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15.11.2024 - 13:32 [ Middle East Eye ]

UK urged to share Gaza spy planes footage with ICC war crimes probe

(October 30, 2024)

The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
(…)
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
(…)
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”

“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”

16.09.2024 - 18:40 [ Nachrichtenagentur Radio Utopie ]

This news agency is on strike – until one of the most important UN resolutions of the last 57 years is public available!

Anadolu has seen it.
Reuters has seen it.

A resolution, the so-called „Palestine Authority“ would „likely“ bring into the United Nations General Assembly. Alleged content: the Israeli occupation force has to leave Palestine within a year (and therefor 58 years too late).

Now – where is the resolution?

04.09.2024 - 11:16 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(November 30, 2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

21.04.2024 - 08:30 [ Nordkurier ]

Geheime Corona-Unterlagen: Dieser Tag veränderte Deutschland für immer

(27.03.2024)

Die Protokolle des Corona-Krisenstabs des Robert Koch-Instituts sollten geheim bleiben. Journalisten haben die Unterlagen freigeklagt und veröffentlicht. Sie werfen viele Fragen auf.

09.04.2024 - 11:15 [ Haaretz ]

The Truth About Israel, Iran and 1980s U.S. Arms Deals

(Nov. 26, 2010)

In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel‘s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).

(…)

The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

(…)

Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.

(…)

The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.

21.02.2024 - 18:40 [ Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte ]

FragDenStaat-Chefredakteur Arne Semsrott nach Berichterstattung über Gerichtsverfahren angeklagt: Verfassungswidrige Strafnorm gefährdet die Pressefreiheit

Berlin, 20. Februar 2024 – Die Staatsanwaltschaft Berlin hat gegen Arne Semsrott, Chefredakteur von FragDenStaat, wegen der verbotenen Mitteilung über Gerichtsverhandlungen Anklage zum Landgericht Berlin erhoben. Die Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) und Strafverteidiger Lukas Theune unterstützen Semsrott und FragDenStaat in dem gegen ihn geführten Strafverfahren. Kernpunkt der Verteidigung ist, dass die Strafnorm verfassungswidrig ist und gegen die Pressefreiheit verstößt.

Arne Semsrott hatte im August 2023 über die Ermittlungsmaßnahmen gegen die Letzte Generation und den unabhängigen Sender Radio Dreyeckland berichtet und im Zuge dessen mehrere relevante Gerichtsentscheidungen veröffentlicht. Er riskierte damit bewusst Strafanzeigen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Berlin leitete ein Ermittlungsverfahren gegen ihn ein und erhob nun in dem Komplex zur Letzten Generation Anklage, wegen der besonderen Bedeutung des Falls sogar zum Landgericht. Die einschlägige Strafnorm (§ 353d Nr. 3 StGB) verbietet ohne Ausnahme jede Veröffentlichung des Wortlauts von Dokumenten eines laufenden Strafverfahrens vor der Hauptverhandlung. Das erschwert die Berichterstattung über Strafverfahren und schränkt damit die Pressefreiheit unverhältnismäßig ein.

14.02.2024 - 12:40 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(30.11.2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

20.01.2024 - 05:22 [ Dearbhla Minogue, Lawyer @GLAN_LAW / Twitter ]

Palestinian human rights organisation @alhaq_org has forced the gov’t to answer a legal challenge and tell the Court why it has kept granting weapons licences to Israel. The response shows why it was necessary. We @GLAN_LAW are proud to represent them – the pressure is building.

20.01.2024 - 05:11 [ Zarah Sultana MP, Proud to be the Labour MP for Coventry South / Twitter ]

NEW: The government hid from Parliament the Foreign Office‘s „serious concerns“ about Israel‘s compliance with International Humanitarian Law in Gaza, according to newly-released court papers. This should be national news – and it should end arms sales to Israel.

The papers show that at the start of the war the Foreign Office set up an internal International Humanitarian Law assessment process.

On 10 November it judged: “the volume of strikes, total death toll, as well as proportion of those who are children raise serious concerns”. 2/12

It also said: „the government’s current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with International Humanitarian Law poses significant policy risks”.

