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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

August 17, 2024 - 17 août 2024

How Canada’s ‘off-the-record’ arms exports end up in Israel

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Al Jazeera 15/08/2024 - The United States has faced widespread condemnation this week for authorising the sale of more than $20bn in additional weapons to Israel as the top US ally wages war in the Gaza Strip. But while the newly approved arms transfer has renewed global scrutiny of Washington’s unwavering support for Israel, in Canada, the announcement on Tuesday drew attention for a different reason.


That’s because more than $60m worth of munitions will be manufactured by a weapons company in Canada as part of that sale. Canadian lawyers, rights advocates and other experts say this raises serious questions about the opaque nature of the country’s arms export regime. They also say Canada’s participation in the arms deal makes clear that the country is failing to ensure that Canadian-made weapons are not used in suspected human rights violations abroad, as required by law.


“The news is appalling,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher at the Canadian peace research group Project Ploughshares. “Given Israel’s appalling track record of violating international humanitarian law through its operation in Gaza, including in some cases which may constitute war crimes, in no way is it appropriate for Canada to supply this ammunition,” Gallagher told Al Jazeera. “Moreover, as per Canada’s obligations under the UN Arms Trade Treaty, it’s illegal.” [...]


The obscure nature of Canadian arms transfers to the US is also why this week’s news — that a company based in the province of Quebec would be the main contractor for the $61.1m in munitions to Israel — came as a surprise to many observers in Canada. In its announcement, the US’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc would supply tens of thousands of “M933A1 120mm High Explosive Mortar Cartridges and related equipment”.


Gallagher, the researcher, said Canadians would likely have never known that the weapons were bound for Israel if the US government hadn’t revealed the information itself. “Because these [weapons] are being sent through the US to Israel, these will almost certainly face no regulatory oversight by Canadian officials,” he said. “And in addition to that, they will not be included in Canada’s official reporting of its arms exports to Israel,” Gallagher continued. “These will be off the record, except from this reporting from the DSCA.” The announcement also came as Canada — along with other Western countries that provide military support for Israel, most notably the US — is facing growing calls to impose an arms embargo on Israel amid the Gaza war.


After Canada’s Parliament passed a non-binding motion in March urging a suspension of arms transfers to Israel, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the government would not authorise any new permits for weapons exports to the country. But rights advocates quickly questioned why existing permits weren’t also being revoked, and some asked how the government’s pledge would affect transfers of weapons to the US that do not require permits, yet could end up in Israel. Canada’s foreign affairs department, Global Affairs Canada, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s questions about the US government’s announcement in time for publication.


Henry Off, a Toronto-based lawyer and board member of the group Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), said the news highlights “how flawed [Canada’s] arms export system is”.

It demonstrates “how easily [arms] can end up in Israel just because they can go through the United States”, he explained.


Off’s group is currently involved in an ongoing lawsuit against Joly, demanding an end to Canadian weapons shipments to Israel. “Canada is legally obligated not to allow these transfers,” he told Al Jazeera. “We know that these arms and weapons parts are used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, and this is just another example of how Canada has failed to meet its international legal commitments and its domestic legal commitments.” [...]


“All countries, including Canada, have a moral, ethical and legal obligation to disrupt the supply chain of genocide,” Jarrar said. Read more - Lire plus


NEW Ottawa protest: Palestine will be Free! Sun August 18 at 2PM


NEW August 20 Action Day: #ArmsEmbargoNow


NEW CBC: stop whitewashing war crimes


“Incomprehensible”: U.S. Approves $20 Billion in New Arms for Israel as Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000


$95 Million In New Canadian Military Goods Could Flow To Israel By 2025


United Church of Canada: Dear Prime Minister: Quiet diplomacy isn’t working

Israel’s ‘War on Terror’ and the Legal and Security Imperative to Comply with International Law

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Just Security 05/08/2024 - Since the horrific attacks perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, Israel has launched a massive military operation in Gaza that has involved serious violations of international law and resulted in a catastrophic humanitarian and security situation. The United Nations has reported over 38,000 Palestinian fatalities, 88,000 injuries, 1.9 million internally displaced persons, 70,000 housing units destroyed, 490 health attacks, and 85 percent of schools damaged.


To date, much of the legal commentary and strategic litigation involving the Israel-Hamas war has rightly focused on tackling the core international crimes allegedly being committed by all parties – whether in the context of the International Court of Justice genocide case, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor’s applications for arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity, or the U.N. Human Rights Council’s resolution on accountability and justice for atrocities and human rights violations. Given Israel’s justifications of its brutal military actions in Gaza as being firmly rooted in counterterrorism and security objectives, however, the absence of significant legal analysis surrounding Israel’s counterterrorism obligations is glaring. This silence likely stems from the lack of a universal definition of “terrorism” under international law and concerns about the terrorism designation impinging on political negotiations toward a two-State solution. But not addressing the counterterrorism lens, and crucially, not recognizing the requisite compliance of any counterterrorism measures with international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL), risks greenlighting counterterrorism operations that are neither lawful nor effective. Indeed, counterterrorism operations that contravene international law risk contributing to the conditions conducive to violent extremism and terrorism. This is the lesson learned from the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 – a response that President Joe Biden has cautioned against replicating.


Of course, governments have often weaponized counterterrorism as a political and moral rhetorical device that aims to deflect if not altogether denigrate other areas of international law. But a closer look at the existing international law framework sheds light on what the former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism Fionnuala Ní Aoláin has clearly enumerated as the positive interface between IHL and IHRL in counterterrorism contexts. Ultimately a better understanding of the contours of counterterrorism law – including its bounds and limitations – could help guide States in their engagement on Gaza going forward. Indeed, it is not too late for Israel and others to reverse course to prevent a forever war, guided by a more targeted, precise counterterrorism strategy that complies with international law and facilitates greater security. [...]


A common misapprehension of counterterrorism law stems from the cynical invocation of counterterrorism by governments trying to sidestep IHL and IHRL. But as a matter of international law, counterterrorism measures cannot be implemented without proper safeguards. The Security Council has repeatedly clarified that counterterrorism measures must comply with concurrent obligations under international law. Beginning with Resolution 1456 (2003), the Security Council obliged all U.N. Member States to “ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, and . . . adopt such measures in accordance with international law, in particular international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law.” (Para. 6). In Resolution 2462 (2019) the Council reiterated this obligation of international law compliance, and further “[u]rge[d] States, when designing and applying [counterterrorism] measures to take into account the potential effect of those measures on exclusively humanitarian activities, including medical activities, that are carried out by impartial humanitarian actors in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law.” (Para. 24). All counterterrorism measures must comply with the foundational principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination. [...]


