US, Turkish Officials Suspect ‘Plot’ That Led to Trump Plane Switch Was Israeli Ruse

A former top US intelligence official said the reliance on apparently faulty Israeli intelligence was “a great example of how we got into the war with Iran.”


President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference during the 2026 NATO Ankara Summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 2026.
(Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

US and Turkish officials are reportedly suspicious that the supposed Iranian assassination plot that led President Donald Trump to make an elaborate escape from Ankara using a catering truck last month may have been a fabrication by Israeli intelligence.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Trump had to be secreted onto a nondescript plane to leave a NATO summit on July 8 after Israel passed an intelligence report to the CIA warning that Iran had planned to launch a missile at Air Force One. But new reporting indicates that neither Turkish nor American officials found the evidence all that compelling.

The alleged threat came at a highly volatile time, as the “memorandum of understanding” between the US and Iran to end nearly five months of war was on the verge of collapse, in part thanks to Israel’s attempts to undermine it.

As Middle East Eye reported on Tuesday, Turkish officials suggested that the intelligence report was “probably a ruse by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government to portray itself as protecting Trump, derail negotiations with Iran, and undermine Trump’s apparently close relationship with [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan].”



Turkey tightened security after US officials informed it of the plot. But after examining the details of the scheme—which purportedly involved using shoulder-fired missiles to attack Trump’s plane within a kilometer of the runway—they said they found the intelligence report highly implausible.

“Of course, we took the report very seriously and tried to assist our American counterparts as much as possible,” one person familiar with the matter said. “Yet it was very clear to us that there was no way this report was true.”

It turns out that it wasn’t just Turkish officials who felt this way. The Washington Post on Wednesday cited a senior US official who said that the CIA analysts who’d received the report from Israel “did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials.”

Another official said the report was “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence.” The Secret Service acted on the report anyway out of an abundance of caution.

Nevertheless, the Post indicated that there was a striking amount of doubt among US intelligence officials about the motives of one of the country’s top allies, whom they suggest passed the information along to nudge Washington toward Israel’s own foreign policy objectives:
Some US intelligence officials saw Israel’s sharing of the warning about threats to Trump’s life as designed less to inform than to influence the president’s decision-making and US policy in the region, a current and a former US official said. Israel views Iran as by far its most urgent near-term threat.

But it views Turkey as a medium- to long-term threat and is anxious about warming ties between Washington and Ankara, bolstered by the personal rapport between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current official said.

It “fit a broader pattern of Israeli intelligence reporting that some officials see as designed as much to shape presidential decision-making as to inform it,” the former official familiar with the matter said.

Iranian leaders have denied any attempt to assassinate Trump. As they try to push him to admit defeat in the war the US and Israel started in February and accept a series of harsh surrender terms, they are having a laugh at his reaction to what they say was a fabricated plot.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, portrayed it as part of a larger pattern of the US having been misled by faulty Israeli intelligence.

Netanyahu was notably one of the driving forces behind Trump’s mistaken belief that an operation to topple the Iranian government would be quick and painless.

“The US has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures,” Araghchi wrote Thursday on social media. “Case in point: The war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Worse than fake news is fake intelligence,” he said. “Be careful.”

Joe Kent, the former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in March after accusing Trump of being manipulated into starting the war by false reports that Iran posed an imminent threat, said that “the story of Trump secretly switching airplanes is actually a great example of how we got into the war with Iran... ‘Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence’ by our own intelligence agencies.”

“It’s smart to take all threats seriously,” Kent said. “But if you’re basing a decision about going to war on information from a liaison intel service or an ‘ally,’ it’s important to remember they are most certainly providing that information to influence us as well as inform us.”

‘Menace to the World’: With Iran Talks Stalled, Trump Vows to Declare Strait of Hormuz a US Territory

“He absolutely needs to be impeached, removed, and locked up,” said one progressive critic, calling the president “a completely unhinged lunatic.”

President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, on July 27, 2026.
(Photo by Daniel Torok/White House/flickr)

Jessica Corbett
Aug 14, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

In yet another remark that triggered alarm around the world, President Donald Trump said Friday that he planned to declare the Strait of Hormuz—which Iran has blockaded for much of the past five months over his and Israel’s illegal war—a US territory.

Just two days after the latest inflation figures demonstrated, in the words of one expert, “Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement of our economy,” the president ignored the economic fallout from his war, which led Iran to restrict ship traffic through the strait, driving up fuel prices worldwide.

