News Digest - Revue de l'actualité: ICLMG: 19 years after 9/11; US Wars Displaced 37 Million People Around the World; Canada’s role in drone wars; What a Few Cakes Say About US Drone Program; UN: Canada is fuelling war in Yemen with arms sales & more

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

September 18, 2020

ICLMG statement: 19 years after 9/11

ICLMG 11/09/2020 - Today, we remember the 3,000 people who died in the attacks on the Twin Towers, but we also remember the more than 800,000 who have died, the 59 million who have been displaced and the countless more who have been tortured, detained, profiled and spied on in the disastrous and racist wars & policies launched since then through the War on Terror.

While the US has led the way, Canada has been both active and complicit - from Afghanistan to Iraq and from Libya to Yemen. Not to mention the cases of Canadians Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin, Abousfian Abdelrazik and Omar Khadr, whose rights were violated and who were tortured with Canadian complicity.

And we cannot ignore the links between the War on Terror and Canada's history of colonialism, racism and white supremacy. We cannot talk about anti-Muslim racism and wars abroad and not acknowledge that since its founding, Canada has been a colonial project that has displaced and killed innumerable First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

At ICLMG, we continue to to fight against the national security and anti-terrorism laws that violate our fundamental freedoms and for justice for those who have been and continued to be targeted by these policies and actions.

Stop surveillance. End torture. Fight racism & Islamophobia. Help us in our work at iclmg.ca Source

Costs of War: After 9/11 Attacks, U.S. Wars Displaced at Least 37 Million People Around the World

Democracy Now! 11/09/2020 - As the United States marks 19 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a new report finds at least 37 million people in eight countries have been displaced since the start of the so-called global war on terrorism since 2001. The Costs of War Project at Brown University also found more than 800,000 people have been killed since U.S. forces began fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen, at a cost of $6.4 trillion to U.S. taxpayers. “The U.S. has played a disproportionate role in waging war, in launching war and in perpetuating war over the last 19 years,” says report co-author David Vine, a professor of anthropology at American University. Read more - Lire plus

America’s War on Terror is the True Cause of Europe’s Refugee Crisis

Opinion: 9/11: My pain and my journey since

On 9/11, Interrogating the Assumptions that Undergird the “Forever War”

Justice delayed: 19 years later, coronavirus pushes back 9/11 trial — again

3,000 Dead on 9/11 Meant Everything. 200,000 Dead of Covid-19 Means Nothing. Here’s Why.

Unmasking Canada’s role in the drone wars

Ricochet 15/09/2020 - Private U.S. companies are part of drone strike “kill chains” in East Africa, revealed an investigation published last month by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global collaborative network of investigative journalists. Their report described how civilian contractors are operating armed drones, and in some cases intelligence collected by private firms form the basis of American drone strikes in Somalia. The investigation highlighted L3Harris Technologies, a top contractor to the U.S. Army and Air Force with a “revolving door” of associates moving between the U.S. military and the company — and a Canadian connection.

While the Americans claim their drone strikes in Somalia only target members of the al-Shabab militia, a number of journalists and international organizations have reported on how the U.S. military has sought to obscure the number of civilian casualties. In some cases, the U.S. did not even seek to assess whether any civilians were killed by their drone attacks, prompting Rep. Ilhan Omar and other members of Congress to call on the military to explain the gap in casualty figures. In January two L3Harris contractors were killed at a joint Kenyan-U.S. airbase near the Somali border while deployed on a U.S. military mission thought to be related to the strikes in Somalia. Despite this setback, involvement in military contracting and drone operations has proven to be very lucrative for the firm and its three controlling shareholders — major hedge fund and pension fund companies BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and T. Rowe Price. Less known, however, is that such contracts with foreign militaries have also been highly profitable for its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, L3Harris Wescam.