The U.N. has reported evidence of unlawful killings – including extraterritorial killings in Lebanon – collective punishment, deprivation of essential services, destruction of civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and undue restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, among other violations attributable to Israeli officials. U.N. experts have also raised concerns about Israel’s alleged arbitrary detention of Palestinian civilians, including through the use of secret prisons and military camps outside the protection of the law. Many of these activities have been facilitated by counterterrorism laws and regulations, including through activation of and amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Law and military orders, such as Military Order No. 1651 (2009) which provides for arrest and detention procedures, among others, “during operational activity in the fight against terror.” (Art. 33).



Israel’s counterterrorism objective, simply put, cannot justify these alleged violations of Palestinian civilians’ rights. It is noteworthy in this context that Israel’s misinterpretation of international law protections animated its counterterrorism policies well before October 7. According to U.N. experts, the lack of an international definition of “terrorism” has led to a normative “black hole,” with States including Israel reportedly defining “terrorism” overexpansively and then invoking counterterrorism as pretext for security agencies to use excessive force or for law enforcement to crack down on minorities, dissidents, humanitarian workers, and civil society. In fact, two years before the October 7 attacks, eleven U.N. experts had raised concerns about Israels’ Counter-Terrorism Law 5776-2016 (2016) and broader counterterrorism legislative and regulatory framework providing law enforcement with criminal and administrative powers to prevent and punish terrorism, finding it “may not meet the required thresholds of legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination under international law.” [...]


Israel has already isolated itself on the world stage, doubling down in Gaza as geopolitical tensions mount amid the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel’s credibility – and the legitimacy of the multilateral system and international rule of law – depends on its turn to a commitment to IHL and IHRL, without invoking counterterrorism as a carte blanche for misconduct. Should Israel fail to do so, it is up to the international community to hold Israel and its enablers, including third States, to account, not just for the core international crimes that are already being documented and pursued, but also for the blatant misuse and abuse of counterterrorism in violation of international law. Read more - Lire plus


“Pieces of People”: Israeli Strike on Gaza School Kills 100+, Bodies Destroyed Beyond Recognition


Israel Accused of Running “Torture Camps” as Video Emerges of Soldiers Raping Palestinian Prisoner


Israel Has a History of Killing Hamas Leaders Who Are Trying To Secure Ceasefires


Everyone Is Hamas (Or So Say Israel and Its Supporters)


Déclarer l’UNRWA “organisation terroriste” : une loi génocidaire


Wall Street Journal still can’t confirm January story about UN agency for Palestinians

Andrew Clement: Feds fail to justify spending billions of dollars on AI that mainly benefits industry insiders

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The Hill Times 31/07/2024 - The federal government has doubled down on its artificial intelligence bet with a $2.4-billion budget package over five years for “Securing Canada’s AI advantage.” Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada — which leads the AI file — has just launched a consultation narrowly targeted at the researchers and businesses hoping to take advantage of the supercomputer facility accounting for over 80 per cent of these funds. 


The stated goals of accelerating job growth, boosting productivity, and ensuring responsible AI development are laudable, but are more promotional hype than a product of sound policy-making. Indeed, the government’s track-record in AI policy development indicates that pursuing these broad societal outcomes is not what is actually driving this initiative. Rather, the government appears to have listened almost exclusively to AI industry insiders who have captured the policy process, and positioned themselves to remain its primary beneficiaries.


The federal government has long supported world-leading AI research, already spending over $2-billion to advance Canada’s AI industry. It makes sense to maintain this momentum at least if there is a reasonable prospect that Canadians will be well-rewarded in the long term. But success in AI research—marked most vividly by chatbots demonstrating uncanny, if unreliable, human-like performance and venture capitalists investing billions—should not be mistaken for assuring widely shared social benefits.


In contrast to the abundance of bold assertions regarding AI’s salutary effects, evidence to justify billions of dollars in public spending was absent from the budget announcement, and very scarce elsewhere. The Privy Council Office, Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED), and the Department of Finance replied promptly to requests for background materials, but none offered anything substantive. By now, the government should be able to provide Canadians with sound evidence of the prospective benefits of AI commensurate with the public investment.


Major corporate proponents of AI do little better. Google estimates generative AI can increase Canada’s GDP by $210-billion. But this likewise relies more on speculative, self-serving assumptions than solid socio-economic research, ignoring AI’s disruptive downsides, such as labour displacement and deepfakes


The government’s major budget commitment becomes less mysterious when we consider who had the ear of the ministers concerned. Nearly every organization that met with the Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to discuss AI in her pre-budget consultations had a vested interest in increased AI funding. Many were already beneficiaries of federal AI investments, and enjoy close relationships with Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne.


ISED’s prevailing practice is to listen principally to supportive voices rather than those bringing broader public interest perspectives. This is seen clearly in ISED’s proposed AI and Data Act (AIDA). A 2022 report by ISED’s own Public Awareness Working Group found that Canadians “demonstrate a strong desire to be consulted prior to the elaboration of public policies on AI.” Yet ISED introduced AIDA without public consultations, or even prior notice. Its subsequent consultations were private, held overwhelmingly with businesses to the near-total exclusion of those who the AIDA is claimed to benefit—the workers, consumers, and citizens on the frontlines of AI adoption, i.e. most in need of protection from its potentially harmful effects. 


ISED’s misplaced priorities are also revealed by the smallest item in the AI budget package—$5.1-million, just 0.2 per cent of the $2.4-billion—is earmarked for setting up the Office of the AI and Data Commissioner tasked with regulating AI’s impacts. 


Little wonder, then, that the latest Edelman Trust Barometer reports that 54 per cent of Canadians reject the growing use of AI, the second highest score internationally. 


To better craft AI policy that earns Canadians’ trust, the federal government needs to redirect its considerable resources to broadening and deepening the policy process. AI policy should be carefully integrated with other prominent issues in the digital agenda, such as online harms. This means treating it as a whole-of-government affair, not driven by ISED alone, whose mandate to advance the industry conflicts with the need to carefully consider AI’s wide range of societal implications. Rather than relying on hype and speculation, policy deliberations should be grounded in independent expert research. And a wide range of Canadian voices, especially of those likely to be impacted the most, need to be front and centre. Source


ACTION: Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!


