Ultra-intrusive spyware targeting journalists and activists has UK links


Produced by Israeli company NSO, the ultra-intrusive Pegasus spyware targets journalists, dissidents, and human rights advocates. There’s now evidence that UK servers are implicated in the transmission of the spyware.

https://www.thecanary.co/

Spyware condemned by Snowden

The Pegasus Project is investigating the spyware. The project began when more than 50,000 phone numbers “believed to be… targets of NSO Group’s phone hacking software” were leaked to Amnesty International.

The project includes 80 journalists from “Forbidden Stories, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, the Guardian, Daraj, Direkt36, Le Soir, Knack, Radio France, the Wire, Proceso, Aristegui Noticias, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Haaretz and PBS Frontline”.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warns that the spyware could target millions:

If you don’t do anything to stop the sale of this technology, it’s not just going to be 50,000 targets. It’s going to be 50 million targets, and it’s going to happen much more quickly than any of us expect.

Targets

The Pegasus Project found that:

of over 1,000 numbers whose owners were identified, at least 188 were journalists. Many others were human rights activists, diplomats, politicians, and government officials. At least 10 heads of state were on the list.

Indeed, the Washington Post reports that:

Among the journalists whose numbers appear on the list, which dates to 2016, are reporters working overseas for several leading news organizations, including a small number from CNN, the Associated Press, Voice of America, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Le Monde in France, the Financial Times in London and Al Jazeera in Qatar
How Pegasus infects phones

The spyware is implanted into a phone via a malicious clickable link. Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) explains how:

Once implanted on a user’s phone, the system can collect a stunning range of information, including photos, emails, contacts, and data transmitted over other apps, like Facebook and WhatsApp. It can even record live audio and video.

Former US intelligence cyber engineer Timothy Summers further explains that once it’s been implanted into a device Pegasus:

hooks into most messaging systems including Gmail, Facebook, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Viber, WeChat, Telegram, Apple’s built-in messaging and email apps, and others. With a line-up like this, one could spy on almost the entire world population.
Other means of intrusion

As well as gaining access to all the data on a target’s phone, Pegasus also:

monitors the keystrokes on an infected device – all written communications and web searches, even passwords – and returns them to the client, while also providing access [to] the phone’s microphone and camera, turning it into a mobile spying device that the target unwittingly carries with them.

Further, for Pegasus to grab data it requires “only an unanswered phone call or a message to embed itself onto a device”.

OCCRP explains that Pegasus takes advantage of these ‘zero-click exploits’ (or zero-click attacks), which:

rely on bugs in popular apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, and FaceTime, which all receive and sort data, sometimes from unknown sources.

Once a vulnerability is found, Pegasus can infiltrate a device using the protocol of the app. The user does not have to click on a link, read a message, or answer a call — they may not even see a missed call or message.

Claudio Guarnieri, from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said “These zero-click exploits constitute the majority of cases we’ve seen since 2019”.
UK implicated

Meanwhile, Amnesty International published its peer reviewed forensic report on Pegasus on 18 July 2021. It states that:

Pegasus infrastructure primarily consists of servers hosted at datacentres located in European countries. The countries hosting the most infection domain DNS servers included Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, and the United States (US). [Emphasis added]

Amnesty adds that there are 79 servers in the UK that are involved in the transmission of the spyware. According to a Citizen Lab investigation, ‘Operation Blackbird’ is responsible for targets in a number of countries, including the UK, with Middle East connections. It also identified British Telecom as being part of the ‘Operation Kingdom’ infection, which also targets the Middle East..
Another UK link

Around two-thirds of the shares of NSO’s holding company are owned by Novalpina Capital, based in the UK and Luxembourg. According to journalist Ian Cobain, NSO has retained Cherie Blair to “act as an external advisor on ethics”.

Altogether, Citizen Lab found:

suspected NSO Pegasus infections… we identified in 45 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zambia.

Toolkit

A toolkit is now available to “technologists and investigators” to detect if a device has been compromised. The Verge has produced a guide on how to use it. Also, CNET has published a number of suggestions for improving security on smartphones, as well as improvements for browser settings.

Meanwhile, an NSO spokesperson told the Verge that the allegations made in the Amnesty report were “outrageous and far from reality”. It published a more detailed rebuttal here.

Featured image via Unsplash/ Justin Main

Vermont Gun Importer Sued After Its Rifle 

Was Used in Mass Shooting

POSTED BY DEREK BROUWER ON FRI, JUL 30, 2021 

SEVEN DAYS, VERMONT

AP PHOTO / JEREMY HOGAN
A Century International Arms booth at a National Rifle Association convention in IndianapolisVictims of a 2019 mass shooting are suing the Vermont arms dealer that made the rifle a gunman used to murder attendees of a California garlic festival.

A dozen survivors last week added Century International Arms as a defendant in their pending civil lawsuit against the nonprofit that ran the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, the City of Gilroy, Calif., and a private security contractor.