While the General Dynamics Land Systems contract to sell $15 billion worth of Ontario-made armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia has been covered in the Canadian press and has drawn criticism from some on Parliament Hill, the role that Canadian firms play in the design and manufacturing of drone technology for the Saudi dictatorship has gone largely unreported. In Wescam’s case, the company collaborates with the Saudi dictatorship’s military sector on projects related to electro-optical and infrared systems for drones — including training, manufacturing, and research as part of what the company’s senior executive called an effort to “significantly broaden our support for [the] Saudi government and military forces.” Like many defence contractors, the company continues to profit after the initial sale by servicing their products for foreign military clients, leading to ongoing involvement in conflicts abroad. Read more - Lire plus

What a Few Cakes Say About the US Drone Program

Just Security 16/09/2020 - Earlier this month, Lawfare’s infamous “Baker of Hard National Security Choices” unmasked herself. Stephanie Carvin, a professor of international relations at Carleton University who has worked as a national security analyst for the Canadian government and served as a consultant to the U.S. Defense Department, declared in a series of tweets that she was the creator of several cakes displayed on the Lawfare website since 2013. These cakes variously celebrate drone strikes and other targeted killings. As Carvin herself put it, “National Security is difficult and demanding work. In most cases it takes years before you may see the results of all of your efforts. I figure that edible targets are one way to relieve the stress of it all.”

Backlash to Carvin’s tweets was swift and understandably angry. The reactions prompted Carvin to delete the thread and issue an apology. While some might dismiss this event as another example of “cancel culture,” the incident offers important insights that shouldn’t be brushed aside. Carvin’s cake-baking provides a rare window into a largely closed culture of national security policymaking. The creations, and Carvin’s decision to publicly share them and then retract them (not once but twice; according to her original thread she hastily requested Lawfare remove her name from the images after they attracted public criticism in 2013) should prompt us to reflect on what her confections, as well as their publication on a prestigious national security website, suggest about the nature of the U.S. targeted killing program and the national security sector more broadly.

The cakes and their consumption highlight, for example, the almost inevitable dehumanization of those being killed and their powerlessness to confront their attackers, either on the battlefield or in a court of law. They speak to the spectacle of celebration that often accompanies these killings and belie the “hard choices” involved in planning and executing these operations, as depicted in government and media accounts. They also underscore the ways in which these circumstances are actively nurtured and promoted by parts of the national security establishment. Read more - Lire plus

Canada is fuelling war in Yemen with arms sales, UN report says

The Globe and Mail 09/09/2020 - Canada for the first time is being publicly named as one of the countries helping fuel the war in Yemen by a panel of independent experts monitoring the conflict for the United Nations and investigating possible war crimes by the combatants, including Saudi Arabia. In a report for the period ending in June, 2020, the panel included Canada on a list of countries selling arms to those waging the conflict in Yemen: a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and Houthi rebels backed by Iran.

The countries identified in the report, which also include the United States, Britain and France, “continued their support of parties to the conflict including through arms transfers, thereby helping to perpetuate the conflict," the report said. It was the third report issued so far by the UN Human Rights Council’s panel on Yemen. Ardi Imseis, a professor of law at Queen’s University and a member of the panel, said at a news conference on the report that Canada was added to the list of named countries because of an increase in arms sales in 2019. “We therefore reiterate our call for states to stop transferring arms to the parties to the conflict,” he said. Canadian shipments of military goods to Saudi Arabia hit a record high in 2019, almost entirely owing to a $14-billion contract brokered by a federal Crown corporation to sell light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to the kingdom. Canada exported nearly $2.9-billion worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia last year, nearly all of it LAVs made in London, Ont., by a subsidiary of U.S. defence contractor General Dynamics Corp.

Prof. Imseis urged the Canadian government to reconsider arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

“Given Canada’s historical commitment to the rules-based international order, including the need to ensure protection of civilians in armed conflict, it is imperative that Ottawa review its ongoing flow of arms to parties to the conflict, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” he said in a statement to The Globe and Mail. “Providing the instruments of war to any side in the Yemen conflict will only serve an enabling function, thereby continuing the conflict to the great detriment of civilians in Yemen.” Canadian-made LAVs operated by Saudi soldiers have been filmed in skirmishes across the Saudi Arabian-Yemeni border.