“We’re bringing the prices way down,” he told a Long Island crowd. Trump also said that “after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

Some critics responded to clips of the comments on X by mocking Trump—an infamous liar. Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) quipped, “Awesome! And the Easter Bunny is real.”

Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, said that “this jingoism rings a bit hollow when most of the US bases near the strait have been essentially abandoned due to danger from Iranian missiles and drones.”

Progressive political commentator Kyle Kulinski declared that “he absolutely needs to be impeached, removed, and locked up. He’s a completely unhinged lunatic, and he’s a sadistic violent menace to the world.”

After high initial claims about lower prices, Trump admitted that gasoline has soared due to his war, but said: “For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember, you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have a—a country, really it’s the No. 1 state sponsor of terror in the world—we don’t want to have them have a nuclear weapon. So, remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4, it’s OK. I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing.”



Trump’s threat over the strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman came just before a monthlong ceasefire between the US and Iran is set to expire on Monday. A senior White House official told Politico that the situation is “static.”

“It doesn’t matter how close or how far we are,” said the official, who has heard no mention of a potential extension of the ceasefire. “What matters is if Iran wants to come to the table and agree to a deal. Right now, they haven’t done that.”

The Associated Press reported Friday that “the Trump administration appears to be reaching out to a broader swath of countries that might be able to help pressure Tehran,” and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told the outlet that “everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken.”

In addition to launching an illegal war on Iran in February, and invading Venezuela in January to abduct its president, Trump has made threats against various other nations during his second term, including Canada, Cuba, Colombia, Greenland, and Mexico. He’s also threatened to seize the Panama Canal and killed hundreds of people by blowing up boats allegedly smuggling drugs.


This article has been updated with additional comment from President Donald Trump and Public Citizen.

Trump's new 'highly unusual' demands add strain to Navy already 'under the gun': report

Bennito L. Kelty
August 14, 2026

RAW STORY


A U.S. sailor, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 14, conducts maintenance on an MH-60S Sea Hawk in the hangar bay of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during the ongoing conflict with Iran August 9, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS 

President Donald Trump is making matters worse for already embattled Navy sailors with his latest demand for steam catapults, per Politico.

According to reporting on Friday, Trump's costly order for aircraft carriers to ditch their electromagnetic catapults for steam-powered systems is "compounding" pressures as the Navy deals with poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

"The Navy is really coming under the gun now," a U.S. official told Politico. "We have ships pushing their limits in the Middle East and the Caribbean with no end in sight."

On Friday, Trump brushed off concerns from sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where sailors have reportedly been jumping overboard and attempting suicide. He said that their nine-month deployment has been "not nearly long enough." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly downplayed the concerns, saying, "Some deployments are longer than others."

Trump and Hegseth "both owe these sailors and their families an apology," Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), the Senate Democrats' top defense appropriator, told Politico. "If they can't take care of the troops under their watch, they should step aside for leaders who can."

Trump's demand to switch the catapult systems on future aircraft carriers to steam threatens to put the Navy under more financial and logistical strain, as a government report estimated that the new battleships are already expected to cost billions more than anticipated, Politico reported.

The modifications ordered by Trump are "highly unusual and disruptive for the Navy," Todd Harrison, an Air Force veteran and longtime defense budget analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Politico. "Especially since these are changes the Navy did not request."

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said on Friday that the USS Abraham Lincoln would return to port, but he agreed, "There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits," adding, "But they have never broken."

'Oh my God!' Wife of USS Lincoln sailor 'infuriated' after Trump accused families of lying

Nicole Charky-Chami
August 14, 2026 
RAW STORY



CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with the wife of a U.S. service member on the USS Lincoln after President Donald Trump dismissed concerns from military family members receiving information about poor conditions on the ship. (CNN/Screenshot)

A U.S. service member's wife had a blunt response on Friday for President Donald Trump after he dismissed reports of poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, even as families expressed serious concerns about their loved ones.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with the unnamed woman, who shared that she could not identify herself over concerns for her husband's safety and career. Tapper asked what her reaction was to Trump's remarks after the president said he did not think the deployment was "long enough." Nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines have been deployed on the warship for nine months in the Arabian Sea during the Iran war.

"Oh my God! I don't think the man thinks before he talks," she said. "I was really hoping that at some point there would be a redemption. Try to redeem yourself at least a little bit with everything that you do and everything that you say. Have some empathy. Take some accountability for what's going on with your military, your ships, and your war. It's infuriating."

She slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump for their comments dismissing the reports of deteriorating conditions and low morale among the troops.

