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christopher wray
Rights Group Sues US for Placing Palestinian American on 'Illegal, Racist Watchlist'
"Security agencies have no right to infringe on people's rights under flimsy pretext and without judicial permission and due process," said a plaintiff in the case.
Aug 12, 2024
The largest U.S. Muslim civil rights group on Monday announced it is suing Attorney General Merrick Garland and other federal officials for placing one Palestinian American on its "no-fly" list and for seizing another's electronic device and interrogating him about his constitutionally protected organizing for a free Palestine.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its Los Angeles office (CAIR-LA) are suing Garland, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, Terrorism Screening Center Director Michael Glasheen, and other national security officials on behalf of Mustafa Zeidan and Osama Abu Irshaid.
According to the lawsuit, the men "are both United States citizens of Palestinian descent" who have never "been charged or convicted of a violent crime."
"Yet, recently, the federal government has placed Dr. Abu Irshaid and Mr. Zeidan on a secret list, subjecting one to a humiliating process of detention, questioning, and phone seizure at the border and barring the other from flying altogether," the filing states. Irshaid is on the terrorism watchlist while Zeidan cannot fly.
"Only one thing has changed for Dr. Abu Irshaid in recent months: his constant and passionate advocacy for an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza and an end to the United States' complicity in that genocide."
"As a result of his status on the government's secret list now, Dr. Abu Irshaid is detained at the border by federal agents each time he crosses it," the document continues. "Federal agents ask... humiliating questions about his lawful associations and work leading a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of Palestinians."
As a board member and national director of Palos Hills, Illinois-based American Muslims for Palestine, Irshaid frequently appears as an expert on mainstream media outlets including NPR and Al Jazeera, where he warned last December of "dangerous smear campaigns that weaponize racism to silence the Palestinian freedom movement."
The lawsuit states that
federal agents "have successfully coerced" Irshaid into unlocking his phone, which they still held at the time the suit was filed.
"Only one thing has changed for Dr. Abu Irshaid in recent months: His constant and passionate advocacy for an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza and an end to the United States' complicity in that genocide," the complaint stresses.
The lawsuit continues:
Mr. Zeidan has fared even worse. [He] travels to Jordan several times a year to visit and take care of his ailing mother. After purchasing a ticket to see her in May of this year, he showed up to the airport, only for officials at the airport to tell him that he was forbidden from boarding his flight because of his status on the government's secret list. The government has given Mr. Zeidan no explanation for why he's been placed on the no-fly List after years of flying overseas without any issues. Only one thing has changed in the last several months for Mr. Zeidan: He organizes a weekly protest to call for an end to Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza and the United States' complicity in that genocide.
"When I first came to the United States almost three decades ago what appealed to me the most about it were the constitutional rights and civil liberties that guarantee humans dignity," Irshaid said Monday at a press conference in Washington, D.C. announcing the lawsuit, "and that security agencies have no right to infringe on people's rights under flimsy pretext and without judicial permission and due process."
"The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington turned things upside down in the United States," Irshaid continued. "Harsh laws were enacted that infringed on the civil and constitutional rights of American citizens including the right to privacy and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty."
"American Muslims in particular became suspects merely because of their religious and ethnic background and were treated as guilty until proven innocent," he noted. "I understand the need to maintain security, but it must be conducted consistent with American values, and constitutional legal values and protections."
Explaining that he was previously on the U.S. watchlist from 2010-17, Irshaid expressed his dismay at finding himself back on it. However, he said he would not stop advocating for Palestine.
"As a human being, I reject killing, maiming, displacement, starvation, displacement, and terrorization of tens of thousands of children, women, civilians, and innocents, regardless of their nationalities," he said. "Moreover, as an American, I reject the complicity of American decision-makers in supporting such crimes with weapons, money, and the diplomatic immunity they provide to Israel."
"The right to political dissent is protected by the First Amendment," Irshaid added. "This does not make me less patriotic, but rather makes me more in line with American values."
Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) urged her House colleagues to condemn a proposal by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to add pro-Palestine student protesters to the no-fly list.
"A sitting senator labels Americans protesting against a foreign country accused of carrying out a genocide funded with our tax dollars as terrorists and puts a target on their back to be attacked," said Omar, who is Muslim. "This is insanely dangerous and somehow no one will condemn it."
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'Shocking': FBI Director Admits Agency Purchased Geolocation Data of Americans
"Congress must fix this before considering any reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this year," said one advocate.
