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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

August 4, 2023 - 4 août 2023

Justice for Hassan Diab Press Conference + Petition signed by 10,000 delivered to PMO

ICLMG 27/07/2023 - Human rights and legal experts speak out as more than 10,000 people sign petition calling on PM Trudeau to refuse any request for Hassan Diab’s extradition. Opening statements by Hassan Diab, Alex Neve, Rob Currie, and Bernie Farber. Moderated by Tim McSorley (ICLMG). Followed by a period of questions from the participating media. Maeve McMahon, Roger Clark, and Tim McSorley are also available to answer questions.

Des expert.e.s des droits de la personne et des juristes s'expriment alors que plus de 10 000 personnes signent une pétition appelant le Premier ministre Trudeau à refuser toute demande d'extradition d'Hassan Diab. La conférence de presse débute par des déclarations de Hassan Diab, Alex Neve, Rob Currie et Bernie Farber. Animé par Tim McSorley (CSILC). Une période de questions des journalistes suit. Maeve McMahon, Roger Clark et Tim McSorley sont également disponibles pour répondre aux questions. Watch - Visionner

Short CTV News video segment: Hassan Diab's unending case

Photos from the petition delivery at the Prime Minister's Office

Short video of the petition delivery action at the Prime Minister's Office

CALL Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Urging Him to Protect Hassan Diab

EMAIL: Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

Envoyez une lettre: Le Canada doit protéger Hassan Diab!

Take Action to Prevent Another Wrongful Extradition of Hassan Diab! (all actions, one link)

ICLMG comments: Ottawa mosque has charity status restored

Twitter 26/07/2023 - After five years, the Ottawa Assalam Mosque has won its appeal against the CRA revoking its charitable status.

Assalam was one of the featured Muslim-led charities in ICLMG's report on systemic discrimination and Islamophobia at the CRA.

This is very positive, but more needs to be done, including suspending the work of the CRA's Review and Analysis Division until the conclusion of an ongoing review and significant policy changes. We hope the new Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau takes action on this issue. Source

With its charitable status restored, this mosque can continue its good work, president says (video)

ACTION: Stop CRA's Prejudiced Audits

Espionage, terrorism, plotting against governments? Numbers offer a glimpse of Canada’s security screening — and its problems

The Toronto Star 02/08/23 - Canada’s border security officials have flagged people almost 1,000 times over the past decade for alleged involvement in espionage, in terrorism or in bringing down a government — but only a small fraction have been deported. And experts say there is likely good reason for that. As the federal government and opposition parties try to shape a public inquiry into foreign interference, Canada’s efforts at detecting and removing foreign actors engaged in such activities have also come under scrutiny.

The federal government can deport a permanent resident or foreign national, or bar them entry to Canada, if the person is deemed to be engaging in espionage or terrorism, contrary to Canada’s interests. The Canada Border Services Agency prepared 967 so-called inadmissibility reports on security grounds between January 2012 and July 2023, according to government data obtained by the Star. As a result of those investigations, 242 removal orders were issued and 77 people were removed from the country over the same period. However, of the inadmissibility reports, only 16 were for engagement in espionage that is against Canada or that is contrary to its interests. Meanwhile 26 involved the subversion of a government, and four were over engaging in efforts to bring down a democratic government, institution or process. (The data provided by CBSA did not clarify whether these efforts were targeting the Canadian government or foreign governments.)

The rest of the cases were based on the person’s membership in an organization that “there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in the activities above.” “Most of these are not based on what people have done,” says immigration lawyer Simon Wallace, who recently published an academic paper about the adjudication of national security deportation. “They almost never looked like a John le Carré novel. They are very different circumstances than spies meeting in the park or something.” Wallace, who is pursuing a PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School, said he was not surprised that most of these cases were under the less serious allegations on the spectrum, even though they are all based upon “reasonable grounds to believe.”

“Functionally, it’s much easier to prove that people are members of a group than that they’ve done something,” he explained. “People are really quite forthright about their memberships and their associations, not necessarily knowing that Canada looks at those memberships differently.” One of those organizations is the Bangladesh National Party, an opposition group and former governing party in that country, whose members are routinely flagged for belonging to a terrorist organization even though the group is not officially listed as a terrorist entity in Canada. The flagging is done at the discretion of the CBSA officer.

Sharry Aiken, immigration law professor at Queen’s University, said the membership provisions are too broadly framed by the CBSA and “membership” is not formally defined in law. In fact, she said, the membership definition came about through a series of incremental federal court decisions and policies issued by the federal government. “When we see these numbers, it’s very clear that … their actual evidence that they engaged in something is very limited,” Aiken said. “Some of those individuals shouldn’t be allowed to remain in Canada or shouldn’t be allowed to come to Canada in the first place… unfortunately, the bar for ‘membership’ is just so low.” For that reason, she said, she has no confidence that anyone deemed to be a member of an organization pursuant to the current threshold is actually a real danger to Canada or that there are necessarily reasons why Canada might not want them here.

Since 2012, only nine individuals have been issued removal orders for engaging in espionage against Canada or contrary to Canada’s interests, with another eight for involving in the subversion of a government by force. Of the nine probed under the espionage provisions, only two have been removed, while three were deported for involvement in bringing down a government. All inadmissibility reports are reviewed by a specially trained CBSA officer who will confirm that the threshold of proof has been met. In some cases, a public safety minister’s delegate is authorized to issue a removal order while, in other, more complex cases, they must refer the file to an independent tribunal. [...]

“For my mind, public safety would be no worse off if we were to abolish that membership provision in the inadmissibility provisions,” Aiken said. “If there’s a case against someone for engaging in any of these problematic activities, that’s a good reason to go after that. But if we’re basing our cases on associations, the line between protecting public safety and serious incursions on fundamental liberties and rights is so easily blurred.” Read more - Lire plus

Gar Pardy: The Law and its Absurdities

Queen's University Global Justice Journal 2023 - Charles Dickens would be proud. More than 150 years after his death there are still examples of the law being an “ass” as we strive to deal with the injustices and iniquities of our political and social systems. 

When Beagle Bumble spoke his immortal words in Oliver Twist, they reflected Dickens’ frequent use of “the law” in many of his novels. In doing so, “the law” emerges as a character as unique as that of Oliver, Pip, Bumble, Fogg, Jarndyce and Tulkinghorn. Dickens’ own experiences from an early age provided examples of the Victorian justice system where all transgressors, regardless of age, were locked away or transported to Australia on near-year-long voyages. They were “beyond the seas for the term of [their] natural life.”

It was a surprise in late May this year, when the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada released a decision that in many ways reflected the arbitrariness and absurdities of the justice system reflected in the works of Dickens. In its May 31, 2023 decision, (Canada v. Boloh (1(a)) "Bring our loved ones home") the Court came to the unique conclusion that the “right” reflected in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a citizen of Canada “to enter Canada” does not carry the consequential right to be “returned to Canada.”

Some legal decisions are not for the fainthearted. The three judges involved in the May 31 decision provided an example of legal wordsmithing that overpowers the reader with sophistry eroding the very essence of the right “to enter Canada.” The decision, in its twenty or so pages, eliminates responsibility for the government of Canada to assist Canadians in “returning” to Canada so that they may “enter” Canada. In doing so, the Appeal Court overturned a decision by another Federal Court which four months earlier, in January, found ample evidence to rule that the Canadian government had a responsibility not only in allowing Canadians to “enter” Canada but assisting in their “returning” as well.

The three Appeal Court judges laboriously and unconvincingly argued that the government of Canada had no such responsibility. In doing so, the Court decided there was a need to go beyond the text of the Charter, as, if they did not, their considerations would be “pure textualism.” Rather, the Appeal Court justices saw their function as interpreting the “scope and purpose” of the right or freedom in question by looking to its “philosophical and historical context” . . . of the right or freedom, the larger objects of the Charter, and where applicable the meaning and purpose of associated Charter rights. “Words, words, words,” as Eliza Doolittle sang. [...]

In its January 20, 2023 decision the Federal Court reasonably decided that “Indeed, it is critical to appreciate that for many, if not most practical purposes, the subsection 6(1) right [to enter Canada] in today’s closely regulated global travel environment is one that by definition embraces and contemplates actions with implications outside Canada, not just at a point of entry.”