But look at what Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said to me just 4 days later… 3/12

In Parliament on 14 November, I asked Mitchell if British-made weapons had been used in violation of international law in Gaza.

He replied reassuring me of Israel‘s commitment to international law, even though just 4 days earlier his department registered serious concerns. 4/12

Mitchell said: „The member will know that the President of Israel has made it clear that his country will abide by International Humanitarian Law“.

These court papers reveal that his own department, the UK Foreign Office, doubted the Israeli President‘s words.

20.01.2024 - 04:51 [ Middle East Eye ]

War on Gaza: UK‘s Cameron okayed arms sales to Israel despite Foreign Office legal concerns

The Export Control Joint Unit – a cross-departmental body that oversees UK‘s export controls and licensing for military and dual-use items – told Cameron on 8 December that he had three options when it came to advising whether export licenses for sales to Israel should be approved.

He could either not suspend them, but keep them under careful review; suspend where it was assessed items might be used to carry out Israeli military options in the conflict in Gaza; or suspend all licenses.

Cameron decided on 12 December that he was satisfied Israel was committed to complying with international humanitarian law, according to the filing.

28.12.2023 - 12:40 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(30.11.2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

03.12.2023 - 06:59 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

03.12.2023 - 06:14 [ Tageschau.de ]

New York Times zitiert Sicherheitspapier: Wusste Israel von Hamas-Angriffsplan?

(01.12.2023 16:29 Uhr)

Laut New York Times war der Bericht weiten Kreisen der israelischen Sicherheitskräfte zugänglich – neben den Angriffsplänen habe er auch geheime Informationen über die israelische Armee und deren Kommunikation enthalten. Wie die Hamas an solch sicherheitsrelevante Informationen kommen konnte, sei unklar.

10.11.2023 - 04:50 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Geheime Liste: Wie der Sicherheitsapparat die Chatkontrolle prägt

Auffällig ist, dass die EU-Kommission von den neun Regierungsvertreter:innen auch zwei von der australischen Bundespolizei einlud. Hintergrund könnte hier sein, dass Australien seit 2019 ein Gesetz gegen sichere Verschlüsselung anwendet. Australien gehört wie das Vereinigte Königreich, die USA, Neuseeland und Kanada zum Geheimdienstverbund „Five Eyes“.

17.10.2023 - 16:15 [ Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research ]

Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research: What We Do

Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research was founded in 2014 out of a recognition of the unique role archives can play in breaking conflict-enhancing myths, fostering fact-based discourse, and supporting the work of human rights defenders. We make archives a tool for change by researching and exposing mechanisms, processes and events who play a role in the perpetuation of the Conflict. We assist human rights defenders and civil society organizations in accessing archival documentation relevant to their work. We campaign to expand the public’s access to government archives to promote transparency and freedom of information.

17.10.2023 - 15:30 [ MachsomWatch.org ]

Machsom Watch: About us

In January 2001, three Jewish Jerusalemite women first saw a military checkpoint in the West Bank and obeyed their conscience. From this point, MachsomWatch grew as an organization whose members are women of all walks of life in Israeli society. Within two years our number rose from 75 to 500, women were thoroughly convinced that with our activity we would put an end to the occupation.

We have no administration, are all volunteers and our decisions are made by voting in a plenary meeting.

02.10.2023 - 07:41 [ Al Jazeera ]

Did US ask for Imran Khan’s removal as Pakistan PM after he visited Russia?

(10 Aug 2023)

Khan was sacked from power in April 2022 after he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament. He alleged he knew of the “cypher” while he was in office which, according to him, proved the US hatched a conspiracy with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military to remove him.

He later made a U-turn, saying he wants good relations with the US, but continued to blame his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the military for orchestrating his removal.

02.10.2023 - 07:33 [ theIntercept.com ]

Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan

(09.08.2023)

One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.

The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.

