May, 19 2023, 03:44pm EDT
Newly Declassified Opinion Reveals Continued Abuse of FISA Section 702 to Spy on BLM Arrestees, Jan. 6 Suspects, Political Donors, Imperiling Reauthorization
FBI Abused Controversial Surveillance Law More Than 278,000 Times
Just now, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released declassified opinion from the FISA Court, which describes previously unknown abuses of the controversial FISA surveillance law known as "Section 702."
In response, Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel at Demand Progress, issued the following statement:
"This newly revealed abuse of Section 702 surveillance is shocking and unmatched since the days of J. Edgar Hoover. For the FBI to misuse Section 702 to spy on people protesting the killing of George Floyd, political donors, and victims of crimes is an unspeakable abuse of trust. Congress must enact comprehensive privacy protections for people in the United States, against all forms of warrantless surveillance, or Section 702 must fall. If the administration wants to see this law survive in any form, it should publicly embrace this reality."
Section 702 will expire at the end of 2023 unless Congress reauthorizes it, which has produced the ongoing, fiery national debate over the law's potential renewal and created a generational opportunity to secure comprehensive privacy protections for Americans.
A bipartisan coalition, including both the powerful House Freedom and Congressional Progressive Caucuses, has made clear that reauthorization of Section 702 is a non-starter unless paired with an "overhaul of privacy protections for Americans," said Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Warren Davidson (R-OH). These protections must reach beyond Section 702 and into surveillance that occurs completely outside of judicial authorization and Congressional oversight, under "claims of inherent executive authority," or any new privacy protections will effectively be optional. In launching the Fourth Amendment Caucus, long-standing privacy champions Representatives Tom McClintock (R-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) similarly centered the need to close the "data broker loophole," through which government agencies at all levels are now purchasing Fourth Amendment-protected information about Americans, including our location, without warrants.
The release of these alarming abuses on a Friday afternoon is part of a continued effort by the government to bury these stories.
For background on the FBI and NSA's widespread violations and institutional lack of candor regarding Section 702, please reference the following documents:
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LATEST NEWS
'Harris Voters for Human Rights' Work to Defeat Trump—and Fight for an End to Gaza Genocide
"To voters who can't yet entrust Harris with their votes because of the genocide, the fascist Trump will make it even worse for the people of Gaza, and you can trust us to fight to push Harris to end it if we put her in office together."
Nov 05, 2024
Warning that a victory for Republican nominee Donald Trump would bring even greater catastrophe for Palestinians, a coalition of progressive organizers and activists is vowing to both back Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in Tuesday's election and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the White House to demand an end to U.S. complicity in Israel's assault on Gaza.
The coalition, dubbed "Harris Voters for Human Rights," declares in a pledge shared with Common Dreams that "we are fighting to end the horror in Gaza AND defeat fascism."
"We believe Trump will be even worse for Palestinians," the pledge states, echoing the sentiment expressed by Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim community leaders in Arizona and elsewhere. "We know he will be a disaster for women, working families, immigrants, democracy, and life on planet Earth. Whatever the VP says or not, know this: You can count on the Harris coalition base to fight for Palestinian human rights."
While the coalition is pushing for a Harris victory, organizers said they intend to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the White House on November 12 "regardless of the election result"—unless a cease-fire deal is reached or an arms embargo against Israel is implemented by that date.
"To Biden and Harris, we—your voters—will escalate our pressure to end our complicity in this horror," said Kai Newkirk, a founder of the coalition and co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Council. "To our fellow Harris voters who support Palestinian human rights, put your body where your mouth is. To voters who can't yet entrust Harris with their votes because of the genocide, the fascist Trump will make it even worse for the people of Gaza, and you can trust us to fight to push Harris to end it if we put her in office together."
The planned protest date marks the end of the 30-day period in which the Biden administration told Israel to take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip or face a possible cut-off of U.S. military support.