The Court of Appeal in overturning the Federal Court decision concluded that the “Government of Canada is not constitutionally obligated or otherwise obligated at law to repatriate the respondents." The Court of Appeal in recognizing its own unreasonableness then suggested that its decision “should not be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about that result.”

In essence, the Court of Appeal decided that the right to enter Canada could only be exercised as and when a person arrived at a Canadian port of entry. The earlier Federal Court decision, reflecting the reality of today’s world, decided there was an obligation of the government to create the prior conditions necessary for the right to enter could be exercise.

An application for leave to appeal the Appeal Court’s decision to the Supreme Court of Canada is now underway. It seeks the early intervention of the Supreme Court in eliminating the Dickensian conclusions now curtailing one the most important rights in the Charter. Sometimes it is necessary to demonstrate that the “ass” is not always “the law” but those with the responsibility for its reasonable application. Read more - Lire plus

UK must repatriate more nationals in Syria, says terrorism policy adviser

UN expert decries 'mass arbitrary detention' of children in Syria

ACTION: Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

Wet’suwet’en leaders highlight RCMP C-IRG violence in presentation to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

PBI Canada 19/07/23 - On July 10, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and Sleydo’, Wing Chief of the Cas Yikh House (Grizzly Bear House), Gidimt’en Clan, presented at a virtual hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The video of their presentation can be seen on YouTube. The presentation by Sleydo’ begins at 11:22.

She stated: “Since living at Gidimt’en Checkpoint in 2018 I have witnessed a specialized unit of police called the Community-Industry Response Group or C-IRG erect a detachment on Gidimt’en territory 29 kilometres from the nearest town. I have experienced our home sites destroyed by [the pipeline company] CGL as C-IRG threatened arrest of anyone who would intervene.

The C-IRG’s unique structure and mandate raises serious concerns about the protection of Indigenous rights in Canada. C-IRG is currently under review by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. The exercising of our rights are being treated as threats and emergencies rather than as political issues to negotiate and are delegated to militarized police forces. Often I’m asked if I see any alternatives to the conflicts that have arisen and I always say this is a political issue that must be addressed by the state and not by state sanctioned militarized police. Instead Canada has given C-IRG $27 million to police us on our own sovereign lands in the past several years.

In 2019 weeks after the province [of British Columbia] adopted UNDRIP I was arrested and removed from my territory at gunpoint while snipers initiated lethal overwatch at Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Our Chiefs were denied access to us during the raid and land defenders sustained serious injuries. Our Chiefs continued to assert their jurisdiction and uphold our laws resulting in another raid in 2020 where I was surrounded by C-IRG officers in the dark and threatened with arrest when I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest child.

In 2021 I was occupying a tiny house alongside the road to CGL’s proposed drill site when we were surrounded by militarized police in green fatigues with assault rifles who were dropped out of helicopters all around us. They cut the internet, trained their snipers on us from behind buildings and heavy machinery and used an axe and then a chainsaw to illegally break down the door without an arrest or search warrant. After 56 days of upholding our law and defending our sacred headwaters I stared down the barrel of a semi-automatic weapon while the dogs snarled and whined and was once again removed from my territory, spent 5 days in 7 different jail cells in 3 different towns.

Down the hill our Chief’s daughter experienced the same use of violence against her and the log cabin that was built for her was burnt to the ground under the watch of C-IRG. Today I cannot live at the village site because of the heavy surveillance, threat of violence and arrest from police and the harassment of CGL’s private security firm Forsythe. The police regularly patrol my home which is nowhere near the pipeline right of way. I wake up some mornings and they are sitting in my driveway. The police have teamed up with private industry to make it unbearable live on our territories and practice our way of life.“ Read more - Lire plus

Armed Drones Killing in Palestine! Armed drones purchase underway in Canada!

Just Peace Advocates 07/2023 - With Israel’s first ever weaponized drone strike in the Palestinian West Bank in June 2023 killing 3 Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and the recent use of armed drone strikes in Jenin, we call for no armed drones in Canada, no armed drones anywhere! 

The Canadian government is moving quickly to award a contract for remotely piloted armed drones which would be used by the military both for domestic surveillance and in foreign operations. In 2021, the Canadian BDS Coalition began to call on the Canadian government to stop its procurement process of $5B of armed drones. Just Peace Advocates has worked to support this campaign since 2021.

Since that time the Coalition has led the writing of thousands of letters, supported several webinars, and worked with others in this call. However, the Canadian government is moving quickly to award a contract for remotely piloted armed drones which would be used by the military both for domestic surveillance and in foreign operations. Thus, the efforts have led to launching of the #NoArmedDrones for Canada campaign.

The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. Now is the time to stop this planned purchase before it happens. The Canadian military does not need armed drones. Rather than making the world safer, these weapons of terror are used in extrajudicial executions, surveillance of targeted populations and other violations of human rights. Source

ACTION: Tell Canada we don't want armed drones!

EVENTS: Cones Not Drones! Using Ice Cream to Take on Canada’s Planned Purchase of Its First Armed Drones

ACTION: Urge Your MP to Support JUSTICE For Palestinian Children!

ACTION: Canada must denounce Israel’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp

ACTION: Tell Scotiabank to Divest Now from Elbit Systems

Canada funneled arms to Saudis during Yemen war via opaque U.S. program

The Breach 25/07/23 - The Canadian government used an opaque U.S. military sales program to provide Saudi Arabia with billions of dollars worth of armoured vehicles, some of which were shipped out urgently after the Kingdom joined the war in Yemen, according to government documents and an arms sales database consulted by The Breach.

It’s the second-largest weapons export deal in Canadian history. But the Saudi clients have never been disclosed by the Canadian government. Nor has the fact been reported that the deal was struck at the behest of a U.S. plan to beef up the Saudi military. In 2009, under former prime minister Stephen Harper, a Canadian crown corporation signed a deal on behalf of weapons manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada to provide 724 light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia. Government documents show that, as late as 2018, deliveries of the $2.9-billion worth of LAVs were still being fulfilled. The vehicles manufactured in Canada were of the same make later seen being used in Saudi Arabia’s operations in Yemen for years.

The documents provide more evidence that the Canadian government may have knowingly supplied armoured vehicles for use in Yemen. The government documents, obtained through an access-to-information request, indicate that Canada was shipping new vehicles to the Saudi National Guard for at least three years during the war. The Saudi National Guard is considered to be the Kingdom’s best-equipped ground force and was directly engaged in the one-sided conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis. Eight-wheeled armoured combat vehicles, like those provided by Canada, are now frequently used in Saudi propaganda and even appear to be included in the logo of the National Guard. 

The Breach can also reveal that Canadian companies signed subsequent contracts to maintain the vehicles until at least 2025, according to U.S. Department of Defense procurement records. These contracts involve repairing vehicles that appear to have been damaged during Saudi military operations in Yemen. The 2009 deal’s details have been shrouded in mystery because of Canada’s lack of transparency about its arms dealings, including those that go through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, the program that supplied Saudi forces with the weapons. For decades, the program has integrated Canadian weapons production into American sales abroad, ensuring that the industry caters to the strategic needs of U.S. foreign policy. Read more - Lire plus

Did NATO sell-out Canada’s effort to stop illicit weapons deals with Turkey?

Trudeau is striking a new National Security Council, but what will it do?

CTV News 27/07/23 - Asked for more information about why the cabinet-level council was needed, and what exactly the National Security Council's role will be—in contrast to existing government entities who work in this space— the prime minister was scant on details, but pledged more will be revealed once it's struck.

"It is an additional tool on top of the other ones we have, and we're very excited about presenting [it] to Canadians," Trudeau said. "We're working right now, and will be making an announcement in the coming weeks about how it's going to work." The decision to strike this new panel now comes amid months of scrutiny on the federal government's handling of foreign interference allegations, and a series of stories and learnings at committee about federal security and intelligence organizations facing challenges in keeping up with emerging threats and communicating about them between agencies.

The prime minister indicated this council is a way the government intends to strengthen its capacity to respond to national security concerns, after taking the step of striking the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) in 2017. "One of the big debates we had when we replaced the Conservative government of Stephen Harper was the need to put parliamentarians in charge of overseeing our national security agencies… where parliamentarians from every party get to come together and see everything that our top national security agencies, all our national agencies are doing," Trudeau said.