They say the gunmaker's business practices have funneled “uniquely lethal” semiautomatic rifles to criminals and “helped cause the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival” that left three people dead and 17 wounded.

The shooter, who died at the scene, wielded a WASR-10, a relatively inexpensive variant of the AK-47 that is manufactured in Romania. Century Arms, which is headquartered in Florida and has a manufacturing plant in Georgia, Vt., imports the guns and distributes them in the United States after modifying them to comply with state and federal laws. Century Arms has been previously described in court papers as the exclusive U.S. distributor of the Romanian arms.

Their products have been the weapon of choice for numerous mass shooters and have turned up in the arsenals of international drug cartels, Seven Days has previously reported.

RELATED
Century Armed: Vermont Importer's Guns Used in Mass Shooting

The man accused of killing 23 people at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart in 2019 is also alleged to have purchased a WASR-10 online, according to federal charging documents. The indictment does not specify what website he used or who manufactured it.

The 19-year-old Gilroy shooter purchased his WASR-10 at a Nevada gun shop. The model was illegal to possess in California, though Century Arms also makes a “California compliant” version.

The survivors’ complaint accuses Century Arms of having “intentionally flooded” nearby states with the WASR-10s that were illegal to possess in California but could easily be transported there. The mass shooting, they allege, was a “foreseeable” and “probable” consequence of Century Arms’ failure to “adopt reasonable safeguards to prevent the diversion of firearms to dangerous parties.”

The plaintiffs also take aim at Century Arms core business model, which involves importing rifles, modifying or replacing certain parts, and selling them to U.S. retailers.

The complaint contends that Century Arms is circumventing federal firearms importation bans by replacing some gun components with U.S.-made parts. Moreover, the WASR-10 is effectively an illegal machine gun, they contend, because owners can easily modify it to become fully automatic.

“Whether or not the Rifle used in the Attack was, in fact, modified to fire in a fully automatic fashion, its ready susceptibility to such modification rendered it a ‘machinegun’ as sold, prohibiting its sale to the general public,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint accuses Century Arms of negligence, product liability and creating a public nuisance.

Neither Century Arms nor the plaintiffs' attorneys immediately responded to requests for comment.

Typically, gunmakers have sought to have such claims against them dismissed under the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields them from liability for crimes committed using their guns.

Several recent court decisions, however, have cracked open the door for victims to pursue certain kinds of claims. Families impacted by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut are suing Remington over its marketing practices. In July, a California judge allowed negligence claims against Smith & Wesson to proceed in a case stemming from another 2019 mass shooting outside San Diego.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden called on Congress to rescind the immunity law.

Century Arms, which employed more than 100 people in Vermont in recent years, has enjoyed support from the state’s elected leaders, even winning a carve-out in landmark state gun legislation that banned possession of high-capacity magazines.

Read the amended complaint below:

Tags: Century Arms, Gilroy Garlic Festival, Mass Shootings, WASR-10, AK-variants, Gun Manufacturer, Web Only, Image

JAMAICA CELEBRATES ELAINE THOMPSON-HERAH’S HISTORIC OLYMPIC RECORD AND GOLD MEDAL

by Keka AraújoAugust 1, 2021

Photo Courtesy of Elaine Thompson-Herah/ Instagram

On Saturday, Jamaican track star, Elaine Thompson-Herah, did the unthinkable at the Tokyo Olympics. The 29-year-old athlete won a gold medal and broke a 33-year-old Olympic record– all at the same damn time. 

According to ESPN, Thompson-Herah ran her fastest 100 meters ever in an astounding 10.61 seconds. She beat the late, great Florence Griffith-Joyner’s Olympic record set at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul by .01 seconds. 

Thompson-Herah also defeated her biggest rival, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, by .13 seconds. 

The irony of her victory is she was unsure if she had broken the three-decades-long record– but she knew she had won the race.

“I knew that I won,” she said.

“The pointing, I don’t know what it means. To show that I was clear,” Thompson-Herah expressed to ESPN.

Her win, along with her two teammates Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jenkins’ wins, cemented Jamaica’s gold, silver and bronze medals for the race.

ESPN reported Jamaican’s last medal sweep was the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The champion also posted a tweet celebrating her victory.

“Just a lil girl from BANANA GROUND who liked to run. Believe In your dreams work hard and have faith in God…ETH,” she wrote.

 

Jamaicans, on the internet, went up for Thompson-Herah’s historic win, as well as her fellow countrywomen.

 

​​

Congratulations to the ladies of Jamaica!

'Leave the rest to me': New DOJ memos show there's more to learn about Trump and Capitol riots

Dan Balz

WASHINGTON POST

 Aug 01 2021

JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AP
Rioters loyal to then-President Donald Trump outside of US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington.

ANALYSIS: US Republicans in Congress have dismissed the need for an investigation into what happened on January 6 and in the days and weeks before the Capitol was overrun.