Peggy Mason, president of the Rideau Institute, a policy research and advocacy group, called the report a black mark for Canada. She said it also undermines claims made by the Canadian government in April after it ended a moratorium on approving new arms-export permits for Saudi Arabia that was imposed in 2018 in response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents. A memo released in April by the federal department of Global Affairs to justify continuing arms shipments to Saudi Arabia said: “Canadian exports of military goods and technology to [the kingdom] contribute to regional peace and security.” The memo also noted that previous reports by the UN panel of experts on Yemen had not faulted Canada for arms exports to combatants, even though they “explicitly questioned the legality of arms transfers by France, the United Kingdom and the United States.” Ms. Mason said Canada can no longer claim to have avoided censure. She said the new UN report “leaves no doubt that Canada too is undermining regional peace and security.” Read more - Lire plus

Police arrest journalist, researcher in connection with Caledonia land reclamation

APTN 03/09/2020 - A co-host of a weekly radio program along with a Ryerson University research fellow – whose work both focus on Indigenous issues – have been arrested in connection with the ongoing Haudenosaunee occupation of the McKenzie Meadows construction site in Caledonia, an hour south of Toronto. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say One Dish, One Mic’s Karl Dockstader and Yellowhead Institute’s Courtney Skye were arrested on Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 respectively.

“Karl spent last week at 1492 Land Back Lane to do an immersive story for One Dish, One Mic as independent media,” said a statement posted to Twitter by the show’s other co-host Sean Vanderklis. “He understood that as a journalist that as long as he didn’t actively assist the land defenders that his status as a journalist would protect his work.” Skye tweeted, “I was sitting on the banks of the Grand River with my auntie/sis. I was literally arrested within feet of our river in my homelands.”

On Thursday evening, OPP Const. Rodney LeClair estimated 17 people had been arrested in connection with the land reclamation camp and the blockades erected after police raided it. That number stood at 13 on Thursday morning, LeClair said earlier. Police arrested nine people on Aug. 5 when OPP enforced a Superior Court injunction on the camp. Another person was arrested in Hamilton on Aug. 24. Police arrested three more people on Sept. 2 (one in connection with the camp, another with the blockades). Details of the other arrests have not been released.

“For us it is a peaceful occupation of our territory, and so to them to come and threaten violence again – because I think that’s what our people are taking those injunction readings as, is as a threat of violence – because we’ve been sitting here around the fire peacefully occupying our territory for the last 47 days now and have maintained the peaceful nature in which we started it.” Camp occupants say the land was never ceded by the Haudenosaunee people. Read more - Lire plus

Repatriating ISIS Family Members: A North Macedonia Model?

Just Security 14/09/2020 - Yet one of the smallest (by population) members of the Global Coalition, the Republic of North Macedonia, is taking action. The North Macedonia parliament recently adopted a comprehensive, “whole of society” rehabilitation and reintegration plan as part of an effort to bring home its approximately 40 citizens (mainly women and children) who remain in the camps. The plan, which has political, financial, and technical support from the international community, also covers terrorist offenders who are due to be released from prison soon. Much like efforts of the small number of countries, including those in Central Asia, which have sought to repatriate all of their citizens, North Macedonia’s initiative could become a model for other Western countries. [...]

Central to the North Macedonia plan is the creation of multidisciplinary teams, drawing on models from programs in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the U.K. One team works at the national level to oversee the plan and coordinate the institutions and other actors involved, while others operate at the municipal level, with mobile support teams providing additional capacity as needed. Read more - Lire plus

Despite US Veto, Desperate ISIS Suspects and Families Remain at Risk

Border Patrol Has Used Facial Recognition to Scan More Than 16 Million Fliers — and Caught Just 7 Imposters

One Zero 04/09/2020 - The agency that runs the United States’ airport and border facial recognition program has failed to properly tell the public about how it works, a new report has found. In whole, the report reads like a major red flag: The U.S. government is charging ahead with the adoption of this questionable technology, and it’s not informing the public or keeping proper tabs on accuracy.