Quebec municipalities using artificial intelligence to track tree cover, cars, pools


Ottawa becomes the latest city to turn to AI to help it predict chronic homelessness


Argentina Will Use AI to Predict Future Crimes: Sparking Controversy


The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age


The Double Black Box: AI Inside the National Security Ecosystem


EDRI: The EU Artificial Intelligence Act did not put people and their rights at the centre, but still contains some silver linings


#SafetyNotSurveillance coalition: UK artificial intelligence rules must protect rights, prevent worsening of structural power imbalances


UK: Call for "serious, meaningful protection" from police facial recognition technology

CCLA on R. v. Pike and Scott

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CCLA 12/08/2024 - Shakir Rahim, Director of the Criminal Justice Program of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, made the following statement:


The Court of Appeal for Ontario has released its decision in R. v. Pike and Scott, holding that s. 99(1)(a) of the Customs Act, which authorizes border officers to search electronic devices without any reasonable basis, is unconstitutional because it violates the s. 8 Charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The CCLA was an intervenor in the case.


The CCLA applauds this important ruling, which makes it clear the border is not a Charter free zone. As the CCLA argued, standardless limitless searches of electronic devices, which contain highly private information, violate the Charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.


Parliament must legislate a stringent standard with clear safeguards for the state to search an electronic device at the border. This reflects the fact that electronic devices are a trove of our most personal, intimate, and sensitive information.


You can read the CCLA’s factum here and the Court’s decision is appended.

The CCLA is grateful to the excellent pro bono representation of Samara Secter and Jocelyn Rempel of Addario Law Group, and Lex Gill of Trudel Johnston & Lespérance. Source

RCMP hired private spies to monitor Fairy Creek activists

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National Observer 09/08/2024 - The RCMP’s controversial C-IRG unit hired a third-party intelligence company to spy on the online activities of Fairy Creek activists, newly available documents show.


The contents of the intelligence report, authored partway through the protest movement, has been blocked from publication by a ban imposed by the B.C. Supreme Court since June 2022. But an invoice obtained through a federal Access to Information request, filed in May 2023, allows Canada’s National Observer to reveal its existence for the first time.


The officer in charge of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, John Brewer, signed off on paying Human-i Intelligence Services Ltd. $9,975 for the report, according to the invoice. The invoice refers to the document as an “online intelligence report” on Fairy Creek. The Fairy Creek blockade has fizzled after two years of heavy policing and more than 1,000 arrests, but it presented a major challenge to the RCMP. The force was successfully sued by a coalition of media sources (disclosure: I was among the plaintiffs) after illegally denying media access to the area of the arrests.


The RCMP came under heavy scrutiny for its use of force — including pepper spraying a crowd and then misleading the public about its justification for doing so — and was rebuked by a B.C. Supreme Court judge for its officers wearing Thin Blue Line patches, against the RCMP’s own rules. One officer quit the task force in protest, and hundreds of convictions were thrown out because of police actions. The protests also presented a political challenge for the B.C. NDP, which worked behind the scenes to manage the political fallout, other reporting and documents have shown.


A history of spying on environmental protests


The RCMP has previously come under national scrutiny for gathering intelligence on environmental protesters, most recently in the protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory. A 2023 Amnesty International report documented numerous tactics the RCMP used to surveil protesters and members of the First Nation — and even Amnesty International staff — including tailing, photographing and filming people in the remote area and in nearby cities. Amnesty called the RCMP’s actions a “disproportionate use of police powers aimed at intimidating Wet’suwet’en land defenders and preventing their land defence activities.”


Surveillance of environmental protesters by the RCMP also came under intense scrutiny during the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline hearings in 2013, when environmental groups were organizing to urge the National Energy Board to reject the pipeline. The RCMP sent plainclothes police officers to monitor those organizing activities, recording car license plates (and anti-fracking bumper stickers) in church parking lots and infiltrating meetings on the advice of its national security team. People who were never suspected of criminal activities of any kind had their information gathered and retained by the police, linking them to their protest activities.


The B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint with the mounties’ sole oversight agency, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), regarding that spying. “We specifically pointed out the chilling effect that that kind of police behavior would have on people exercising their freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly,” says Vibert Jack, litigation director for the civil liberties group. “People would be less likely to [participate in public hearings] if they know that the police are then going to be spying on them for their activities.” The result of that complaint was a ruling that narrowed the RCMP’s leeway in determining how and when to spy on participants in peaceful environmental protests. The ruling did not address whether it would apply to a third-party intelligence company like Human-i, or whether it would apply to spying on internet activities.


“The underlying problem here is that the RCMP is presuming that a person who is engaged in environmental activism, necessarily, is a higher risk for engaging in criminal behaviour — that somehow, that you're voicing dissent, that you pose a risk of criminality,” Jack said, “and that that gives the police the authority to be investigating you, following you, collecting information about you.” While a court-ordered injunction prohibited protesters from blocking the forestry activities in Fairy Creek, it did not prohibit people from being in the area, or participating in online activism related to the blockades.


Operational secrecy


Human-i Intelligence Services is a small private intelligence firm based in Vancouver and headed up by Julie Jones. She describes herself on the Human-i website as a former police officer and “a sought-after public speaker, best-selling author of How To Become A World-Class Investigator, and a regular cast member on the long-running, award-winning factual drama TV show, Hunted.”


Jones also worked for the RCMP in the Wet’suwet’en protests. She testified at the trial of Chief Dtsa'hyl (Adam Gagnon) as a witness for the Crown: according to CBC’s coverage of the trial, the RCMP “hired Jones to download about a dozen web pages and video from public Facebook and Instagram accounts operated by opponents of Coastal GasLink's pipeline.” Jones did not respond to a request for comment.


A civil lawsuit launched by Teal Cedar against some of the Fairy Creek protesters is ongoing. A BC Prosecution Service media representative declined to provide the number of prosecutions it has successfully pursued, or the number that have resulted in jail time, related to Fairy Creek.


A formal request for the intelligence report itself was denied in its entirety by the RCMP — but it was obtained separately through a leak in early 2022. The Mounties quickly filed an injunction with the BC Supreme Court to prevent its disclosure, leading to two days in court and a ruling against the document’s publication. “Why are they so worried about this document?” Jack mused. “It's part of the story — the lengths that they go to to get away from transparency.” Source


Wet’suwet’en Chief Dsta’hyl declared first Amnesty International prisoner of conscience held in Canada


BCCLA: Fighting the secrecy in holding CSIS to account

New law paves way for justice for prisoners convicted in flawed trials in north-east Syria

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Amnesty International 23/07/2024 - Responding to the recent decision of the Autonomous Administration of the North and East Syria Region (autonomous authorities) to issue Amnesty Law No. (10) of 2024, providing relief for some individuals who were convicted of crimes under the region’s overly broad counter-terrorism laws, or those who surrender themselves within 90 days of the date the amnesty law becomes effective, Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa office, said:


“The general amnesty law could reduce the sentences of Syrians convicted after unfair trials in the People’s Defence Courts, or, in some cases, offer them the chance to be free and resume their lives. Detainees were denied access to a lawyer and in many cases were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment to extract forced confessions. Amnesty International calls for the autonomous authorities to expand the law to include the small number of Iraqis who have also been prosecuted in the People’s Defence Courts.


