Secure Liberties Newsletter

Cavan Kharrazian on April 20, 2023

TOP LINE

Call a plumber, we’ve got a leak. You’ve definitely seen by now the stories about the massive leak of classified documents. While a lot of the media is interested in the identity of the alleged leaker and the story behind it, we’re much more interested in what the documents have to say (and why some key information was being held from the public), like the fact that the US spying on the UN secretary general and the Mexican government. One story from the leaks revealed that the Biden admin knew that the Saudis were willing to negotiate on key Houthi demands which the State Department said publicly were non-starters, signaling that US pressure was likely a partial culprit in stalling forward progress on peace.

Another important revelation was the confirmation that the US, and other NATO countries, have special forces operating on the ground in Ukraine. While the documents only confirm the presence of 14 US forces, it begs the question, as Kelley Beaucar Vlahos asks in her latest Responsible Statecraft piece, “Just how many US troops and spies do we have in Ukraine?” – and also what sort of activity they are engaged in. 

That is something that Rep. Matt Gaetz is trying to figure out through his recently-introduced privileged resolution of inquiry, which, if passed, would require the Executive branch to turn over all documents related to military assistance to Ukraine, as well as disclose the number of US armed forces and special operators deployed in Ukraine. We did know, however, from previous reporting by The Intercept and the Washington Post that the US government was most likely running covert operations in Ukraine and that the Pentagon was eager to send operatives to “observe Russian movements and counter disinformation” through Section 1202 authorities, which have been used to assist in secret warfare around the globe. While we don’t know if Section 1202 has ever been used to direct US forces to accompany kinetic military operations by surrogate forces, Katherine Ebright warns in her most recent Just Security piece that the Section 1202 lacks the necessary guardrails to prevent this, and argues that Congress needs to limit this authority that the DOD is very eager to expand. 
 
FBI SURVEILS REP. LAHOOD

The FBI searched troves of warrantlessly surveilled communications using Republican Rep. LaHood’s name over suspicions of a foreign government’s espionage or covert influence operation, per The New York Times. In 2019, the FBI searched messages for information related to him while he was heavily involved in China trade policy. This recently declassified report indicated the searches were “overly broad.” WIRED first reported about Demand Progress Education Fund’s discovery of unlawful searching of FISA information “using only the name of a U.S. Congressman,” using “the names of a local political party,” and based on racial profiling earlier this year. In response to the new information, Demand Progress’s Sean Vitka responded that “frequently there is ambiguity as to whether someone is a witness or a target, and there’s no ‘defensive’ or ‘offensive’ distinction in the Fourth Amendment — a search is a search.”
 
YEMEN

“Is the war in Yemen coming to an end soon?” asks Shireen Al-Adeimi in In These Times. And with good reason – there have been significant steps towards a comprehensive peace agreement between warring parties in Yemen. Saudi and Omani delegations have already met directly this month with Houthi officials in Sana’a for preliminary negotiations. Progress has been made. The Saudis have begun loosening parts of their deadly blockade on Yemen and tentatively agreed to payment for all state employees with oil revenue – a key sticking point in previous negotiations. Over the weekend, hundreds of prisoners have been released in prisoner swaps between the Saudis and Houthis. The recent peace overtures follow a recent détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by China. Biden’s senior Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, and US Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking traveled to the Kingdom over the weekend to talk with Crown Prince bin Salman where they “underscored the U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s defense against threats.” We’ll be keeping an eye on whatever that means (we’re always weary whenever McGurk is involved in things). Ultimately, as Al-Adeimi notes in her piece (which you should definitely read in full!), while a Saudi-coalition exit from the war is a necessary prerequisite for peace in Yemen, there will still be a lot of work ahead for Yemen’s internal actors in constructing a stable and peaceful future for the country.
 
CFPB DATA BREACH

A CFPB staffer forwarded confidential information on over 250,000 consumers and 45 institutions to personal email. CFPB has not indicated why the employee, who no longer works there, forwarded this information but has asserted that there is no proof that the records were distributed beyond the individual’s personal email account. This significant data breach has sparked worries about the CFPB’s capacity to protect consumers’ personal information and could reignite complaints from Republicans about the bureau’s practices of gathering consumer data. The former employee has yet to provide proof that the emails containing the information have been deleted.

NSO STRIKES AGAIN

Israeli company NSO Group has been found to have deployed new “zero-click” hacks against iPhones that can penetrate Apple’s latest software. The hacks were discovered by researchers at Citizen Lab, who shared their findings with Apple, which has since fixed the flaws. The attacks targeted human rights activists investigating military abuses and a mass kidnapping in Mexico in 2015. Coincidentally, one of the attacks took place when international experts released a report challenging government evidence and interference. Mexico is the first and most prolific user of Pegasus, the world’s most infamous spyware, which can infiltrate phones and extract every detail from them. Mexico has continued to use Pegasus to spy on human rights defenders despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s promises to stop the “illegal” spying.
 
RECOMMENDED READING

  • A report diving into the militarization of border communities and the transformation of U.S. borders into a de facto war zone with devastating and deadly consequences by the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center.

  • A report addressing issues with the Department of Homeland Security’s domestic intelligence programs and recommendations to implement better guardrails to protect civil rights and civil liberties and create a robust and unified oversight structure by the Brennan Center for Justice.

  • A piece highlighting things to know about the NSA’s surveillance as Congress debates the reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA, by the American Civil Liberties Union.