By law, the Customs and Border Patrol is supposed to inform the public when facial recognition is being used by putting up clear, legible signs telling people that their faces are being scanned and how they can opt out. The department is also supposed to put accurate, up-to-date information online about its facial recognition, and provide information through its call center.

But a new report from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) found CBP lacking in all these regards. Signs disclosing the use of facial recognition were hidden behind bigger signs at airports, and some contained outdated information. Some signs didn’t tell people how to opt out, or what would happen if they asked to opt out.

Not having these signs means that people were less likely to opt out or question whether they needed to submit to a facial scan. Privacy organizations told GAO that CBP discourages opting out, with the justification that doing so “would lead to additional security scrutiny, increased wait times, and could be grounds to deny boarding.” GOA found that CBP officers weren’t present to address opt-out requests at airports, meaning that travelers who opted out would have to wait while additional staff was called in to address concerns.

Investigators also couldn’t always reach the CBP call center to ask about opt-out information. When they did reach staff at the call center, the operators didn’t know information about the facial recognition programs. (Welcome to the club, GAO.) The CBP, in turn, blamed airports, airlines, and cruise operators for failing to communicate with passengers. The CBP relies on private companies to post privacy signs. But the CBP has done little to make sure these signs are present: The department only checked on one out of 20 places where the facial recognition tests were taking place. CBP has no plans to make sure such signs are present at other locations. The report also contained some interesting statistics about the effectiveness of the facial recognition programs in catching individuals traveling under false identities. In airports, CBP has scanned more than 16 million passengers arriving in the United States up to May 2020, and stopped a total of seven imposters. At the southern border, facial recognition was also used to scan 4.4 million pedestrians crossing into the United States between September 2018 and December 2019, and stopped 215 imposters.

The CBP is also using facial recognition for commercial vehicles in Brownsville, Texas, and at the northern border at Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York. However, no imposters were reported to be caught at those locations. The CBP highlighted one success story from the southern border to GOA: The agency used facial recognition to catch a pedestrian trying to enter the United States wearing Halloween makeup. Perhaps the most glaring oversight that GAO noted, however, was that CBP doesn’t regularly monitor the accuracy of its facial recognition. The border agency looks at data from two flights per airport per week to make sure the images are good quality and accuracy is above the acceptable threshold of 90%. But according to the report, this process doesn’t alert CBP to ongoing daily issues until days or weeks after they start to occur. Read more - Lire plus

Portland, Oregon, passes toughest ban on facial recognition in US

Whistleblower says top DHS officials distorted intel to match Trump statements, lied to Congress

NBC News 09/09/2020 - A whistleblower is accusing top Trump administration homeland security officials of violating laws and policies by lying to Congress and manipulating intelligence reports to conform with President Donald Trump's political agenda.

A written complaint by Brian Murphy, who was a top Department of Homeland Security intelligence analyst, accuses top DHS officials of blocking analysis of Russian election interference, watering down intelligence reports about corruption and violence fueling a refugee flow from Central America, and "modify(ing) assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and 'anarchist' groups."

The complaint also says DHS gave false information to Congress last year about the numbers of suspected terrorists crossing the southern border. That allegation mirrors the findings of an NBC News report in January 2019, which determined that the Trump administration was misrepresenting the data on suspected terrorists crossing the southern border, claiming thousands when in fact there were almost none. Read more - Lire plus

Extinction Rebellion 'criminals' threaten UK way of life, says Priti Patel

The Guardian 08/09/2020 - The home secretary, Priti Patel, has claimed Extinction Rebellion activists are “so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals” who threaten key planks of national life. The government’s rhetorical venom against XR was triggered by the blockading of newspaper print works at the weekend, which disrupted the distribution of some newspapers and led to scores of arrests. The Guardian understands, however, that despite the government threatening to crack down on the climate emergency group, more than a year of talks between police and ministers about law changes has yet to produce any public plans.