They claim there's nothing of value left to learn. However, new revelations about former US president Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election show there is likely much more that still needs unearthing.

For months, Trump has been on a political jihad. It began the night of the election and has never ended. The latest disclosures offer a reminder that it was the US president himself who was doing the most to corrupt the election results. The House select committee and other investigations are one way to begin to hold him more accountable.

These revelations are from notes kept by then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue, top aide to then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, including a conversation the two men had with Trump on December 27. The documents were provided by the US Justice Department to Congress and released publicly on Friday.

DOJ Gives Former Trump Officials Permission to Testify in January 6 Congressional Investigation

This could provide yet unreported information on what took place in the weeks leading up to the January 6th insurrection. Veuer's Tony Spitz has the details.

Washington Post journalists Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey had reported on Wednesday the existence of the notes, describing Trump as in regular, almost daily, contact with DOJ officials as he pressed them to investigate and prove various (false) claims of election irregularities.

In that December 27 conversation, Trump was told that the information he had about fraud claims was not accurate. Trump replied, according to the notes: "You guys may not be following the Internet the way I do."

AP
Trump's efforts to hector US election officials has dribbled out over a period of months, revelations produced by dogged reporting by journalists, by comments from public officials and by reports contained in the new books about Trump's last days in power. (File photo)

Trump was told further that the department would not and could not simply "snap its fingers" and change the outcome of the election. Trump said he understood but nonetheless wanted the department to "just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. congressmen," according to Donoghue's summary of the conversation.

These revelations are like others that have been made public, the rantings of an angry losing candidate. They spark momentary outrage but then seem to fade. After all, the system held.

But every such piece of evidence that comes to light adds to the pattern of a president obsessed with having lost the election and willing, even determined, to undermine the integrity of the election process - of democracy itself - to retain his power.

Trump waged a public campaign of lies and falsehoods and, as the DOJ notes underscore anew, a behind-the-scenes campaign to pressure federal, state or local officials, hoping someone in an official capacity would offer a patina of credibility to those unproved or often disproved claims of fraud.

Trump's goal was to delay or disrupt the final stage in the post-election vote-counting process. That last step was to take place on January 6 before a joint session of Congress, with former US Vice President Mike Pence presiding.

That was the day Congress was to affirm the electoral college vote count, sealing the victory of Joe Biden and closing the last door on the defeated incumbent.

Trump's strategy to force a postponement ultimately failed. Congress completed its work in the early hours of January 7, but not before the deadly attack on the Capitol by armed supporters of the president.

Trump's efforts to hector election officials has dribbled out over a period of months, revelations produced by dogged reporting by journalists, by comments from public officials and by reports contained in the new books about Trump's last days in power that have been published this summer. They all show a desperate president, flailing about as power slipped from his grasp.

KEVIN D. LILES/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Supporters of former US president Trump demonstrate outside the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on January 6.

In the weeks after the election, Trump had pressured Rosen's predecessor, William P Barr, who eventually said publicly the department had investigated various allegations and found no evidence of fraud big enough to change the election results (and has since been reported to say it was all a crock). Barr resigned as attorney general just before Christmas, leaving the department in the hands of Rosen and Donoghue.

Trump's efforts weren't limited to the Justice Department, as everyone knows. He publicly upbraided Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp for certifying the election results in that state after multiple recounts.

He was critical of Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey for doing the same. Just before Christmas, he called the lead election investigator in the office of the Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state.

One of Trump's most blatant interventions came January 2, when he pleaded with Raffensperger to find enough votes to turn an 11,779-vote loss into a victory. "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," he said. "Because we won the state." The Post's Amy Gardner obtained an audio recording of the conversation the next day.

Trump did not stop once he was out of office. He has repeatedly promoted a disputed review of the ballots in Arizona's Maricopa County, ordered by the Republicans in the state Senate and conducted by an outside contractor.

The review, nearing its conclusion, has been hobbled by controversy. Trump was in Arizona last week and predicted the results would prove his claims and lead to more such reviews. "This is only the beginning of the irregularities," he said.

Just as Justice Department officials pushed back, not all Republicans have been receptive to Trump's pleadings.

He criticised Republican legislative leaders in Wisconsin for not ordering the kind of ballot review that has taken place in Arizona.

Those legislators pushed back. Some Republicans in Michigan, another state Trump has complained about, have also given him the brush-off. But he gives no indication that he will cease. Raffensperger repeatedly stood up to Trump and now faces a Trump-endorsed primary challenger.

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
As with so much of Trump's presidency, much of what he did to attack the institutions of democracy after the election was there for all to see. The new information is a reminder, however, that not everything he did was done in plain sight. (File photo)

The notes about Trump's conversation with Rosen and Donoghue that were released Friday are intriguing. What did Trump mean when he said, "leave the rest to me and the R. congressmen." What did Trump have in mind, beyond trying to bend Pence to act beyond his constitutional authorisation and send the vote counts back to states, which Pence refused to do?