However, as NSICOP flagged in its latest annual report, as a key body tasked with performing this important oversight function—now actively reviewing five years on it is still experiencing significant hurdles accessing information from various government departments. "Some departments selectively refused to provide information even though the information fell within a request for information from the committee," the report states. "In several cases, the committee came across the information later or through other sources, such as subsequent media reporting based on information disclosed by those very departments under the Access to Information Act," read NSICOP's recent report. Read more - Lire plus

New book: War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine

The New Press 06/2023 - “No one is better at exposing the dynamics of media and politics that keep starting and continuing wars. War Made Invisible will provide the fresh and profound clarity that our country desperately needs.” —Daniel Ellsberg

More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign policy: a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public. War Made Invisible, by the journalist and political analyst Norman Solomon, exposes how this happened, and what its consequences are, from military and civilian casualties to drained resources at home.

From Iraq through Afghanistan and Syria and on to little-known deployments in a range of countries around the globe, the United States has been at perpetual war for at least the past two decades. Yet many of these forays remain off the radar of average Americans. Compliant journalists add to the smokescreen by providing narrow coverage of military engagements and by repeating the military’s talking points. Meanwhile, the increased use of high technology, air power, and remote drones has put distance between soldiers and the civilians who die.

Back at home, Solomon argues, the cloak of invisibility masks massive Pentagon budgets that receive bipartisan approval even as policy makers struggle to fund the domestic agenda. Necessary, timely, and unflinching, War Made Invisible is an eloquent moral call for counting the true costs of war. Read more - Lire plus

Podcast interview with Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine"

Did Western Military Presence Help Foster Coup in Niger, Where U.S. Has Drone Base & 1,000+ Troops?

Wagner group disappeared and executed civilians in Mali

The Intercept 24/07/23 - Malian soldiers and foreign fighters, identified as members of the Russia-linked Wagner Group, have committed extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians in central Mali since December 2022, according to a new Human Rights Watch report shared with The Intercept. Researchers found that the longtime U.S.-backed Malian military also tortured detainees in an army camp and destroyed and looted civilian property as part of its protracted campaign against militant Islamists.

The Malian soldiers committed the atrocities in four villages in the center of the country, according to telephone interviews with 40 people knowledgeable about the abuses, half of them witnesses to the violence. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that foreign, non-French-speaking armed men whom they described as “white,” “Russians,” or “Wagner” participated in most of the attacks.

In December 2021, the Malian junta reportedly authorized the deployment of Wagner mercenary forces to fight Islamist militants after close to two decades of failed Western-backed counterterrorism campaigns in exchange for almost $11 million per month and access to gold and uranium mines. Since then, Wagner — a paramilitary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog vender turned warlord — has been implicated in hundreds of human rights abuses alongside the country’s military, including a 2022 massacre that killed 500 civilians. Human Rights Watch’s new findings add to the grim toll.

“We found compelling evidence that the Malian army and allied foreign fighters linked to the Wagner group have committed serious abuses, including killings, enforced disappearances and looting, against civilians during counter-insurgency operations in central Mali with complete impunity,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, the senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The Intercept. “The failure of the Malian authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible will most likely only fuel further violence and crimes.”

The U.S. has poured billions of dollars in military assistance into Mali and its neighbors over roughly two decades — enabling human rights abuses by providing weapons and training to militaries that have terrorized civilians, according to the United Nations, human rights advocacy groups, and the U.S. State Department. U.S.-trained military officers have also repeatedly conducted coups, including the putsch-leader who toppled Mali’s governments in 2020 and 2021. While the coups triggered restrictions on U.S. aid, Pentagon officials have pointed to Wagner’s growing influence across Africa as a reason to keep the money flowing. Read more - Lire plus

UN Cybercrime Convention Negotiations Enter Final Phase With Troubling Surveillance Powers Still on the Table

EFF 02/08/23 - As one of the last negotiating sessions to finalize the UN Cybercrime Convention approaches, it’s important to remember that the outcome and implications of the international talks go well beyond the UN meeting rooms in Vienna and New York. Representatives from over 140 countries around the globe with widely divergent law enforcement practices, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil, Chile, Switzerland, New Zealand, Kenya, Germany, Canada, the U.S., Peru, and Uruguay, have met over the last year to push their positions on what the draft convention should say about across border police powers, access to private data, judicial oversight of prosecutorial practices, and other thorny issues.

As we noted in Part I of this post about the zero draft of the draft convention now on the table, the final text will result in the rewriting of criminal and surveillance laws around the world, as Member States work into their legal frameworks the agreed upon requirements, authorizations, and protections. Millions of people, including those often in the crosshairs of governments for defending human rights and advocating for free expression, will be affected. That’s why we and our international allies have been fighting for users to ensure the draft convention includes robust human rights protections. Going into the sixth negotiating session, which begins August 21 in New York, the outcome of the talks remains uncertain. A variety of issues are still unresolved, and the finalization of the intricate text faces approaching deadlines. The foundational principle of the negotiations—“nothing is agreed until everything is agreed upon”—underscores the complexity and delicate nature of these discussions. Every element of the draft convention is interrelated, and the resolution of one aspect hinges on the consonance of all other areas of the text.

In Part I, we shared our initial takeaways about the zero draft—some bad provisions were dropped, but ambiguous and overly broad spying powers to investigate any crime, potentially including speech-related crimes, remain. In Part II we’ll delve deeper into one of the convention’s most concerning provisions: domestic surveillance powers. These provisions endow governments with extensive surveillance powers but only offer weak checks and balances to prevent potential law enforcement overreach. States could misuse such powers by misrepresenting protected speech as cybercrime and exploiting the broad scope of these spying powers beyond their initial purpose. While we successfully advocated for the exclusion of many of the most problematic non-cybercrimes from the draft convention's criminalization section, the draft still permits law enforcement to collect and share data for the investigation of any crime, including content-related crimes, rather than limiting these powers to core cybercrimes. The existing human rights obligations under Article 5, although a positive inclusion, are not sufficiently robust. Combined with the draft’s inherent ambiguity, this could lead to the abusive or disproportionate misapplication of these domestic surveillance powers. Read more - Lire plus

Despite U.S. guarantee, Guantanamo prisoner released to Algeria immediately imprisoned and abused

The Intercept 26/07/23 - When Saeed Bakhouch was repatriated to Algeria in late April from the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay after 21 years of detention without charge, his lawyer was assured by the State Department that he would be treated humanely. Still, his longtime lawyer, H. Candace Gorman, worried about her client’s upcoming release. Bakhouch’s mental health had deteriorated in the last five years; he had stopped meeting with her and retreated into himself. She feared that her client might be arrested after being returned to Algeria unless given real help and resources.

That’s exactly what happened. Almost immediately after Bakhouch landed in Algiers, he passed through the usual interrogation process for former Guantánamo detainees in Algeria. After a two-week period of detention and interrogation, he appeared before a judge in early May. The judge told Bakhouch that his story did not match the information the U.S. provided, Gorman explained to The Intercept.

“He was being stripped of all of his rights,” Gorman said. Bakhouch was sent into pretrial detention and, for nearly three months, he has been held under brutal conditions. His hair and beard were forcibly shaved; he has been physically assaulted; and he has been deprived of his Guantánamo-issued medications to treat his injured heel. Now, human rights groups are alleging that Bakhouch is facing severe abuses in detention. [...]

“If anyone had ever given me any hint at the State Department that they have no authority once he steps off the plane, I would have put the brakes on because I know Saeed trusted that I wouldn’t let him go unless I was assured that he would be treated right,” Gorman told The Intercept. “And so the fact that they are now claiming that there’s nothing they can do and that this is a different country and we have no control over that — then why the fuck are you telling me you have their assurances.” [...]

In a desperate effort to draw attention to Bakhouch’s enduring incarceration, the Center for Constitutional Rights, or CCR, published an open letter with signatories from the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and other nongovernmental groups, urgently pressuring the State Department to intervene. The letter, published Wednesday and shared exclusively in advance with The Intercept, alleges that the U.S. provided the Algerian government with harmful and unfounded allegations about Bakhouch’s past — information that led to his detention — and that Bakhouch is imprisoned under severe conditions which violate international law. (The Algerian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.)