“While encouraged by this step, Amnesty International remains deeply concerned about the tens of thousands of men, women and children in the custody of the autonomous authorities, many of whom have been held for more than five years without charge or trial.


“The United Nations must swiftly coordinate with the autonomous authorities and the US-led military coalition, established to defeat the Islamic State armed group, to conduct an urgent screening to identify individuals who should be investigated and prosecuted for crimes under international law or serious crimes under domestic law, and to release all those remaining, prioritizing at-risk groups such as children and victims of trafficking.” Read more - Lire plus


Shamima Begum loses final UK court bid over citizenship


ACTION: Call to save and repatriate Jack Letts and other Canadians illegally detained in NE Syria!


ACTION Email to urge Canada to repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

U.S. had never apologized to Somali drone strike victims even when it admitted to killing civilians

The families of civilians killed by the U.S. in Somalia share their ideas of justice in a new report. The Pentagon has no response.

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The Intercept 25/07/2024 - The American military has been carrying out a continuous military campaign in Somalia since the 2000s, launching nearly 300 drone strikes and commando raids over the past 17 years.


In one April 2018 air attack, American troops killed three, and possibly five, civilians with a pair of missiles. A woman and child were among the dead, according to a U.S. military investigation, but the same report concluded their identities might never be known.


Last year, my investigation for The Intercept exposed the details of this disastrous attack. The woman and child survived the initial strike but were killed by the second missile. They were 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter, Mariam Shilow Muse.


For six years, the family has tried to contact the U.S. government, including through an online civilian casualty reporting portal run by U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, but they have never received a response. “They know innocent people were killed, but they’ve never told us a reason or apologized,” Abdi Dahir Mohamed, one of Luul’s brothers, told me last year. “No one has been held accountable.”

new report by the Center for Civilians in Conflict, or CIVIC, shared exclusively with The Intercept, underlines what Mohamed told me: Civilian victims and survivors of U.S. drone strikes in Somalia say that attaining justice in the form of official acknowledgment, apologies, and financial compensation would help them move on from the trauma they experienced.


But after almost 20 years of drone strikes, even in cases in which the Pentagon has admitted to killing innocent people, the U.S. has failed to apologize to any Somali survivors, much less offer amends.

“The civilians we interviewed described not only devastating physical harm, like deaths and injuries, but also significant economic burdens and long-lasting psychological trauma,” Madison Hunke, CIVIC’s U.S. program officer, told The Intercept. “Most respondents agreed that justice comes down to a perpetrator of harm being held accountable for their actions and the victims being treated with the dignity they deserve.”


CIVIC interviewed 38 individuals who identified as civilian victims of U.S. airstrikes in Somalia, as well as eight civil society experts who work with or represent the injured and survivors. Twenty-seven of the 38 lost a family member in an attack. Many spoke of justice in terms of U.S. accountability, including acknowledgment of the deaths, apologies, and financial amends, specifically a Somali custom known as diya (blood money) which is traditionally used to resolve disputes.


“For me, justice would mean the U.S. talking and sitting with the families of the civilian victims harmed in its airstrikes,” one interviewee told CIVIC. “Then the U.S. should financially compensate those families. That kind of move would eventually heal the wounded hearts.”


After more than 17 years of drone strikes and ground attacks in Somalia, the U.S. has carried out 288 declared strikes. AFRICOM claims to have killed just five civilians in that period, including Luul and Mariam. (The military has never referred to the mother and daughter by name.) Airwars, the U.K.-based airstrike monitoring group, says the real number may be more than 3,000 percent higher.


Following The Intercept investigation last year, two dozen human rights organizations — 14 Somali and 10 international groups — called on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to compensate Luul and Mariam’s family. This year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn; Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., joined the effort. “The Department of Defense is currently reviewing this matter, and we will not comment further at this time,” Pentagon spokesperson Lisa Lawrence said of the case. Read more - Lire plus

Spencer Ackerman: The Cowardice of Lloyd Austin

In canceling the Guantanamo plea deal, the defense secretary is lying to still-grieving 9/11 families. It's craven and cruel.

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FOREVER WARS 05/08/2024 - IT TOOK FEWER than two days of criticism for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to overrule the Guantanamo Bay official who reached a plea deal with three of the accused 9/11 conspirators. Austin’s decision easily earns a place on the long list of official acts of cowardice in the face of War on Terror politics. If there's ever a new edition of REIGN OF TERROR, Austin, who was the commander at the terminal phase of the Iraq occupation, will cause me to spill a lot more ink on him.


The plea deal's terms are as yet unrevealed and now minimally relevant, but they spared Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Mustafa Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash the death penalty. That did not sit well with a number of relatives of those killed on 9/11. Avaricious practitioners of 9/11 politics like Mitch McConnell denounced the deal as a "national disgrace." In response, Austin on Friday night simply surrendered, without a fight, to the delight of McConnell and Tom Cotton, whose political career began in Iraq. And not only to them. "Thank God," the New York Times quoted Kathleen Vigiano, whose cop husband and firefighter brother-in-law al-Qaeda condemned to death in the World Trade Center. "It was a great birthday present" to her 84-year old mother-in-law, she said.


Vigiano is not alone in the 9/11 families community by a long shot, but neither does she speak for everyone in that community. She and everyone else, whatever they think of the plea deal and its abandonment, has the indisputable right to her feelings, and whether we agree or disagree we should show grace to her and her fellow grievers. But Austin is doing Vigiano and her mother-in-law no favors. In his unwillingness to take the heat for bringing the 9/11 military commission to a close, Austin is not holding out for a successful prosecution that will condemn KSM and the others to an execution. The reason for the plea deal, and the reason why Guantanamo military prosecutors have sought one since 2022, is because there will not be a successful prosecution. 


We are in Year 13 of the 9/11 case before the military tribunals—the second 9/11 tribunal, actually; as well as a third process, an aborted prosecution in civilian court that we'll come back to in a moment—because the CIA tortured the 9/11 defendants so severely that they compromised the evidence for these prosecutions. A dozen years of pre-trial hearings amount to legal trench warfare over the admissibility of tainted evidence and attorneys' efforts to bring their clients' torture to light. Those struggles will now continue. Mirroring the irresolution of the War on Terror, they will last for many years more. Guantanamo hosts a rare thing: a kangaroo court that can't jump.