The US Justice Department said last week that it would not assert executive privilege for Rosen, Donoghue and other former officials in the Trump administration to prevent them from testifying before congressional committees.

The two former Justice Department officials are likely to be called to testify relatively soon. Others who served Trump will likely face subpoenas from the House select committee, though challenges could drag out the process.

The broad outlines of Trump's effort to subvert the election are known and have been known. A substantial portion of the Republican base believes Biden did not win. Many congressional Republicans voted to challenge some of the electoral college results hours after the Capitol had been attacked. They say it's time to move on.

As with so much of Trump's presidency, much of what he did to attack the institutions of democracy after the election was there for all to see. The new information is a reminder, however, that not everything he did was done in plain sight. How much more is there?

The value of a full investigation into what happened leading up to and including Jan. 6 is to tell the story whole. It is a story that begins not with the marauders who overwhelmed law enforcement officials at the Capitol. It begins long before and with Donald Trump. If it were not for him and what he did to try to subvert the election, it is doubtful the Capitol would have needed defending on Jan. 6.

The Washington Post

US consultants lined up to run fund that owns Israeli spyware company NSO

Investors in talks to transfer management of Novalpina Capital to Berkeley Research Group, following long-running dispute

NSO Group has been at the centre of a massive surveillance scandal following the publication of the Pegasus project. 

Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters


Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
THE GUARDIAN
Sat 31 Jul 2021

Public investors in the private equity firm that owns a majority stake in the Israeli spyware company NSO Group are in talks to transfer management of that fund to Berkeley Research Group, a US consulting firm.

US voices concern with Israeli officials about Pegasus revelations

A person familiar with the matter told the Guardian the talks, which are at an early stage, followed an internal dispute between the co-founders of Novalpina Capital, whose fund took over NSO Group in 2019.

NSO Group has been at the centre of a massive surveillance scandal following the publication of the Pegasus project, an investigation into NSO by 17 media organisations. At the heart of the investigation was a leak of tens of thousands of phone numbers of individuals – including journalists, activists, lawyers, and heads of state – who are believed to have been listed as people of interest for possible surveillance by NSO’s government clients.

The publication of the investigation by the Guardian and other media organisations came as the three co-founders of Novalpina were already embroiled in a long-running dispute over the future of the fund.

This week, Sky News and the Financial Times reported that Novalpina was stripped of control of its own fund as a result of the internal dispute, leading the fund’s outside investors to seize control.

The intervention left ownership of NSO and an Estonian gambling company called Olympic Entertainment Group, as well as other assets, hanging in the balance.

The FT reported that the fund’s outside investors, including public pension funds in the US and UK, had until 6 August to decide whether to liquidate the fund with a fire sale of assets or appoint a third party to take control of it.

A person close to the matter told the Guardian the fund’s largest investor, the Oregon public pension fund, was leading a push to transfer the management of the Novalpina fund to US-based BRG.

Novalpina declined to comment. NSO declined to comment. BRG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal has not yet been finalised. The Israeli government, which has close oversight over NSO and the export of its surveillance technology, would likely have a say over the transfer of management of the fund that owns NSO to another firm.

According to is website, BRG is a global consulting firm that “helps organisations advance in three key areas”: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and performance improvement.

If the deal proceeds, the California-based company would take over the fund that owns NSO at a difficult time for the Israeli company. The French government has called for an investigation into allegations that NSO clients listed key government officials, including most of Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet, as persons of interest. In the US, a senior Biden administration official involved in national security has also raised concerns about the Pegusus project revelations to an Israeli official.

The Pegasus project was organised by Forbidden Stories, a French media organisation.

Forensic analysis of dozens of phones by Amnesty International’s Security lab, a technical partner of the Pegasus project, found that many of the phones analysed and included on the leaked list had either been infected by NSO’s spyware, called Pegasus, or that there had been attempted infections.

When NSO’s Pegasus spyware infects a phone, government clients who use it can gain access to an individual’s phone conversations, messages, photos and location, as well as turn the phone into a portable listening device by manipulating its recorder.

The leak contains a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that are believed to have been identified as those of people of interest by NSO clients since 2016.

The appearance of a number on the leaked list does not mean it was subject to an attempted or successful hack. NSO said President Macron was not a “target” of any of its customers, meaning the company denies there was any attempted or successful Pegasus infection of his phone.

NSO has also said the data has “no relevance” to the company, and has rejected the reporting by the Pegasus project as “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”. It denied that the leaked data represented those targeted for surveillance by the Pegasus software. NSO has called the 50,000 number exaggerated and said it was too large to represent individuals targeted by Pegasus.


Additional reporting by Audrey Travère at Forbidden Stories

New Zealand government introduces bill prohibiting LGBTQ conversion therapy

Kashish Khandelwal | National Law U. Delhi, IN

JULY 31, 2021 

The New Zealand government introduced a bill in the country’s parliament Friday that criminalizes conversion practices targeted at LGBTQ+ people to deter the performance of such practices.

