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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

July 9, 2022 - 9 juillet 2022

Check out our biannual summary of activities: What We've Been Up To from January to June 2022. Lisez la version française ici.

Here are the issues we plan to work on for the rest of 2022:

Monitoring the evolution of Bill S-7 – the electronic device border search bill – as it passes through the Senate and House of Commons;
Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices online;
Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for privacy law reform (including monitoring the new Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act);
Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility;
Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming the extradition law;
Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS);
The return of the 44 Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including 26 children;
The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities;
Pushing for Canadian government action on behalf of Iranian Canadians negatively and unjustly impacted by the US terror listing of the IRGC
Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism. This includes evaluating and advocating for improvements to the proposed Public Review and Complaints Commission Act (Bill C-20);
Monitoring the review of the National Security Act, 2017 (Bill C-59);
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;
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;
And much more!

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Watch: International Voices Join MPs in Call for Repatriation of Canadians from Northeast Syria

On June 23rd, we hosted an online international media conference/public event to expose and demand an end to one of the gravest human rights violations currently perpetrated by the Canadian government.

Canada’s Guantanamo Bay – where Canadian Muslims are off-shored beyond reach of law & rights, respect & dignity – is located in North Eastern Syria. Forty-four Canadians – 8 men, 13 women and 23 children – are illegally detained there under conditions the United Nations and many human rights groups describe as akin to torture.

The Canadian government is violating their Charter Rights by refusing to repatriate them. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, the US State Department, Save the Children and, in a rare show of cross-party unanimity, a Canadian Parliamentary Committee, have all called for repatriation.

WATCH

TAKE ACTION: Canada's Guantanamo Bay: Sign to Free Jack Letts & 43 Canadian Kids, Women & Men in Syria

The Canadian Press: Opposition MPs urge federal government to bring home Canadians detained in Syria

Canadian Muslim News: Repatriating 44 Canadian Muslims Illegally Detained in Syria; interview with Jack Letts' mother, Sally Lane, and Matthew Behrens (video)

Belgium takes back mothers and children from Syria

Tim McSorley comments on the news "London, Ont., family stuck in London, England after airlines refuse to let them board"

Twitter 25/06/2022 - Completely unacceptable. Since 2011, Canada has abdicated the rights of its citizens to return home if their flight passed through US airspace.

This has lead to countless Canadians, mostly Muslims, being stranded abroad until they book circuitous, lengthy & expensive routes home.

All based on secret lists based on secret evidence and decisions, that are almost impossible for non-US citizens to challenge. This also affects permanent residents, asylum seekers and other travelers to Canada.

And also means that some Canadians and people in Canada are virtually stranded here, unable to fly to visit family members or for work.

The government knows this, and there was supposed to be a parliamentary review of the 2011 amendments to privacy laws that allowed this - but it never happened.

ICLMG and others opposed this situation then, and we continue to oppose it now. But successive governments have known about this problem, and refused to act. Justin Trudeau, Omar Alghabra & Melanie Joly: will you finally address this once and for all? Source

London, Ont., family stuck in London, England after airlines refuse to let them board

CSILC: Les dangers de la lutte contre les méfaits en ligne – Proposition du gouvernement du Canada

La revue de la Ligue des droits et libertés été 2022 - Au cours des deux dernières décennies, nous en sommes venu-e-s à dépendre des plateformes en ligne pour des besoins de base, la communication, l’éducation et le divertissement. En ligne, nous voyons le bon – l’accès à des informations autrement difﬁciles à trouver, la communication avec des êtres chers – et le mauvais. Le mauvais englobe souvent des méfaits que nous connaissons bien, notamment les discours haineux, le racisme, la misogynie, l’homophobie, la transphobie, l’exploitation sexuelle de mineurs, l’intimidation et l’incitation à la violence, avec de nouvelles formes de harcèlement et d’abus qui peuvent se produire à une échelle beaucoup plus grande, et avec de nouveaux moyens de diffuser des contenus préjudiciables et illégaux.