Over the weekend government briefings floated the idea of classing XR as an “organised crime group”. Neither Patel nor the policing minister Kit Malthouse repeated that idea in the Commons on Monday, with police believing it is nonsense. The police regard XR as a non-violent group committed to civil disobedience that is time-consuming and costly for officers to deal with. One senior police source said officers had enough powers: “The powers are there. They [XR] are not an organised crime group. Part of the definition of an OCG is they commit violence in achieving their aims, and no one seriously suggests XR commit violence.” [...]

Last year XR caused disruption in London with their campaigns, triggering talks between police chiefs and the Home Office about changes to specific sections of the 1986 Public Order Act. The Guardian understands that changes could include lowering the threshold at which police can place restrictions. One change could mean the prospect of “disruption” is enough to impose tough conditions, not “serious disruption” as the act currently states. Sarah Lunnon, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, said: “Our media and our government are captured by vested interests. They do not want to see change. Three companies alone own 87% of the national newspaper market. “These powerful vested interests are the real organised criminals. They are the true threat to our democracy. And it’s depressing – although no surprise – that so much of the political and media elite has jumped to their defence, and jumped at the opportunity to suppress people power and grassroots protest. We will not allow them to criminalise the noble tradition of non-violent civil disobedience.” Read more - Lire plus

The uncontrollable beast of UK anti-terror legislation

Daily Sabah 24/07/2020 - With Monday marking the 20th anniversary of the U.K. Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT), U.K. based human rights group, Cage, has published a wide-ranging report on how the British counterterrorism (CT) regime has “expanded to historically unprecedented levels” – shifting from a hard, one-tier approach to various "soft" methods of social control "bound up with systems and processes that can determine citizenship-stripping and child removal” so much so that it has created a "near-limitless policing apparatus."

The organization states that a consequence of this has been the creation of a parallel justice system that undermines the rule of law and infringes on civil liberties for all, while "introducing techniques and technologies that justify intrusion and surveillance into every single sphere of life." Entitled "20 Years of TACT: Justice under Threat," the report details how the last two decades have seen the ritualization of the passing of new "counterterrorism" policies through Parliament almost annually, with TACT 2000 forming the legislative backbone of counterterror policing in Britain. Over that period, the U.K. has witnessed the rise of a political and media discourse on "terrorism" that has steadily normalized and legitimized mass surveillance apparatus. [...]

With terror arrests, and especially raids, often attracting media attention and serving as a visible indicator that "something is being done," the statistics show that the reality away from the headlines often falls short of the impression created by them. Meanwhile, since TACT statistics began being recorded, a mere 11.6% of "terror arrests" have resulted in convictions, while almost half of all arrestees have ended in no action being taken, with just over a quarter of arrestees charged with a terror offense. [...] Other unsavory consequences of TACT have included moves towards routinely arming police off the back of the "terror threat," shoot-to-kill practices being increasingly deployed against terror suspects, the use of secret evidence and the closed processes of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) courts.

This has all been made possible by a highly profitable counterterrorism lobby deeply embedded in government, a complicit media and even the courts being at times deferential in the face of the "justifications" presented for this corrosive undermining of the rule of law. Cage states that its concerns are made all the more significant given a wider context in which counterterrorism has negated the small gains made under multiculturalism and is shunting us towards a more stridently nationalistic and assimilationist social policy. This has implications for foreign policy as well, with the powerful prescription regime for banning "terrorist" organizations serving as a tool, allowing the British government to use its laws to support its allies abroad to settle their internal disputes. Read more - Lire plus

Moazzam Begg: My journey through 20 years of British terror laws

Turkey - Human rights lawyer Ebru Timtik dies after 238 days on hunger strike

eureporter 28/08/2020 - On August 28, lawyer Ebru Timtik died after 238 days of hunger strike. Timtuk was one of eighteen lawyers accused of being part of a terrorist organization, under Turkey’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws. Following the convictions last year Milena Buyum, Amnesty International’s Senior Campaigner on Turkey, who observed the trial hearing, said: “Today’s convictions are a travesty of justice and demonstrate yet again the inability of courts crippled under political pressure to deliver a fair trial.