The bill defines conversion practice as any action taken against a person because of that person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, with the intention of changing or suppressing that person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Further, the bill excludes from the scope of conversion practices health services provided by health practitioners, along with people offering legitimate counseling, support, and advice. The bill also exempts the general expression of religious beliefs on sexuality and gender from the definition.

Introducing the bill, Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi said, “conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand. They are based on the false belief that any person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is broken and in need of fixing.” He further added, “delivering on our 2020 election manifesto to prohibit conversion practices,” the bill will offer an avenue to redress the harm caused by conversion practices and safeguard all New Zealander’s human rights to live free of discrimination.

The bill makes it illegal for anybody to undertake conversion practice on a person under the age of 18 or on any person who lacks the mental ability to grasp the nature and implications of decisions affecting their health. Any contravention of this provision entails a penalty of imprisonment not exceeding 3 years. Furthermore, the bill stipulates that any conversion practice that causes “serious harm” to a person would be punishable by up to 5 years of imprisonment. In any case, consent of the person undergoing such practices is not a defense.

Moreover, the bill also creates a civil avenue of remedy for survivors of conversion practices by authorizing the Human Rights Commission to receive complaints.

This move comes just months after the New Zealand government announced in February 2021 that it will pass a law prohibiting conversion practices. In June, Canada’s House of Commons also approved a bill criminalizing LGBTQ+ conversion practices.

Congress Tried To Force Trump to End the Yemen War. Now They’ll Have To Do the Same With Biden.

Activists say it’s not enough to trust Biden’s promises to end U.S. support for the war: Congress must compel him.

SARAH LAZARE JULY 28, 2021

IN THESE TIMES

DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

“Yemen is in a catastrophic state,” says Kawthar Abdullah, an organizer with the Yemeni Alliance Committee. ​“I have family there. Every day when I call and talk to them, the reality on the ground is far worse than it is ever portrayed.”

Abdullah, who is based in New York, is part of a network of grassroots organizers across the country calling on Congress to force an end to U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war, using the same War Powers Resolution vetoed by former President Trump in 2019. These organizers are asking lawmakers to go head to head with the Biden administration, which announced in February it was halting U.S. support for ​“offensive operations” but, nearly six months later, has failed to fully extricate itself from the military intervention.

As ongoing Saudi-led airstrikes collide with a worsening Covid-19 crisis, organizers like Abdullah are rallying in the streets and marching to lawmakers’ offices, demanding they use their power to stop all U.S. participation in the violence, as well as the Saudi-led naval blockade that is choking off fuel supplies, spiking food costs, and contributing to power outages at hospitals. Some activists have even gone on hunger strike to demand material relief from what is widely considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“It’s imperative that a War Powers Resolution is introduced and passed under a Biden administration,” says Abdullah. ​“So many lives are at stake here.”

Organizers are up against an administration that has not been forthcoming about what it’s doing on the ground. The Biden administration’s February announcement was met with much fanfare. But public details on what constituted ​“offensive operations,” and what exactly an end to the U.S. role would look like, were vague from the outset. The Biden administration has since avoided providing details about what American withdrawal looks like.

There are signs that the United States remains enmeshed in that war. In June, Elias Yousif of the Center for International Policy published a briefing which found that the United States has stopped providing some forms of assistance: mid-air refueling of aircraft, intelligence and surveillance used to identify bomb targets, and arms transfers for fixed-wing aircraft used to carry out bombings. But other forms of assistance continue.

“The U.S. continues to provide maintenance and sustainment assistance to the Royal Saudi Air Forces (RSAF),” notes Yousif, ​“a function that is essential to keeping Saudi aircraft flying.” Meanwhile, the United States has not put a stop to other arms transfers. ​“This could include munitions used by attack helicopters, artillery, and armored vehicles,” notes Yousif. The United States is also providing ships and training to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, which is leading the blockade of Yemen, although the role of the United States in enforcing this blockade is unclear.

On July 16, a coordinated day of action saw protests in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. calling for a new aggressive effort to end the war. Activists hand-delivered letters to members of Congress who are in positions of power, or have historically led on efforts to end the war, among them Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑Mass.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D‑N.Y.), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

These activists say that, with Democrats in control of the House, Senate and White House, there is no reason this war should continue a moment longer. ​“If Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress wanted to end this war, they could do it today,” Paul Shannon, founder of the Raytheon Antiwar Campaign, said in a press statement.

Since Biden made the announcement in February, some members of Congress have spoken out. Later the same month, 41 members of Congress called for transparency on U.S. involvement in the war. In April, 76 members of Congress released a letter calling on the Biden administration to demand an end to the blockade. And in May, 16 members of Congress signed another letter, led by Sen. Warren, calling on the Biden administration to ​“use all tools to end Saudi Coalition’s blockade of Yemen.”