Plusieurs sites de médias sociaux se sont engagés à remédier à ces méfaits. Toutefois, les modèles commerciaux axés sur la rétention de l’engagement de l’utilisateur, peu importe le contenu se sont avérés être incapables d’y parvenir. Les chercheurs ont constaté que lorsque ces plateformes en ligne suppriment du contenu préjudiciable, ce sont souvent les communautés qui subissent du harcèlement qui subissent le plus de censure. Par ailleurs, des gouvernements à travers le monde ont utilisé le prétexte de la lutte contre le discours haineux et les méfaits en ligne pour censurer et réduire au silence des opposants, notamment des défenseurs des droits humains.

Le gouvernement canadien promettait depuis 2019 de s’attaquer à ce problème, en le situant explicitement dans le cadre de la lutte contre la haine en ligne. Fin juillet 2021, le gouvernement a ﬁnalement dévoilé son projet pour s’attaquer aux méfaits en ligne, en même temps qu’il amorçait une consultation publique. Le fait que la consultation ait lieu au cœur de l’été, avec une élection imminente à l’horizon, a immédiatement suscité des inquiétudes. Quand les élections ont été déclenchées quelques semaines plus tard, les tables rondes avec des représentant-e-s du gouvernement qui pouvaient répondre aux questions concernant le projet ont été annulées.

L’approche du gouvernement était mauvaise et le projet lui-même encore pire. Comme l’a décrit Daphne Keller, chercheuse en cyberpolitique, la proposition initiale du Canada était « comme une liste des pires idées dans le monde – celles que les groupes de défense des droits humains – combattent dans l’UE, en Inde, en Australie, à Singapour, en Indonésie et ailleurs ». [...]

Le problème est que les plateformes seraient non seulement tenues de déterminer si un contenu est illégal – ce qui peut déjà être difﬁcile – mais aussi si un contenu légal doit être considéré comme préjudiciable. Ce ﬂou pourrait conduire à du proﬁlage racial et politique, et à une suppression et une censure encore plus large de contenus.

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Revue de la Ligue des droits et libertés | Le capitalisme de surveillance

Anti-Taliban law could be tweaked to get more humanitarian aid to Afghans: minister

CTV News 02/07/2022 - A law outlawing any dealings with the Taliban, which charities complain is impeding their ability to help needy Afghans, could be adjusted by the federal government to give more flexibility to aid agencies.International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan said the government is looking at making changes to the law to create “flexibility” to make humanitarian help easier. But, in an interview with The Canadian Press, he insisted Canada would not lift the Taliban’s designation as a prescribed terrorist organization.

“We are looking at options on what we can do to create that flexibility that other countries have,” he said. “The U.S. currently can do more work than us, at least have the options to do more things there. We are looking at similar exemptions we can create as long as we can keep up the pressure on the Taliban, as it is a terrorist entity.” A law listing the Taliban as a terrorist organization was passed in 2013, before the allies withdrew and the Taliban seized control of Kabul and formed a de facto government last year. Under the anti-terrorist leglislation, Canadians could face up to 10 years in prison if they, directly or indirectly, make available property or finances to the Taliban.

Canadian aid agencies working in Afghanistan complain the law is impeding their work because they cannot help anyone who may have official dealings with the Afghan government, including people paying rent or taxes. They have also criticized Canada for not adjusting its regulations following a December 2021 UN Security Council resolution which said “humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan” would not violate the council’s sanctions regime. Giving evidence to a special parliamentary committee on Afghanistan earlier this year, Michael Messenger, president of World Vision Canada, said Canada was “out of step" with other countries, including the U.S., which have made changes to make humanitarian aid easier following the UN resolution.

Ten humanitarian organizations made a submission to the parliamentary committee calling on ministers to relax its laws so they could work on the ground in Afghanistan without fear of breaching Canada's anti-terrorism laws. In its official report last month, the committee recommended that the government “ensure that registered Canadian organizations have the clarity and assurances needed — such as carve-outs or exemptions — to deliver humanitarian assistance and meet basic needs in Afghanistan without fear of prosecution for violating Canada’s anti-terrorism laws.” Read more - Lire plus

A year after Taliban return, Canadian anti-terror law still bars NGOs

Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills 1,000+. As Death Toll Rises, U.S. Sanctions Limit International Aid