Mar 08, 2023
Privacy advocates on Wednesday said testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray at a U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing offers the latest evidence that Congress must take action to keep the government from performing mass surveillance on people across the United States, as Wray admitted the bureau has purchased cellphone geolocation data from companies.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Wray at a hearing about national security threats whether the FBI purchases "U.S. phone geolocation information," showing the location of users.
Wray said the bureau does not currently make such purchases, but acknowledged for the first time that it "previously, as in the past, purchased some such information for a specific national security pilot project," drawing on data "derived from internet advertising."
He said the project has been inactive "for some time" but said he could only provide more information about it and the past purchase of geolocation data in a closed session with senators, adding that the FBI currently accesses "so-called ad tech location data" through "a court-authorized process."
"This is a policy decision that affects the privacy of every single person in the United States."
"I think its a very important privacy issue that [geolocation data purchases] not take place," said Wyden, an outspoken advocate for privacy rights.
Grassroots social welfare organization Demand Progress called Wray's admission "both shocking and further proof of the need for Congress to take immediate action to rein in mass surveillance."
"This is a policy decision that affects the privacy of every single person in the United States," said Sean Vitka, the group's policy counsel. "We should have the right to decide when and how our personal information is shared, but instead intelligence agencies continue to obstruct any accountability or transparency around this surveillance."
The revelation came as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is scheduled to expire at the end of the year and as Congress is expected to soon begin debating its reauthorization.
As written, the provision allows the U.S. government to conduct targeted surveillance of people in foreign countries, but intelligence agencies have also used the law to collect data on Americans.
"Congress must fix this before considering any reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this year," said Vitka of Wray's admission.
Vitka and Fight for the Future director Evan Greer were among the critics who demanded to know "who told [Wray] buying Americans' location info from data brokers would be legal?"
\u201cThe @FBI bought Americans\u2019 location info without a court order. This is enormous, was illegal, and has countless effects on the #FISAReform debate this year. What it means for what remains of Americans\u2019 privacy is horrifying.\u201d— Sean Vitka (@Sean Vitka) 1678293086
Privacy advocates have long warned that the Supreme Court ruling in the 2018 case Carpenter v. United States, in which the court decided government agencies that accessed location data without a warrant were violating the Fourth Amendment, contains a loophole allowing the government to purchase data that it can't obtain legally.
"The public," Vitka told Wired, "needs to know who gave the go-ahead for this purchase, why, and what other agencies have done or are trying to do the same."
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Former Trump Adviser Steve Bannon Calls for Beheading of Fauci and FBI Chief
"Former top White House aide is advocating for the murder of two government officials for being disloyal to Donald Trump."
Nov 05, 2020
In the middle of a tense election battle in which fears of right-wing militia violence are already running high, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon took the incendiary rhetoric to a dangerous new level Thursday by suggesting that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded as a "warning to federal bureaucrats."
During an episode of Bannon's online show "War Room: Pandemic" that was shared widely on social media, the far-right provocateur said Trump should fire both Fauci and Wray if he secures a second term in the White House.
"Now I actually want to go a step farther but I realize the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man," said Bannon, who is out on bail after being arrested in August for his role in a fraud and money laundering scheme. "I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I'd put the heads on pikes, right, I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you're gone--time to stop playing games."
Jack Maxey, Bannon's co-host, followed the former Trump adviser's comments by noting that "just yesterday, there was the anniversary of the hanging of two Tories in Philadelphia, these were Quaker businessmen who had cohabitated, if you will, with the British while they were occupying Philadelphia."
"That's how you won the revolution," Bannon responded. "No one wants to talk about it. The revolution wasn't some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war."
"Former top White House aide is advocating for the murder of two government officials for being disloyal to Donald Trump," HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Date tweeted in response to Bannon's remarks.
The video of Bannon's comments was live on Facebook for at least 10 hours and had racked up nearly 200,000 views before it was finally removed on Thursday. YouTube also removed the video Thursday night for violating its policy against "inciting violence" and Twitter permanently banned Bannon's "War Room" account.
As The Guardianreported Thursday, "There has been mounting concern over the risk of violence following this week's U.S. elections, amid highly inflammatory rhetoric from Trump and his allies, who have falsely said Democrats are trying to 'steal the election.'"
"Philadelphia police arrested two men who were allegedly involved in a plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Thursday night. Police were tipped off, possibly from a concerned family member of one of the men," The Guardian noted. "The moves against Bannon came hours after Facebook banned 'Stop the Steal,' a group involved in organizing protests this weekend throughout the U.S. against the presidential vote count. One post, shared by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, declared: 'Neither side is going to concede. Time to clean the guns, time to hit the streets.'"
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