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Homeland Security

‘BlueLeaks’ Publishers Pursued As ‘Criminal Hacker Group’ By DHS

August 16, 2020 Lilia Dergacheva, Sputnik News. , , ,
The dump of the damning "Blue Leaks" files in late June provided the public with over 250 gigabytes of video, audio, and other data from a broad range of law enforcement agencies across the US. Yet, the organisation behind it insists it is not responsible for the hacking itself. The US Department of Homeland Security is persecuting Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), the group that was the first to publish the "BlueLeaks" trove of hacked police files in June, as a "criminal hacker group", similar to WikiLeaks, as follows from a bulletin circulated to fusion centres around the country earlier this summer, The Verge reported.

Homeland Security Claims Shields And Gas Masks Are Weapons

July 25, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. , , ,
Far from restoring order, the arrival of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Border Patrol in Portland, Oregon has only heightened tensions, with agents attacking and arresting protesters nightly. DHS’ Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli took to social media yesterday to share images of items confiscated from demonstrators. “Here is a shield and a couple of gas masks from a rioter arrested in Portland. Not a sign with a slogan that someone expressing their first amendment rights might carry, but preparations for violence. Peaceful protester? I don’t think so,” he wrote.

Three Things You Should Know About Trump’s Racially-Motivated Immigration Wealth Test

September 4, 2019 Jackie Vimo, Nilc.org , ,
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently published its final set of regulations on “public charge,” which amount to a racially-motivated wealth test on immigrant families and individuals pursuing a healthy, stable future in the U.S. DHS finalized this rule against widespread public opposition, having received 266,000 public comments on it, the overwhelming majority opposed to its implementation. If the new rule goes into effect, it would devastatingly impact millions and dramatically reshape our immigration system...

Homeland Security Report: White Supremacists Behind Most Domestic Terrorism Incidents

August 10, 2019 Jana Winter and Hunter Walker, News.yahoo.com , ,
WASHINGTON — Alleged white supremacists were responsible for all race-based domestic terrorism incidents in 2018, according to a government document distributed earlier this year to state, local and federal law enforcement. The document, which has not been previously reported on, becomes public as the Trump administration’s Justice Department has been unable or unwilling to provide data to Congress on white supremacist domestic terrorism. The data in this document, titled “Domestic Terrorism in 2018,” appears to be what Congress has been asking for...

Government Expands Social Media Surveillance With Little Evidence Of Effectiveness

June 7, 2019 Staff, Brennancenter.org , , , ,
An analysis by the Brennan Center of the Department of Homeland Security’s harvesting and use of social media information shows that the agency is expanding collection and monitoring programs, despite scant evidence that such broad-scale surveillance strengthens national security. Instead, as recent media reports attest, social media monitoring has helped officials identify and target people for engaging in protests, activism, journalism, and provision of legal services. Many programs have been targeted at Muslim travelers, who as a group are often treated as a national security threat.

New Documents Reveal DHS Asserting Broad, Unconstitutional Authority To Search Travelers’ Phones And Laptops

May 2, 2019 Staff, Activistpost.com , , ,
BOSTON — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU today asked a federal court to rule without trial that the Department of Homeland Security violates the First and Fourth Amendments by searching travelers’ smartphones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry without a warrant. The request for summary judgment comes after the groups obtained documents and deposition testimony revealing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorize border officials to search travelers’ phones and laptops for general law enforcement purposes...

DHS Equipped 400 Police Departments With Military-Grade Sound Cannons

January 13, 2019 Mass Private I. , , ,
A recent article in the Mohave Valley Daily News revealed that DHS is using grant money to equip Arizona police departments with military-grade sound cannons or Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD). The Bullhead City Police Department received $54,000 in grant money to purchase a 100X model and a 450XL model LRAD. The mass media has known about DHS's plan to equip police departments with LRADs for more than a decade but has remained largely silent. A Washington Times article from 2009, titled "DHS helps local police buy military-style sonic devices" warned everyone that military-grade sound cannons are being used against Americans.

Court Affirms Right Of Homeless Persons To Not Be Punished For Sleeping In Public

September 8, 2018 National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. , ,
Boise, Idaho – The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that homeless persons cannot be punished for sleeping outside in the absence of adequate alternatives in Martin v. Boise (formerly Bell v. Boise), a lawsuit challenging Boise, Idaho’s ban on sleeping in public. In so holding, the court of appeals permitted various homeless individuals who have received criminal citations under Boise’s policy to proceed with their constitutional claims against the City. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, which filed the case in 2009...

Activists Calling For The Abolition Of ICE Blocking Seattle Streets Outside Of Homeland Security Building

June 6, 2018 NWDC Resistance, Thenorthstar.info , , , , , , ,
Seattle, WA – Early yesterday morning, activists with Northwest Detention Center Resistance and Mijente locked down outside of 1000 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington, calling attention to the building’s role as Washington State’s deportation epicenter. The building, owned by billionaire developer Martin Selig, houses regional offices for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Office of Chief Counsel, regional offices for Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Justice-controlled Seattle Immigration Court. The lockdown is part of the launch of the “Chinga La Migra” organizing tour to tell the story of what the deportation crisis under President Trump looks like in real time, and amplify the efforts and stories of resistance.