28.09.2023 - 15:30 [ Disclose.ngo ]

The mercenaries of the sky

(November 22, 2021)

Laurent Aubigny’s name is well-known to the Sirli operational team, both civilian and military. Between 2016 and 2018, as then deputy director for research at the DRM, he supervised the agents’ mission in the field. It is also him who, since December 2020, presides over CAE Aviation, in what could appear to be a conflict of interest. Under the French defence code, a member of the armed forces does not have the right to join, within a period of three years after leaving their job in the military, “a company which they have been in charge of monitoring or controlling” or “with which they have concluded contracts or given advice upon contracts”.

According to that stipulation, Aubigny was entitled to join CEA Aviation only as of 2021. Contacted by Disclose, the French military’s deontology commission, which is in charge of studying such cases, did not reply to the questions submitted. Similarly, both the management of CEA Aviation, and the DRM, did not respond to questions submitted by Disclose.

28.09.2023 - 14:30 [ Disclose.ngo ]

Operation Sirli

(November 21, 2021)

The documents, kept confidential under France’s national “national defence secrecy” regulations (“le secret de la défense nationale”), originate from the services of the presidential office, the Élysée Palace, the French armed forces ministry, and the French military intelligence services. They show how this military cooperation exercise, kept secret from the public, was diverted from its original mission, that of reconnaissance of terrorist activity, in favour of a campaign of arbitrary executions. It involved state crimes about which the French presidential office was kept constantly informed, but which took no action.

28.09.2023 - 14:15 [ Disclose.ngo ]

Egypt Papers

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Disclose has obtained hundreds of secret documents, circulated at the highest levels of the French state, which reveal the responsibility of France in crimes committed by the dictatorship of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt. Discover “the terror memos” in a week-long series of investigative reports, beginning this Sunday November 21st.

28.09.2023 - 13:42 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Pressefreiheit: Frankreich nimmt Journalist*innen in die Mangel

Im Fokus der aktuellen Debatte steht die französische Journalistin Ariane Lavrilleux. Sie deckte 2021 für das Magazin „Disclose“ auf, dass der französische Militärgeheimdienst DRM mit der ägyptischen Regierung zusammenarbeitete und dabei auch indirekt an Hinrichtungen beteiligt war.

Wegen dieser Recherche wurde die Journalistin am Dienstag festgenommen. Beamte des französischen Inlandsgeheimdienstes durchsuchten ihre Wohnung sowie ihre digitalen Geräte. Anschließend wurde Lavrilleux auf einer Polizeiwache verhört und kam erst nach 39 Stunden wieder frei. Die Sicherheitsbehörden sind wohl auch auf der Suche nach Lavrilleuxs Quelle. Dieser drohen laut Süddeutscher Zeitung wegen Landesverrats bis zu sieben Jahre Haft.

11.09.2023 - 18:44 [ George Washington University ]

Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

(September 11, 1998)

Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.

These documents include:

– Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende‘s election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

– CIA memoranda and reports on „Project FUBELT“–the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende‘s government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende‘s government

– National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to „destabilize“ Chile economically, and isolate Allende‘s government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.

– State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.

– FBI documents on Operation Condor–the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain–providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.

24.08.2023 - 19:30 [ Verdi ]

ver.di kritisiert Kanzleramt wegen 24-Stunden-Frist zur Kommentierung des BND-Gesetzes – Eine irrwitzige Frist

(22.08.2023)

„Beim BND-Gesetz werden die besonderen demokratischen Rechte von Journalistinnen und Journalisten nicht ausreichend geschützt. Daher wurde das Gesetz in der Vergangenheit wiederholt vom Bundesverfassungsgericht als mangelhaft zurückgewiesen und dem Gesetzgeber Nachbesserungen zum Schutz der Grundrechte aufgetragen.

