Category: - Activists - TARGETED AMERICA

The Spy Business Is Booming and We Should Be Worried

7/20/2019

The Spy Business Is Booming and We Should Be Worried: Spyware and hacking know-how are more available than ever, making our data more vulnerable and the world more dangerous.
Bill Priestap, The New York Times, July 20, 2019

What is going on? Russian spies are assassinating people in other countries, directing internet companies to troll our social media and trying to undermine our political process almost in plain sight.

At the same time, agents acting at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party are stealing our proprietary information and technology. North Korean spies have become New Age bank robbers, while Iranian spies have attempted to assassinate dissidents in Denmark and a Saudi diplomat in the United States. And the United Arab Emirates has hired former government hackers to spy on dissidents and civil rights activists.

The spy business is clearly booming.

But it is not just government spy agencies. We are also witnessing the democratization of spy tools and techniques that used to be the sole purview of a highly select group of intelligence services. . . .

Activists, China, Citizens, Corporations, Counterintelligence, Cybersecurity, Democracy, Espionage, Germany, Hacking, Iran, Intelligence Agencies, International, Internet, John F. Kennedy, Kenya, Law, Military, New York Times, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Spyware, Surveillance, Surveillance Technology, Terrorism, United Arab Emirates, Universities, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe

Private Surveillance Is a Lethal Weapon Anybody Can Buy: Is it too late to rein it in?

7/19/2019

Private Surveillance Is a Lethal Weapon Anybody Can Buy: Is it too late to rein it in?
Sharon Weinberger, The New York Times, July 19, 2019

. . . One thing is clear: The private surveillance industry is growing. A firm that creates a catalog of these technologies, once named the “Little Black Book of Electronic Surveillance,” changed the name in 2016 to the “Big BlackBook.” It had doubled in size in its first three years. The 2017 edition includes 150 vendors.

The genesis of this global spy bazaar can be traced back to the frenetic weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when Congress rushed through the Patriot Act, a law that vastly expanded the American government’s wiretapping authorities. In the process, lawmakers inadvertently created a market for companies interested in providing services and technologies to collect and analyze the new trove of data. . . .

Activists, Amnesty International, Azerbaijan, Big Black Book of Electronic Surveillance, Cell Phones, Citizen Lab, Congress, Contractors, Cybersecurity, DarkMatter, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Digital Rights, Drones, Edward Snowden, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Ethiopia, European Union, Exports, Federal, FinSpy, FlexiSPY, Gamma Group, Guardian, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Intelligence Agencies, Internet, Journalists, Israel, Law, Law Enforcement, "Lawful Interception", Luta Security, National Security Agency, New York Times, NSO Group, Patriot Act, Prism, Privacy, Privacy International, Saudi Arabia, Security, State Department, Spyware, Surveillance, Surveillance Industry (Private), Surveillance (Private), Surveillance Technology, Syria, Telephones, TeleStrategies, Terrorism, Unit 8200, Uzbekistan, Vans,"Voice Print", Wassenaar Arrangement, Weapons, "Wiretappers Ball", Wiretapping, WiSpear

"The Fourth Amendment Doesn't Apply Here" — U.S. Border Guards Arrest Arizona Immigrant Rights Volunteer

5/9/2019

"The Fourth Amendment Doesn't Apply Here" — U.S. Border Guards Arrest Arizona Immigrant Rights Volunteer
The Intercept, Ryan Devereaux, May 9 2019, 1:32 p.m.

AN IMMIGRANT RIGHTS advocate on the U.S.-Mexico border was arrested and accused of “illegal alien smuggling” as she accompanied an asylum-seeker to a port of entry in southern Arizona. Ana Adlerstein, a volunteer at Casa del Migrantes, a migrant shelter in the Mexican town of Sonoyta, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told her that “the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply here” and “the border’s different,” as she was taken into custody Sunday.

Adlerstein was detained for more than four hours, and though she was not charged, she said CBP officials specifically told her that she was being placed under arrest, cited U.S. law prohibiting human smuggling, denied her access to an attorney, and informed her that investigators with the Department of Homeland Security would be following up with her as part of an “ongoing investigation.”

The arrest marks the latest in a series of aggressive actions the Trump administration’s frontline immigration enforcement agencies have taken against individuals and organizations working with migrants, which has included the arrest of nine humanitarian aid providers in Arizona, and sweeping surveillance, interrogation, and travel restrictions leveled against activists, journalists, and immigration attorneys in the San Diego-Tijuana area."

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Liberties, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, Fourth Amendment, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mexican Border, Secondary Security Screening Selection, The Intercept, Trump Administration

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS

4/8/2019

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS
Alice Speri, The Intercept_, April 8 2019, 8:23 a.m.

