U.S. Goals in Cyberspace | COVID & Bioterrorism | Chinese Investment in American Agriculture, and more

The nine currently being held at two high-security jails, HMP Frankland in County Durham and HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire, are regarded as the highest risk prisoners and are held in separation units because of fears they could radicalize other prisoners. They are believed to include Hashem Abedi, who helped organize the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, and at least one Islamic State fighter. Mr Taylor’s report comes just months after a terrorism watchdog warned that prison staff were so concerned about being accused of racism that Muslim terrorists had been able to seize control of wings and set up sharia courts behind bars. The investigation by Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, said that Islamic extremists had sought to dictate diets and washing habits of non-Muslim prisoners, and had gone unchallenged when they insisted warders should be barred from attending Friday prayers.

Facebook Bans Hate Speech but Still Makes Money from White Supremacists  (Washington Post)
Last year, a Facebook page administrator put out a clarion call for new followers: They were looking for “the good ole boys and girls from the south who believe in white [supremacy].” The page — named Southern Brotherhood — was live on Tuesday afternoon and riddled with photos of swastikas and expressions of white power. Facebook has long banned content referencing white nationalism. But a plethora of hate groups still populate the site, and the company boosts its revenue by running ads on searches for these pages. A new report from the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit tech watchdog, found 119 Facebook pages and 20 Facebook groups associated with white supremacy organizations. Of 226 groups identified as white-supremacist organizations by the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a leaked version of Facebook’s dangerous organizations and individuals list, more than a third have a presence on the platform, according to the study. Released Wednesday and obtained exclusively by The Washington Post, the report found that Facebook continues to serve ads against searches for white-supremacist content, such as the phrases Ku Klux Klan and American Defense Skinheads, a longtime criticism of civil rights groups, who argue that the company prioritizes profits over the dangerous impact of such content.

From Defending the Open Internet to Confronting the Reality of a Fragmented Cyberspace: Reflecting Upon Two CFR Reports on U.S. Goals in Cyberspace  (Adam Segal, Lawfare)
Reading the two reports in tandem is a reminder of how high public expectations were for what Washington could accomplish in cyberspace. It also illustrates how significantly the United States’ position in cyberspace has worsened over the past decade.

DHS IG Cuffari’s Actions Exhibit Clear Pattern: Unwillingness or Inability to Meet the Mission  (Liz Hempowicz, Just Security)
Joseph Cuffari’s tenure as the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been riddled with decisions that show a clear pattern of unwillingness or inability to meet the mission of his office. That is why the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) was calling for his removal months before recent reporting revealed that he did not notify Congress when his office first confirmed that Secret Service and other DHS text messages of interest to those investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol were missing.

The Growing Concern Over Chinese Investment in American Agriculture  (John Hendrickson, Heartland News)
The growing influence and power of China should be a concern for all policymakers. China is growing more aggressive militarily and they are attempting to control resources across the globe, including in the United States. China is also taking advantage of the United States in terms of trade. The United States is running an over $350 billion trade deficit with China. Overall, in 2021, the United States ran a $1 trillion trade deficit. Our massive trade deficit is not the only thing we should be concerned about as China is buying up agricultural land across the United States.

Why COVID Probably Hasn’t Helped Bioterrorists, Despite Fears  (Gary A. Ackerman, Zachary Kallenborn, Philipp C. Bleek, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
The cult Aum Shinrikyo is infamous for its deadly chemical weapons attacks on metropolitan Tokyo in the 1990s. Less well known is the ambitious biological weapons program that preceded the group’s chemical exploits. Aum tried to weaponize the anthrax bacterium, create a bacterial toxin, and develop ways to disseminate its wares. Despite the group’s enormous resources and expertise, however, its bioweapons appear to have caused no casualties at all. Some combination of delusion, a comically short attention span, bumbling, and possible sabotage appear to explain this abject failure. But Aum’s bioterrorism legacy is overall a mixed bag. Pessimists can point to the group’s troubling motivations and the fact that just a few missteps prevented potentially horrific consequences. Optimists can take heart that despite all its advantages, Aum wasn’t successful.
Few other terrorists have attempted to use bioweapons. The Global Terrorism Database documents over 200,000 terrorist incidents worldwide between 1970 and 2019, yet only about 38 involved biological weapons agents. Of those, only three caused more than one casualty. Despite this sparse historical record, the COVID pandemic has reenergized concern over bioterrorism; looking at the pandemic’s consequences—the deaths, economic contraction, and impacts on the military—some argue that COVID could both motivate and enable new bioterrorism attacks. In all likelihood, this isn’t the case. With the exception of apocalyptic groups, for most terrorists, bioweapons remain an impractical tool. And when it comes to groups like Aum, there are some steps authorities can employ to minimize the threat of terrorist bioweapons even further.