreements in the US negotiating team, leading to the departure of ‘sanctions artist’ Richard Nephew, US diplomats have signaled that significant progress has been made in narrowing down differences and getting to a point where final ‘political decisions’ will have to be made about reviving the deal or not.

Recent reporting and political pressure lead to DoD directive on civilian harm mitigation. After months of news reports on civilian harm caused by the US military, lawmaker statements, and civil society pressure, which we’ve covered in our past editions, Secretary Austin has issued a two-page directive calling for a “Civilian Harm Mitigation And Response Action Plan” to be drawn up within 90 days. The plan would provide for the implementation of standard institutional practices to prevent, mitigate, and respond to civilian harm. On the same day, RAND released its congressionally mandated report on DoD civilian casualty policies, confirming their inadequacy. Though critics have made the case that it will take the restructuring of the US’s entire approach to war to prevent a repeat of these past failures. 

Senators push for approving special funds for global covid relief. On Monday, Senator Warren led 9 other colleagues in calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to ensure that a House-passed provision in the 2022 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) Appropriations Act will remain in the final bill after conference. The provision calls on the Treasury to vote affirmatively for the IMF to issue another tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), a global reserve asset that offer countries liquidity in emergency situations (like a global pandemic and recession). The IMF already released $650 billion worth of SDRs last year, but the Senators say more is needed for lower income countries to respond to ongoing health and economic concerns. The letter also calls on the US to support a “recycling” mechanism at the IMF, through which rich countries can “donate” their SDRs to developing nations. 

Time for summer school! Biden receives failing grades by arms control experts. The Forum on the Arms Trade brought together experts to issue a report card on various aspects of Biden’s arms export-related policies in his year. On several subjects (Landmine policy, Risky arms sales, Palestine/Israel, Militarization of law enforcement (1033), and Arming authoritarians in the Middle East) he received a D or worse, signalling “net decline to pre-existing middle-of-the-road policy or failure to improve dangerous pre-existing policy” per their rubric. Spencer Ackerman writes more on those results here.

What would a “progressive foreign policy” look like? A new resolution provides a potential roadmap. As new foreign policy issues seem to be popping up daily, Reps. Jayapal and Lee led 17 lawmakers in introducing a resolution outlining the tenets of a progressive “Foreign Policy for the 21st Century” centered on “human dignity, social justice, and cooperation.” Check out Jayapal and Lee’s write up on the bill here.

Sanctions on Zimbabwe show widespread effects of some so-called “targeted” approaches. The US has so many sanctions around the world, it’s kind of hard to keep track of them. One oft-forgotten target is Zimbabwe, which has been subject to decades of US sanctions. Some recent reports have shown that some sanctions programs purportedly levied at top Zimbabwe officials have reverberated throughout the economy, negatively affecting the country’s economy. 

WHAT’S HAPPENING

This Friday, February 4 at 1pm: The War in Yemen: One Year into the Biden Administration 

February 8 at 12: Costs of War, Just Security, Friends Committee on National Legislation: Beyond the War Paradigm

RELEVANT, TOO

ICYMI: Can War In Ukraine Be Avoided? An American-Russian Conversation (Quincy Institute event) 
Foreign Policy: Afghan Women Aren’t Liberated by Humanitarian Catastrophe Historic.ly Podcast: Operation Condor with John Dinges
The Intercept: Prosecutors Silence Evidence of Cruel Factory Farm Practices in Animal Rights Cases
Politico: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
ProPublica: Boston City Councilors Seek Review of Surveillance Tech Purchase by Police

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