In the weeks since the administration issued its notice, Israeli forces have continued their relentless bombardment of Gaza—particularly the northern part of the enclave—and the country's lawmakers have moved to ban the United Nations agency primarily responsible for administering humanitarian aid in the territory. Experts, human rights groups, and progressive lawmakers have argued that U.S. law requires an arms embargo against Israel, given its repeated obstruction of American humanitarian assistance.
The "Harris Voters for Human Rights" coalition is "calling on Biden and Harris to uphold U.S. law, which Israel is violating egregiously in Gaza, where it has killed tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly," and "decimated" the enclave's infrastructure.
The effort comes as Harris and Trump made their final pitches to the U.S. public ahead of Election Day, with the candidates in a dead heat in battleground states that will decide the outcome of the high-stakes race.
"As president," Harris said during a campaign rally in Michigan on Sunday, "I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination."
Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, said in a statement Monday that "the first essential step is defeating Trump."
"He has made clear his intention to ruthlessly suppress pro-Palestinian demonstrations, making a mockery of our right to free speech while undermining the foundations of our democracy," said Minsky. "To prevent this, we need as many Democrats as possible to join our pledge. That will send a powerful message to dismayed voters who've lost faith in our party; and it will push Biden and Harris to do more to win them back."
"A public pledge to uphold our laws without exception would inspire hundreds of thousands of voters who may otherwise refuse to cast their ballots for her," Minsky added. "In the meantime, we will try to lead by example and inspire them to vote to empower the Democratic base that won't stop fighting until Kamala Harris delivers as president."
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Who Should Pay for Climate Damage? Majority of the World Agrees: Big Oil
"As governments debate how to finance climate action, they can be confident that making polluters pay is not only fair, but also far more popular and effective than placing the burden on ordinary citizens."
Nov 04, 2024
A multinational survey commissioned by Greenpeace International and published Monday revealed that a majority of respondents favor making fossil fuel companies pay for being the main cause of the climate emergency.
Greenpeace International's Stop Drilling, Start Paying campaign commissioned the strategic insight agency Opinium Research to survey 8,000 adults in eight countries—Australia, Argentina, France, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States—ahead of this month's United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
"Asked about who should bear the most responsibility for climate change impacts, the most popular option across all eight countries in the survey was making oil and gas companies pay, with high-emitting countries and global elites ranked second and third," Greenpeace International said in a summary of the survey, adding that "60% of all surveyed countries see a link between profits of the oil and gas industry and rising energy prices."
The survey also found that two-thirds or more of respondents are angry about Big Oil CEOs getting huge bonuses even as their products exacerbate the planetary emergency; fossil fuel expansion; industry disinformation; and the "historic and ongoing role of oil and gas companies in conflict, war, and human rights violations."
Eight in 10 respondents said they were worried about climate change. However, more than twice as many people surveyed in the Global South said the climate emergency has personally affected them than respondents in the Global North.
According to Greenpeace International:
Imposing a fair climate damages tax on extraction of fossil fuels by OECD countries—proposed by the charity Stamp Out Poverty and supported by 100 NGOs, including Greenpeace International—is one example of a tax on big polluters. This could generate $900 billion by 2030... This would be key for annual climate-related loss and damage costs, estimated to be between $290-$580 billion by 2030 in low-income countries, as well as for reducing the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and adapting to the impacts of the climate crisis in all countries.
"This research shows how taxing the wealthy polluters-in-chief—companies like Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Total, Equinor, and Eni—has become a mainstream solution among people, cutting across borders and income levels," said Stop Drilling, Start Paying co-chair Abdoulaye Diallo. "As governments debate how to finance climate action, they can be confident that making polluters pay is not only fair, but also far more popular and effective than placing the burden on ordinary citizens for a crisis for which they bear little or no responsibility."
The Opinium survey was published on the same day that Amnesty International called on the richer countries most responsible for the climate emergency to "fully pay for the catastrophic loss of homes and damage to livelihoods" in Africa.
"African people have contributed the least to climate change, yet from Somalia to Senegal, Chad to Madagascar, we are suffering a terrible toll of this global emergency which has driven millions of people from their homes," said Samira Daoud, Amnesty's regional director for West and Central Africa. "It's time for the countries who caused all this devastation to pay up so African people can adapt to the climate change catastrophe."