"What the president is saying today, essentially saying that families are lying and service members are lying, even though the proof is right here on my phone, it is not fabricated," she said. "Nobody is lying."

She criticized the Trump administration for not showing sympathy for service members "that they claim to scream and shout that they support when it's politically sound for them to use, 'support our troops, support our troops' until our troops need support. And now suddenly everyone's lying. And it's a fabrication and it's a misrepresentation."

"I would so badly love to plaster my face and blow the whistle so loud on social media with my name and be like, 'this is real. We are real people. Those are real people on that ship. This is actually happening.' But unfortunately, I have to protect my husband's career."

'Heartbroken' military families beg for help over 'miserable' new warship revelations

Nicole Charky-Chami
August 14, 2026

RAW STORY


A U.S. sailor, assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 133, scrubs an EA-18G Growler on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during the ongoing conflict with Iran August 9, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS

As concerns mounted Friday over poor conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, families of military service members on another Navy ship were pleading for help

A new report from independent journalist Aaron Parnas detailed the troubling conditions and declining morale shared by sailors' families, including how service members on the USS George H.W. Bush were facing "virtually no food, water, or soap," The Daily Beast reported.

A loved one of two U.S. sailors told Parnas via text how the situation was worsening for sailors on the warship in the Arabian Sea as the Iran war now drags on for more than five months.

"They've been out at sea for 146 days with no end in sight," the unnamed family member said. They learned about the conditions when her sister-in-law left the ship for a family emergency. "Morale is low, and everyone is miserable. It's heartbreaking."

The USS Bush left Norfolk, Virginia, in March, The Beast reported.

The reports onboard follow growing frustration about the USS Abraham Lincoln's roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines, who are nine months into a deployment that was supposed to end in May, with no return date announced.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed back on the accounts, telling reporters Thursday that the conditions had been "completely misrepresented," though he did not specify his concerns with the reporting. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who pressed Hegseth for answers, rejected that characterization as disrespectful to the sailors enduring the hardships.

The Navy has acknowledged the war disrupted supply routes but said the Lincoln now has access to clean water and healthy meals. The carrier USS George Washington is being sent to relieve the ship, which has been at sea more than 240 days with only two port calls.

CNN flags White House's 'remarkable' reaction to Trump's dismissal of suffering sailors

Bennito L. Kelty
August 14, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump holds a printed-out article as he speaks to the members of the media after disembarking Marine One, before boarding Air Force One, en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 14, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

The White House had a "remarkable" response to President Donald Trump's response to sailors suffering on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have been suffering from an ongoing nine-month deployment, which has led to a lack of food and depleted morale. Six sailors are reported to have attempted suicide, and others have jumped ship. Family members of the deployed sailors have attested to the poor conditions, with one slamming Trump.

When Trump was asked whether the deployment of the aircraft carrier had gone on too long, he responded, "No, no, no, not nearly long enough."

God's money': White House enrages with vow that public cash belongs to evangelicals

On Friday, CNN White House correspondent Kevin Liptak said White House staff offered no clarification on the comments.

"When I went to the White House today to ask if they had any context or wanted to clarify any of the president's comments, they said that they were just going to point back to what the president said, which is really kind of remarkable," Liptak said. "When you talk to people in the military, there is a degree of stunned when you hear what the president said."


Liptak noted Trump's reaction to the question. He seemed "visibly irritated" about being asked about the USS Abraham Lincoln. "He kind of snapped after that first answer," Liptak said. "He sort of abruptly turned and walked away, which is not his norm when he's speaking on the tarmac."


The USS Abraham Lincoln was deployed ahead of the conflict in Iran. According to Liptak, the attention around the conditions "underscores what is the concern that you hear consistently among American officials, which is just how long this war has gone on."

He added, "These lengthy deployments only remind the American public that the president's initial six weeks was absolutely wrong," and noted, "You also hear concerns about the munitions stockpile and the worry that you hear from military officials is that the longer these deployments go on."

'Sick': Firestorm as 'Cadet Bone Spurs' dismisses disgruntled military families

Nicole Charky-Chami
August 14, 2026 
RAW STORY


President Donald Trump, flanked by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to the members of the media, after disembarking Marine One, before boarding Air Force One, en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 14, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

People were outraged on Friday after President Donald Trump downplayed the reportedly poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where service members have described a dire situation.

Trump was boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland heading to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York when the press corps started asking him questions about the naval vessel and sailors on board.

"Family members of service members are concerned about conditions on the USS Lincoln," one reporter said

"That ship is moving. No, they’re not," Trump responded, saying that the ship would be replaced with another ship.