“Despite being transferred out of Guantánamo on the basis that he no longer posed a significant risk to the United States,” the letter says, “Mr. Bakhouch was told by the Algerian lawyer assigned to represent him in trial that the United States provided the information to the Algerian government that led to them charging him with having sworn allegiance to Osama Bin Laden.” “This allegation is woefully unfounded,” the letter continues, “and we are deeply troubled by the fact that Mr. Bakhouch is being detained on this basis and enduring abuse in Algerian custody, purportedly in part because of false or incomplete intelligence information from the United States.”

The CCR-led letter is addressed to Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, who heads the State Department office responsible for transferring men out of Guantánamo Bay. Kaidanow was appointed in August 2022 and has been repeatedly criticized in the past for failure to respond to botched resettlement deals. Most of the deals were not of her own making; she inherited a mess of released detainees in crisis — some have been re-incarcerated and tortured, forcibly repatriated, or denied legal asylum status. With only her office to appeal to for assistance, lawyers and human rights advocates are growing increasingly concerned that, irrespective of the deals’ authorship, the struggling former prisoners have no diplomatic support from the State Department. Now, with Bakhouch’s immediate and brutal re-incarceration, Kaidanow appears to be helming her own botched deal.

Emails from Kaidanow and her staff at the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism to Gorman, which were obtained by The Intercept, show a pattern of vague reassurances, incompetence, and general disregard. After Bakhouch’s release was approved but before he was transferred out of Guantánamo, he languished simply because the staffer who needed to sign his papers was unaware that was a part of their job responsibilities, Gorman learned from a phone call with Anand Prakash, a policy adviser to the Office of the Special Representative for Guantánamo Affairs. Prakash, she said, apparently found the mishap funny, leading Gorman to become more concerned that the State Department staff wasn’t taking her concerns for Bakhouch’s well-being seriously. [...]

Gorman has continued to try to spur the State Department into action on Bakhouch’s behalf. Nearly two full months after Bakhouch was imprisoned in Algeria, Kadainow finally replied with specifics, saying she had “a chance” to speak with relevant diplomatic colleagues. “Our Ambassador in Algiers was informed that Mr. Bakhouch is being charged under Algerian law for membership/affiliation with a foreign terrorist organization, which is a serious crime under Algerian law,” Kaidanow wrote. “He is currently under pre-trial detention while his case is under review by the Court d’Instruction, which will ultimately decide whether to bring him to trial or dismiss the charges and release him. The information regarding his case is still sealed.”

Kaidanow added, “We continue to assert our interest in his humane treatment and legal rights in a variety of high-level settings.” The U.S. — and Kaidanow’s — position seems clear: Algeria is responsible for what they now intend to do with their citizen. The U.S. has no further responsibility beyond asking them to honor their commitment to human rights.

For CCR, the lack of direct intervention is unacceptable, but there is little to do but continue to advocate for more care. “Closing Guantanamo is not just about policy, it’s about people — the people who’ve been detained and tortured by the United States, and the obligations that the U.S. government has to them because of this,” said Aliya Hussain, CCR’s advocacy program manager. “These international law obligations continue even after the men are transferred to other countries, and they are unequivocal, which the Special Rapporteur makes clear in her recent report.” If the State Department doesn’t follow up and enforce diplomatic assurances, the assurances are worthless, Hussain explained. “How they respond to Mr. Bakhouch’s situation in Algeria will signal how much oversight and advocacy they are willing and committed to undertaking to ensure the success of future transfers.” Read more - Lire plus

ACTION: Stop Mohamed Harkat's deportation to torture in Algeria!

The Forever War’s forever legacy: Shutting down Guantánamo is hardly the last step

Alternet 01/08/23 - There can be little question that the grim prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which still shows no sign of closing anytime soon, is a key legacy — in the worst sense imaginable — of America’s post-9/11 forever wars. I’ve been covering the subject for decades now and that shameful legacy has never diminished.



Last month, in response to a column I wrote for TomDispatch — one of dozens, I’m sad to say, that I’ve done on Guantánamo over these endless years — I received a surprise email: an invitation to attend a meeting at the British Parliament. A group known as the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, formed this April, was gathering for the second time. Its stated purpose is “to urge the U.S. administration to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, to ensure the safe resettlement of those approved for release, and to ensure that due process is expedited for all the remaining prisoners.” Nine members of the House of Parliament and four Members of the House of Lords have already joined the group.

Thirty men remain in custody at that infamous American prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Sixteen of those detainees have finally been cleared for release; they are, that is, no longer subject to criminal charges or considered a potential danger to the United States and yet they still remain behind bars. Three other prisoners have never either been charged with a crime or cleared for release. Ten more are still facing trial, while one has been convicted and remains in custody there. For the APPG, the release of those 16 cleared detainees is a paramount goal.

That meeting I attended included a handful of MPs from all parties, as well as leading figures from British organizations that have been supporting justice for Guantánamo’s detainees for decades. Also present were two former detainees. One was Moazzem Begg, among the first prisoners released in 2005 and repatriated to England, where he is now a senior director at CAGE, an advocacy group focused on the remaining Gitmo detainees. In 2006, he published Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar, an early account of the injustices and cruelties in America’s war-on-terror prisons.

The other was Mohamedou Salahi, whose book Guantánamo Diary led to the dramatic film The Mauritanian about his life at that infamous prison. A third former detainee, Mansoor Adayfi, author of Don’t Forget Us Here, had been transferred from Gitmo to Serbia in 2016. Though invited to attend, his visa wasn’t approved in time. That meeting was but one of several recent events in which organizations outside the United States have issued detailed impassioned calls for this country to finally address the ongoing nightmare it created so long ago at Guantánamo. [...]

While the U.N., the ICRC, the British Parliament, and various nongovernmental organizations focus on Guantánamo’s sins and its painful legacy, the United States continues to fail to close the prison, even though the need for closure was acknowledged in 2006 by no less than its “founder,” President George W. Bush. On July 14th, when the House passed its version of the latest National Defense Authorization Act, it not only kept in place a prohibition on the use of funds to close Guantánamo but extended a congressional ban on using such funds to transfer detainees to the United States or six countries in the greater Middle East, making the end of Gitmo that much harder.

With her steady hand and deployment of facts, Ni Aoláin was unsparing in her conclusions about the injustice and perpetual cruelty that still is Guantánamo. Yes, she appreciates any movement forward, even at this late date, including “the openness and willingness” of the Biden administration to allow her to visit the prison. Still, she couldn’t be clearer on what, 21 years later, is needed: accountability for the perpetrators and restitution for the victims. Closing the prison, if it ever actually happens, will not be enough. Sadly, even such an act will not bring true closure to the sins of America’s forever prison. Read more - Lire plus

After being ‘released’ by the US government from Guantanamo, many former detainees were deported to ‘third countries’ for further arbitrary detainment rather than being sent home

Court Rejects New Sentencing for Al Qaeda Recruiter Despite Use of Evidence Obtained by Torture

Leaked transcript from canceled doc into Guantanamo Bay depicts DeSantis laughing at force-fed detainees

ACTION: Please Write to the Guantanamo Prisoners to Let Them Know We Remember Them

“FBI-Orchestrated Conspiracy”: Judge Orders Release of 3 of Newburgh 4 Tied to Fake NY Bomb Plot

Democracy Now! 31/07/23 - For the past 14 years, relatives of four men jailed on terrorism charges in Newburgh, New York, have accused the FBI of entrapment. On Thursday, a federal judge agreed and ordered the release of three of the men known as the Newburgh Four: David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen. The men had been sentenced in 2010 to 25 years in prison for a government-orchestrated bombing plot of a New York synagogue.

