Secure Liberties

Huge: Sens. Heinrich and Wyden reveal the CIA is conducting bulk surveillance of financial records and… something else. According to their letter, the CIA has been operating these programs for years, acquiring not only financial transactions but also some other kind of record — in bulk. The released documents also make clear that this surveillance is impacting people in the United States. Most notable to us is the CIA’s explicit reliance on “the President’s inherent constitutional authority to collect foreign intelligence.” This may sound familiar to the dozens of members who asked several still-unanswered questions about Executive Order 12333 way back in 2020. The NY Times, among others, has the story here. Cato’s Pat Eddington, who has been hunting these documents for years, discusses the revelations here.

Lawmakers declare intent to push another War Powers Resolution due to ongoing US support for war on Yemen…

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 …

The FBI just cemented its relationship with Clearview AI, according to CyberScoop, meaning we’re all one step closer to the “end of privacy as we know it.” The contract is only for $18,000, but it gives the FBI online access to billions of images illicitly scraped from social media companies without users’ consent. CyberScoop further found “more than 20 federal law enforcement contracts” for facial recognition had been awarded since June — when GAO released this damning report on the technology.

Biden “considering” redesignation of Houthis as a terrorist organization as war on Yemen escalates this month…

You need to know about this: CBP surveilling travel, family of Members, Congressional staff, and journalists. How we know: Yahoo News released this incredible investigation into a rogue CBP unit with apparently no limits or guidelines. Agent Jeffrey Rambo (no joke), with the support of his boss and access to extremely sensitive intelligence databases, effectively tried to blackmail reporter Ali Watkins as part of an out-of-control leak investigation unrelated to the unit’s mission. There’s too much to summarize — this is simply one of those pieces you must read. A bottle of Whistle Pig to whomever spots the parallel construction red flag first.

Not all bad news on the surveillance front, though: “Utility giants agree to no longer allow sensitive records to be shared with ICE,” per WaPo…

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 …

NDAA Ahead! After a cloture vote was delayed due a last-minute attempt to merge the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA) and the NDAA, the Senate finally cleared the procedural hurdle last night after Schumer and Pelosi agreed to negotiate the USICA language separately. A motion to proceed is on the docket for a vote this morning. As the Thanksgiving recess approaches, the time crunch adds even more uncertainty over the fate of over 900 amendments to be considered either en bloc or for a floor vote (though it’s unlikely many will receive the latter). We have more NDAA talk below.

Congress is gearing up for a fight on continued US military assistance to Saudi Arabia…

New helicopter contract with Saudi Arabia flies in the face of Biden’s promised policy shift. The new $500bn deal signed by the Biden admin would provide support to the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command’s fleet of Apache helicopters, Blackhawks, and a future fleet of Chinook helicopters. The deal provides two years of training, the service of 350 US contractors, and two US government staff. The deal was first announced in September. Per The Guardian, it is very likely these helicopters have been used previously in Saudi’s offensive operations in Yemen, contradicting Biden’s supposed ending of US support for such operations.

As world leaders meet at COP26, Rep. Lee wants the DoD to own up to its own carbon footprint (which is massive). The clock has run out for the DoD to provide a detailed report on the Pentagon’s greenhouse gas emissions, as mandated by the FY2021 NDAA…

Although we’re used to watching bad horror movies this month — Treasury’s sanctions review is really, really bad. After nearly 10 months after the Biden admin announced it would undergo a comprehensive review on US sanctions policy, they released a 7-page document that didn’t evaluate past or current sanctions programs, contained boilerplate recommendations without specifics, and did not seriously grapple with negative humanitarian consequences or ineffectiveness of sanctions. In his hearing yesterday with the Senate Banking Committee, Deputy Treasury Secretary Adeyemo did not provide much info outside of what was in the 7 pages, and dodged some pretty simple questions (see this exchange with Sen. Ossoff). Needless to say, advocacy groups, who have been calling for comprehensive evaluation of US sanctions regimes along with meaningful reforms, are pretty disappointed.

Somebody in this camp ain’t what he appears to be: DEA approved 50+ covert surveillance requests (including undercover infiltration and aerial surveillance) targeting racial justice protests last summer, according to new documents released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington…

CIA leadership reportedly considered kidnapping, poisoning, and assassinating Julian Assange and other members of Wikileaks, reports Yahoo News. This story is immense, and there are many questions that remain, but at least this much is true: when Director Pompeo called Wikileaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service,” and when SSCI snuck it into the Intelligence Authorization Act, it meant a whole lot more than what the public was told. What Congress will do about it is anyone’s question.

The NSA and CIA Use Ad Blockers Because Online Advertising Is So Dangerous

The public’s support for surveillance ten years ago has flipped to opposition, according to a new AP-NORC poll. There’s a lot to say about the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, and today’s newsletter is longer in the interest of including several important takes below, but this sea change reflects a great deal about the underlying currents:

• 46% of Americans oppose warrantless surveillance of emails between people outside the US, vs. 27% in favor. 10 years ago, it was 47% support, 30% oppose.

• 44% of Americans oppose warrantless surveillance of calls between people outside the US, vs. 28% in favor.

• “About half” of Americans are opposed to monitoring internet searches, and only “a quarter” are in favor. Over 80 groups endorsed this protection in 2020.

The first two findings are particularly remarkable given they relate to non-US persons outside the US — dozens of groups and members of Congress endorsed establishing that protection for people inside the US in July and are still fighting for a vote. On the third point, you may recall that House leadership and HPSCI Chairman Schiff inadvertently tanked the entire 2020 Patriot Act reauthorization after installing a hole in an amendment designed to protect against surveillance of internet searches. Whoops! (We’re still waiting on some answers.)

Slew of progressive foreign policy amendments to the NDAA get a vote.