"Has the deployment gone on too long?" The reporter asked.

"No, no, no. Not nearly long enough," Trump said, not acknowledging military family members' worries.

Political commentators and media experts reacted to the president's remarks.

Internet personality and Chronicles associate editor Pedro L. Gonzalez reacted to Trump's response.

"Trump doesn't care about American troops at all," Gonzalez wrote on X. "He thinks people who serve in the military are suckers. He thinks people who fight and die for this country are fools. I don't know how you can hear Trump explicitly state that he's unconcerned about these service members and their families, that he thinks they haven't been deployed *long enough* in his idiotic war, and still conclude that he's deeply concerned about American lives."

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), an Iraq war veteran, had a sharp reaction to Trump's comments.

"Cadet Bone Spurs thinks he understands what happens on deployments," Gallego wrote on X.

Progressive activist Alex Cole mocked Trump.

"Trump: We love our military. Military: We have concerns. Trump: No you don’t," Cole wrote on X.

U.S. Army veteran and activist Skyleigh Uhrich had a direct message for families of military service members.

"Attention Military & Military Families: Trump said 200 days of deployment at sea with no port of call is not along [sic] enough! All of you need to vote accordingly in November, all of your family members are being used as pawns in his sick game! He wouldn’t last 24 hrs pathetic mf!" Uhrich wrote on X.

Liberal commentator Lucas Sanders responded to the president.

"Translation: I don’t care about their conditions," Sanders wrote on X.

US Military Morale in the Middle East Is in the Overflowing Toilet

Rotten food, no room in the incoming missile shelters, confiscation of alert notification devices for incoming missiles (cellphones), infrequent mail, jumping off aircraft carriers, overflowing toilets... military families speak out for their loved ones, again and again.



In this handout released by the US Navy, aircraft are staged for flight operations on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 2, 2026 at sea.
(Photo by US Navy via Getty Images)

Ann Wright
Aug 14, 2026

Common Dreams


Rotten food, overflowing toilets into bunking areas, no room in the incoming missile shelters, confiscated cellphones that are the notification devices for incoming missiles, infrequent mail, social media closed down, were some of the issues that military families identified at the national conference of Veterans For Peace.

Spouses and parents of Air Force, Army, Marine, and Navy members told of plummeting morale, lack of basic supplies, and attacks on US military bases that are not reported in the US media

The frustration of the military families at the VFP conference echoed the descriptions of life on US military bases in the Middle East under attack by the Iranian response to the brutal US-Israeli five-month attack on Iran made by military families who met with the acting assistant secretary of the Navy and the commander of the US Pacific Fleet in San Diego on August 6, 2026.
Big Problems on Long Deployments for US Naval Vessels, Ships’ Infrastructure, and Sailors’ Physical and Mental Health

On August 6, 2026, the Navy’s senior leadership held listening sessions with the families of aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln‘s sailors—one in-person session in San Diego, and a second online session later the same evening. Family members leaked recordings of those sessions that described conditions aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln: showers plagued with stubborn mildew, flagging morale, heavy fatigue, shortages of supplies and food, contaminated water supplies, and lost mail.

US troops suffered shrapnel wounds, broken bones, smoke inhalation, and other injuries. But one category appeared far more often than any other: head trauma.

Since departing from Naval Base San Diego on November 21, 2025, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its crew of 5,000 sailors and Marines has been deployed more than 250 days, with only a stop in Guam in December and a brief visit in Oman in June after 208 days at sea.

A second aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford had similar problems when it sailed from the Caribbean to the Middle East after being off Venezuela in the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in January 2026. During that deployment, the ship’s toilets kept failing, with sewage often overflowing and spilling onto the floor. Additionally, a fire broke out in the laundry room, causing enough damage that the Ford went into a port on the Greek island of Crete for repairs.

More than 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation, with one sailor medically evacuated from the carrier, after being injured in the damage control effort. Two others were treated for lacerations.

The smoke damage from the laundry room fire extended to the berthing. More than 100 bunks and personal gear were destroyed in the fire.

Articles in Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times detail at least six attempts by crew members to jump overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln, with interviews conducted with sailors and families of those on board who described the impacts of the lengthy deployment.
USS Abraham Lincoln Sailor’s Father Proposes ‘Parent Swap’ To Replace His Son

One parent was fed up with the conditions his son is living under. On August 13, Jefferson Kelley, the father of a USS Abraham Lincoln sailor wrote to his U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) asking Moreno to make an official inquiry to the US Navy to see if he could do a “parent swap” with his son, Jackson, 20, due to the terrible conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Kelley said he had not been asked by his son to make the swap, but he had read of the conditions on the aircraft carrier that included food rations, safety concerns, water contamination, and poor mental health, which has purportedly led to some sailors attempting to jump overboard during the 250 days at sea and felt that he as a parent should share the burden.