In a stunning decision, the judge accused the FBI of inventing a conspiracy. With the men set to be released within 90 days, we speak with lawyers Kathy Manley and Stephen F. Downs from the Coalition for Civil Freedoms about the monumental ruling, the legal issues with entrapment and what the ruling means for the many cases like this one. “This was the government’s standard operating procedure right after 9/11,” says Downs. “They were out there going to create as many terrorists as they could to show the public that they were on the job.” The fourth man convicted, James Cromitie, is expected to seek compassionate release. Read more - Lire plus

After his mother asked for help, FBI terrorism sting targets mentally ill teen

The Intercept 31/07/23 - On a recent Monday, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of an 18-year-old man, Davin Daniel Meyer, on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Meyer had been arrested the previous Friday, July 14, at Denver International Airport as he tried to board a flight to Turkey. Meyer thought he was going to the Turkish city of Ankara for a rendezvous with members of the Islamic State terrorist group.

In a press release announcing the arrest, the Justice Department said that Meyer had been caught after he had “pledged an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS and intended to travel to serve as a fighter for ISIS in Iraq.” Beneath the surface of these serious allegations, however, are troubling details about what really happened between Meyer and the FBI in the months leading up to his arrest. According to the criminal complaint against him, Meyer had first come to the attention of the FBI last year when he was 17 years old, after a person he knew contacted the local sheriff’s office to report “concerning behavior,” including threats of violence against them and the United States by Meyer. The complaint did not mention that the person who reported Meyer to the authorities was his mother.



Concerned over Meyer’s erratic behavior and deteriorating mental health, Deanna Meyer reported her son, then a minor, to the authorities in the hopes that they would help keep him away from trouble. What followed instead was a lengthy government investigation employing two confidential FBI informants. First contacting Meyer the day after his 18th birthday, the informants secretly developed a relationship with him. Rather than help steer him away from wrongdoing, the FBI informants helped Meyer develop the plan to join the Islamic State that eventually led to his arrest. In a hearing last week to determine whether Meyer would be held in custody while awaiting trial, his mother testified that she had tried to get help from the police to aid her son, who had suffered from mental illness for years and made threats of violence against her since he was 14 years old.

Meyer had previously spent eight months, between 2021 and 2022, in a facility “focused on mental health and behavior treatment,” according to the affidavit. He had been diagnosed with autism, clinical depression, and a range of anxiety and mood disorders — diagnoses of which the government was aware and even referenced in the criminal complaint. All while still a minor, Meyer espoused white supremacist beliefs and, still grappling with a range of diagnosed mental illnesses, then developed an interest in extremist Islam online. The behavior had alarmed his mother.

“I had exhausted all private routes,” Deanna Meyer said at the hearing, explaining her original decision to contact the local sheriff’s office for help with her child. “I was more concerned about ideology and where that would go.” If convicted on the charges, Meyer could face up to 20 years in prison. Yet his family and lawyers say that he had been the victim of an FBI sting operation that groomed him for the very crime for which he was arrested. “It was the wrong place to go for help in going to law enforcement,” Meyer’s lawyer David Kaplan said at the hearing. “They represented themselves as facilitators and fanned the flames of what they condemn now.” Read more - Lire plus

Meet the Colorado Springs Activist Suing the FBI & Police After Being Targeted by Undercover Agent

Democracy Now! 06/07/2023 - We continue to look at the ACLU of Colorado’s new lawsuit against the FBI, the Colorado Springs Police Department and local officers for illegally spying on a local activist and a community organizing hub in Colorado Springs.

The lawsuit accuses the agencies of “unconstitutional and invasive search and seizure of the phones, computers, devices, and private chats of people and groups whose message the Colorado Springs Police Department dislikes.” We speak to Colorado Springs activist Jacqueline “Jax” Armendariz Unzueta and reporter Trevor Aaronson. Read more - Lire plus

The FBI’s secret infiltration of the 2020 protest movement, first revealed by The Intercept and the podcast series “Alphabet Boys,” is being challenged for chilling free speech

“Chaos & Violence”: NYC to Pay $13M to Those Attacked by Police in 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests

Biden Goes All In On FBI/NSA Mass Surveillance

FOREVER WARS 01/08/2023 - For a couple months, I've expected the White House to accept limits on the intelligence community's cherished Section 702 surveillance authority after the revelation that the FBI used this allegedly foreign-focused dragnet to evade warrant requirements for monitoring Black Lives Matter activists. Shows what I know!

On Monday, Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and deputy Jon Finer came out against reform of "one of the nation's most critical intelligence tools," effectively telling Congress to simply re-authorize Section 702. That's the bottom line of an intelligence advisory board—selected by the Biden White House, though Sullivan and Finer hilariously call it "independent." When asked for recommendations about Section 702 ahead of the statute's December expiration, the advisory board proposed voluntary restrictions on the FBI. Everyone remotely familiar with 15 years worth of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) decisions knows the FBI (and likely others) will routinely violate those, all while FISA Court judges wring their hands and say don't do that again. Egregiously, the board's report starts off by narrating the events of 9/11, much as John Brennan did in 2014 when responding to the Senate intelligence committee's torture report.

With the pantomime of due diligence performed, Sullivan and Finer announce:

We agree with the unanimous conclusion reached by this group of independent, deeply experienced experts that failure to reauthorize Section 702 could be “one of the worst intelligence failures of our time.” We also agree with the Board’s recommendation that Section 702 should be reauthorized without new and operationally damaging restrictions on reviewing intelligence lawfully collected by the government and with measures that build on proven reforms to enhance compliance and oversight, among other improvements. We look forward to reviewing the Board’s recommendations for how we can secure this critical national security authority and to working with Congress to ensure its reauthorization. [my emphasis]

"Lawfully collected" tells you everything you need to know. Yes, the collection itself is "lawful," thanks to 702, but the 702 collection—which is suspicionless by definition and is not subject to any warrant requirement, as a judge on a secret court merely approves procedures by which 702 surveillance is conducted—is, to put it mildly, constitutionally dubious. Notice as well a crucial elision: the collection may be "lawful," but Sullivan and Finer (on behalf of the FBI and the NSA) claim that "lawfulness" in NSA’s data acquisition also covers the FBI's warrantless searches for Americans’ data through that collection—dragnets that, remember, are allegedly focused on foreigners. "Reviewing" is also a risible euphemism for performing a search.

Meanwhile, FISA Court judge after FISA Court judge has found that, oops, the surveillance actually doesn't work the way the FBI, NSA and Justice Department said it did, and way more Americans were inappropriately surveilled by the FBI searching through the NSA databases. The only way, it turns out, to deter that surveillance was to make the FBI document themselves doing it.

This is a race not just to the bottom of the 4th Amendment, which I think is fair to say doesn't really exist in practice anymore, but beneath it. The Biden team is exhuming the corpse of the 4th Amendment to dress Section 702 in its funeral clothes. This charade pretends that bulk surveillance respects the Constitution while making the Constitution respect bulk surveillance. Decades ago, American anticommunists laughed at all the rights promised by the Soviet constitution that the Soviet state violated. Well, I have bad news for you about the Bill of Rights during the War on Terror.

As mentioned two editions of FOREVER WARS ago, in mid-July the NSA released a data strategy for the next two years that pledges to incorporate advances in artificial intelligence. Like much of the Security State and its commentariat, the Biden administration is intent on militarizing AI before China does, much as the British and German admiralties raced to field dreadnoughts and in so doing set crucial context for the First World War. Whatever the operational rationale for 702 surveillance, the bulk data collection sure is convenient for training whatever AIs the NSA develops or contracts out for. That, I suspect, is the forest. The stuff in the Sullivan-Finer statement—about using 702 surveillance against Russkies, Chicoms, "fentanyl trafficking" and so forth—is the trees.

[Training large-language and image diffusion models only works, by definition, if you can just dump huge troves of data into them and extract generalizations from that data. If you have to carefully make sure every datum is acquired legally, these programs fall apart at the conceptual level. Better to change the laws to make the computers more comfortable, apparently.—Sam.]

This is a fateful step for Biden and the Democratic Party: they're advancing a legacy of bulk surveillance. You can read my book REIGN OF TERROR to track the 20-year development of that legacy. Donald Trump's need to explain away his criminal activity has made it useful to attack FBI surveillance authorities regardless of specifics, making it harder for Republicans to vote to retain those authorities. Anyone concerned about their freedom in an increasingly authoritarian political and economic climate should be exploiting that dynamic to the hilt in order to kill 702.