Susan Escallier, the retired one-star Army general and Pentagon official who since 2023 has been responsible for the commissions, handed Austin a way out. Escallier didn't initiate the plea negotiations, she inherited them. Yet Austin scapegoated Escallier for doing her job, removed her on Friday from the case and moved it under his own authority. That means Austin and future secretaries of defense, all of them political appointees, will effectively prevent subsequent attempts at ending the commission with anything other than an execution. If that execution was going to happen, it would have happened many years ago. 


Austin is lying to the 9/11 families who want to see the execution happen. He could have told them the unfortunate truth about how the commission is doomed because of CIA torture, taken a couple more days of heat—particularly, I suspect, when the deal's terms emerged—and stuck with an actual conclusion to the case. He could have shown some spine and defended the plea deal on its merits. 


Escallier certainly did. She and the prosecutors in the case sent victims' families a letter alerting them to the deal, acknowledged the dissatisfaction of many of them, invited their long-delayed testimony for the sentencing stage, and made grief counselors and other resources available. I think the very existence of a military commission for terrorism prosecutions is a stain on American history, but Escallier did not create this institution. Instead she served with integrity within an institution that lacks any. "The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case," Escallier and her subordinates wrote


By contrast, Austin simply folded on a winning hand. In doing so, he follows a template of Democratic politicians and their Security State-appointees as old as 9/11 itself: liberal complicity in the War on Terror, whether through affirmative decisions that shaped the 9/11 era or through acquiescence to its persistence and expansion. This is a throughline of my 2021 book REIGN OF TERROR, and the history my book recounts is repeating itself. It is hard not to hear the echoes of the Obama administration canceling its own decision to prosecute the accused in a New York federal court—a decision it made and then abandoned when confronted with opposition, and one that began the interminable 9/11 military commission. 


9/11 politics can be defeated. But defeating them requires people of honor fighting back against them, not simply lying down the first moment the going gets tough. There are none within the Republican Party and vanishingly few within the Democratic Party and the Security State. Most prefer to practice 9/11 politics when it suits them.


When 84-year old Jeanette Vigiano passes away before seeing the conviction of the men responsible for the murder of her sons, Lloyd Austin will be to blame. To give false hope to long-suffering 9/11 victims for the sake of political expediency is an act so disgraceful I lack the words to sufficiently denounce it. Source


ACLU on the plea agreement revocation by Lloyd Austin: "This rash act also violates the law, and we will challenge it in court."


“I’m So Sad for Our Country”: 9/11 Victim’s Sister Responds to Def. Sec. Austin Revoking Plea Deal


Revealed: first picture of war on terror detainee in CIA black site


Oman Expels Two Dozen Ex-Guantanamo Detainees To Yemen


Ex-Guantanamo detainee forcibly repatriated to Russia despite fears of torture


Remembering My Friend Emad Hassan, Who Should Never Have Been in Guantanamo


CIA Able to Withhold Guantanamo Bay Records in FOIA Request

Bangladesh on Brink as Anti-Government Protests Become ‘People’s Uprising’

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TIME 05/08/2024 - Spiraling clashes between police and anti-government protesters in Bangladesh resulted in at least 90 deaths on Sunday, as initially peaceful student demonstrations morphed into a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience aimed at unseating autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.


Despite the government once again cutting mobile internet nationwide, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the street over the weekend with calls to march on the Ganabhaban, the prime minister’s official residence in the capital Dhaka, on Monday afternoon. In response, police set up roadblocks at major arteries into the city, but students say thousands have already slipped past the security cordon in order to join the demonstrations. “The time has come for the final protest,” said Asif Mahmud, a protest leader, per AFP.


Hasina has so far been characteristically defiant. Speaking following a meeting with security chiefs, she said demonstrators were “not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation.” Still, such is the scale and breadth of public anger that analysts doubt whether her ruling Awami League party—which was returned for a fourth straight term in January elections boycotted by the opposition and denounced by observers as neither free nor fair—could possibly stay in power. “Survival of the government is highly unlikely,” says Ali Riaz, a Bangladeshi-American political scientist and professor at Illinois State University. “I don’t think that people will go back without seeing a transition.”


It’s chaos largely of Hasina’s own making after the Awami League-aligned students’ group, the thuggish Chhatra League, was dispatched to confront initially peaceful demonstrations that began last month against civil service employment quotas for descendants of the nation’s 1971 war of independence. Following a brutal crackdown by security forces, which have officially led to over 280 deaths to date though diplomatic sources tell TIME could in truth number over 1,000, the government imposed a nationwide curfew and all internet services were severed across South Asia’s second biggest economy of over 170 million people.


After order was briefly restored, police arrested thousands of students and opposition activists. But the resumption of internet connectivity resulted in a deluge of cellphone footage of beatings and killings being uploaded to social media, galvanizing protesters to escalate their demands by urging for a complete shutdown of all factories and public transport and for people to refuse to pay taxes or utility bills. In addition, they called on the 10 million or so of their compatriots based overseas to halt remittances worth an estimated $2 billion annually.


Outrage was particularly stoked by UNICEF reports that at least 32 children had been killed during the demonstrations, many shot inside their homes by security forces and Awami League-aligned militias allegedly firing indiscriminately at windows. Bangladeshi society has become largely inured to shadowy disappearances, with almost 2,500 extrajudicial killings reported between 2009-2022, but the brazen slaughter of civilians in broad daylight against a backdrop of economic doldrums and widespread alleged corruption has proven impossible to ignore. Sheikh Hasina’s blundering response to the bloodshed didn’t help after she was filmed crying over damage to a train station while deriding fallen students as “traitors” and “terrorists.”


On Sunday, the U.N.’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for an end to the “shocking violence” and urged the government to “cease targeting those participating peacefully in the protest movement, immediately release those arbitrarily detained, restore full internet access, and create conditions for meaningful dialogue.” Read more - Lire plus


Bangladesh bans Jamaat-e-Islami party following violent protests that left more than 200 dead


Uprising in Bangladesh: Student Protests Force Prime Minister to Resign & Flee to India, 100s Killed

Jeux olympiques : Fichage de masse et discrimination politique

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La Quadrature du Net 30/07/2024 - Les Jeux Olympiques viennent de débuter, la surveillance et la répression y sont reines. En vue de cet évènement, l’État a mis en œuvre tous les pouvoirs sécuritaires accumulés ces dernières années : drones, QR code, périmètres de sécurité, vidéosurveillance algorithmique, assignations à résidence, présence policière intense, hélicoptères… De façon inédite, l’ensemble de ces moyens sont employés en même temps et à une échelle très importante. Au gré de cet emballement répressif, une autre mesure exceptionnelle mérite l’attention : l’utilisation hors norme des fichiers de police pour écarter des emplois liés aux JO les personnes ayant des activités militantes. Une forme de discrimination fondée sur des critères opaques et proprement inacceptable.