Kelley had not discussed his proposal with his son, before writing to the Senator, which may make his son’s remaining time on the aircraft carrier more difficult than it already is!
Army and Marine Ground Forces Under Missile Attacks

Families of US ground forces on the US military bases scattered all over the Middle East describe overcrowding to no room in shelters against incoming missiles and command’s confiscating of cellphones that are the notification devices for incoming missiles.

The US military says that Iran watches social media postings of attacks and to prevent such postings, cellphones may be taken away, but families respond that notification of incoming missile attacks is by cellphone.

According to the news outlet War Horse, the only public source for injuries during the US attack on Iran is the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which provides monthly totals for the War on Iran with limited demographic data.

More than 400 casualties (nonlethal) were recorded in the first month between February 28 and April 8 of the US attack on Iran, with Army personnel accounting for most of the casualties.

More than 270 of the roughly 400 casualties (nonlethal) were Army soldiers, and about one-third of those were reservists. Enlisted soldiers accounted for most Army casualties, including 57 sergeants and 53 specialists. But also wounded were 64 Army officers, including 20 captains, and 13 lieutenant colonels or colonels.

The Navy reported 64 casualties, none of whom were classified as seriously injured. The Air Force recorded 51 casualties, and the Marine Corps recorded 19. Unlike the Army, the other branches did not list the type or cause of injury.

US troops suffered shrapnel wounds, broken bones, smoke inhalation, and other injuries. But one category appeared far more often than any other: head trauma.
Hundreds of Troops Suffering From Head Trauma

A large portion of the wounded suffering from head trauma has led some military health experts to worry that traumatic brain injuries—caused by damage to the brain that can impact thinking, movement, and emotion—could become the signature injury of this war, as in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
18 US troops have been killed and 624 wounded Since February 28

The Pentagon has attempted to reduce the accounting on the number of US military killed or wounded in the war on Iran by separating those killed or wounded before the May 1 ceasefire and after. The total killed and wounded before and after the ceasefire are 18 US troops have been killed and 624 wounded since the US began its war against Iran on February 28.

Senate Armed Services Committee Finally Getting Involved

The US Congress is finally getting involved. On August 12, 2026, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the acting secretary of the Navy to express “serious concern” about the increasing length of deployments and demand answers about living conditions aboard the carrier.

“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns,” aboard the ship, he said in the letter, as well as “disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.”

Blumenthal’s letter ends with six questions for Hegseth and the Department of Defense to answer concerning conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln and a call to treatment servicewomen and men properly:
The men and women aboard the Lincoln have answered the call to serve their country. The Department owes them not only adequate supplies, maintenance, and support during this deployment, but a sustainable force-generation model that does not rely on repeatedly extending sailors and ships to meet persistent operational demands.

Our servicemembers deserve nothing less than the full support of their government—and the American people deserve a military strategy that is worthy of the sacrifices we ask them to make.


Update: This article has been edited to include a new section, “USS Abraham Lincoln Sailor’s Father Proposes ‘Parent Swap’ To Replace His Son.”


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Ann Wright
Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."
Full Bio >

ACLU Says New Flock Camera Guardrails Nothing But a ‘Thinly Veiled PR Attempt’

“Transforming an exceptionally dangerous mass surveillance system into one that is fully protective of civil rights and civil liberties is a difficult, if not impossible task.”


A Flock Safety automated license plate reader is seen in Aurora, Colorado on June 27, 2024.
(Photo by Tony Webster/flickr/cc)

Brett Wilkins
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAM


The ACLU on Thursday largely dismissed new privacy measures announced by surveillance tech company Flock Safety, arguing the changes do little to address mounting concerns about the company’s sprawling automated license plate reader network and abuses of its technology by law enforcement agencies and other malicious actors.

Flock on Thursday unveiled new guardrails for its law enforcement customers, including a reduction in default license plate data retention from 30 days to seven, mandatory auditing tools designed to flag suspicious searches, and requirements that officers associate searches with case numbers.

The ACLU said the changes “seem to be a thinly veiled PR attempt to counter communities’ genuine privacy concerns with its mass surveillance system with largely hollow security promises, rather than an earnest effort to address them.”