Biden, to no one's surprise, has cemented his stance as a champion of Security State prerogative. Through the decades-long weakening of the Democratic Party's ties to labor and its replacement with upper-middle-class technocracy, bulk surveillance can become Democratic catechism—its dangers always easy to explain away through cynical warnings about foreign threats, all while the people the Democrats claim to champion are its targets. 

If there's a silver lining here, it's that there won't be a frivolous debate over placing a warrant requirement on the FBI's ability to search through the 702 trove. Fifteen years of 702 history demonstrate decisively that the FBI will find ways to violate and lawyer such a requirement away. Now, at least, it really is an all-or-nothing choice between reauthorizing 702 and letting it die. And all Congress has to do to kill 702 is to do nothing, something it's great at. Read more - Lire plus

Department of Homeland Security’s Use of “Domestic Violent Extremism” Negatively Impacts Civil Rights and Liberties

Legal Defense Fund 27/07/2023 - Today, civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice organizations sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) “domestic violent extremism” label, standards for collecting and disseminating information to state and local law enforcement agencies, and the impacts this can have particularly on disparately surveilled and policed communities.

The term “domestic violent extremism” (DVE) is overly broad and lacks specific legal parameters and reliable factual and evidentiary thresholds. Moreover, DHS has lax policies that allow intelligence information to be collected under a low “reasonable belief” standard that does not require corroboration or verification. Some of the information collected may be protected activity under the First Amendment. 

Recent events in Atlanta make clear that lax DHS standards and intelligence practices have contributed to concerning arrests and prosecution of individuals associated with a movement to stop the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (“Cop City” or “the Atlanta Training Center”). Between December 2022 and May 2023, Georgia authorities obtained at least 17 arrest warrants based on sworn affidavits describing Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF)—which opposes Cop City—as “a group classified by the United States Department of Homeland Security as Domestic Violent Extremists.” These affidavits—which targeted protesters, a legal observer, and three operators of a nonprofit bail fund— were incorrect: DHS has never classified or designated DTAF as a DVE group.

These events are the latest example of inadequate DHS protections for people’s constitutional rights as they starkly illustrate the dangers of DHS’s use of vague, overbroad, and stigmatizing terms like “domestic violent extremist” and “militant” to describe individuals who may be engaged in protected First Amendment activity. DHS policy effectively permits the monitoring, collection, and retention of a broad range of First Amendment-protected speech, association, and activity and risks contributing to violations of other constitutional rights.

Together, these failings have long contributed to wrongful federal surveillance and investigations of disparately policed Black, Brown, and Muslim communities, environmental activists, and immigrants. The risk of harm caused by DHS is exacerbated by the racially discriminatory and other systemic unconstitutional practices by state and local law enforcement agencies, as DOJ investigations have repeatedly shown. We urge DHS to adopt more stringent standards for its collection and dissemination of information and ensure its intelligence products do not contribute to abuse by local and state authorities. We also urge DHS to provide full transparency and accountability regarding information it has shared with state and local law enforcement relating to individuals’ activities connected to Cop City. Read more - Lire plus

Final EU negotiations: we need an AI Act that puts people first

Algorithm Watch 12/07/2023 - In Europe and around the world, AI systems are used to monitor and control us in public spaces, predict our likelihood of future criminality, facilitate violations of the right to claim asylum, predict our emotions and categorise us, and to make crucial decisions that determine our access to public services, welfare,education and employment.

Without strong regulation, companies and governments will continue to use AI systems that exacerbatemass surveillance, structural discrimination, centralised power of large technology companies,unaccountable public decision-making and environmental damage.

We call on EU institutions to ensure that AI development and use is accountable, publicly transparent, and that people are empowered to challenge harms:

1. Empower affected people with a framework of accountability, transparency, accessibility and redress

2. Draw limits on harmful and discriminatory surveillance by national security, law enforcement and migration authorities

3. Push back on Big Tech lobbying: remove loopholes that undermine the regulation

Drafted by:

1. European Digital Rights (EDRi)
2. Access Now
3. Algorithm Watch
4. Amnesty International
5. Bits of Freedom
6. Electronic Frontier Norway (EFN)
7. European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, (ECNL)
8. European Disability Forum (EDF)
9. Fair Trials
10. Hermes Center
11. Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL)
12. Panoptykon Foundation
13. Platform for International Cooperation on the Rights of Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) Read more - Lire plus

Against Biden's Voluntary Commitments from Leading Artificial Intelligence Companies to Manage the Risks Posed by AI. We need laws, not voluntary codes.

Vietnam Orders Social Media Firms to Cut ‘Toxic’ Content Using AI

From Napoléon to Macron: How France learned to love Big Brother

Politico 01/08/2023 - It all started with Napoléon Bonaparte. Over two centuries, France cobbled together a surveillance apparatus capable of intercepting private communications; keeping traffic and localization data for up to a year; storing people’s fingerprints; and monitoring most of the territory with cameras.

This system, which has faced pushback from digital rights organizations and United Nations experts, will get its spotlight moment at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. In July next year, France will deploy large-scale, real-time, algorithm-supported video surveillance cameras — a first in Europe. (Not included in the plan: facial recognition.) 

Last month, the French parliament approved a controversial government plan to allow investigators to track suspected criminals in real-time via access to their devices’ geolocation, camera and microphone. Paris also lobbied in Brussels to be allowed to spy on reporters in the name of national security. 

Helping France down the path of mass surveillance: a historically strong and centralized state; a powerful law enforcement community; political discourse increasingly focused on law and order; and the terrorist attacks of the 2010s. In the wake of President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda for so-called strategic autonomy, French defense and security giants, as well as innovative tech startups, have also gotten a boost to help them compete globally with American, Israeli and Chinese companies. 

“Whenever there’s a security issue, the first reflex is surveillance and repression. There's no attempt in either words or deeds to address it with a more social angle,” said Alouette, an activist at French digital rights NGO La Quadrature du Net who uses a pseudonym to protect her identity. 

As surveillance and security laws have piled up in recent decades, advocates have lined up on opposite sides. Supporters argue law enforcement and intelligence agencies need such powers to fight terrorism and crime. Algorithmic video surveillance would have prevented the 2016 Nice terror attack, claimed Sacha Houlié, a prominent lawmaker from Macron’s Renaissance party.

Opponents point to the laws’ effect on civil liberties and fear France is morphing into a dystopian society. In June, the watchdog in charge of monitoring intelligence services said in a harsh report that French legislation is not compliant with the European Court of Human Rights’ case law, especially when it comes to intelligence-sharing between French and foreign agencies.



“We’re in a polarized debate with good guys and bad guys, where if you oppose mass surveillance, you're on the bad guys' side,” said Estelle Massé, Europe legislative manager and global data protection lead at digital rights NGO Access Now. Read more - Lire plus

‘We Are Hiding in Forests’: Fear in Uttar Pradesh’s Rohingya Camps After Anti-Terrorism Squad Arrests 74

TwoCircles 31/07/2023 - Sajida Begum, 26, had just finished fajr prayers when the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) barged into her shanty in the Rohingya refugee camp in Allapur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district on July 24 and asked for her husband Mujib Ullah who was asleep. Mujeeb was forced into a police van and driven away. “We have not done anything and were never involved in any crime,” Begum told Twocircles.net.

Mujib Ullah is the sole breadwinner of the family and works as a rag picker. Ullah’s family came to India 12 years ago, fleeing the violence in Myanmar. “We are Rohingya Muslims, and that is the sole reason for our detentions and deportation,” she explained.

On July 24, similar scenes of Rohingya refugee detentions were unfolding at refugee camps in six other districts of Uttar Pradesh — Mathura, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, and Saharanpur — with the ATS arresting 74 Rohingyas and alleging that the arrested individuals are residing in UP after crossing the border illegally. According to an ATS Uttar Pradesh notice, 31 Rohingyas were jailed on July 26 after a charge under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act was filed against them for illegal stay.

Begum’s next-door neighbour, Kausar Fatima, 29, was arrested along with her 30-year-old husband, Ali Johar. Fatima was released after a female police official pleaded for her release, citing the fact that she has seven children at home and no one to care for them. Her husband who works as a laborer and is the sole breadwinner of the family is still in jail. “We don’t understand why we have to go through this every time. Our refugee documents were taken from us the day our shanty was raided, and we were arrested,” Fatima told Twocircles.net. Begum and Fatima both say it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to support their families since their husbands have been taken away by the police. “I want my husband released immediately so that I do not have to worry about how my children and I will survive without him,” Begum said.