Fouiller le passé au nom de la sécurité


En France, l’accumulation d’informations sur la population à travers le fichage est une pratique ancienne et énormément utilisée par la police et le renseignement. Mais depuis une vingtaine d’années le nombre de fichiers a explosé, tout comme le périmètre des informations collectées et des personnes visées. En parallèle, leurs usages ont été largement facilités, avec peu de contrôle, tandis que leur légitimité est de moins en moins contestée dans la sphère politique et médiatique. Rappelons – au cas où cela aurait été oublié – que dans une logique démocratique, l’État n’a pas à connaître ce que fait ou pense sa population et que ce n’est que par exception qu’il peut garder en mémoire certaines informations concernant les faits et gestes d’individus. Cependant, et nous l’observons malheureusement pour toute forme de surveillance, ces principes théoriques sont écartés au nom de la sécurité et de « l’utilité ». Toute information disponible peut dès lors être conservée de façon préventive, peu importe la proportionnalité, la nécessité ou le fait que cela transforme chaque personne exposant des informations personnelles en potentiel suspect. Avec les Jeux Olympiques, nous avons aujourd’hui un exemple d’où cette démesure, couplée à une criminalisation croissante du militantisme, mène.


En 2016, la loi relative à la procédure pénale a créé la notion de « grand évènement ». Définie par l’article L.211-11-1 du code de la sécurité intérieure, elle recouvre des évènements exposés « par leur ampleur ou leurs circonstances particulières, à un risque exceptionnel de menace terroriste». Lorsqu’un rassemblement est désigné comme tel par décret, toute personne y travaillant de près ou loin (technicien·ne, bénévole, soignant·e, agent·e de sécurité…) doit alors faire l’objet d’une enquête administrative. À la suite de cette enquête, le « service national des enquêtes administratives de sécurité » (SNEAS) créé en 2017 délivre un avis désormais contraignant. S’il est défavorable, la personne ne pourra alors pas se rendre et travailler sur l’évènement.


Si des sommets géopolitiques ont été qualifiés de « grand évènement », c’est également le cas pour le Festival de Cannes, la Route du Rhum ou la Fête du citron à Menton. Dès 2021, les Jeux Olympiques 2024 ont ainsi été désignés comme « grand évènement », englobant par là l’ensemble des infrastructures, sites et animations associés aux Jeux. Cela a donc impliqué que des enquêtes soient effectuées sur un nombre immense de personnes, à la fois les équipes et délégations sportives mais également toute personne devant travailler autour de cet évènement. S’agissant des Jeux Olympiques, le 17 juillet dernier, le ministre de l’intérieur annonçait que 870 000 enquêtes avaient été menées conduisant à écarter « 3 922 personnes susceptibles de constituer une menace sur la sécurité de l’événement ». Gérald Darmanin se targuait ainsi que « 131 personnes fichées S » et « 167 personnes fichées à l’ultragauche » s’étaient vu refuser leur accréditation. Mais derrière cet effet d’annonce, il y a une réalité, celle d’une surveillance massive et de choix arbitraires opérés en toute opacité. [...]


On le comprend, à travers la consultation de ces fichiers – aussi appelé « criblage » – le SNEAS a accès a une montagne d’informations. Si le nom de la personne apparaît dans un ou plusieurs de ces fichiers, l’agent du service doit, en théorie, évaluer à partir des informations accessibles si son comportement ou ses agissements « sont de nature à porter atteinte à la sécurité des personnes, à la sécurité publique ou à la sûreté de l’État ». Si tel est le cas, il délivre un avis défavorable que l’organisateur de l’évènement est obligé de suivre et doit donc refuser d’employer la personne. Mais en pratique, il n’existe aucune information sur la manière dont cette évaluation est faite ni sur les critères utilisés pour évaluer un tel « risque ». Cette appréciation se fait donc de manière opaque et arbitraire, sur la base d’une définition large et floue, et la motivation du rejet ne sera jamais communiquée.


De plus, la loi précise bien que les enquêtes administratives ne peuvent pas concerner les spectateur·ices des grands évènements. Pourtant, le préfet de police Laurent Nuñez a affirmé lors d’une conférence de presse le 25 avril dernier que la préfecture avait « la possibilité de faire un certain nombre d’enquêtes » sur les spectateur·ices de la cérémonie d’ouverture. Le média AEF indique ainsi que l’entourage de Darmanin a évoqué « un criblage par la Direction du renseignement de la Préfecture de police (DRPP) de toute personne dont on pense sérieusement qu’elle présente un problème ». En effet, puisque les spectateur·ices étaient obligé·es de s’inscrire sur une plateforme, il était possible de récupérer leurs noms et de faire une enquête via des moyens détournés. [...] Au nom des Jeux Olympiques, l’État et la préfecture de police contournent la loi et jouent avec le droit pour étendre toujours plus leur contrôle.


Une discrimination politique inédite


Alors que ce « criblage » a concerné des centaines de milliers de personnes, des récits relatifs à des refus d’accréditation ont commencé à émerger ces dernières semaines. Il en ressort que la principale cause potentielle de la mise à l’écart de certaines personnes réside dans leur activité militante, à l’instar de Léon, intermittent du spectacle dont le témoignage a été publié par Mediapart. Nous avons donc lancé un appel à témoignages, et ceux-ci se sont avérés nombreux. En voici quelques uns (tous les prénoms ont été modifiés).


Jeanne est secouriste bénévole et l’association dont elle fait partie a été sollicitée pour les JO. Jeanne s’est donc proposée pour se mobiliser une semaine. En parallèle, elle milite contre le dérèglement climatique depuis plusieurs années et a notamment participé à différentes actions de désobéissance civile au cours desquelles elle s’est faite arrêtée par la police, sans jamais être poursuivie ni condamnée. Début juin, le président de l’antenne locale de son association de secourisme a reçu une lettre de refus de l’organisation des JO. Elle ne pourra pas exercer comme secouriste durant les JO, malgré la demande.


Marc est salarié d’un opérateur de transport et devait travailler pendant les JO pour les dépôts de bus des accrédités et athlètes. Mais Marc fait partie d’Extinction Rebellion. Il a été contrôlé en manifestations et a participé à des actions de désobéissance civile, ce qui l’a mené à être arrêté et gardé à vue deux fois. Il est le seul des 300 personnes de son employeur mobilisées sur ces sites à s’être vu refuser son accréditation.