ACLU senior policy counsel Chad Marlow asserted that “transforming an exceptionally dangerous mass surveillance system into one that is fully protective of civil rights and civil liberties is a difficult, if not impossible task.”

“That is even more the case with a company like Flock, whose nearly $1 billion in venture capitalist funding has locked it into an operational model that seeks to trade our privacy for massive profits,” he continued. “Given that Flock’s latest announcement still appears more focused on addressing a PR problem than the significant privacy and other harms its products create, we will continue to analyze the company’s proposals fairly and honestly.”

Flock Safety’s new guardrails come amid growing nationwide backlash against automated license plate readers (ALPRs). As more and more instances of alleged police abuse emerge—including use of Flock cameras to stalk exes, track abortion patients, target undocumented immigrants, and spy on protesters—an increasing number of law enforcement agencies are canceling or not renewing contracts with the company.

“Abuse of Flock technology, at any level, is unacceptable,” Flock Safety said in its statement Thursday. “We have strengthened safeguards over the past nine years, from basic audit logs to proactive monitoring. Sixteen weeks ago, we introduced audit assistance, which detects abnormal activity and flags it for administrator review. In recent weeks, those reviews have been associated with arrests of several law enforcement officers who allegedly abused the system.”

“We will now require all law enforcement customers to adopt this feature by the end of this year,” the company continued. “In addition, we will institute proactive lockout. When a user’s activity meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior, Flock will automatically suspend access pending administrator review. The goal is to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread.”

“In July 2025, we introduced an optional case code requirement for searches,” Flock noted. “Results from participating agencies have been promising, so we will now require case codes for all law enforcement searches by the end of the year. Agencies may bypass the requirement in emergencies, but every exigent search will be flagged for administrator review.”

“We are not perfect,” the firm added, “so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together.”

However, the ACLU analyzed Flock’s announced changes and found that “the devil will be in the details”:
For example, an exception to the data retention policy is something called evidence mode, which is “when a search is tied to a case number, that data is preserved instead of aging out after seven days.”... “If ‘evidence mode’ only retains hit result data that police determine may be evidence in an active investigation of a specific case, then the change may be a positive one. But if evidence mode triggers the retention of any ALPR data that is searched, then the new mode could indefinitely retain all the ALPR data Flock collects and shares nationally.”

Another “change” the company is implementing is that local police will be able to decide what types of offenses other Flock customers can search their data for... Flock has attempted this before, and the security measure failed because police were easily able to circumvent the system’s requirement that they input the purpose of their search.

Finally, Flock announced that in response to the reports of police abuse, they will now require reasons for a search, and that they plan to universally roll out its audit assistance tool to detect police misuse. Flock’s announcement fails to note how easily users have circumvented “search reason” security measures in the past or how its new policy improves the quality of the feature.

“Change may still come as Flock faces this ever-growing threat to its corporate viability,” the ACLU said, “but we certainly won’t be holding our breath.”

Peggy Flanagan Unloads on GOP Rival for Saying ICE Treated Kids ‘Really Well’ During Minnesota Siege

“This agency is completely out of control,” said the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Minnesota.


Democratic candidate for US Senate, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, speaks during a primary election night party on August 11, 2026 in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Fresh off a resounding US Senate primary victory, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on Thursday castigated her Republican general election opponent for praising federal immigration agents’ treatment of children during their siege of Minneapolis.

During an interview on MS NOW, Flanagan highlighted GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya’s support for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose violent operations in the Twin Cities area last winter resulted in widespread protests, including an unprecedented one-day general strike.


‘Minnesota Is Not for Sale’: Peggy Flanagan Wins Senate Primary, Defeating Millions in Dark Money

“Michele Tafoya, my Republican opponent, she used footage of ICE in the streets of Minnesota during her launch video, and recently said... ‘ICE treated children really, really well,’” Flanagan said. “Tell that to Liam Ramos or to the children who have been separated from their parents. This agency is completely out of control.”

Five-year-old Liam Ramos in January was abducted by ICE agents during his walk home from school and sent along with his father, an Ecuadoran asylum seeker, to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where family members said the child grew sick from eating spoiled food. In February, Ramos and his father were released and sent back to Minnesota.

Elsewhere in the interview, Flanagan was asked about Republican attacks on her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for purportedly not doing enough to prevent healthcare fraud in their state, and she quickly turned the tables back on Tafoya and President Donald Trump.

“ Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud, because they want to distract from what’s happening under the most corrupt president we’ve ever seen,” she said. “They want to talk about fraud, they have to talk about the fact that, right out of the gate, Donald Trump got rid of 17 inspectors general whose whole job it is to police fraud at the federal level.”