Network of safe houses in Afghanistan to shut down as funding dries up

‘Asleep at the wheel’: Canada police’s spyware admission raises alarm

The Guardian 07/07/2022 - An admission from Canada’s national police force that it routinely uses powerful spyware to surveil citizens has prompted concern from experts, who warn the country is “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to regulating and reining in use of the technology. During a parliamentary session in late June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police submitted a document outlining how a special investigative team covertly infiltrates the mobile devices of Canadians. The tools, which have been used on at least 10 investigations between 2018 and 2020, give the police access to text messages, email, photos, videos, audio files, calendar entries and financial records. The software can also remotely turn on the camera and microphone of a suspect’s phone or laptop. The RCMP, which has long evaded questions over whether it uses spyware to track Canadians, provided the information about its “on-device investigative tools” in response to a question from a Conservative lawmaker about how the federal government collects data on its citizens.

Ron Deibert, a political science professor at the university of Toronto and head of Citizen Lab, said the spyware, which gives police an “extraordinary window into every aspect of someone’s personal life” is akin to “nuclear-level technology” – but has little government oversight. “There’s a culture of secrecy that pervades the intelligence and law enforcement community in this country,” he said. Deibert, one the world’s leading experts on the surveillance techniques used by authoritarian regimes, said he and others have long suspected police and government agencies in Canada were using the technology. But absent from the disclosure was any indication of who the government is purchasing the software from. “That’s my biggest unanswered question,” he said. “Because we know there are some companies that are horrible when it comes to due diligence and routinely sell to governments that use it for grotesque human rights violations.” Last year, a collaborative investigation between the Guardian and other major international outlets, called the Pegasus Project, revealed that spyware licensed by the Israeli firm NSO Group had been used to hack smartphones belonging to journalists, lawyers and human rights activists.

In 2021 the commerce department in the United States announced it had placed mercenary spyware companies like NSO on the country’s Entity List, effectively blacklisting them for their “malicious cyber activities” amid growing concern from US officials that the software posed a grave risk to national security. In contrast, Canadian authorities have shown little appetite to take similar action, said Deibert, who has briefed senior Canadian officials within successive governments. “Developing export controls and putting more transparency and accountability around procurement practice is a no-brainer,” he said. The RCMP says it only uses the tools when less intrusive means have failed. In the document, the police force claims it needs to use spyware because new technologies, like end-to-end encryption, make it “exponentially more difficult for the RCMP to conduct court-authorized electronic surveillance”. But privacy advocates disagree. “The creation of the metaphor of ‘police investigations going dark’ because of advances in technology is the public relations coup of the 21st century,” said Brenda McPhail, director of the privacy technology and surveillance program for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “The case has not been made to the public for the use of this powerful spyware, particularly given the profoundly dangerous uses of this technology around the world.”

McPhail points to previous instances in which the RCMP has been evasive and misleading about the technology it uses for surveillance, including a recent controversy over mobile device identifiers, known as IMSI catchers or stingrays. In September 2017, Canada’s privacy commissioner found the police agency had broken the law six times when it used the technology. “The policy has been, we’re going to do what we can and in secret. If it comes out, then we’ll see what we can do to mitigate the harm,” said McPhail. In the parliamentary document, the RCMP says it didn’t consult the federal privacy commissioner before using the technology – but said it nonetheless needs the approval of a judge when monitoring Canadians. The latest revelations about police surveillance power once again highlight the need for a debate over the “crisis of accountability” in law enforcement, said McPhail. “We need to be having a conversation about what kinds of surveillance technologies – invasive tools being used without any evidence of due process or due consideration of the rights and freedoms of people – are acceptable in a democracy and under what conditions. And we need to determine what sort of safeguards there need to be as well.”