Ganz offensichtlich handelt es sich beim Gesetz über den BND also um eine komplexe Materie. Nachdem sich das Bundeskanzleramt für seine Überarbeitung des Gesetzes zwölf Monate Zeit ließ, werden den Betroffenen und ihren Verbänden nun 24 Stunden zur Stellungnahme eingeräumt – eine irrwitzige Frist. Die Einhaltung von Pressefreiheit und Grundrechten scheint zur Nebensache degradiert. Die Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union (dju) in ver.di fordert das Bundeskanzleramt auf, die Verbände angemessen zu beteiligen und die Frist zur Stellungnahme anzupassen.“

23.08.2023 - 19:16 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

BND-Gesetz: Bundeskanzleramt simuliert Verbändebeteiligung mit 24-Stunden-Frist

ROG und GFF hatten schon im Jahr 2017 eine Verfassungsbeschwerde erhoben, die sich gegen die nach den Snowden-Enthüllungen eingeführten Rechtsgrundlagen für die strategische Auslandsüberwachung des Geheimdienstes richtete. Im Mai 2020 erklärte das Bundesverfassungsgericht das BND-Gesetz für verfassungswidrig, weil es gegen die Pressefreiheit (Art. 5 Abs. 1 Satz 2 GG) und gegen das Fernmeldegeheimnis (Art. 10 Abs. 1) verstieß. Daraufhin reformierte die Große Koalition das BND-Gesetz.

Trotz unzähliger Hinweise von Sachverständigen im Gesetzgebungsverfahren kam nach Ansicht der Nichtregierungsorganisationen ein Gesetz heraus, das etliche Maßgaben des Bundesverfassungsgerichts verletze und jenseits dieser Maßgaben weitere verfassungswidrige Befugnisse eingeführt habe. Ende 2022 erhoben ROG und GFF daher erneut Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen das aktuelle BND-Gesetz.

04.08.2023 - 08:00 [ CNN ]

Exclusive: CNN obtains the tape of Trump’s 2021 conversation about classified documents

(27.06.2023)

CNN has previously reported that Trump at the time was furious over a New Yorker article about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley that said Milley argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump would set in motion a full-scale conflict. (…)

“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says as the sound of papers shuffling can be heard. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

05.07.2023 - 17:54 [ Democracy Now ]

Daniel Ellsberg’s Dying Wish: Free Julian Assange, Encourage Whistleblowers & Reveal the Truth

(July 03, 2023)

Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died in June, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: “My message to them is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait ’til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died.”

(…)

„It’s this generation, not the next one, the people living right now, that have to change these problems fast. And I think truth-telling is crucial to mobilize that.“

05.07.2023 - 17:07 [ Scheerpost.com ]

Patrick Lawrence: Ellsberg and ‘The Process of My Awakening’

Imagine reading Kerouac, training to a place he writes of, and there meeting one of the novelist’s close friends. In the accounts I have read, the Vietnam War was a major topic of conversation. Ellsberg was still a dedicated supporter; Snyder, who by this time had the sturdy composure of the monks under whom he studied, talked of it from the other side. They liked one another, a little improbably from our perspective. They had lunch together the next day, continuing the conversation begun the previous evening.

A decade later Ellsberg identified the encounter with Snyder with his “awakening.” And so the defense technocrat drove a long way, we have to assume, to thank the poet. There is something in this to love.

27.06.2023 - 12:36 [ CNN ]

Exclusive: CNN obtains the tape of Trump’s 2021 conversation about classified documents

(today)

CNN has previously reported that Trump at the time was furious over a New Yorker article about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley that said Milley argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump would set in motion a full-scale conflict. (…)

“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says as the sound of papers shuffling can be heard. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

22.06.2023 - 20:45 [ New York Times ]

Nuclear Secrets, a Compost Heap and the Lost Documents Daniel Ellsberg Never Leaked

(April 20, 2023)

Daniel Ellsberg — who died Friday at 92 — fully expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971. The documents revealed decades of government lies and mistakes about the war in Vietnam, and eventually, they helped end it.

The charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed, but he had a secret: The Pentagon Papers were only supposed to be the beginning. Alongside the documents about Vietnam, he’d copied thousands of pages of other documents about America’s nuclear war planning that he believed would shock the public conscience. But a series of mishaps kept those documents from ever coming to light.

22.06.2023 - 18:52 [ ilFattoQuotidiano.it ]

Judge orders the Crown Prosecution Service to come clean about the destruction of key documents on Julian Assange

(31.05.2023)

For the last six years, they have rejected all of our attempts to shed light on the destruction of key documents in the Julian Assange case, even though the emails were deleted when the high-profile, controversial case was still ongoing.