“After more than a year in pre-trial detention for six of the lawyers, and three measly hearings marred by fair trial breaches, this politically motivated prosecution has reached it preposterous conclusion. These lawyers should be immediately and unconditionally released and the conviction quashed.” Timtik was sentenced to 13 years 6 months in prison last March for "terrorism-related" offences. Eighteen other lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), were sentenced to a total of 159 years in prison. The appeals court, which upheld the lawyers' sentences in October 2019, was revealed to give the verdict without reviewing lawyers' appeal. Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal started hunger strikes on 2 January and 2 February, respectively. Ünsal, is continuing his fast and was also forcibly hospitalized on 30 July. Read more - Lire plus

Turkey: More than 1500 lawyers prosecuted and 605 held in pretrial detention since 2016 coup attempt

Revealed: The CIA and MI6’s secret war in Kenya

DM 28/08/2020 - A covert Kenyan paramilitary team armed and trained by the US and supported by UK intelligence is behind renditions and controversial killings of terror suspects in night-time raids, Declassified UK can reveal:

Clandestine Kenyan team has been paid and assisted by the CIA to take down terror suspects since 2004. “We’re really hands-on. We don’t just hand them the money once a month”, one US official said.
“Unconstitutional killings” include a family man wrongly slain due to mistaken identity, and allegations a terror suspect was summarily executed.
Britain’s MI6 plays a key role in identifying suspects for a ‘kill or capture’ list and finding and fixing their location.
Paramilitaries use covert tactics such as fake number plates and disguise themselves as aid workers on operations in refugee camps, which “shield perpetrators of abuses from any shred of accountability”.
Killings are “radicalising” Kenya, a former US ambassador and Kenyan vice president both told Declassified. Read more - Lire plus

From January to July 2020

ICLMG - The first half of 2020 has been very difficult given the impact of the pandemic, but we continued working hard to protect our civil liberties. Below you can see what we have accomplished so far this year, but first here is a sneak-peek into what we plan to do for the rest of 2020:

We will continue to protect our civil liberties and human rights against the threat of digital surveillance in the response to COVID-19, as well as the growing dangers of facial recognition technology.

We will continue to fight to abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture. Central to this is our work to stop Mohamed Harkat’s deportation to torture.

We will continue to monitor the implementation of the National Security Act, 2017 (formerly Bill C-59), especially around mass surveillance and immunity for CSIS employees.

We will continue to push for greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism.

We will continue 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 for flights that do not land in or fly over the US.

We will continue to call for justice for Dr. Hassan Diab and for the reform of the Extradition Act.

We will continue to pressure 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 47 member organizations, informed via the News Digest.

What we've been up to so far in 2020 + Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Ce que nous avons fait en 2020 + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

ACTIONS & EVENTS

Two recent 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 Bill Blair demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable. Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.

TAKE ACTION

Read our full statement on the issue here for more information. Please share it on:

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NEW Stop the Uyghur Genocide!

Rally in support of Uyghur people

September 28, 12:30pm

Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Rain or shine

Practice physical distancing and wear a mask

DETAILS

NEW Stop Arming Saudi: Day of Action for Peace

The next Day of Action to stop the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia will take place on September 21st, 2020, the International Day of Peace. Hundreds of people from across Canada will come together – both virtually and in-person – to show their support for an immediate end to the Saudi arms deal and to raise this issue yet again with the government.

The coalition organizing this Day of Action is broad and includes human rights activists, arms control advocates, labour groups, and feminist and humanitarian organizations. Click to take action!