Plans to modernize the Privacy Act in the coming months give lawmakers a window of opportunity to adopt the right legislative framework to ensure police have access to tools they need for investigative work, said McPhail, and not broad powers “shrouded by secrecy” and without public accountability. “The devices we hold in our hands are generally designed to extract as much personal information from us as they possibly can,” said Deibert. But a documented history of police abusing surveillance tools in the country meant that the recent admissions of the use of mercenary spyware should be enough to trigger an investigation into whether there is proper oversight to prevent abuse, he added. “Private companies and banks presumably know a lot about your preferences, but only the government can take away your freedom and put you in jail. Only the government can end your life in some jurisdictions,” he said. “That’s why there should be a higher threshold for public accountability and transparency when these tools are used by state agencies.” Source

Canada’s national police force admits use of spyware to hack phones

Gidimt’en Checkpoint response to NDP Attorney General issuing criminal charges to four additional land defenders

Yintah Access 07/07/2022 - Today, under the leadership of NDP Attorney General David Eby, the crown prosecutor criminally charged four land defenders, including Gidimt'en spokesperson Sleydo' Molly Wickham, for breach of an injunction granted to Coastal Gas Link (CGL). The injunction restrains land defenders from accessing their unceded territory.

The Crown declined to charge six others with criminal counts. In court, the Crown acknowledged the RCMP had not properly read the injunction to those present on site, but claimed leaders of the land defence “should have” been sufficiently aware of the injunction to charge those four. CGL has until July 28, 2022 to announce if they will proceed with their civil claim. The count is now 19 people facing criminal contempt including Wet’suwet’en members and hereditary chiefs.

Sleydo’, Molly Wickham Gidimt’en Checkpoint Spokesperson issued the following statement on social media platforms this afternoon: “State and industry are using these courts and colonial laws as tools of genocide to diminish our rights. Canada has a long dark history of targeting Indigenous land defenders through the courts and for a provincial government that claims to support reconciliation, today’s decision smacks of hypocrisy.”

“This won’t deter us from doing what is right, upholding our own laws that have been in place for thousands of years, protecting our land and standing up for future generations.”

The Coastal GasLink project violates Wet’suwet’en rights and title, and lacks consent of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary chiefs, who have been resisting the project for a decade. Source

RCMP spied on activists in early days of universal medicare planning in Sask., documents show

CBC News 03/07/2022 - Nearly 60 years ago to the day, Saskatchewan doctors went on strike in protest against what would become Canada's universal health care system. Now, documents obtained through an access to information request show that in the 1960s, activists in the province in favour of the idea that would become medicare were being surveilled by RCMP, amid fears they may be communist sympathizers.

The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act came into force on July 1, 1962. Years later, it would become the template for the nation's universal health care.

But documents obtained by Dennis Gruending, a former CBC journalist and member of Parliament who is now an Ottawa-based author, show the RCMP considered the bill's supporters communists. "The RCMP was very fixated upon what it considered to be a threat from communism," Gruending told Shauna Powers, host of CBC's Saskatchewan Weekend, in an interview Saturday.

The surveillance happened during the Cold War, when tensions were high, he noted — and many people were under suspicion. "The RCMP throughout that time spied on members of the Communist Party, but the police also cast a much wider net to basically spy on pretty well anybody with progressive tendencies. In 1962, the RCMP opened a file into the supporters of the Saskatchewan bill, calling it "Medicare Plan Saskatchewan — Communist Activities Within," the documents Gruending obtained say. RCMP kept tabs on local and international doctors, according to the files. Read more - Lire plus

Liberals to release cabinet documents to Emergencies Act inquiry

CTV News 28/06/22 - The federal Liberal government has agreed to provide sensitive cabinet documents to the inquiry examining its use of the Emergencies Act during the "Freedom Convoy" protest.The Public Order Emergency Commission said Tuesday the government has agreed to a request not to claim cabinet privilege over the "critical" documents Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers considered in the decision.

It said the government has committed to the extraordinary step of providing "all the inputs that were before cabinet" when it declared the emergency in February, weeks into the convoy protests that took over Ottawa's downtown and erupted at border crossings.

Out of the 371 federal commissions of inquiry that have been called since Confederation, this is only the fourth that has received such access, the commission noted. It said it has not yet received the documents but expects them to come in "shortly." Trudeau's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The news came hours after commissioner Paul Rouleau released a list of participants to whom he has granted full standing in the inquiry, including convoy organizers, police forces and all three levels of government. Those granted full standing include the federal, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments, the cities of Ottawa and Windsor, Ont., the Ottawa Police Service, the National Police Federation and a group of 10 convoy organizers, including Tamara Lich, Tom Marazzo and Chris Barber. Full standing means they will be given advance notice on information submitted into evidence before the inquiry, as well as certain privileges, such as the opportunity to suggest or cross-examine witnesses. The Ontario Provincial Police was granted full participation with the exception of cross-examining witnesses or producing policy papers. Read more - Lire plus