But now the British authorities at the Crown Prosecution Service have to come clean: they must declare whether they hold any information as to when, how and why that documentation was deleted, and if they do hold it, they must either release it to us or clarify the grounds for their refusal.

(…)

The Crown Prosecution Service must comply with this judicial order by June 23, and any failure on their part to do so could lead to contempt proceedings.

19.06.2023 - 12:24 [ Glenn Greenwald / Nitter ]

It‘s bizarre to watch establishment venues celebrate Daniel Ellsberg while spewing contempt for every cause and value he stood for — from defending Assange and Snowden as heroes to warning Americans that the US Security State always lies us into wars:

19.06.2023 - 11:59 [ New York Times ]

Why the Pentagon Papers Leaker Tried to Get Prosecuted Near His Life’s End

Citing the chilling effect that the creeping expansion of the law has on what information the public gets in a democracy, he expressed disappointment that the Biden administration had not dropped the Espionage Act charges against Mr. Assange.

“It’s clearly overly broad and does not just apply to people like me who had a security clearance. Assange is now feeling the weight of that,” he said, adding: “For 50 years I’ve been saying to journalists, ‘This thing was a loaded weapon looking at you.’”

16.06.2023 - 15:40 [ Washington Post ]

Citing cyber investigations, officials ask Congress to renew surveillance powers

(14.06.2023)

In a joint written testimony from the Biden administration witnesses, the NSA, FBI and CIA all cited Section 702’s usefulness for cybersecurity.

16.06.2023 - 15:35 [ iapp.org ]

US intelligence community presses for FISA Section 702 reauthorization

(13.06.2023)

Officials from U.S. intelligence agencies backed reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ahead of a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday. One official characterized a potential lapse or „unusable“ modifications to Section 702 as „grave national security risks.“ The support for full reauthorization came as 21 advocacy groups joined on a letter urging reform of Section 702. Meanwhile, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report regarding purchases of commercially available personal information by the U.S. intelligence community.

15.06.2023 - 10:10 [ Heise.de ]

„Albtraumszenario“: US-Dienste kaufen massenhaft Handydaten für Überwachung

„Der Regierung wäre es nie erlaubt worden, Milliarden Menschen dazu zu verpflichten, jederzeit Geräte zur Standortüberwachung bei sich zu haben, ihre sozialen Interaktionen aufzuzeichnen oder lückenlose Aufzeichnungen ihrer Lesegewohnheiten vorzuhalten“, fasst das Office of the Director of National Intelligence zusammen. Doch Smartphones, vernetzte Fahrzeugen, Webtracking, das Internet der Dinge und „andere Innovationen“ hätten die gleichen Folgen, ohne dass die Regierung etwas tun müsse.

15.06.2023 - 10:06 [ Elektronik-Informationen.de ]

Bestätigt: US-Geheimdienste kaufen persönliche Daten – Datenschutzbedenken wachsen

Die Art und Weise, wie US-Geheimdienste Daten aus verbundenen Fahrzeugen, Webbrowser-Aktivitäten und Smartphones sammeln und nutzen, steht zunehmend im Fokus. Dabei besteht die Gefahr, dass die unregulierte Verbreitung und der Verkauf von privaten Informationen amerikanischer Bürgerinnen und Bürger deren Privatsphäre bedroht. Der Bericht wurde vom Büro des Direktors der nationalen Geheimdienste (ODNI) veröffentlicht.

14.06.2023 - 17:11 [ Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator from Oregon / Twitter ]

In response to my request, DNI Haines has confirmed that the government is buying Americans‘ private data with no guardrails for when and how that data is used. If this isn‘t a wake up call for Congress to stop feds from buying up Americans‘ information, I don‘t know what is.