But activists say they don’t want members of Congress to merely ask: They want them to legislate, like they did under President Trump. During Trump’s tenure, members of Congress led multiple efforts to invoke the 1973 War Powers Act — passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam war — to force an end to the U.S. role in the Yemen war. The Act says that Congress can compel a president to withdraw from a conflict if Congress has not formally declared or authorized the war (which the United States did not in Yemen’s case).

“U.S. involvement in this war was illegal when it began under the Obama administration, illegal when it continued through Trump’s presidency, and illegal now during Biden’s presidency,” Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni-American organizer and a board member of advocacy organization Just Foreign Policy, tells In These Times. Democrats should not rely on ​“Biden’s promises to end this illegal and inhumane war,” she argues. (Disclosure: Al-Adeimi is a contributor to In These Times.)

The leaders of the Trump-era War Powers Resolution — Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Ro Khanna — have so far declined to take similar action under Biden. But there are indicators the leadership could come from elsewhere.

On a July 27 call with the anti-war organization CODEPINK, Rep. ​​Pramila Jayapal (D‑Wash.) mentioned a possible threat of a Yemen War Powers Resolution in the context of a previous Congressional Progressive Caucus fight to structure the rules at the beginning of the new Congress. ​“If the administration were not to do what we think is necessary to stop the blockade in Yemen, as an example, we would then be able to bring up a privileged War Powers Resolution for a vote,” said Jayapal, who is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The remarks followed a classified briefing earlier on July 27 attended by several members of the CPC and Sen. Warren. Among them was Rep. Ilhan Omar (D‑Minn.), who took to Twitter to speak out against the Saudi-led blockade.

Activists, some of whom are watching their family and loved ones back in Yemen suffer under harrowing conditions, want lawmakers to take action soon — and aggressively. This means mustering the political will to confront a Democratic administration. Abdullah argues that the suffering of Yemenis should not only be invoked when it’s politically expedient: ​“We can’t just be tokenized depending on the political weather at the moment.”

Some are eyeing other legislative avenues, including an amendment to the Appropriations Act, introduced by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D‑Mich.), that would prohibit U.S. support for the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen, and an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, cutting off supplies to the Saudi-led coalition.

Hassan El-Tayyab, lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, told In These Times that any measure to curb U.S. involvement in the Yemen War is a step forward. ​“Congress needs to step in and take legislative action. They have a number of tools they can use to cut off ongoing U.S. complicity, including in a must-pass NDAA, appropriations bill, and even a new War Powers Resolution,” he said. ​“They should consider all options when trying to end U.S. complicity.”

Numerous activists told In These Times that, of all the tools lawmakers could wield, a War Powers Resolution would be most impactful by far. ​“The blockade, which seems to be contingent on continued U.S. support, is the biggest driver of the calamity in Yemen — which was the broadest humanitarian crisis prior to Covid, and which has of course been exacerbated by the pandemic,” David Segal, executive director of the online advocacy organization Demand Progress, tells In These Times.

“War Powers Resolutions remain the most potent tool for forcing the administration to address this,” he adds, ​“because from a procedural vantage the process of securing a vote floor vote is easier than with other vehicles, and WPRs can’t be filibustered in the Senate.”

Al-Adeimi agrees. ​“Measures in the NDAA are not sufficient to protect Yemenis from U.S. attacks. If these measures go through, they will likely only last for one year. It’s also arguably unethical to advocate for measures in an inflated war budget that should be drastically cut, not supported. The WPR, on the other hand, can be invoked any time by any member of Congress, brought to debate without delays, and once it’s made into federal law, cannot easily be revoked by subsequent executive powers by this administration and beyond. Given Biden’s public statements about ending U.S. support for the war, he will also not likely veto it should it pass through Congress.”

In the meantime, says Abdullah, ​“the blockade is affecting every other aspect of life. There is a fuel shortage, no fuel for hospitals, lack of access to water.”

“It is very, very important,” she adds, ​“for a War Powers Resolution to be introduced and passed under the Biden administration, under a Democratic administration.”

Myanmar junta accused of crimes against humanity six months on from coup


Human Rights Watch says army’s suppression of protests has included torture and murder, as small protests mark milestone

Protesters burn Myanmar flags during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on 29 July. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Reuters
Sat 31 Jul 2021 

Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar’s military junta of crimes against humanity as small groups of protesters marked six months since the armed forces seized power.

Bands of university students rode motorbikes around the country’s second-largest city Mandalay on Saturday waving red and green flags, saying they rejected any possibility of talks with the military to negotiate a return to civilian rule.

“There’s no negotiating in a blood feud,” read one sign.

Myanmar’s army seized power on 1 February from the civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.


Myanmar junta frees more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the armed forces’ violent suppression of protests against the coup and arrests of opponents included torture, murder and other acts that violate international humanitarian conventions.

“These attacks on the population amount to crimes against humanity for which those responsible should be brought to account,” Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said.

The spokesman for the military authorities, Zaw Min Tun, could not be reached on Saturday to respond to the Human Rights Watch allegations.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says at least 6,990 people have been arrested since the coup. The group says the armed forces have killed 939 people, a number the military says is exaggerated.