“He’s pardoned 70 white-collar criminals who have stolen billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare,” Flanagan continued. “And every day, this guy is making money hand over fist from the Oval Office, from his... cryptocurrency, through hundreds of millions of dollars in insider trading. And Michele Tayofa and Republicans up and down the ballot are going to have to answer for that. The grift has to stop.”

'Human Rights’

 DNC Advances 2 Resolutions on ICE, Aid to Israel

“Approval of the resolutions... point the way for the Democratic Party to move in directions consistent with what voters want.”

A mobile billboard sponsored by the progressive activist group RootsAction encourages voters at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Austin, Texas to vote in favor of a resolution committing to uphold the Leahy Laws on August 13, 

Stephen Prager
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As the war for the future of the Democratic Party rages on, progressives took steps toward a pair of key victories at the Democratic National Committee on Thursday, advancing one resolution calling to abolish the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and another in support of barring US military aid for Israel.

The resolutions, which were both introduced by Louisiana DNC member Michele Johnson, were approved during a meeting in Austin by the DNC Resolutions Committee and are expected to be put before the full committee for a vote by Saturday.

Though resolutions passed through the DNC do not bind lawmakers or presidents to take particular actions, they play an important role in legitimizing positions once confined to the margins but which are fast becoming a consensus among Democratic voters.

“While it may not actually push Congress to do something, it sends a message that we believe these things,” Johnson said during an interview last week. “Ultimately, these resolutions can be used in the creation of a platform... to guide Democrats for the next four years.”

The first resolution “urges Democratic members of Congress to craft legislation abolishing ICE and enacting immigration reform that provides pathways to citizenship, protects workers, and ensures dignity for all impacted people.”

If passed, it would put the party in line with the majority of its voters, 73% of whom said in an Economist/YouGov poll last month that they believe ICE should be abolished.

It’s a position that has been adopted by increasing numbers of lawmakers in the party’s progressive wing, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), but has been resisted by party leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

As part of the “mass deportation” crusade during President Donald Trump’s second term, which has resulted in individuals being detained nationwide with little due process, ICE has increasingly relied on indiscriminate raids, warrantless arrests, and racial profiling while setting up a vast network of opaque detention camps with squalid conditions. Most of those rounded up have had no criminal convictions.

As of Thursday, more than 50 people have died in ICE custody since Trump retook office in January 2025, and several more, including multiple US citizens, have been shot during enforcement operations without clear justification.

The resolution “urges Democratic members of Congress to pursue civil and criminal accountability for any federal agent, attorney, or official who lied under oath, misrepresented evidence, or gave false testimony regarding DHS conduct, and to remove qualified immunity and other protections shielding DHS and ICE personnel and subcontractors who have injured protesters or journalists, fired into moving vehicles, or caused deaths in custody, whether of detained individuals, US citizens, or immigrants regardless of nationality or documentation status.”



The other resolution advanced on Thursday states that the DNC supports the “full, consistent, and impartial enforcement” of the so-called “Leahy Laws” to prevent military aid to Israel or any other countries that violate US human rights law.

These laws, named after their sponsor, former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), state that the US cannot provide training, weapons, equipment, or other assistance to a foreign military unit when the government has credible information that it has committed a “gross violation of human rights.”

Critics have argued that former President Joe Biden violated the Leahy Laws by continuing to provide unrestricted military aid to Israel as it waged a genocidal war in Gaza and escalated its assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank during his presidency. Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly balked at calls, including from within his own State Department, to enforce the Leahy Laws despite mounting evidence of atrocities.

A classified State Department report whose findings were publicized in October 2025 found that the Israeli military had committed hundreds of human rights violations that may have warranted enforcement of the Leahy Laws, including many during the Biden administration.

The resolution advanced on Thursday “calls for strengthened vetting capacity, clear remediation standards,” referring to the process by which a military that violates human rights can restore eligibility for US funding, “and regular public reporting on the implementation of the Leahy Laws by the Department of State and the Department of Defense.”

The resolution also “encourages Democratic members of Congress to conduct robust oversight of Leahy Law implementation and to support legislative measures that close documented enforcement gaps.”

Like with ICE, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are calling for the US to cut off support for Israel, but party leadership has been resistant. This is despite nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters saying in a May 2026 New York Times/Siena poll that they are opposed to sending more funding.

The passage of the Leahy Law resolution shows how the ground has shifted beneath the Democratic establishment since last August, when the Resolutions Committee blocked a resolution that would call for an arms embargo against Israel in favor of a more limited one pushed by DNC chair Ken Martin, calling for unrestricted aid to Gaza and a two-state solution. Martin later withdrew his resolution, leaving neither as the party’s adopted position.

In April, more resolutions, which called for the conditioning of military aid to Israel and the recognition of a Palestinian state, were deferred to a working group. Another resolution condemning the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was also killed by the resolutions panel.

Sam Rosenthal, the political director of the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, attended the committee meeting on Thursday. His group promoted both resolutions, including by sponsoring a mobile billboard that circled outside the conference, which read, “HEY DNC, UPHOLD THE LEAHY LAWS. SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS!”

“These were twin victories for human rights, at home and abroad,” Rosenthal said of the votes on Thursday. “Approval of the resolutions for abolishing ICE and upholding the Leahy Law point the way for the Democratic Party to move in directions consistent with what voters want.”

“Getting sufficient turnout from the party’s base at election time,” he added, “will require a change in the approach of the party’s national leadership so that it is clearly responsive to the views of Democrats nationwide.”

‘Outrageous’: Trump Officials Investigated Left-Wing Groups After Alex Pretti Killing in Minneapolis

One First Amendment advocacy group called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”


People march during a protest after the killing of Renee Nicole Good on January 8, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

“These are the actions of an authoritarian state,” said US Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Thursday regarding new reports of a broad investigation by the Department of Homeland Security into numerous left-wing groups in Minnesota earlier this year, in the wake of Border Patrol agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti at a protest against the agency’s anti-immigration crackdown.

As The New York Times reported, days after Pretti was killed in the street as he tried to help a woman who had been violently pushed by the agents, the DHS office in St. Paul opened an investigation into groups including the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, major labor groups like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Democratic Socialists of America, and a collective called Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN).

The Trump administration began the probe under the auspices of investigating whether the groups had provided “help and money,” as the Times reported, to people who had participated in protests across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where tens of thousands of residents rallied against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and defended their neighbors from immigration raids last winter.

Newly released government documents, which were uncovered after an attorney filed a motion with the federal District Court in Minnesota demanding information about the DHS investigation, show that the agency characterized the protesters who opposed ICE as “violent opportunists and agitators.”

The investigation included DHS’ use of administrative subpoenas to obtain financial records from Sunrise Movement, Communications Workers of America, and the SEIU, scrutinizing what the agency called “domestic terrorist financing.”

Undercover agents also infiltrated Signal chats and meetings at libraries and churches, recording attendees’ comments criticizing ICE and calling for the agency to be abolished—a view held by roughly 50% of Americans, according to a recent poll by YouGov—as well as their names and license plate numbers. They also scoured the individuals’ social media accounts for images and information.

“None of these individuals did anything other than engage in protected First Amendment speech in a church meeting room,” wrote Kevin Riach, the lawyer who filed the motion. “Yet now their personal information is memorialized in a DHS dossier.”

The investigation “concluded, with no evidence (but obvious political animus), that numerous Twin Cities unions and nonprofit organizations were involved in a widespread conspiracy,” said Riach. “It surveilled and surreptitiously gathered financial records generated by these organizations despite the lack of any connection between those organizations and criminal conduct.”

As the Times reported, the indictment in June of 15 organizers who led direct actions against federal agents, announced by US Attorney Daniel Rosen, came out of the sprawling DHS investigation.

When Rosen announced the indictments, he cited National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), a memo issued last September and mandated a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts”—with an exclusive focus on left-wing groups.

Before the indictment, the Times reported, investigators showed a PowerPoint slide to grand jurors linking 18 groups including the AFL-CIO, Vets for Peace, and a local teachers union to a “conspiracy” against ICE agents.

The news of the indictment, said Paul Blest of the labor rights media organization More Perfect Union, “should be the biggest story in America.”



“Just so everyone clearly understands, the Trump administration’s approach to dissent is to exhaust every avenue to put dissenters in federal prison,” said Blest.

The First Amendment advocacy group Defending Rights and Dissent called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”

“The inquiry comes amid President Trump’s escalating crackdown on freedom of speech across the United States,” Defending Rights and Dissent added. “Last year, Trump issued NSPM-7, a directive which tramples the First Amendment in weaponizing the federal government to root out his political adversaries and cast all activism against the administration as ‘domestic extremism.’”

“Defending Rights and Dissent calls for this investigation to be dropped immediately,” said the group, “and strongly condemns all attempts by the Trump administration to intimidate ordinary Americans exercising their freedom of speech.”