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Erasing 'Any Sign of Life,' Israeli Demolition Teams Razing Entire Villages in Lebanon
"This is a scorched-earth policy, a violation of the Geneva Conventions," said one reporter.
Nov 04, 2024
As the death toll from Israel's 13-month assault on Lebanon passed 3,000, satellite imagery analyses published by multiple media outlets in recent days revealed that nearly a quarter of all buildings in 25 municipalities in the southern part of the Mideastern country have been destroyed or damaged in a ferocious campaign that has left entire villages in ruins.
Satellite photos examined by The Washington Post, Reuters, and the Financial Times showed vast destruction caused by Israeli bombing and controlled demolitions of towns and villages, many of whose residents are among the more than 1.2 million people forcibly displaced by the war.
"There are beautiful old homes, hundreds of years old," Meiss al-Jabal Mayor Abdulmonem Choukeir toldReuters. "Thousands of artillery shells have hit the town, hundreds of air strikes. Who knows what will still be standing at the end?"
Meiss al-Jabal native Fatima Ghoul toldThe Washington Post that "everything has been reduced to rubble" in the town of 8,000 inhabitants. Footage circulating on social media Monday showed large portions of the village, which has been inhabited for many hundreds of years, turned to dust in a simultaneous series of demolition explosions.
According to the Post:
Satellite imagery from Kfar Kila shows freshly turned soil where olive groves once stood, suggesting a clearance operation by Israeli forces. Dozens of crushed buildings line the town's main road. The destruction is most intense near the Israeli border. The village centers in nearby Ayta al-Shab, Mhaibib and Ramyeh have also been decimated, the imagery reveals.
Videos published on social media show a series of controlled explosions in at least 11 villages. In a video published to X on October 22, half a dozen buildings fall in an instant after an explosion, covering the 400-year-old village of Ayta al-Shab in dust clouds and debris. In drone footage published online the next day, an Israeli flag flies over the town—now reduced to a sea of broken trees and collapsed concrete.
In one video verified by the Post, IDF troops cheer the demolition of a mosque in the village of Dharya, with one soldier exalting, "What a moment!" while others break out in religious song.
Religious and culturally important buildings are protected under international law. Scorched-earth tactics and disproportionate attacks are war crimes under international law.
"Even if civilians are not inside, those types of buildings don't lose their protection," former U.S. Department of Defense attorney Sarah Harrison told the Post.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces claimed the IDF was obliterating Lebanese towns and villages because Hezbollah—the political and paramilitary group based in Lebanon—is turning "civilian villages into fortified combat zones." Hezbollah denied the accusation.
Retired Lebanese Armed Forces Gen. Akram Kamal Srawi told the Financial Times that "there are two reasons Israel is using this detonations strategy."
The first reason, he claimed, is that the IDF is clearing the way for a possible deeper invasion of Lebanon.
"The second is that Israel has adopted a scorched earth strategy in order to wage psychological warfare on Hezbollah's base people by televising these detonations and weaken support for the group—which will never work," he added.
Israel began attacking Lebanon at almost the same time it launched its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Hezbollah has fired at least hundreds of rockets and other projectiles at Israel in a sustained yet measured campaign in solidarity with Gaza, where Israel's bombing, invasion, and siege have left more than 155,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more displaced, starved, and sickened in a war that the International Court of Justice is investigating for possible genocide. At least scores of Israelis have been killed or wounded by Hezbollah's cross-border attacks.
In addition to the at least 3,002 people killed by Israel's onslaught, Lebanon's Health Ministry says that more than 13,000 others have been injured. The ministry does not distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilians. Critics say neither does the IDF.
"We're a family of artists, my father is well-known, and our home was a known cultural home," Lebanon Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Lubnan Baalbaki told Reuters after viewing satellite images confirming the destruction of his family home.
"If you have such high-level intelligence that you can target specific military figures, then you know what's in that house," Baalbaki added. "It was an art house. We are all artists. The aim is to erase any sign of life."
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