Secure Liberties Newsletter

Cavan Kharrazian on September 8, 2022

One-year anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Last week marked a year since the final day US troops left Afghanistan, ending our two-decade occupation. Long deemed a failed operation by US officials (even though they hid the fact from the public), the war cost hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars. Laying in the wake are millions of Afghans facing a severe humanitarian crisis. To add insult to injury, the Biden admin continues to withhold $7 billion of Afghanistan’s independent central bank’s reserves, which are crucial to stabilizing the country’s economy. Additionally, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has only approved less than 2% of Afghan applications it processed for a humanitarian parole program.

To learn more, tune into an online event with experts and Afghan civil society leaders titled “One Year After The Withdrawal: Recommendations for Supporting an Afghan-led Social Movement for Justice” on September 14 at 10:30 AM ET. You can register here.

Unauthorized tit-for-tat war with militias in Syria continues; Biden continues stonewalling Congress over key war powers questions. Between August 15 and August 25 US forces and militias linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps traded a series of attacks on each others’ bases, resulting in 6 militia deaths and 3 injured US service members. But this latest fighting goes back much further. Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, concerned by similar strikes in Syria, led an unanswered letter to Biden asking the administration to clarify their legal basis for continued hostilities against militias Congress never authorized use of force against. In July, a majority of the House Democratic Caucus and 25 Republicans voted for an NDAA amendment which would require a vote for continued US presence in Syria.

Bi-partisan trio of Senators demand more oversight into US support for civilian harm in Yemen. Yesterday, Senators Warren, Sanders, and Lee sent letters to the Pentagon and State Department, following up with a GAO report in June that indicated systemic failure to assess whether and how any of the $54.6 billion in US military assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE were misused or contributed to civilian harm in Yemen. The letters contain a list of clarifying questions on DOD and State processes to mitigate harm and how they oversee end-use of weapons. The lawmakers also called for the release of additional information to better understand these processes.

NDAA watch. As the bill (maybe) moves forward this month, we’re watching to see if some key national security provisions make it through the final reconciliation between the House and Senate versions, such as:

  • Creating a bipartisan Commission on Civilian Harm (Section 1084 of H.R. 7900 – Annie Shiel of CIVIC provides detailed analysis of the NDAA’s civilian harm provisions in Just Security)

  • Repeal of the 2002 Iraq AUMF, and a sense of Congress supporting sunset clauses for future AUMFs (Section 1229A of H.R. 7900 & Section 1358, respectively)

  • Subjecting the use of secretive war authorities used for proxy warfare to more oversight or the codification and funding of similar problematic authorities (Section 1037 of H.R. 7900 & Section 1331 of H.R. 7900, respectively)

  • Provisions that would make it harder to close Guantanamo Bay (Sections 1035 of H.R. 7900 and Sections 1031, 1032 and 1033 of the Senate mark)

As the surveillance industry expands, so do concerns about protecting our privacy. The Federal Trade Commission is holding a public forum this afternoon re: commercial surveillance and data security. Chair Lina Khan released a statement in advance of the public forum, “The data practices of today’s surveillance economy can create… imbalances of power.” Companies are increasingly incentivized to expand collection of personal data, putting at stake “not just one’s subjective preference for privacy, but one’s access to opportunities in our economy and society, as well as core civil liberties and civil rights.” The public comment deadline is October 21.

Many civil society groups continue to advocate for measures that would limit the purchase of information from data brokers. As mentioned in our previous edition, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act—introduced by Nadler and Wyden in 2021–would close loopholes that are being exploited by the government to engage in data purchases. And, an amendment to the NDAA by Reps. Jacobs and Davidson would provide Congress and the public with only the information necessary to assess the profound privacy consequences of the Department of Defense buying its way around the Fourth Amendment. Specifically, it requires the Department of Defense to disclose whether subcomponents are purchasing smartphone location and internet activity records about people in the United States.

A new lawsuit alleges that the CIA illegally copied the electronic devices of individuals that visited Julian Assange. “The suit… seeks damages personally from then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo for violating the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.” The four plaintiffs –  two lawyers and two journalists – met with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK during 2017 and 2018. The lawsuit claims that a Spanish security firm worked with the CIA to gather surveillance, including copying information off electronic devices that were turned over to the firm during visits.

ICYMI, FCNL released a new report providing empirical evidence re: failures of the war-based, military-first approach to terrorism. The Failures of the War on Terror reflects on the last two decades of war – “the annual number of terror attacks worldwide has significantly increased, terror groups have proliferated across the globe, and nearly 9,000,000 people have been killed. Militarized counterterrorism has caused direct war violence, mass displacement, rising Islamophobia, human rights abuses, and trillions of wasted dollars.” Read more from FCNL’s Heather Brandon-Smith here.

A few upcoming events:

  • [VIRTUAL] Muslim Counterpublics Lab is hosting an upcoming Book Talk & Panel, in partnership with Muslim Justice League – Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Lessons & Legacies of the War on Terror Two Decades+ Later (Thursday, September 15 @ 7 PM ET). Register here.

  • [IN PERSON] The Long Road to Federal Privacy Protections: Are We There Yet? (Wednesday, September 21 @ 4 PM ET) Register here.