Homeland Security Uses ‘Crisis Action Team’ In 1st Trump Travel Ban

January 3, 2018 By Josh Gerstein, Politico.com , ,
When protests and widespread confusion broke out at airports across the U.S. after President Donald Trump issued his first travel ban executive order last January, White House officials scoffed at the scenes of turmoil and insisted the president’s plan was smoothly moving into place. “It really is a massive success story in terms of implementation on every single level,” a senior administration official told reporters two days after Trump signed the directive. Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller boasted to CBS that the roll-out was “efficient, orderly [and] enormously successful.” However, Department of Homeland Security records obtained by POLITICO reflect confusion on the front lines about how to implement the order and show that DHS officials deemed the situation a “crisis” requiring a high-level response.

Homeland Security’s Multibillion Dollar Comedy Show

December 30, 2017 By James Bovard, Counterpunch.org ,
After the 9/11 attacks, Congress and the Bush administration pretended that unlimited federal spending was one of the best ways to thwart terrorist threats. In 2002, Congress created the Homeland Security Department (DHS), sweeping some of the most inept federal agencies, such as the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), into the new mega-department. Congress also created numerous programs — some run directly by FEMA — to shovel out more than $30 billion in anti-terrorism funding to local and state governments. As Sen. Tom Coburn (R–Okla.) observed a few years ago, “FEMA’s lax guidelines and oversight made the agency a virtual rubberstamp for most anything that grant recipients creatively justified as related to homeland security — regardless of how loosely related.”

Climate Change, Migration, And Homeland Security

December 18, 2017 By Kevin Gosztola , ,
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview journalist Todd Miller, author of Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security. It was published by City Lights Books in September and was praised by Bill McKibben, Christian Parenti, and Dahr Jamail, who has appeared on this podcast multiple times. Miller traveled to the Philippines, Honduras, Guatemala, the Mexico-Guatemala border, the United States-Mexico border, and Paris. There he observed and met individuals witnessing the escalating impacts of climate change on their communities. He also attended multiple expos or conventions, where people from the security-industrial complex spoke about how they are preparing for climate change—in order to control borders and make profits off future calamities.

Audit Finds Detainee Abuse At Immigration Prisons

December 16, 2017 Kevin Gosztola, mintpressnews.com , , , ,
The inspector general for the Homeland Security Department conducted unannounced inspections of six immigrant detention facilities overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It uncovered glaring examples of detainee abuse and mistreatment at four of the facilities. Inspections were conducted in response to complaints from immigrant rights groups, as well as complaints to the inspector general, and the report was released as President Donald Trump’s administration seems intent to slash the budget for inspector general offices, like the one at DHS. According to the report [PDF], “We identified problems that undermine the protection of detainees’ rights, their humane treatment, and the provision of a safe and healthy environment.”

Homeland Security Plans To Collect Immigrants’ Social Media Info

September 28, 2017 Alfred Ng and Laura Hautala, www.cnet.com , ,
By Alfred Ng and Laura Hautala for CNet - The US Department of Homeland Security quietly introduced a proposed amendment to its records regulations last week that would allow the agency to collect data from all immigrants' social media history, including posts from their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. It would also affect green card holders and naturalized citizens. The new provision, introduced to the Federal Register on Sept. 18, was first spotted by Buzzfeed News. The update adds to increased government scrutiny of immigrants' internet activity, scrutiny that's been growing since the administration of President Barack Obama and has continued into the presidency of Donald Trump. On Sept. 13, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the DHS after 11 travelers had their laptops and phones searched without warrants at US borders. It's been reported that border agents have also been checking people's Facebook profiles. The US Department of State said in May that it wanted to search through five years of social media history to grant US visas. (However, border patrol agents said in July that they wouldn't search through a person's cloud data.) Last week's regulatory update appears to continue the collection and retention of data on immigrants' social media activity long after they've crossed the border.

Newspaper Owned By Fracking Billionaire Leaks Memo Calling Pipeline Opponents Potential “Terrorists”

April 24, 2017 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com , ,
By Steve Horn for Desmog Blog - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a report titled, “Potential Domestic Terrorist Threats to Multi-State Diamond Pipeline Construction Project,” dated April 7 and first published by The Washington Examiner. The DHS field analysis report points to lessons from policing the Dakota Access pipeline, saying they can be applied to the ongoing controversy over the Diamond pipeline, which, when complete, will stretch from Cushing, Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee. While lacking “credible information” of such a potential threat, DHS concluded that “the most likely potential domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline … is from environmental rights extremists motivated by resentment over perceived environmental destruction.” The Washington Examiner is owned by conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz, a former American Petroleum Institute board member. His company, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, is a major oil and gas driller involved in the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in states such as Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
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