Rubin: People's commission on 'Freedom convoy' will hear community's stories

Ottawa People's Commission official website

US repatriates Guantanamo prisoner back to Afghanistan after court ruled he was detained unlawfully

CNN 24/06/22 - The Biden administration repatriated a Guantanamo Bay prisoner to his home country of Afghanistan on Friday after a federal court ruled he was unlawfully detained, an administration official said. The prisoner, Asadullah Haroon Gul, also known as Haroon Al Afghani, was born in Afghanistan and has been detained in the Guantanamo prison since 2007.

"DOD, supported by other parts of the US government, transferred him out of Guantanamo Bay, facilitating his repatriation to his native country, Afghanistan," the administration official said. "He flew on a US aircraft to Doha and then we worked with the Taliban and the Qatar government to facilitate his transfer to Kabul." Later on Friday the Pentagon confirmed the transfer had taken place. Read more - Lire plus

Haroon: US Forces Tortured Me During 15 Years at Guantanamo

Mansoor Adayfi: 'It's time the US released pictures of Guantanamo's children, the waterboarding, the blood-stained walls of cells where prisoners were killed'

Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi Is First ‘High-Value Detainee’ To Accept Plea Deal At Guantánamo, Could Be Freed By 2024 – OpEd

The Guantanamo Bay prison is 20 years old. These Vermonters worked for years to free one detainee

Guantanmo bay prison's first COVID outbreak shrouded in secrecy

Maha Hilal: Torture is an American value. US leaders from Bush to Biden are in denial

MEE 01/07/22 - Commemorating the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June, both US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken released statements condemning torture and pledging to eliminate its use. Noticeably absent, however, was any commitment to hold US government officials accountable for sanctioning, authorising, funding, and committing acts of torture. What this silence obscures is that, from Rikers Island and Communication Management Units to Chicago police torture to Guantanamo Bay to the School of the Americas and CIA black sites around the world, the critical fact is that US torture is a systemic and enduring practice. It is an intentional tactic to break down those detained and incarcerated within and outside of the country.

Biden did, however, call for other states to be held accountable. “When a government commits torture, it surrenders its moral authority and undermines its own legitimacy. And, critically, when torture is committed in the name of national security, it only emboldens and multiplies enemies, fuels unrest, and leaves governments isolated internationally,” he stated. By ignoring the ongoing legacy of US torture while pointing the finger at other governments for the same practice, Biden, like other presidents before him, perpetuates the false narrative that the practice of torture is antithetical to US values, despite its long and well-documented history. Although Blinken veered slightly towards recognising the US practice of torture, he downplayed the true nature of the issue, saying that “We acknowledge that we must confront our own shortcomings and mistakes and uphold U.S. values."

Torture, however, is not a shortcoming or a mistake. Rather, it is a deliberate strategy employed by the state for the purpose of exerting power and control over its victims. As George Orwell wrote in 1984: “The object of torture is torture.” Like Biden, Blinken’s statement sought to warn perpetrators that they would be held accountable. And once again like Biden, Blinken utterly failed to hold up the same mirror to the US government, choosing instead to deflect the problem of torture onto other countries. Biden’s comments followed the template of his statement in 2021, which likewise missed the mark by de-centring the experience of survivors, emphasising the impact the revelation of its torture programme has on America's reputation, and rooting the problem with torture in arguments about effectiveness and “terrorist recruitment” rather than human rights.

These elements represent a pattern in US discourse around torture that prevents a true reckoning with the extent to which the US government has perpetuated it, and the lasting harms it has caused. Torture is especially endemic to the War on Terror and has been systematically practised by the US in the name of national security in Bagram, Falluja, Abu Ghraib, countless CIA detention sites across the globe, and at Guantanamo Bay prison. If the US is truly interested in reckoning with the crime of torture, it must undertake the task of working towards real, meaningful accountability, and not be satisfied with rote annual lip service. To take just one case, if torture were truly a “stain on our moral conscience”, as Biden stated, his administration would not be fighting to keep the details of the case of torture victim Abu Zubaydah, formerly held by the CIA and now at Guantanamo, secret, but would be actively seeking to address the harm done to him. [...]