The army has branded its opponents terrorists and says its takeover was in line with the constitution.

Myanmar junta accused of ‘weaponizing’ COVID-19 by withholding vaccines, oxygen and attacking doctors

DAVID RISING
BANGKOK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Buddhist monk wearing a face mask holds an oxygen tank for refill outside the Naing oxygen factory at the South Dagon industrial zone in Yangon, Myanmar, on July 28.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

With coronavirus deaths rising in Myanmar, allegations are growing from residents and human rights activists that the military government, which seized control in February, is using the pandemic to consolidate power and crush opposition.

In the past week, the per capita death rate in Myanmar surpassed those of Indonesia and Malaysia to become the worst in Southeast Asia. The country’s crippled health care system has rapidly become overwhelmed with new patients sick with COVID-19.

Supplies of medical oxygen are running low, and the government has restricted its private sale in many places, saying it is trying to prevent hoarding. But that has led to widespread allegations that the stocks are being directed to government supporters and military-run hospitals.

At the same time, medical workers have been targeted after spearheading a civil disobedience movement that urged professionals and civil servants not to co-operate with the government, known as the State Administrative Council.

“They have stopped distributing personal protection equipment and masks, and they will not let civilians who they suspect are supporting the democracy movement be treated in hospitals, and they’re arresting doctors who support the civil disobedience movement,” said Yanghee Lee, the UN’s former Myanmar human rights expert and a founding member of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar.

“With the oxygen, they have banned sales to civilians or people who are not supported by the SAC, so they’re using something that can save the people against the people,” she said. “The military is weaponizing COVID-19.”

Myanmar’s Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun did not respond to questions about the allegations, but with growing internal and external pressure to get the pandemic under control, the leadership has been on a public relations offensive.

In the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper this week, several articles highlighted the government’s efforts, including what it called a push to resume vaccinations and increase oxygen supplies.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the military commander who heads the SAC, was cited as saying that efforts were also being made to seek support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and unspecified “friendly countries.”

“Efforts must be made for ensuring better health of the state and the people,” he was quoted as saying.

Myanmar reported another 342 deaths Thursday, and 5,234 new infections. Its seven-day rolling average of deaths per 1 million people rose to 6.29 – more than double the rate of 3.04 in India at the peak of its crisis in May. The figures in Myanmar are thought to be a drastic undercount due to lack of testing and reporting.

“There is a big difference between the actual death toll from COVID-19 of the military council and reality,” a physician from the Mawlamyine General Hospital in Myanmar’s fourth-largest city told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. “There are a lot of people in the community who have died of the disease and cannot be counted.”

Videos proliferate on social media showing apparent virus victims dead in their homes for lack of treatment and long lines of people waiting for what oxygen supplies are still available. The government denies reports that cemeteries in Yangon have been overwhelmed but announced Tuesday they were building new facilities that could cremate up to 3,000 bodies per day.

“By letting COVID-19 run out of control, the military junta is failing the Burmese people as well as the wider region and world, which can be threatened by new variants fuelled by unchecked spread of the disease in places like Myanmar,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “The problem is the junta cares more about holding on to power than stopping the pandemic.”

Myanmar is one of the region’s poorest countries and already was in a vulnerable position when the military seized power, triggering a violent political struggle.

Under the civilian former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar had weathered a coronavirus surge last year by severely restricting travel and sealing off Yangon. Vaccines were secured from India and China, but Suu Kyi’s government was ousted less than a week after the first shots were given.

As civil disobedience grew after Suu Kyi’s removal, public hospitals were basically closed as doctors and other staff refused to work under the new administration, instead running makeshift clinics for which they faced arrest, if caught.

Some have returned to public hospitals, but the Mawlamyine doctor interviewed by AP said it was too dangerous.

“I could be arrested by the junta any time if I returned to the hospital,” added the doctor, who was part of the disobedience movement and has been treating patients with supplies he has scrounged.

According to Tom Andrews, the UN Human Rights Council’s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, government forces have engaged in at least 260 attacks on medical personnel and facilities, killing 18. At least 67 health care professionals had been detained and another 600 are being sought.

Military hospitals kept operating after Suu Kyi’s ouster but were shunned by many people and the vaccination program slowed to a crawl before apparently fizzling out completely until this past week. There are no solid figures on vaccinations, but it’s believed that about 3 per cent of the population could have received two shots.

The rapid rise in COVID-19 illnesses is “extremely concerning, particularly with limited availability of health services and oxygen supplies,” said Joy Singhal, head of the Red Cross’ Myanmar delegation.

“There is an urgent need for greater testing, contact tracing and COVID-19 vaccinations to help curb the pandemic,” he told AP. “This latest surge is a bitter blow to millions of people in Myanmar already coping with worsening economic and social hardships.”

Earlier this week, Mr. Andrews urged the UN Security Council and member states to push for a “COVID-19 ceasefire.”