Simon devait travailler pour l’accueil du public dans un stade où il y a des épreuves des JO. Il avait déjà reçu son emploi du temps lorsqu’il a reçu son refus accréditation le 12 juillet dernier. Par le passé, il a été reconnu coupable pour entrave à la circulation dans le cadre de du mouvement des Gilets jaunes, mais a été dispensé de peine. Il milite également au sein d’Extinction Rebellion et des Soulèvements de la Terre.


Juliette est une militante qui a subie quelques gardes à vue dans le cadre de manifestations. Poursuivie une fois, elle a été relaxée avec un stage de citoyenneté. Elle devait être bénévole en secourisme, mais n’a jamais reçu son autorisation, quand le reste des membres de son association l’ont eu. Lire plus


English translation: Olympic Games: Mass Surveillance and Political Discrimination


Olympics security means minorities and others flagged as potential terror threats can’t move freely


Olympics’ AI Security Stokes Backlash Over Mass Surveillance and Predictive Policing

How the Philippines is using anti-terrorism laws to freeze disaster NGOs

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The New Humanitarian 30/07/2024 - The Philippines is entering the peak of its annual typhoon season. Last week, Typhoon Gaemi brought mass flooding to Manila, killing dozens and causing the vessel Terra Nova to capsize off its coast, spilling its cargo of industrial fuel oil into the ocean. In a normal year, Jazmin Jerusalem would be traversing communities, distributing money and providing training. She’s the executive director of Leyte Center for Development Inc. (LCDe), an NGO dedicated to disaster preparation and relief in the country’s eastern islands of Leyte and Samar – the most vulnerable areas to powerful typhoons coming off the Pacific Ocean.


Jerusalem had a lot planned for this year. The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons in a given year, and these storms are becoming stronger due to human-caused climate change, bringing economic, public health, and other humanitarian challenges to Samar and Leyte. In one programme, funded by the humanitarian organisation CARE, LCDe educated local health workers in preventing diseases after a typhoon and distributed more than 300 glucometers and blood pressure monitors. “In the event of a disaster, it’s not going to be the government who responds first. It’s not even going to be us in the NGO. It’s going to be your neighbour,” Jerusalem said. “It’s really [enabling] the vulnerable communities to absorb the effects of disasters and rise up.”


In November 2013, Leyte and Samar were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded. The storm killed at least 6,300 people – which Jerusalem believes is a significant undercount – and destroyed cities and towns throughout the region, including LCDe’s offices in the town of Palo, directly in Haiyan’s epicentre. “We weren’t able to save anything, except of course our lives,” Jerusalem said. Haiyan also became a case study in community-based disaster response. LCDe had helped rural stores stock vegetables and nonperishable goods, allowing them to provide food to areas cut off from aid workers. “We proved that communities can be the first responders,” Jerusalem explained.


This year, however, her work has ground to a halt. In April, the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) ordered banks to freeze LCDe’s accounts, along with the personal accounts of Jerusalem, her son, and three staffers, accusing the NGO of financing terrorism. On 2 May, the banks complied, immediately severing LCDe’s access to transfers from foreign funders, including the money CARE planned to send for the community health programme. “It wasn’t even half the amount yet,” Jerusalem said. “It was really so abrupt.”


The Philippines passed a controversial anti-terrorism law in 2020, giving a newly created Anti-Terrorism Council the power to designate groups as terrorists, detain them, or freeze their assets without charges. The AMLC, a separate entity, is responsible for countering terrorism financing. At the time, the government promised the new law would not be used against civilian activists. Since its passage, however, rights groups allege it has been used solely for that purpose – and its weaponisation against organisations providing disaster relief puts millions of Filipinos at risk.


Last year, bank accounts belonging to the Indigenous group Cordillera People’s Alliance were frozen after four members were designated by the Anti-Terrorism Council as being “terrorist” suspects. Since then, charges of financing terrorism were filed against members of CERNET, a Cebu-based development organisation, and the Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group, or PDG, a land rights group in the central island of Negros, leading to fears their accounts will also be frozen.


And in June, the Citizens Disaster Response Center, or CDRC, had its own bank accounts frozen because it had received money from LCDe, which it said were excess funds being returned from LCDe’s relief operations after a typhoon in 2022. In July, a group of rights defenders asked four UN Special Rapporteurs to review the “weaponisation” of counter-terrorism laws against humanitarian workers. Read more - Lire plus

An Australian federal police counter-terrorism operation targeted a 13-year-old with autism

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The Guardian 10/08/2024 - An Australian federal police counter-terrorism operation targeting a 13-year-old boy with autism cost more than $500,000, Guardian Australia can reveal.


Documents provided under freedom of information laws show the total cost of Operation Bourglinster, the AFP investigation into a boy known as Thomas Carrick, was $507,087. No further breakdown of the cost was provided. The Victorian children’s court found that police encouraged Thomas in his fixation on Islamic State during an undercover operation after his parents sought help from the authorities.


Thomas was later charged with terror offences after a magistrate found an undercover officer “fed his fixation” and “doomed” the rehabilitation efforts of the boy and his parents. On 17 April 2021, his parents went to a police station and asked for help because Thomas was watching Islamic State-related videos on his computer and had asked his mother to buy bomb-making ingredients such as sulphur and acetone.


Thomas was investigated and charged with two terror offences by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which comprises Australian federal police, Victoria police and Asio members. He was the youngest person ever charged with those offences, the court found. It granted a permanent stay on the charges in October last year after making grave findings about the conduct of officers.


“The community would not expect law enforcement officers to encourage a 13- to 14-year-old child towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on Isis,” Magistrate Lesley Fleming said in the decision, first revealed by Guardian Australia. Thomas, an NDIS recipient with an IQ of 71, was first reported to police by Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and then by his parents because of his fixation with Islamic State, which included him accessing extremist material online and making threats to other students.


He spent three months in custody before he was granted bail in October 2022, after an earlier bail was revoked because he failed to comply with conditions. The AFP released 41 pages of documents to Guardian Australia under FoI laws earlier this month. Some of the documents were redacted and others were excluded from release. Part of the reason for documents being excluded or redacted was that the operation remained under review, the AFP noted in its FoI decision. The documents include a redacted “backpocket brief”, designed to give an overview of the operation including a chronology.


“Since July 2021, the AFP has commenced investigations and conducted operational activity against more than 10 individuals that were 16 years old or younger, with the youngest being 12 years old,” the undated brief notes. “Of these, approximately 50% of the individuals have been charged with either commonwealth or state based offences.