The failure of elected representatives to accept responsibility for these systemic and horrific acts of torture doesn’t mean that we should not continue to attempt to hold them accountable, or that calls for truth and justice should end; but it does mean that we have to proactively, consistently, and collectively disrupt the narrative that invisiblises reality and perpetuates injustice. In addition to pursuing prosecutions against those responsible, the US government should begin a meaningful process of addressing the legacy of harm from its torture programmes. This entails providing compensation for survivors who have been repatriated to their home countries or precariously resettled in third-party countries, often without legal status; the inability to pay rent, gain employment, or seek necessary medical care and mental health support despite enduring years of detention and torture. Talk is cheap, and the US feigning concern over torture is even cheaper. Absent true accountability and tangible corrective measures, torture will continue to be an American value. Read more - Lire plus

Azeezah Kanji: Extraditing Assange Would Be a “Legalized” Rendition to US Torture

Truthout 03/06/22 - As the British government moves ever closer to extraditing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, the pantomime of “justice” cloaking his persecution in the regalia of the “rule of law” continues to unfold: a torture rendition by another name, inching forward as the world watches in real time. On June 17, the U.K.’s Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of Assange to the United States, following the magistrate court’s order that the transfer should proceed.

In this fundamentally skewed process, Assange’s capacity to meaningfully defend himself has been systematically assaulted by government smear campaigns; surveillance of his lawyers; and stultifying, arbitrary rules and restrictions obstructing him from participating in his own case — as documented in detail by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer in his recent book, The Trial of Julian Assange. Previously, U.S. officials discussed “options” for kidnapping Assange and assassinating him by poison — tactics ultimately dismissed as “something we’d do in Afghanistan,” Egypt or Pakistan, but not the U.K. Therefore, they’ve opted for the more “civilized” alternative. Instead of kidnapping, extradition. And instead of assassination, entombment in the torturous U.S. carceral system, where Assange faces a death-in-prison sentence of 175 years for exposing U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

How is this, in essence and effect, anything but the “legal” equivalent of an extraordinary rendition — defined by the American Civil Liberties Union as “the practice of capturing people and sending them to countries that use torture or abuse in interrogations”?

While the U.S.’s infamous extraordinary rendition program has (now) been officially condemned and supposedly ceased, rendition to torture via legalized means is enduringly embraced. In “extraordinary” rendition, hundreds of “war on terror” detainees were secretly imprisoned and brutalized in CIA black sites around the world. In “legalized” rendition, the torture chambers are not foreign black sites but prisons transformed into “Guantánamo Norths” within the U.S. itself. In “extraordinary” rendition, victims were seized off the streets extrajudicially by the CIA. In the “legalized” version, the condemned are delivered into U.S. hands through judicially sanctioned means such as extradition — abusive processes accorded an aura of legal legitimacy.

U.S. courts have upheld transfers into U.S. custody even when the targets have been abducted at gunpoint, severely beaten, burned, kept in secret offshore captivity for weeks or months (an increasingly popular practice with U.S. law enforcement), and electrocuted in their feet and genitals: acts of violence for which the courts have refused to provide any legal redress because they occurred outside the U.S. In “legalized” rendition, as in “extraordinary” rendition, detainees have been subjected to intensive solitary confinement, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, sensory deprivation, extreme light and temperature exposure, and other mechanisms of deliberate “psychic demolition”; although the degree of isolation and control achieved in domestic U.S. prisons under regimes such as “special administrative measures” is in many ways even more totalizing than at Guantánamo Bay. Read more - Lire plus

Doctors Call on U.K. to Block Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S.

We Would Never Tolerate Julian Assange’s Persecution If Any Other Country Carried It Out

Julian Assange's Australian lawyer has reached settlement with government 'over breach of her human rights after it admitted she was likely put under covert surveillance'

Turkey subjected Northeast Syria to 47 drone attacks so far in 2022, wounding 55, killing 16

Rojava Information Center 02/06/22 - In the first half of 2022, NES was subjected to 47 drone attacks (in all of 2021, it was 89). These attacks wounded at least 55 & killed 16 people. Of these, at least 26 & 3, respectively, were civilians. The number is likely higher, as RIC only publishes cases it can verify.