“The United Nations cannot afford to be complacent while the junta ruthlessly attacks medical personnel as COVID-19 spreads unchecked,” he said. “They must act to end this violence so that doctors and nurses can provide lifesaving care and international organizations can help deliver vaccinations and related medical care.”

After a long lull in humanitarian aid, China recently began delivering vaccines. It sent 736,000 doses to Yangon this month, the first of two million being donated, and reportedly more than 10,000 to the Kachin Independence Army, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in a northern border area where the virus has spilled over into China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declined to comment directly earlier this week on the report of the delivery to the KIA, noting instead “the epidemic is a common enemy to all mankind.”

The Global New Light reported Myanmar received another one million doses purchased from China.

COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported as widespread in Myanmar’s prisons. On Wednesday, state-run MRTV television showed what it said were 610 prisoners from Yangon’s Insein Prison being vaccinated. The report was met with skepticism and derision on social media.

Ms. Lee said if the government is trying to use vaccines and other aid to its advantage by positioning itself as the solution to the pandemic, it’s too late.

“The people know now and it’s been too long,” she said. “COVID-19 was not man-made but it got out of proportion because of complicity and deliberate blockage of services – there’s no going back.”

 

Mexican Journalist Ricardo Lopez Murdered in Sonora

 July 30, 2021

Ricardo Dominguez Lopez

HAVANA TIMES – The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Mexican authorities to immediately and credibly investigate the killing of reporter Ricardo Domínguez López, who went professionally by Ricardo López.

López, the founder and editor of news website InfoGuaymas, was shot and killed in the late afternoon on July 22, his 47th birthday, by an unknown assailant using a .38 caliber handgun in a parking lot of a convenience store in the city of Guaymas, in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, according to news reports and the Sonora state prosecutor (FGJE), who spoke to regional newspaper El Imparcial.

In a statement on FGJE’s Facebook page, state prosecutor Claudia Indira Contreras said that her office is investigating whether López was targeted because of his work as a journalist.

“The brazen and brutal killing of Mexican journalist Ricardo López, in broad daylight on his birthday, cements Sonora’s woeful status as one of the most violent states for reporters in a country where impunity in crimes against the press reigns supreme,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “Unless state and federal authorities become serious about protecting reporters and pursuing their killers, these attacks will continue at an alarming pace.”

On March 29, López told reporters in a press conference, a video of which was published on the Facebook page of Sonora outlet Agencia ICE Cazando la noticia, that he had received death threats from criminal gangs over his reporting, but did not say which publications may have provoked the threats. He also said he was subject to a smear campaign when local police in Guaymas used a Facebook page to falsely accuse him of having ties to organized crime.

CPJ was unable to locate the Facebook page López referred to in the news conference, but two reporters based in the region who knew López personally and asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns confirmed the existence of the page via phone. They also told CPJ that journalists in the region, especially those who cover crime and security, are often subject to threats and violence by criminal gangs.

CPJ called the Guaymas local police several times but no one picked up the phone.

CPJ was unable to determine whether López’s killing was related to the threats he described in the press conference or what, if any, of his works of journalism may have drawn the attention of his killers. InfoGuaymas, a news website with a Facebook page counting more than 300,000 followers, covers a broad range of topics including municipal, state, national, and international news as well as crime and security. According to CPJ’s review of the website, the majority of the articles have no byline; the most recent article carrying López’s name was published on July 17 and covered the regional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, he covered a deadly shootout in Guaymas in a video posted on InfoGuaymas’ Facebook page.

Before founding the website, he contributed reporting to television broadcaster Televisa Sonora, radio station Grupo Larsa, and newspaper Diario Yaqui, according to news reports. At the time of his death he was president of the local Association of Independent Journalists in Guaymas and Empalme, the reports said.

CPJ sent several messages to InfoGuaymas’ editorial staff via messaging app and email, but did not receive any replies.

An official of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which operates under the auspices of the federal interior secretariat and provides government-sanctioned protection to journalists at risk of violence, did not answer several telephone calls by CPJ to determine whether the agency was aware of threats against López’s life and whether he was enrolled in a government protection program. CPJ called FGJE several times but no one picked up. 

CPJ has documented several recent violent incidents against journalists in Sonora. Last year, at least two reporters, Jorge Armenta and Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas, were killed in the municipality of Cajeme, while unknown attackers firebombed the car of another reporter, Marco Antonio Duarte Vargas, in Ciudad Obregón. On March 17, journalist Jorge Molontzín disappeared in Santa Ana, a town in Sonora near the border with the United States. According to CPJ research, Mexico is the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists.

According to news reports, the number of murders in Sonora has soared in recent years, especially in the region bordering the United States in the north and the coastal region south of the state capital of Hermosillo, where the municipalities of Guaymas, Empalme, and Cajeme are located, due to territorial disputes involving criminal gangs.

Read more news here on Havana Times.