“Some commonalities identified between these investigations include diagnosis of a neuro-diverse or mental health condition, being raised in a disruptive, unstable or harmful environment, and experiencing social problems throughout their school life.” Read more - Lire plus

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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Accountability

Reddition de comptes


Prime Minister announces an appointment to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians

Anti-terror legislation

Législation antiterroriste


Amnesty International: Eswatini: Major setback as Supreme Court upholds repressive Suppression of Terrorism Act


India: UN Human Rights Committee calls for protection of human rights defenders and reform of counter-terrorism laws

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence


Militarized policing is threatening democracy: Police are increasingly using force to silence dissent


Mask Bans Further Empower the Police State


Rivers of Phish: Sophisticated Phishing Targets Russia’s Perceived Enemies Around the Globe


Digital Security Helpline

Citizenship

Citoyenneté


Important questions of due process re Minister Miller's comments on potential citizenship revocation of Ahmed Eldidi

Criminalization of dissent

Criminalisation de la dissidence


Ksenia Karelina: Ballerina jailed for 12 years in Russia after donating £40 to charity


Saudi Arabia: Authorities must immediately release man convicted over social media posts after death sentence quashed


Vietnam jails prominent activist for 5 years on anti-state charges, lawyers say


Statement for Immediate Release of José Díaz Gómez, EZLN Support Base: FREEDOM NOW!


Pakistan: TLP leaders booked under anti-terror law


Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 49


Seven charged over break-in protest at Israeli defence firm’s UK premises


NEW Defend the Golden Gate 26: Tell DA Jenkins to Drop the Charges!

Criminalization of the opposition

Criminalisation de l'opposition


Uganda: Drop terrorism charges against political opposition


Tunisia: Amnesty International’s Secretary General denounces rollback of human rights upon concluding four-day visit


What’s behind Pakistan’s move to ban Imran Khan’s PTI?


Imran Khan approaches ATC, seeks bail in 12 terrorism cases linked to May 9 riots


Pak's anti-terrorism court rejects bail plea of Bushra Bibi in 12 cases


Pak anti-terrorism court sends close aide of Imran Khan on 14-day judicial remand

Encryption

Cryptage


Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor blocked the encrypted messaging app Signal, citing violations of anti-terrorism laws

Freedom of expression

Liberté d'expression


McGill refuse de fournir ses preuves pour justifier le démantèlement du campement pro-palestinien


As students return to school in California, a proposed law targets campus protests


While Elon Musk battles the UK and EU over social media censorship, Israel is jailing citizens for Instagram posts


Secret Pakistani Program Directs Military Officers to Attack Social Media Critics and "Digital Terrorists"


Jordan: New Cybercrimes Law stifling freedom of expression one year on

Freedom of the press

Liberté de la presse


Kenya: Young reporters and NGOs targeted as part of clampdown on Gen Z protests


Journalists detained, threatened amid Venezuela election unrest

Islamophobia & racism

Islamophobie & racisme


“Dynamite Nashville”: FBI Role in Civil Rights-Era Bombings Revealed, Linked to Later Racist Attacks


Tens of Thousands Rally Against Racism and Islamophobia in U.K. Following Days of Far-Right Rioting

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et des réfugié.es


Homeland Security takes steps to tighten asylum rules at Canadian border


EU pushes for new surveillance technology against migration, German police union asks for €35 million

Police


What Are Your Rights When Filming the Police?


Le profilage racial et l’éternel virage vers le statu quo


« La Ville défend l’indéfendable »: Montréal assume les frais d’avocats pour des policiers qui tuent

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance


From surveillance to doxxing: Venezuelan authorities must end their violent crackdown on dissent


Activists accuse proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty of empowering surveillance, repression


Internal Atlanta Police Records Reveal Monitoring of ‘Cop City’ Opponents’ Political Activity


Pakistan Expands Surveillance Powers Yet Again in the Name of ‘National Security’

Miscellaneous

Divers


India: High Court grants bail to teacher booked in 2021 terror plot case, says prosecution failed to prove his terror connection


‘Torturing us as payback’: Inside the disturbing allegations of how Ontario jail guards exacted their revenge against inmates


Launch of public consultations on potential new measures to advance and defend Canada’s economic security interests - open until September 23


Former CSIS head David Vigneault joins U.S. intelligence firm Strider


New report: The U.S. Military's Sexual Assault Crisis as a Cost of War

ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC

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Uphold rights and liberties at protests and encampments across Canada!

Please join us in calling for the following:

  • Officials must stop equating Charter-protected expression and dissent with “support for terrorism,” and refrain from calling for law enforcement to forcibly end or prevent protest activities.
  • Law enforcement agencies must refrain from acting against protesters exercising their Charter-protected rights, including at encampments.
  • The Ontario legislature must immediately reverse the keffiyeh ban.
  • Canada must call for a permanent ceasefire and to halt all arms sales, transfers and military aid to Israel.
ACTION
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Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!

Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task. Please join us in denouncing the dangerous national security related exemptions in the bill.

ACTION
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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.

ACTION
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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.

ACTION

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 EnglishPétition 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.

ACTION

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

December 10, 2023 - ironically Human Rights Day - marked the 21st "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!

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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

ACTION

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

ACTION
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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.

ACTION

December to June 2024 - Décembre à juin 2024

Thanks to the support of our members and donors, so far in 2024 we have been able to work on the following:


  • Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act - which would FINALLY create an independent watchdog for CBSA
  • Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 - which includes the very problematic Artificial Intelligence and Data Act
  • Advocating for the protection of international assistance from anti-terrorism laws after the adoption of Bill C-41
  • Bill C-63: The very concerning Online Harms Act
  • Bill C-70: The new and highly controversial Foreign Interference legislation
  • Parliamentary study on Transparency of the Department of National Defence
  • Biometrics guidance & other privacy issues with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  • Palestine and the right to dissent
  • Combatting Racism & Islamophobia
  • Repatriation of all Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
  • Justice for Dr Hassan Diab
  • Mohamed Harkat & Security certificates
  • Canada’s 4th Universal Periodic Review
  • Work with the international Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
  • The UN Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Canada assessment
  • The UN Cybersecurity Treaty & the EU AI Convention


What we have planned for the rest of 2024!


  • Pressuring lawmakers and officials to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security as well as opposing the discourse of “countering terrorism” to repress dissent, such as protests and encampments in support of Palestinian rights and lives.
  • Opposing the weaponization of concerns around foreign interference to unnecessarily increase national security powers, which will greatly affect rights and liberties of Canadians, and will most likely lead to more harassment and xenophobia
  • 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 accountability and transparency 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
  • 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! Read more - Lire plus


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

THANK YOU

to our amazing supporters!


We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!


James Deutsch

Bill Ewanick

Kevin Malseed

Brian Murphy

Colin Stuart

Bob Thomson

James Turk

John & Rosemary Williams

Jo Wood

The late Bob Stevenson


Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!



Merci!