14.06.2023 - 13:40 [ Director of National Intelligence - DNI.gov ]

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Senior Advisory Group Panel on Commercially Available Information

(27 January 2022, approved for release by ODNI on 5 June 2023)

(U) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

(U) There is today a large and growing amount of what the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) refers to as “Commercially Available Information” (CAI). As the acronym indicates, and as we use the term in this report, CAI is information that is available commercially to the general public, and as such, is a subset of publicly available information (PAI). We do not use the term CAI to include, and we do not address in this report, commercial information that is available exclusively to governments. The volume and sensitivity of CAI have expanded in recent years mainly due to the advancement of digital technology, including location-tracking and other features of smartphones and other electronic devices, and the advertising-based monetization models that underlie many commercial offerings available on the Internet. Although CAI may be “anonymized,” it is often possible (using other CAI) to deanonymize and identify individuals, including U.S. persons.

(…)

Today, in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, CAI includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained, if at all, only through targeted (and predicated) collection, and that could be used to cause harm to an individual’s reputation, emotional well-being, or physical safety.

(…)

(U) A May 2014 report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides a similar account:

(U) Data brokers collect data from commercial, government, and other publicly available sources. Data collected could include bankruptcy information, voting registration, consumer purchase data, web browsing activities, warranty registrations, and other details of consumers’ everyday interactions.

(…)

1.3. (U) Examples of CAI. We do not attempt a comprehensive description of the scope and scale of data that are available as CAI, or the relevant markets, in part because they are so large and so dynamic. However, a few examples of CAI offerings will illustrate the current nature of available offerings:

• (U) “Thomson Reuters CLEAR is powered by billions of data points and leverages cutting-edge public records technology to bring all key content together in a customizable dashboard.”

• (U) LexisNexis offers more than “84B records from 10,000+ sources, including alternative data that helps surface more of the 63M unbanked/underbanked U.S. adults.”

• (U) Exactis has “over 3.5 billion records (updated monthly)” in its “universal data warehouse.”

• (U) PeekYou “collects and combines scattered content from social sites, news sources, homepages, and blog platforms to present comprehensive online identities.”

(…)

As the FTC explained in its May 2014 report:

(U) Data brokers rely on websites with registration features and cookies to find consumers online and target Internet advertisements to them based on their offline activities. Once a data broker locates a consumer online and places a cookie on the consumer’s browser, the data broker’s client can advertise to that consumer across the Internet for as long as the cookie stays on the consumer’s browser. Consumers may not be aware that data brokers are providing companies with products to allow them to advertise to consumers online based on their offline activities. Some data brokers are using similar technology to serve targeted advertisements to consumers on mobile devices.

(…)

2.2. (U) Examples of CAI Contracts. The IC currently acquires a large amount of CAI. Unclassified IC and other contracts for CAI can be found at Sam.Gov, a U.S. government website that allows searching by agency or sub-agency and by keywords, among other things. By way of example only, this website shows that the following agencies have, have had, have considered, or are considering the following contracts or proposals related to CAI:

• (U) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with ZeroFox for social media alerting (15F06721P0002431)

• (censored)

• U) The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for social media reports on individuals who are seeking a security clearance (HHM402-16-SM-CHECKS), and with LexisNexis for “retrieval of comprehensive on-line search results related to commercial due diligence from a maximum number of sources (news, company, public records, legal, regulatory financial, and industry information),” among other things (HHM402-21-Q-0094)

• (U) The U.S. Navy with Sayari Analytics, Inc. for access to its database that “contains tens of thousands of previously-unidentified specific nodes, facilities and key people related to US sanctioned actors including ‘2+3’ threats to national security” (N0001518PR11212)

• (U) Various offices within the Treasury Department for access to Banker’s Almanac (RFQ-FIN-55100-21-0010)

• (U) The Department of Defense (DOD) for access to Jane’s online (W31P4Q17T0009)

• (U) The Coast Guard with Babel Street for “Open Source Data Collection, Translation, Analysis Application” (70Z08419QVA044).

(U) In addition, DIA has provided the following information about a CAI contract in an unclassified and publicly-available paper sent to Congress on January 15, 2021:

(U) DIA currently provides funding to another agency that purchases commercially available geolocation metadata aggregated from smartphones.

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