• U.K. to Examine Effectiveness of Existing Legislation in Dealing with Hateful Extremism

    As is the case in other countries, the U.K. is facing a sharp rise in activity extremist groups. The U.K. Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) has launched a legal review to examine the effectiveness of existing U.K. legislation in dealing with hateful extremism. The CCE’s recommendations will be submitted to the Home Secretary.

  • What Does a "Terrorist" Designation Mean?

    From both the right and the left, there have been calls to designate various domestic organizations – the KKK, antifa, white supremacists – as “terrorists.” Anna Meier writes there is no legal mechanism in the United States for labeling purely domestic organizations as terrorist groups, but while there is no purely domestic terrorism statute in the United States, nor is there a domestic terrorism proscription mechanism, the “terrorist” label, even when not a formal legal mechanism, signals what kinds of political behavior cross the line from nonideal to unacceptable. “Trump’s threatened antifa designation, then, may not carry any legal weight, but it does signal to the public—and to law enforcement—an unacceptable form of contention in the eyes of the administration,” she writes.

  • U.S. Efforts to Deal Islamic State “Enduring Defeat” on Hold

    Hopes of delivering the Islamic State a lasting defeat in Iraq and Syria have, for now, fallen by the wayside, according to officials with the U.S.-led coalition, despite a ramped-up crackdown on the terror group’s network of cells and facilitators.

  • German police under the pall of right-wing extremists

    German security experts warn about the lax, ineffective way in which German security authorities have dealt with the growing presence of extreme far-right elements in police ranks, calling the rejectionist attitude of the police leadership dangerous. This is consistent with findings from Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). On 9 July, Interior Minister Seehofer presented the BfV’s 2019 annual report. He spoke of sharp rises in anti-Semitic, right-wing extremist and racist crimes in Germany, and called right-wing extremism the country’s greatest security threat.

  • Guyana: U.S. Imposes Sanctions as President Granger Refuses to Accept Election Defeat

    The United States has imposed sanctions on the current government of Guyana, led by President David Granger and his APNU party, after the refusal of Granger and his supporters to accept the results of the March election, which saw the opposition PPP, led by Irfaan Ali, winning the election by about 16,000 votes. Regional leaders called on Granger to respect the democratic process and step aside.

  • Personal Data Can Easily Be Extracted from Zoom, Other Video Conference Screenshots

    Video conference users should not post screen images of Zoom and other video conference sessions on social media, according to BGU researchers, who easily identified people from public screenshots of video meetings on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

  • What the Heck Are Federal Law Enforcement Officers Doing in Portland?

    With racial justice protests going on in Portland, Oregon, since 25 May, more than 100 federal law enforcement officers showed up in the city over the past few days — without being asked to do so, and with the mayor, sheriff, and governor asking them to leave because, these local officials say, the presence of these federal agents only aggravates the situation. Steve Vladeck writes that to make matters worse, “those officers (a) are not wearing identifiable uniforms or other insignia, (b) are not driving marked law enforcement vehicles, and (c) are not identifying themselves either publicly or even to those whom they have detained and arrested.” He adds: “even if the federal officers are technically complying with the relevant statutes, there’s something more than just unseemly about camouflaged officers who refuse to identify themselves or their employer purporting to conduct arrests on the streets of American cities. Whether these officers are in fact abusing their authorities or not remains to be seen, but either answer would be deeply troubling.”  

  • Russian Government Hackers Trying to Steal COVID-19 Research Information from Western Labs

    Russian government hackers are targeting organizations involved in coronavirus vaccine development, U.K. security officials have revealed. The APT29 hacking group, also named “the Dukes” or “Cozy Bear,” is staffed by GRU (Russian military intelligence branch) hackers, and the GRU subcontracts Kremlin-ordered cyber operations to APT29. In 2016, the APT29 hackers stole emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. 

  • From Russia with Love? U.K. Government Sits on Explosive Report

    At the core of a 50-page, as yet unreleased, report compiled by the U.K’s Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) over a year ago is the question of to what extent Russian influence held sway over U.K political events, such as the 2016 Brexit referendum, and whether senior Conservatives were open to such advances. The results of the investigation, dubbed the “Russia Report,” were supposed to be released at the end of last year. So far, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to have the report released.

  • The Secret Lab Conspiracy: A Converging Narrative

    Some observers have recently argued about a convergence of narratives between pro-Kremlin and Chinese disinformation networks. One example of the convergence of false Russian and Chinese narrative, both aiming to undermine relations among Western and pro-Western countries, is the  “clandestine U.S. biolabs” conspiracy theory.

  • A Restart of Nuclear Testing Offers Little Scientific Value to the U.S. and Would Benefit Other Countries

    The U.S. tested nuclear bombs for decades. But at the end of the Cold War in 1992, the U.S. government imposed a moratorium on U.S. testing. in recent weeks, the Trump administration and Congress have begun debating whether to restart active testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil. We are two nuclear weapons researchers – a physicist and an arms control expert – and we believe that there is no value, from either the scientific nor diplomatic perspective, to be gained from resuming testing. In fact, all the evidence suggests that such a move would threaten U.S. national security.

  • EFF Launches Searchable Database of Police Use of Surveillance Technologies

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), in partnership with the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, the other day launched what the EFF describes as “the largest-ever collection of searchable data on police use of surveillance technologies,” created as a tool for the public to learn about facial recognition, drones, license plate readers, and other devices law enforcement agencies are acquiring to spy on our communities.

  • Simultaneous, Reinforcing Policy Failures Led to Flint Water Crisis

    Concurrent failures of federal drinking water standards and Michigan’s emergency manager law reinforced and magnified each other, leading to the Flint water crisis, according to a University of Michigan environmental policy expert. Flint’s experience offers lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated local financial challenges while highlighting the importance of access to clean, safe drinking water.

  • Vehicle Ramming: The Evolution of a Terrorist Tactic Inside the U.S.

    Vehicle ramming has been the weapon of choice among Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank. Mia Bloom writes that it is now a weapon used with increasing frequency by white supremacists against racial justice protesters in the United States. Both tech companies and law enforcement need to do better if this escalating tactic is to be addressed before it causes more injury and death,” she writes.

  • U.K. Bans Huawei Components from 5G, Earlier Networks

    The British government, in a reversal of a January decision, will not allow Huawei access to the U.K. nascent 5G network. The government has also imposed a “rip and replace” requirement, giving British companies until 2027 to remove all Huawei gear from their networks and replace it with components from “trusted vendors.”