AS NATIONWIDE PROTESTS against police killings of black men began rolling across the country in 2014, federal and local law enforcement who were closely monitoring protesters’ online activities repeatedly expressed a bizarre concern: that the mostly black activists demanding an end to police violence in the U.S. might join with Islamic fundamentalist groups promoting violence abroad.

That concern was unequivocally baseless, and no evidence ever emerged to substantiate it. Still, documents obtained by the government transparency group Property of the People, which were shared exclusively with The Intercept, reveal that officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence exaggerated the significance of isolated social media activity, mostly by foreign accounts, advocating for a connection between the domestic movement against police brutality and foreign terrorism. . . .

Activists, Al Qaeda, Baltimore, “Black Identity Extremists”, Black Lives Matter, Center for Constitutional Rights, Civil Rights, Conspiracy Theories, Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Movement, Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Terrorism, Ferguson, Fox News, Fusion Centers, Greater Cincinnati Fusion Center, Intelligence Agencies, Intercept, ISIL, ISIS, Islamophobia, Islamic Extremism, Islamic State, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Law Enforcement, Maryland, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Missouri, Muslims, NAACP Convention, National Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Palestinians, Private Security Companies, Police, Police Brutality, Property of the People, Riots, Standing Rock Protest Movement, St. Louis, Stereotyping, Terrorism

Alarm over leaked US database targeting journalists and immigration activists: Secret database listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents

3/20/2019

The Guardian Wed 20 Mar 2019 03.00 EDT
Amanda Holpuch and Lauren Aratani

Photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped for a secondary screening three separate times in one week while crossing the US-Mexico border to cover the migrant caravan in Tijuana this winter – unaware that the journey she had taken countless times before was suddenly more complicated because her name was logged in a secret government database.

That database, part of something called Operation Secure Line, listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents obtained by local news station NBC 7. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Congressional Inquiry, Customs and Border Protection, First Amendment, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Immigration, "Instigators", Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Migrant Workers, Operation Secure Line, Organizers, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Watchlisting

ACLU Statement on Report of Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates at Border

3/6/2019

ACLU MARCH 6, 2019

NEW YORK — The U.S. government is reportedly targeting journalists, activists, and lawyers reporting on, aiding, or representing migrants at the southern border by sending them to secondary screening, monitoring their social media accounts, or creating dossiers on them. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration, Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Privacy, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Surveillance, Watchlisting

Report: Government Kept Database On Journalists, ‘Instigators’A San Diego TV station accessed leaked documents, revealing the operation.

3/6/2019

HUFFINGTON POST 03/06/2019 11:14 pm ET

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. government ran an operation to screen journalists, activists and others while investigating last year’s migrant caravan from Mexico, a San Diego TV station reported Wednesday, citing leaked documents.

Dossiers that included photos from their passports or social media accounts, date of birth and other details were kept in a database and some freelance journalists had alerts placed on their passports and were flagged for secondary screenings at customs points, the station KNSD-TV said. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Rights, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, First Amendment, "Instigators", Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Operation Secure Line, Organizers, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Surveillance, Watchlisting

Keystone protesters tracked at border after FBI spied on 'extremists': More than 18 months after federal investigation violated internal rules, activists say they were still watchlisted at the airport, visited at home by a terrorism task force and . . .

6/8/2015

The Guardian Mon 8 Jun 2015
Adam Federman

An activist was placed on a US government watchlist for domestic flights after being swept up in an FBI investigation into protests of the Keystone XL pipeline, linking a breach of intelligence protocol with accounts of continued tracking that environmentalists fear could follow them for life. . . .

But before the internal violations were discovered, information on Stroot and several other activists was included in FBI files. Now, interviews with Stroot, who was held up at Chicago’s O’Hare airport six months after the investigation was closed, and other protesters indicate that they are still being monitored by law enforcement. . . .

Activists, Department of Homeland Security, "Environmental Extremists", Federal Bureau of Investigation, Guardian Threat Tracking System, Keystone XL Pipeline, Law Enforcement, Non-violent Civil Disobedience, Policy Violations, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Transportation Security Administration, Watchlisting

IN THE NEWS

The Spy Business Is Booming and We Should Be Worried

Private Surveillance Is a Lethal Weapon Anybody Can Buy: Is it too late to rein it in?

"The Fourth Amendment Doesn't Apply Here" — U.S. Border Guards Arrest Arizona Immigrant Rights Volunteer

As Black Activists Protested Police Killings, Homeland Security Worried They Might Join ISIS

Alarm over leaked US database targeting journalists and immigration activists: Secret database listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents

ACLU Statement on Report of Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates at Border

Report: Government Kept Database On Journalists, ‘Instigators’A San Diego TV station accessed leaked documents, revealing the operation.

Keystone protesters tracked at border after FBI spied on 'extremists': More than 18 months after federal investigation violated internal rules, activists say they were still watchlisted at the airport, visited at home by a terrorism task force and . . .

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