Over 3/4 of all attacks were conducted by Turkish fixed-wing drones, such as the TB2. 11 attacks were conducted by 'suicide' drones - similar to or repurposed smaller commercial drones - which are used both by the Turkish armed forces & the Turkish-backed SNA militias. Victims of the attacks included 2 children, lorry drivers, a poet, a translator, a vegetable seller, & Tel Tamir military council commanders on their way to try to contain the ISIS prison breakout in January.

Though not reflected in the statistics, a Turkish drone strike also killed deputy chairman of the AANES Executive Council Ferhad Şiblî in Iraqi Kurdistan in June. The location of the drone strikes included a vegetable market in Qamishlo, a veterans' rehabilitation center in Himo, an internal security office in Zirgan, a power station near Derik, downtown Kobane, & a gynecologist office in Tel Rifaat. 42% of all attacks were conducted in the Jazira region. Of these, almost half targeted the Darbasiyah-Amude-Qamishlo road or the cities themselves, & only 7 the Zirgan & Tel Tamir frontlines.

In all of NES, 14 of the Turkish drone attacks targeted vehicles. The city of Kobane & its outskirts were attacked at least 7 times, twice in the city center on May 11. On December 25, 2021, a Turkish drone strike killed 6 youths & wounded another 3 in downtown Kobane. 25 attacks took place in February & April. Read more - Lire plus

The Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria declared a state of emergency due to the new invasion threats by the invading Turkish state

Sweden’s Left Party condemn NATO deal to betray Kurds

EVENT: Turkey's NATO-backed War on the Kurdish People and Other Regional Minorities

TAKE ACTION: Biden: Stop Turkey's Invasion

UK's anti-terrorism strategy has 'negative effect' on Muslim communities, says UN official

TRTWorld 26/06/2022 - The UK's anti-terrorism strategy, dubbed Prevent, is facing criticism from a UN special rapporteur for "targeting Muslim communities" ahead of a controversial independent review.

Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, said the strategy has had a "negative and discriminatory effect on Muslim communities" and its implementation is "inconsistent" with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

While the effect of the initiative "has not been felt equally by all children," Ni Aolain said, "minority ethnic or religious communities" were impacted in particular. She said the UN "has a number of concerns about the Prevent strategy" and that she addressed these kinds of government strategies used by the UK and other countries with the organisation's Human Rights Council. Since becoming law in 2011, the strategy has been criticised by equality and rights groups for the challenge that it is believed to pose to liberties and the justice system's foundations. There have been regular calls for the strategy's removal due to its discriminatory nature against Muslims and because the UK government has failed to provide any evidence that it prevents terrorism. "In fact, we know of at least 13 people who have gone on to commit terrorist attacks and they were known to Prevent prior to their attacks and Prevent did not stop them," said Layla Aitlhadj, the director of Prevent Watch, a campaign group that supports people affected by the strategy.

Under Prevent, public authorities such as schools, colleges, universities and health services are ordered to monitor students, patients and clients for potential signs of radicalisation in children as young as four. Thousands of referrals are made each year and the highest proportion of Prevent referrals comes from within the education sector. One such case was that of a 12-year-old who wishes to remain anonymous. Among several others, she was reported by her school to counter-terrorism police after showing sympathy towards Palestinians. Prevent, as part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, claims to operate in a pre-crime space, well before any intention, planning, or preparation for criminal action has ever been committed. This means that individuals singled out by Prevent have often never even considered committing any crime. The logic is that "you can stop somebody at age four or five, when they're just displaying certain ideas or beliefs, because in 10- or 20-years’ time, they may go on to be a terrorist, which is quite an extraordinary claim," said Aitlhadj.