Many Rohingya refugees left their camps after the raids and arrests on July 24 in order to avoid arrest. “Since unlawful detentions began, we are hiding in forests, facing starvation, and moving from one spot to another to escape arrests. They are afraid that the authorities will come after them at any time,” said Iqbal Naseer, a 45-year-old Rohingya refugee from the Mathura camp. On July 24, Naseer’s brother-in-law, whose name he did not give for fear of reprisal, was also arrested. 

“We’re all in trauma. We are not illegal immigrants or terrorists. We have all the documents to prove that we are refugees, but unfortunately, nobody is concerned about our safety,” he said, adding that several police officers visited the camp on July 29 and told them that if they did not vacate, they would be forced out of the place. Naseer is concerned that if the authorities force them to leave the camp, their families will have no place to go. “Our children do not have a secure future,” he stated. Fatima claims that, in addition to the police, their landlords are threatening them to vacate the shanties as they will be demolished within the next few days. “Our electricity and water supplies have been cut. We are being harassed. We do not have any alternative place to take our children,” she explained.

The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, a non-profit that works for Rohingya refugees, said on July 24 that more than 200 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, were unlawfully detained without the police even filing a FIR. According to Sabber Kyaw Min, Director of the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, the Rohingyas in India have been awarded a refugee card by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and many of them have long-term visas. Read more - Lire plus

Al Jazeera slams naming of its journalists on Egypt ‘terror’ list

Al Jazeera 25/07/2023 - Al Jazeera Media Network has condemned a decision by an Egyptian court to reinstitute several of the network’s journalists and TV presenters on its latest “terrorism” list. In a statement on Tuesday, Al Jazeera urged the Egyptian authorities to “reconsider and refrain from measures that impede journalistic work and restrict freedoms”.

The network also called on the United Nations and international human rights organisations to pressure Egypt in halting the arbitrary listing of journalists and oppose such violations of rights and liberties. Egypt’s “terrorist” list operates on a roster that undergoes renewal every five years. Individuals added to the list are subjected to a travel ban, asset freeze and passport cancellation.

The latest ruling was issued by the Cairo Criminal Court, and disseminated in the official al-Waqai’ al-Masriya newspaper. The Network described the reinstitution of its journalists on the roster as an “unjust categorisation”, and also called for the swift release of its journalists Rabee al-Sheikh and Bahaa al-Din Ibrahim, as well as other imprisoned journalists in Egypt.

The two Al Jazeera journalists were arrested when they went to Egypt on separate holidays to visit family, and were charged with joining a “terrorist group and spreading false news”. Bahaa Al-Din Ibrahim was arrested from the Borg El Arab Airport in Alexandria on his way back to Qatar in February 2020, while Rabee Al-Sheikh was arrested once he arrived at Cairo International Airport in August 2021. One of the network’s journalists, Mahmoud Hussein, was released in 2021 after spending more than four years in detention without formal charges or trial.

‘Repressive measures’

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, said that the imprisonment of journalists should not take place. “We know that the mechanism for charging terrorism in Egypt is being misused,” Lawlor said in a statement to Al Jazeera, adding Egypt’s “anti-terrorism” law requires necessary amendments.

The Arab Observatory for Media Freedom also denounced the policy of placing journalists on “terrorist” lists, saying it paralyses their media activity and movement. “These repressive measures come in the context of an integrated system of violations aimed at depriving Egyptians of a free and pluralistic media, and keeping them captive to the one-voice media,” the Observatory said in a statement. Human Rights Watch, a global rights group, has called Egypt’s “terrorism” list, introduced by law in 2015, “a mockery of due process”, as the consequences of designated “terrorists” were similar to those for people convicted after a trial.

And on the tenth anniversary of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s arrival to power earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Egypt has become one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists. “In the past 10 years, at least 170 journalists have been jailed, dozens of others have been arbitrarily arrested and interrogated, access to more than 500 news websites has been blocked and six journalists have been killed,” RSF said. Egypt is ranked 166th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Read more - Lire plus

Shooting the Messenger: Journalism under fire by the Israeli army | Al Jazeera World Documentary

Philippines: Makabayan bloc slams government use of anti-terror law to solve crimes

CNN Philippines 02/08/2023 - The Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives on Thursday criticized as "dangerous and ineffective" the government's use of the Anti-Terrorism Act to solve crimes, such as the killing of former Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo.

"The Marcos Jr. administration must refrain from indiscriminately accusing or designating anyone as a terrorist without providing credible proof and due process," the group said in a statement, which came a day after the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) designated Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves and 12 others as terrorists. Teves is accused of masterminding Degamo's assassination – a charge he has denied.

The Makabayan lawmakers said government must be able to ensure justice for the victims within the bounds of due process and respect for human rights. They added that the terrorist tag only shows the "incompetence of government bodies in apprehending their suspects and highlights the tendency to use the Anti-Terrorism Law as a crutch."

"When the Marcos Jr. administration cannot get what it wants from the courts, it goes to the ATC," the bloc added, citing the terrorist designations of four leaders of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) last July 11. The group warned that resorting to the anti-terrorism law for crime solving undermines the principles of justice and human rights, and risks further eroding public trust in the country's justice system. Read more - Lire plus

Anti-terrorism raps vs Southern Tagalog activists alarm group

Inquirer.net 24/07/2023 - Human rights group Karapatan has expressed alarm that the filing of criminal complaints against activists for alleged violations of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act has become a “fast-emerging pattern” in the Southern Tagalog region. “This sets a dangerous precedent that seeks to foist a chilling effect in rural and indigenous communities in the region,” Karapatan said in a statement on Saturday.

The group noted that Rev. Glofie Baluntong of the United Methodist Church and youth activists Hailey Pecayo, Kenneth Rementilla, and Jasmin Rubia had all been recently charged with alleged violations of the terrorism law. Baluntong, who is serving his church’s faithful in the Mindoro provinces, was slapped last year with attempted murder charges and violation of the terrorism law by the military. Church groups in the region had denounced as harassment the filing of charges against Baluntong.

“Ministering to the poor, providing services for them and defending human rights are never acts of terrorism. We decry the use of the law to criminalize our work and to derail our human rights advocacy,” Karapatan quoted the four activists as saying during a press conference on Saturday. The complaints against Pecayo, Rementilla, and Rubia were lodged against them by the military last month after they conducted fact-finding investigations into incidents of alleged extrajudicial killings in Batangas province, Karapatan said.

The three activists were part of teams investigating the killing of farmer Maximino Digno and Kyllene Casao in July 2022 which they blamed on the military. In Baguio City, activists that continued to grapple with Red-tagging and being labeled as terrorists had found a champion in the city council, which is mulling an ordinance that would shield rights advocates. The proposed ordinance “protecting the rights and fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders operating in the city of Baguio” was filed before the city council in the wake of the release of Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) Resolution No. 41, which was issued on June 7 but made public on July 10, that classified four Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) members — Windel Bolinget, Sara Alikes, Jennifer Awingan and Steve Tauli — as communist rebels who operate in so-called white zones, and were therefore, terrorists.

According to police and military sources, “white zones” are areas where armed communist rebels covertly recruit students and undertake nonviolent political campaigns allegedly with the help of unarmed sympathizers who take part in street protests. Last Thursday, the CPA denounced the Anti-Money Laundering Council for freezing their accounts on July 12, apparently in relation to ATC Resolution 41 which classified four of its members as terrorists. Read more - Lire plus

Tunisia: Human rights at risk two years after President Saied’s power grab

Amnesty International 24/07/2023 - In the second year since Tunisian President Kais Saied’s power grab, Tunisian authorities have taken further steps towards repression by jailing dozens of political opponents and state critics, violated the independence of the judiciary, dismantled institutional human rights safeguards, and incited discrimination against migrants, Amnesty International said today.

 

“Decree by decree, blow by blow, President Saied and his government have dramatically undermined respect for human rights in Tunisia since his power grab in July 2021. In doing so, he has stripped away basic freedoms that Tunisians fought hard to earn and fostered a climate of repression and impunity. The Tunisian authorities must immediately reverse this treacherous trajectory and uphold their international human rights obligations,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Stifling political opposition 

Since February 2023, the authorities have used bogus criminal investigations and arrests to target political opponents, state critics, and perceived enemies of President Saied.