Unlike counter-terrorism legislation, there is no independent reviewer with a statutory duty to report on any extensions of the Prevent strategy or problems with its implementation. The UK government recently came under scrutiny when it appointed William Shawcross, a former chairman of the Charity Commission well-known for his neoconservative views and anti-Muslim rhetoric, to chair an independent review of Prevent. Two leading experts on Prevent, Aitlhadj and John Holmwood, as an alternative to the government’s review, chaired the largest ever study of Prevent, called "The People's Review of Prevent," and have found that it is not preventing terrorism but instead wrongly targeting and traumatising hundreds of innocent people, some young children. Read more - Lire plus

Searching for humane alternatives to the 'whole society' approach to security

Rethinking Security 16/06/2022 - Human security is a vast field, covering food and health security, economic and environmental well-being, and political, community and personal equality and inclusion in society. There are hundreds of active and committed groups working on these issues in the UK and it has been a privilege to spend time learning from those with knowledge and expertise in areas that have, until now, been beyond the scope of Rethinking Security’s work.

rom the discussions, it was clear that the UK government’s pursuit of a ‘whole society’ approach to ‘security’ brings with it some serious problems for individual and community security. Participants shared examples of what this means in their field. In schools, early references to the military allow it to be normalised through a trusted civilian institution. Moreover, resources are sponsored by arms companies and the military, helping to recruit future engineers for the arms industry. Public Health England has been renamed the UK Health Security Agency and NHS staff have a legal duty to check the immigration status of patients and to report any signs of radicalisation under the Prevent strategy.

The Prevent duty and immigration checks are effective across other public bodies – such as police, local councils and schools – and private citizens and groups like landlords, employers and banks are expected to carry out immigration controls as well. Our contributors have carried out research that details ways in which this whole society approach to national security often denies people the care or rights that they are entitled to. This could be anything from young Asian men, in particular, not seeking help for health issues, to people with ‘foreign sounding names’ not being able to rent in the private sector. This can only be described as systemic racism. One conclusion from this was that domestic security, when policy is developed, justified and normalised from hard or militarised principles, in fact denies protections and rights to many inside the state and makes it more difficult to communicate what human security is and could look like in the UK. Read more - Lire plus

The climate security agenda is more about strengthening military power than tackling climate instability

The Forgotten Crime of War Itself

The New York Review 2022 - In his new book, Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, Samuel Moyn argues that efforts to humanize war with smarter weaponry or sanctify it with moral cant have obscured the task of making peace the first goal of foreign policy.

For weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney remained closeted away in various undisclosed locations while Bush administration officials announced the start of a global war on terror. Cheney, the chief architect of that war, finally resurfaced in his office in the West Wing of the White House, where Bob Woodward of The Washington Post asked him how long the war might last. Cheney was forthright: “It may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.” It was the closest any public figure has come to predicting endless war—the dream of every militarist from Clausewitz and Moltke to Cheney and his fellow Vulcans in the Bush White House.

Cheney’s confident expectations have been borne out by events. Despite the recent pullout from Afghanistan, the war on terror has only spread in new technological and political forms. Attempts at regime change in Iraq, Libya, and Syria (as well as Afghanistan) have leveled ancient cities, destroyed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, provoked resistance from multiplying jihadist organizations, and unleashed conflict across the Middle East and into South Asia and Africa. The inflation of a diffuse but permanent threat has created a vast new revenue stream for vendors of military hardware and a new industry of “counterterrorism consultants” whose offices line the highway from Washington to Dulles Airport.

Ostensibly constrained by rules that ensure humane conduct, the war on terror is unrelenting and everywhere, thanks in part to the embrace of drone warfare by Barack Obama, the constitutional lawyer who some of us thought was going to deliver us from the Bush administration’s violation of the Eighth Amendment along with other assaults on the Constitution. Instead, Obama became the assassin in chief while his lawyers made the war look a little cleaner. They also expanded the concept of self-defense to justify violating the sovereignty of any nation whenever it could be alleged to harbor terrorists. After September 11 no politician asked whether the proper response to a terrorist attack should be a US war or an international police action. Alternatives to war have remained unarticulated.

The war on terror seduced some of its critics, including Donald Trump, who like Obama had posed as an antiwar candidate. Trump, too, found the role of chief assassin impossible to resist. Yet even that clownish bungler so traumatized the national security establishment by hinting at a less aggressive posture that neoconservative Republicans and neoliberal Democrats came together to reassert their common interventionist commitments. Despite small dissensions, these abide in the current Congress. Read more - Lire plus

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