In one high-profile case, the authorities opened a criminal investigation against at least 21 people, including members of the political opposition, lawyers and businessmen on unfounded accusations of “conspiracy against the state.” At least seven people remain in arbitrary detention in relation to their political activism or speech, including opposition figures Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and Khayam Turki. 

The Tunisian authorities have especially targeted members of Ennahda, the country’s largest opposition party, initiating criminal investigations against at least 21 members of the party, 12 of whom are in detention. Authorities arrested Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Ennahda and the former speaker of Tunisia’s dissolved parliament, in April 2023 and are investigating him on charges that include “conspiracy against the state” and “trying to change the nature of the state.” On 15 May 2023, an anti-terrorism court sentenced him to one year in prison over public remarks he made last year at a funeral in which he praised the deceased a “courageous man” who did not fear “a ruler or tyrant”. [...]

President Saied has also undermined judicial independence by issuing two decrees granting himself the power to intervene in the careers of judges and prosecutors, including the power to arbitrarily dismiss them. On 1 June 2022, Saied dismissed 57 judges based on vague and politically motivated accusations of terrorism, financial or moral corruption, adultery, and participation in “alcohol-fuelled parties.” Read more - Lire plus

ACTION: End human rights backsliding in Tunisia

Hong Kong Court Says Protest Song is Matter of National Security

Bloomberg 21/07/2023 - Hong Kong’s bid to wipe a controversial protest song from the city’s internet is flashing fresh warnings signs for businesses that the once-freewheeling international hub is tracking closer to mainland rules.

The city’s High Court on Friday heard the government’s argument for why it should be illegal to perform or broadcast Glory to Hong Kong with criminal intent. That case has raised fears Western tech firms such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which has already quit China over censorship, may be forced to reconsider their presence in the city. Many versions of the song have already disappeared from online platforms such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes and Spotify Technology SA.



Government prosecutors argued the tune’s proliferation online was a matter of national security that would plant seeds of secession, an offense under a Beijing-drafted law carrying sentences as long as life in prison. The judge set a July 28 date for handing down a decision.

The government’s determination to pursue the ban shows its campaign to eliminate dissent is still expanding. That’s despite a three year-crackdown under the China-imposed national security law that’s put the city’s political opposition either behind bars or in self-imposed exile, and shuttered the most-critical media outlets. Spotify and Meta representatives declined to comment, while Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Read more - Lire plus

Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 37

"We condemn the arrest of Russian intellectual Boris Kagarlitsky"

TNI 27/07/2023 - We, at the Transnational Institute and our allies around the world, condemn the arrest and detention of Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky, a prolific author and a prominent Russian left-wing intellectual. On July 26, a court in the North-Western city of Syktyvkar decided to detain Dr Kagarlitsky, a longstanding fellow of our institute, for two months ahead of a trial in September.

He faces charges of ‘justifying terrorism’, related to a social media post about the 2022 attack on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia. Dr Kagarlitsky has been outspoken in his opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2022 Russian authorities declared him to be a "foreign agent". He faces up to seven years in prison if he is declared guilty. This would not be the first time he was been targeted. He was previously jailed for his writing and activism under Brezhnev, Yeltsin and on earlier occasions under Putin. We stand in solidarity with Dr Kagarlitsky, as well as all others being oppressed for advocating peace and defending democratic rights in Russia.

We call for his immediate release.

You can find more information, including ways to support Boris as well as a petition you can sign at https://freeboris.info. This way we can maximize international solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky. Prior to discontinuing our petition, this statement received support from more than 300 people including:

Naomi Klein

Yanis Varoufakis

Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Medea Benjamin, CodePink

David Adler, Progressive International

Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South

Pablo Solon

Edgardo Lander, Universidad de Venezuela, Caracas

Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies

John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies

Anthony Barnett, Co-founder, openDemocracy

Achin, Samar and Anish Vanaik and Pamela Philipose

Howard M. Wachtel, American University, Washington, DC

Mariano Aguirre

Maude Barlow, co-founder of Council of Canadians Source

ICLMG ACTIONS & EVENTS

Canada: Do not purchase armed drones

The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign

In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan.

CSIS isn't above the law!

In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.



Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.

Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

Send an email using ICLMG’s one-click tool and share widely!

Letter in English + Lettre en français

Sign and share the LeadNow petitions to protect Hassan from further injustice

Petition in English + Pétition en français

For more information on the case of Hassan Diab, read our webcomic, watch our animated version of the comic, or visit justiceforhassandiab.org.

Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable. 

Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.

Please share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

20 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now!

December 10, 2022 - ironically Human Rights Day - marked the 20th "anniversary" of the arrest of Mohamed Harkat under Canada's rights-violating security certificate regime. For Mr. Harkat, it's been two decades of fighting deportation to torture, 16 years of harassment and intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, secret trials, PTSD: enough is enough! We call for justice for Moe Harkat now! Watch - Visionnez

TAKE ACTION: Stop Moe Harkat's deportation to torture!

ACTION: Arrêtez la déportation vers la torture de Mohamed Harkat!

Reform Canada's extradition law now!

Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.



Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!

Version française: Le Canada doit réformer la loi sur l'extradition! + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Phone PM Justin Trudeau

TAKE ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab!

Just Peace Advocates' action: Write a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Say “No" to a second extradition of Hassan Diab

Canada must protect encryption!

Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.



Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!

Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir

Protect our rights from facial recognition!

Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place. Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now.

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Encryption

Chiffrement

US: Amended Cooper Davis Act Is a Direct Threat to Encryption

Freedom of expression and of the press

Liberté d'expression et de la presse

ACTION: Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko

EFF Supports the Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying (PRESS) Act

This Is Not a Drill: Meta’s Ban on Canadian News Ramps Up

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et réfugié.es

Border patrol is caging migrants outdoors during deadly Arizona heatwave

Texas state police purchased Israeli phone-tracking software for "border emergency"

DOJ Threatens to Sue Texas Gov. Abbott for Installing Barrels Wrapped in Razor Wire in Rio Grande

Police

Federal law enforcement agencies routinely undercount use-of-force incidents

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance

ACTION: You Can Help Stop These Bad Internet Bills (USA)

India’s Data Protection Bill a threat to privacy

Victory! Ninth Circuit Allows Human Rights Case to Move Forward Against Cisco System

Evangelical military vets are using “counterterror” internet surveillance techniques to help police get search warrants against sex workers

Microsoft and Google may have to surrender people's data to Saudi Arabia after signing huge deals there

‘Smart’ Cities Are Surveilled Cities

Miscellaneous

Divers

ACTION: No more cluster bombs in Ukraine

ACTION: Don’t let Canadian cannons fire cluster bombs

EVENTS: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day events in Canada 2023

CIA Story Time: From Patrice Lumumba's Assassination To Post-9/11 Torture

NATO does not, and never did, ‘defend’ democracy

How to Kill an Entire Country: The Legacy of the Sanctions against Iraq

Techtonic: New podcast on the human impact of Big Tech and social media

ACTION: Urge PM Trudeau to reduce military spending

ACTION: Stop Deporting Russian War Resisters

January to June 2023 - Janvier à juin 2023

Here is what we worked on so far this year thanks to the support of our members and donors:

• Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
• Bill C-26, An Act respecting cyber security and amending the Telecommunications Act
• Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
• Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
• Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
• Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
• Combatting Islamophobia
• Countering terrorist financing & prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
• National Security and Intelligence Review Agency
• CSIS accountability and duty of candour
• CSE, surveillance and cyberwarfare
• Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
• “Online harms” proposal
• Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
• Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
• UN Counterterrorism Executive Directorate Canada assessment
• UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global survey on counterterrorism and civic space

For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.

What we have planned for the rest of 2023!

• Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices
• Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for good privacy law reform
• Addressing the lack of regulation on the use of AI in national security, including proposed exemptions for national security agencies
• Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
• Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
• The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
• The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
• Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency
• Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
• Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada
• Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
• Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
• And much more!

Version française: Ce que nous avons fait jusqu'à présent en 2023

Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG.