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hotgirlmav · 2 years

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Fatal Attraction — Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky x Reader

Pairing: Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky x Female!Reader (18+)

Description: Much like every other person that came across Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, you had developed quite the crush on him. What made you different, though, was that you were the niece of his direct superior. He knew it was wrong, and he knew he shouldn’t entertain the idea in the slightest, but a little teasing never killed anyone, right?

Warnings: Explicit language, insane dirty talk, semi-possessive Iceman, sexual thoughts and tension, allusions to smut, so much pining, degradation kink, Iceman not wanting to pull a Maverick, Iceman doing just that. You know the drill.

Word Count: 4,279.

A/N: Not only was this much longer than I expected, but it ended up being much dirtier. I’M SORRY, Iceman just does something to me. He does something to all of us. Val Kilmer, you will PAY FOR THIS.

Requests are still open!

Another Friday morning. How lovely.

You were currently making your way to Commander Mike Metcalf’s office, commonly known around those grounds as Viper. The skylight beaming throughout the windows of the naval building illuminated the hallway before you, further reminding you of just how tired you were.

Every single day for the entire month that you were in San Diego, your uncle would forget his lunch. In several ways, his unintentional forgetfulness reminded you very deeply of your father, further proving just why those two were best friends. Had it not been for you, the containers so articulately and thoughtfully prepared by your aunt would have remained right where she left them on the granite countertop.

The first time it happened, you figured that you would just take it to the base on your way out, seeing as you had a few light errands to run. That was all it took for that very action to become a key part of your daily routine for the entire duration of your visit. You would never complain, though. Not when you were happily occupying the guest bedroom in his very, very beautiful house.

To be quite fair, not all of it was so bad. It thrilled you to see the stunning aircrafts taking off on the runways as you stole glances out of the windows, and it was always fun to hang out in your uncle’s office. The best parts, however, were the pilots.

God, the pilots.

The naval aviators studying at Top Gun were nothing short of cocky, but it wasn’t as if they had no reason to be. They were young, they were the best at what they did, they were hot shit— they were the future of the Navy. The very world was at their fingertips, and they were well aware of that fact.

Your uncle had warned you about these men. Some of them got a bit too cocky, resulting in them crashing and burning. Sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally, as brutal as that was. For the most part, you heeded his warnings with ease, taking the warmest comfort in knowing that his expertise on the subject had been perfected over the course of your entire lifetime. You had been flirted with by quite a few of the men, but it never seemed to have any impact on you. None of them really captured your interest, nor did they properly catch your eye.

Well— none of them except Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, of course.

From the moment you laid your eyes on him, you were completely hooked. You had no idea whether it was because of his undeniably indescribable beauty, his electrifyingly powerful aura, his domineering and enigmatic attitude, his precision when flying, his irresistibly alluring charm, or his very evident intellect. All you knew was that whatever it was, it completely consumed you. It devoured you.

Never in your life had you hungered for another human being so deeply. The very sight of him set your heart ablaze, despite him acting as a walking example of everything your uncle warned you against.

In your most humble defense, you thought your uncle should consider himself lucky that you weren't madly in love with Maverick, but that was another story.

The very thought of Iceman put quite the smile on your face as you entered the vacant office, any remainder of sleep in your eyes disappearing into thin air. You inhaled sharply as a means to take a deep breath and sauntered over to his desk, absentmindedly leaving the door open behind you.

Your mind began to wander in just the few seconds it took for you to walk. What was Iceman doing? Would he be happy to see you, if he even did? How did flying go today? Did Maverick piss him off again? You didn’t even have to ask that one, you already knew what the answer was.

What went through that pretty head of his? After asking yourself the question, you realized just how much you truly wanted to know the answer to it. Even though you had only been in his presence for just a month and you had only slightly conversed with one another, you wanted to know everything there was to know about the enigmatic man. You wanted to know why he was the way he was, why he did the things that he did. Everything. You wanted to go back to where it all began, you wanted to know every minute detail that he probably hadn’t even noticed himself. You wanted to know if the cheeky little glances and the few devious smirks he’d flash you whenever you briefly spoke meant anything, or if that was just something he did to everyone.

After just a moment, a very particular voice rang through your ears like no other, your heart falling to your feet once you heard it. You hadn’t even reached the desk once it pierced your ears; the containers were still in your hand.

“There she is.”

You turned your head and there he was.

A subtly grinning Tom Kazansky, fully adorned in his flight suit. Because of how engulfed you were in your own thoughts, you didn’t even realize that training must have been over. Men had been roaming the halls outside the office for a few minutes now, much to your chagrin. That man in particular, however, noticed you the second he entered the building.

Immediately, your lips were curling into a wide grin, not even being able to fight your excitement as you giggled at just the sight of him. Trying to hold your composure as calmly as possible, you turned and set the containers on Viper’s desk, your back now facing him. “Good morning, Ice.”

Had you not missed making an appearance yesterday, you felt as though you would have been much more collected. It was the only day in the past month that you didn’t show up to drop off lunch, and the Iceman withdrawal was hitting you with the intensity of ten hammers. The thing that bothered you the most about it was the fact that he couldn’t have been thinking about you. No, of course not. While you were lying awake at the thought of not seeing Tom Kazansky for the first time in a month, you were sure that he was chatting up some blonde, sipping his ice water with his aviators on his stupidly beautiful face.

That asshole.

“I missed you yesterday.” He told you so casually, treating the words as if they were as simple as him asking you what the weather was. To him, the words were nothing more than a simple little fact, but to you, they were the warmest sentiment you had ever received. Your heart both stopped and sped up as your eyes widened, your back still turned to him.

You stopped dead in your tracks as you heard his words, something that did not go unnoticed by him. Your eyebrows were furrowed as your widened eyes stayed firmly on the surface of the desk. Your fingers were still lightly planted on the containers while you stood, not even looking over your shoulder as you spoke before you could think. “You noticed I was gone?”

Iceman was aware of your reaction the second you froze. He didn’t fight the smirk that was forming on his face, seeing as your back was still turned to him. Had you been looking at him, he wouldn’t have embarrassed you with the way his gaze was glued to your figure. Had you been looking at him, you would have seen the way his eyes were heavily clouded with lust as they were planted on you. Had you been looking at him, you would have seen the way his cheek was hollowed from the way he was biting the inside of it. Had you been looking at him, you would have seen the way he was eye-fucking you the same way you did to him whenever he had his back to you.

Within the next few seconds, though, the words that fell from his lips seemed to be what sent you over the edge. You could practically hear your heart pounding out of your chest as you felt your entire body heat up. Weirdly enough, even as hot as your skin felt, you felt goosebumps rising along your spine.

“I notice a lot of things about you.”

That was enough for you to finally let go of the container, making an attempt to face him very casually. Your body turned and you immediately cleared your throat at the sight of him, trying your hardest to disguise it as something very normal. Even under all of his aviation gear, you could see that his toned body was a bit tense. His sunglasses must have been in one of his pockets, seeing as you had a full view of his face.

“Like?” You further egged him on, mentally patting yourself on the back for it.

“Yeah, that’s right. Fall into the trap. Take the bait. Come on.” You thought to yourself as you gazed over at him, silently hoping he wouldn’t examine your face the way you were trying to examine his.

You silently hoped that he would be oblivious to your feelings about him, but even the furthest person in the building could identify the lust in your eyes. You were blinking almost every second as a means to suppress your excitement, but there was no use. His eyes were firmly fixated on yours, and you could feel your heart continue to race as a result. You wondered if he saw the look in your eyes for what it was; a mixture of lust, desire, and admiration.

For someone as cold as Iceman was, he was not an asshole. He could see the look in your eyes as clear as day, of course he could. He recognized that very look in nearly every woman that looked at him. The most notable difference, though, was that he wanted you to look at him.

To say that Tom Kazansky had quite an effect on people, typically women, was an extreme understatement. From his enchantingly full lips, to his quite muscularly toned frame, to his domineering aura, even to his precision, it was safe to say that he knew all eyes were on him when he entered a room. For the love of all that is holy, he’s Iceman.

He’d be a fool to think that he wasn’t the subject of most people’s desires, and a fool was the last thing he was.

Regardless of how he knew people gawked at him, dreamt of him, and even craved him, none of it seemed to truly capture his interest. For all that it was worth, the man was practically next to unattainable. He liked to have fun, yes, but all of his focus went to flying. It was very safe to say that people were able to catch his eye, but never his interest.

Everyone except you, that is.

From the moment you caught his eye on the first day you came, he was intrigued. The pure confusion in your eyes as you tried to navigate the corridors had him in quite a trance, which did not go unnoticed by his friends.

“Slider, who is that?” The words fell from his lips with what was almost an embarrassing amount of interest. His eyes fixated on you as if he was scared to look away.

Slider glanced over at you once he heard his friend ask the question, his eyebrows raising at the sight. There was no denying that you were a beautiful woman. From the way your precious sundress hugged your waist and flowed just to your mid-thigh, Iceman had to nudge Slider to prevent him from devouring your body with his eyes. In doing so, Slider figured that he was telling him to back off. He figured that he was claiming you, and due to the fact that Slider was very highly up Iceman’s ass, he would oblige.

Before he could answer, you met both of their gazes and took a sharp breath, assuming that they were silently laughing at you for how lost you were. You flashed a gentle smile once you saw Slider kindly nod at you as a greeting, making your way over.

“Excuse me.” Your heavenly voice filled Iceman’s ears, causing him to stand up straight. You were speaking to Slider when you went over, but once you caught a glimpse of the man beside him, your mind went completely blank. Your lips parted as you gazed up at him, blinking a few times before you forced the words out. “Do you know where I can find Mike Metcalf’s office?”

“Viper?” Iceman asked with furrowed eyebrows, knowing you must not have been from around there by the way you neglected Viper’s callsign. You rolled your eyes at your own mistake and let out a small giggle, nodding your head.

“Yes, I’m sorry. He’s my uncle, I was just dropping by because he forgot his lunch.” You sweetly told the two pilots, both of them clearly quite surprised at the revelation.

“No, no way. You’re too pretty to be related to Viper.” Slider casually remarked, earning one of the coldest glares that Iceman could conjure up. You let a small laugh out at the flattery, shaking your head slightly in response.

“He’s my dad’s best friend. I’ve just known him as my uncle my whole life.” You gently spoke, a cheeky little grin on your face as you decided to tease the taller man. “I’ll tell your commander that you said that.”

Slider’s life flashed before his eyes as Iceman let out a cool chuckle at your words, causing you to silently and subtly swoon. You glanced over at him with a warm grin, your breath hitching in your throat as you finally met his intense gaze.

“Two doors to the left, sweetheart. You were almost there.” Iceman told you in a tone that would’ve made anyone fold right then and there, the smirk on his face tying it all up. You immediately swallowed once you felt your mouth water and shifted in your stance, not being able to help the smile that was on your face.

“Thank you, um…” You began, now noticing that they hadn’t introduced themselves to you.

Slider opened his mouth to speak, but it was no use. Iceman was already politely extending his large hand, the size of it almost making you faint.

“Iceman.” He stated it in a way that you couldn’t properly identify. It wasn’t cocky, but it was definitely sure of himself. Yes, that was it. He was very sure of himself.

You shifted the container to one of your hands and used your free one to grip his, the firmness in both of your hands as you shook causing you to suppress a literal moan. Your hand was quite small and warm, as opposed to his large, cold one. Your skin was soft; his was calloused. You didn’t want to let go, but any second longer would have resulted in you just pouncing on him.

“Iceman.” You repeated in a mutter, causing his smirk to return and his attraction to replace all hints of professionalism that still remained in his expression. You took a deep breath and retracted your hand, kindly smiling at the pair of them as you snapped out of it. “Thank you both.”

Once you began to walk away, Iceman made no attempt to hide the fact that he was gazing at you. Your figure was now an image that was burned into his memory, something that came in handy in his dirtiest and most desperate moments. You truly would never know that Iceman had taken quite an interest in you long before you had taken one in him.

“Viper’s niece. There’s your answer.” Slider chirped out as an answer to his former question, looking down at his watch.

“Not biologically.” Iceman responded in a way that sounded all too familiar, causing him to furrow his own eyebrows. He didn’t even know where that came from.

“Yeah, Ice, good luck with that. See how well Commander Viper would take you being laid up with his niece, blood or not.” Slider dryly laughed out loud, shaking his head. “Don’t shit where you eat. Don’t pull a Maverick.”

The reference to Maverick relentlessly trying to get Charlie was something they all made fun of, despite not knowing that he had been successful in doing so. Immediately, Iceman’s face dropped.

Maverick. Maverick would try you. Holy FUCK, Maverick would definitely try you.

“Shut up, Slider.” Iceman seethed through his teeth lowly at the thought, taking a sharp breath. Once he put his aviators on, he only tried to disregard the thought of you. He had worked incredibly hard to get where he was, and he refused to put his lust before his work. That was the difference between him and Maverick. He was logical, and Maverick was the most impulsive person in the world.

Iceman cleared his throat as the thought of meeting you flashed throughout his mind so briefly, now meeting your gaze. You recognized the way he cleared his throat and didn’t even try to hide your smirk, as it was the way you always did when he teased you.

You made him flustered.

“Like what, Iceman?” You asked in an even softer tone than before, your head tilting to the side. You could see the lust in his eyes for the first time since you met him, trying not to let it corrupt your position of having the upper-hand.

In true Iceman fashion, however, he refused to not be the one in control.

A cold chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head, now standing up straight. The sound of his boots hit the floor in a way that made you feel as if you were listening to a sweet tune. He slowly inched inside of the office before he used his large hand to push the door shut behind him, doing so very quietly.

“I don’t think you can handle it.” He teased you in a light tone, his voice almost intimidating you as you tried your hardest not to shift. Now, he was standing in front of you, the smirk on his face prominent as he used his tongue to wet his lips. Unbeknownst to you, he only did so to see if you would gaze at his lips during the process. Much to his satisfaction, you did.

Your lips parted as you basked in the sight, completely submitting to him in that moment. He wanted the power, and you let him mercilessly take it. Trying your best to fight against the situation, you gulped silently and said the very first words that crossed your mind.

“Try me.”

For such small and seemingly harmless words, they truly acted as the match to the sensitive gas tank that was his self-restraint. He knew that it was incredibly unwise to jeopardize his position by involving himself with you, but he could no longer control himself. From your parted lips to your doe-like eyes, he found himself unable to resist you. The privacy of the four walls in the office intoxicated him in a way alcohol would. The mere fact that he could make a complete mess out of you with no one knowing filled his head, but what prevented him from doing so was the fear of getting caught.

Fuck, you two couldn’t get caught.

For the love of God, you were in his commander’s office. To add even more danger to the situation, you were the niece of that very commander. Not only would he be severely punished if he was caught with someone there, but if he was caught with you there, Viper would just fuck him up. None of that mattered to him in the moment, though. The way you were slightly backed up to where you were standing in front of the desk was enough for him to disregard his thoughts. Gazing at the needy little look in your eyes, he decided to use the risks to his advantage.

Still standing right in front of you, he took his time in dipping his head down, your hands practically shaking as you felt his lips not even a few centimeters away from yours. You could feel his minty breath hit your lips as he parted his own, causing you to grip the edges of the desk behind you.

“How would your uncle feel if he knew this is what you did at his job, hm?” He whispered to you, his lips slightly brushing against yours as he spoke. He was that close to you.

You would be lying if you said you weren’t a bit ashamed, even though that was not his goal at all. If you weren’t as aroused as you were, you probably would have stopped whatever was transpiring between the pair of you.

“How would he feel if he knew that while he was out serving his country, you were in his office, practically begging to be fucked by one of his colleagues?” His whisper hit your lips once more, your eyebrows furrowing in desperation as your mouth slightly fell open. You wanted him, you craved him. You needed him.

The look on your face caused his large hands to find shelter on your hips, his grip making it seem as though he was holding onto you for dear life. He effortlessly lifted you off of your feet and almost roughly set you down on the desk, wasting no time in spreading your legs for him to step in between.

You didn’t even slightly resist. You were his for the taking.

“How would he feel,” he trailed, his rough fingertips running along your bare thighs before he lifted one of his hands, gently yet firmly gripping your neck with it. “If he knew that you were on his desk, begging to be fucked like the dirty little slut you are?”

You had never been spoken to that way, both sexually and non-sexually. Your heart was racing as the words traveled from your ears to your stomach, warming your body up entirely. You couldn’t even speak. All you could do was gently grip the fabric of his flight suit, which wasn’t aiding your desire for him in the slightest bit.

“He could walk in here at any time, but you don’t care.” Iceman coldly chuckled at your needy little expression, his lips still hardly away from yours. Teasing you even further, his head tilted to the opposite side that yours was tilted to, the tip of his tongue lightly running across your parted lips. You finally let a small whine out, having had quite enough of his teasing. You swatted at his chest and properly crashed your lips onto his, silently thanking every higher power for the fact that he returned your kiss.

The kiss was foul. Both of you were desperately trying to taste one another, the sounds coming from you two being enough to kill a nun. In the process of it all, he had pulled your hips closer to his, your sundress riding up as he did so. The thin fabric of your panties and his entire flight suit separated you from his bulge, but you could still definitely feel it. Before you could even begin grinding your hips the way you wanted to, he detached his lips from yours and chuckled softly, glancing down at the beautiful sight underneath him.

“All you want is for me to fuck you stupid and leave you a pathetic, needy little mess. Used like the fucking toy you are.” He seethed through his teeth in a way that sent you in a whirlwind, causing your back to arch for the man.

With the sound of rising chatter in the hallways outside of the office, both of you were brought out of your lust-driven haze, resulting in the most sexual tension you had ever been in. He let a chuckle escape his lips at the sight of you as he took a deep breath, stepping back a few times.

“I told you that you couldn’t handle it.” He teased you in a tone that made you roll your eyes, standing up from your position on the desk. You fixed your sundress and hid the way that you were smiling from him, your head turned away from him.

“Listen, a few of the guys and I are going to play volleyball after training.” He informed you with a hint of something you couldn’t quite recognize. For a second, it almost sounded like Iceman, the Iceman, was a bit nervous. “Maybe you can come with us. Hold my shirt for me, throw rocks at Maverick and Goose. You know.”

Your lips curled into the biggest smile he had ever seen, your gaze on him telling him just how long you had been waiting for him to ask you out, even if it was to do something as small as watching him play volleyball.

“Maybe, we’ll see. I’ll throw rocks at whoever’s losing.” You teased him gently, earning an amused chuckle as he opened the door. “I’ve heard that there’s just something about that Maverick. I think he has a real shot at winning.”

The dull and playful glare made your incessant teasing worthwhile, but what he said before he left was what made you giggle and squeeze your eyes shut once you were alone.

“Try telling me that again after I make a pretty, whimpering mess out of you.”

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prblast · 2 months

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aggravateddurian · 1 year

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SubSurf: Part 4 - the United States of North America

Please stand for the National Anthem

The map of North America as of 2079 Texas got a little spicy in this timeline... so did Florida

The United States of North America is a federal 'superstate' that occupies most of the territory of the former nations of Canada, the United States of America and Mexico. Founded in 1995, partially as a way to keep both Canada and Mexico from collapsing due to the pressures of an economic depression that hit shortly after the collapse of the USSR, which claimed many former Soviet satellites and the Russian Federation itself, today the USNA is in the top three economic powers, second only to China and ahead of the European Federation.

That doesn't mean things are great. The issues that caused the unification of Mexico, the USA and Canada are still rife. Political turmoil, economic instability and the issue of Texas seceding from the Union in 2023. The average American only has a primary school education, and the cost of living has never been higher. North America now has more countries on its landmass than it did in 1995, when the USNA was proclaimed in Washington DC: the balkanisation of California, the establishment of Cascadia, the secession of both Texas and Florida from the Union and the proclamation of the Republic of Quebec.

Focus on California

California as of 2079

North California

Capital: San Francisco Largest Industry: Technology Largest Corporation: MacroComm, EAI Systems, KhiTech

The North California Republic is the USNA's 31st state, holding this position by being the recognised successor state to the State of California. Fairly wealthy due to its strong technology sector. Living in NorCal is probably somewhat comfortable.

North California's tech industry is dominated by MacroComm, the world's largest manufacturer of human-web interfaces and websurfing equipment, as well as a watchdog for the Web, functioning similarly to Cyberpunk's NetWatch.

South California

Capital: San Diego Largest Industry: Energy Sector Largest Corporation: PacOil, SibiNeft

South California is an independent republic comprising much of Southern California, including the former Mexican state of Baja California del Sur. The formation of South California prompted the outbreak of the Second North American Continental War, the first war that saw a corporation act as a combatant power, the Transamurian corporation Sibineft, who aimed to score political points with the SoCal government to enable them to exploit Californian oil reserves.

SoCal is probably the worst of the two places. San Diego has entire districts that are declared danger zones (basically, the government's given up on trying to enforce the law there, so now they're urban battlescapes), in a constant state of flux thanks to the machinations of two competing oil companies: Pacific Oil (PacOil) and SibiNeft.

Outside, in the SoCal wildlands, CorpoSec troops tend to have to fight of warpwracks, carnivorous flora and of course, desert raiders from nomadic wilder nations. Wilders are a huge problem for the corps, because they owe no allegiance to anyone, the USNA doesn't hate them enough to put them down, and each time a corp snuffs them out, the civilian population becomes more and more sympathetic to them. SibiNeft's 'Soviet' counter-insurgency tactics of attempting to take on wilder raiders with main battle tanks and attack helicopters rarely works.

West California Free State (WesCal)

Capital: Los Angeles Largest Industry: Aerospace and Defense Sector Largest Corporation: Northstar Defence, EAI Defense, Ironbark Defense USNA, Kagiyama-Soryu

West California is an independent US territory, considered part of the USNA, but not a state. This state of affairs arose out of the Treaty of Shanghai, which ended the Second Continental War. A number of sensitive military sites fall within WesCal's territory, including Vandenberg Space Force Base, and major manufacturers for the US Armed Forces, such as Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and many functions of Edwards AFB were moved to WesCal after the war.

The largest military bases are Los Angeles AFB, Fort San Luis Obispo (formerly a National Guard Depot and training camp) and the military bases in the Morro Bay Area.

WesCal is home to the unassuming town of Morro Bay... well, it used to be, before it became the second largest city in Central California. Morro Bay (or as it's currently known, Morro City) is famous for being the setting of Night City in the Cyberpunk series. Unlike its counterpart, Night City, Morro City is actually a fairly safe and comfortable place to live... so long as you're a member of the armed forces, work for the military-industrial complex, or are a corpo exec. For everyone else, it's just marginally better than living in San Diego. At least there aren't any urban combat zones in Morro City.

Morro Bay is home to numerous bases, ever since it and the town of Los Osos were unified to form Morro City in 2026. Its development was heavily sponsored by the Big Four of the Military Industrial sector, as well as Northstar Defense, a military corp that soon became the city's biggest economic factor. Just outside Baywood is MCRD Baywood, home to the Pacific training centre for US Marines. Morro Bay itself is now home to parts of the US Pacific Fleet. Located north of the district of Morro Bay is the Northstar Training Center, where Northstar's private army trains its recruits.

Los Angeles is home to the American arm of the Japanese megacorp, Kagiyama-Soryu. Do you like the Torment Nexus? KagSor is probably working on it. Brainwashing via virtual reality? Absolutely. Soulkiller? KagSor's got something similar.

Not the USNA, not independent, but a secret third thing: Crystal City Special Administrative Region

“This is Crystal City. This is paradise.” - Crystal City Administration ad

Seal of the Crystal City Administration The Community of Nations is the SubSurf equivalent of the UN. They're just as effective as the real UN...

The SAR borders as of 2079. The inlaid map is Crystal City's limits. Everywhere between the CC city limits and the SAR border is the Crystal City Wildland, basically ungoverned territory inhabited by scrappers, scavs and nomadic wildlanders.

Crystal City is in the northern part of WesCal, on the site of the former city of Monterey. Crystal City marks the northernmost point of WesCal Free State, and therefore, is an important gateway for people travelling into WesCal from San Fran.

As Crystal City is a Special Administrative Region, it is not part of the USNA, or part of California, it is a free city under the governance of the Community of Nations Administration. Essentially, these are cities free of national government control, meant to stimulate trade and business… in theory. In practice, when the corps come out to play, everyone suffers.

The next article will be a detailed history of Crystal City and the SAR, as well as the institutions of government and security in this unique place.

#cyberpunk #urban fantasy #original fiction #subsurf universe #lore post #worldbuilding

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dertaglichedan · 1 year

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Two Navy sailors arrested on ESPIONAGE charges for 'trying to sell national defense secrets to China'

Jinchao Wei, 22, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly selling national defense information to Chinese officials Petty Officer

Wenheng Zhao, 26, was also arrested and was charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe from a Chinese official

US officials said the two sailors sold sensitive military information

Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested on espionage charges, accused of sending classified military information to a Chinese official.

Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the USS Essex based in San Diego, was arrested Wednesday on a charge related to espionage involving conspiracy to send national defense information to Chinese officials, according to U.S. officials.

They said in a news conference that the sailor provided photos of military installations and sold 'scores' of technical documents, including manuals for submersibles.

Another sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was arrested at Naval Base Ventura County north of Los Angeles and charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe from a Chinese official, U.S. authorities said.

'We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith,' U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California added at a news conference Thursday.

'Our nation's safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.'

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defenselawyersandiego · 2 years

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Criminal Justice Attorney San Diego and The Criminal Process

youtube

A crime is an omission or commission of an act forbidden or commanded by law. If a crime is committed or omitted, you may get arrested and prosecuted. Different states have their own laws. Maybe you or someone close to you was falsely accused of a crime and are feeling lost. Hire one of our criminal lawyers today so they investigate the facts and build your defense.

A lawyer will make sure that the procedures and processes surrounding your arrest were up to snuff. An experienced attorney will always look out for the little things and make sure you were treated fairly when you got arrested. They are your advocate in a time of need, so don't go with just anyone.

In Criminal Justice Attorney San Diego, for instance, several stages are involved in the process, including the crime process up to the time of probation. After a crime is reported to the local justice system, they collect evidence to try and uncover the perpetrator. That's when the criminal justice system becomes involved. When they have enough evidence, the cops will arrest the suspect. They take their fingerprints, a photo of them and then detain them for a short time before releasing them again. Sometimes people are released as soon as they've been arrested, and in some instances they have to bond themselves out. In a time like this, anyone getting arrested might want to have a defense attorney present. Some people even say it's 'mandatory'.

Within 24 hours of being arrested, you need to check in with the courthouse so a judge can decide if what they have to charge you with is reasonable. In a court appearance, the lawyer for the defendant would be answerable for him. If someone can't afford a lawyer, the judge will appoint one for them. However, it's worth it to think about hiring your own until someone who can help you is available.

Sometimes, the State Attorney General's Office reviews the arrest procedure and decides whether or not to file formal charges. The person would then have to show up for arraignment proceedings and again, it'll be necessary for them to have a lawyer representing them. Lawyers will listen to what their clients say, before entering a plea for them.

Once someone enters a guilty plea, the next step for their lawyer would be working on getting ready for trial. They can interview witnesses, be briefed by the prosecutor or take other steps in preparation. On the criminal justice process, the accused can be found not guilty when the court accepts a defense attorney's argument and reviews evidence for themselves. If found guilty of the crime, the judge will review the sentence provided by law and based on that, decide what kind of sentence to give you. If you have a chance to appeal the decision, your lawyer will need to prepare more paperwork and send it to another court.Criminal courts can be tricky to navigate. Having an experienced criminal defense attorney by your side often helps get the best possible outcome for your case. Kersey Law, for instance, are very straightforward and always has a lawyer present. You should get someone that does this type of law often to help you out. While the truth is often hidden from us, having a good criminal defense lawyer by your side is usually a very wise decision.

#Criminal Justice Attorney San Diego #Best Criminal Defense Attorney in San Diego #Defense Lawyer San Diego #Defense Attorney San Diego #Domestic Violence Lawyer San Diego #San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer #Best Criminal Defense Lawyer in San Diego #Best Sex Crimes Attorney in San Diego #San Diego Sex Office Lawyer #Assault Criminal Defense Attorney in San Diego #Youtube

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bennerinjurylawfirm · 2 years

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Injured while performing private security work? The Benner Law Firm has a proven track record of success in assisting clients in getting fair and complete compensation for their injuries. Our San Diego private security attorney is a tenacious fighter who will battle to win you the compensation you are due. For more information call us today at 619-292-0840.

#san diego california personal injury attorney #san diego burn injury attorney #burn injury lawyer in san diego #burn injury attorney in san diego

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sanjosenewshq · 2 years

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Elon Musk Confirms Intention to Purchase Twitter

By Andrew Moran Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk confirmed his intention to buy Twitter, based on a brand new Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) submitting on Monday. “We write to inform you that the Musk Events intend to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Settlement,” Musk’s legal professionals said in a letter filed with the SEC. “The Musk Events present this discover with out admission of legal responsibility and with out waiver of or prejudice to any of their rights, together with their proper to claim the defenses and counterclaims pending within the Motion, together with within the occasion the Motion shouldn’t be stayed, Twitter fails or refuses to adjust to its obligations beneath the April 25, 2022 Merger Settlement or if the transaction contemplated thereby in any other case fails to shut.” After the information, Twitter shares jumped 22 %, to $52 per share. Musk had additionally despatched a message to Twitter administration on Monday that he would transfer forward together with his unique proposal to purchase the tech agency for $54.20 per share, or $44 billion. The information, first reported by Bloomberg, resulted in Twitter shares halted of buying and selling on the New York Inventory Alternate. This comes as Musk and Twitter have been engaged in a months-long authorized battle. Each side had been scheduled to look earlier than a Delaware Chancery Courtroom on Oct. 17 as a part of a five-day trial. The Twitter software is seen on a digital machine in San Diego, Calif., on April 25, 2022. (Gregory Bull/AP Picture) Musk’s chief argument has been that Twitter misrepresented the true variety of faux accounts and spam bots, which might render the web site ineffective for advertisers. He contended that the prevalence of bots was a lot increased than Twitter’s disclosed determine of 5 %. Twitter instantly took Musk to court docket over his try to again out of the settlement. Authorized consultants purported that this was a futile endeavor as a result of it could be tough to argue that something modified from when Musk proposed the acquisition to the time he tried terminating the settlement. Elon Musk’s Twitter profile on a smartphone positioned on printed Twitter logos on this image illustration taken on April 28, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) “Writing was on the wall he couldn’t win in Delaware and this protects either side a protracted and ugly court docket battle forward. Musk will now personal the Twitter platform as an finish to this saga and cleaning soap opera that started in April,” famous Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a tweet, who was following the information. Final month, Twitter introduced that its shareholders accredited the merger settlement. Completely different Takes From the Twitterverse Many distinguished conservative personalities celebrated the information on Twitter. “Buckle up, snowflakes,” wrote former White Home official Sebastian Gorka. “I can see why Elon Musk would flip his again on the mendacity leftists at Twitter. However for the sake of free speech, I hope this deal nonetheless occurs,” said Brent Bozell, the founder and president of the Media Analysis Middle. “The very first thing Elon Musk ought to do as soon as he takes over Twitter is carry again Trump!” wrote Brigitte Gabriel, the founding father of ACT for America. Critics had been fast to level out that Musk may be continuing with the deal following a Twitter controversy on Monday. Musk proposed a four-step peace initiative between Russia and Ukraine, which sparked outcry from the Ukrainian authorities. Originally published at San Jose News HQ

#San Jose News HQ

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Former President Donald Trump and his team have spent days since the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago trying to assemble a "team of respected lawyers" but keep getting rejected, according to The Washington Post.

"Everyone is saying no," a prominent Republican lawyer told the outlet.

Trump is scrambling to find an experienced team of attorneys to defend him amid mounting legal crises. The Justice Department is investigating him under the Espionage Act after he took classified records, including some labeled "top secret," to his Mar-a-Lago residence. He also faces legal scrutiny in the DOJ's investigation into the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as well as a state civil probe in New York and a Fulton County, Ga., criminal investigation into his efforts to overturn his loss in the state.

Jon Sale, a former Watergate prosecutor who is now a prominent Florida defense attorney, told the Post he turned Trump down last week.

"You have to evaluate whether you want to take it," he said. "It's not like a DUI. It's representing the former President of the United States — and maybe the next one — in what's one of the highest-visibility cases ever."

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich defended the quality of the former President's legal team, noting that it also includes former federal prosecutors Evan Corcoran, who represented former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in his losing battle against the DOJ, and James Trusty, who was behind Trump's letter threatening a highly dubious defamation lawsuit against CNN for describing his election lies as lies.

"The President's lead counsel in relation to the raid of his home, Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran, have decades of prosecutorial experience and have litigated some of the most complex cases in American history," Budowich told the Post. "President Trump is represented by some of the strongest attorneys in the country, and any suggestion otherwise is only driven by envy."

While Corcoran and Trusty submitted filings in the case, Trump's other attorneys have been tasked with making his case to the public in media appearances.

The most visible Trump attorney has been Christina Bobb, a former anchor at the right-wing outlet OAN, where she pushed election conspiracy theories that got the network sued by defamation by Dominion Voting Systems. Bobb's federal legal experience is largely limited to a "handful of trademark infringement cases on behalf of CrossFit" while she worked for a law firm in San Diego, according to the Post. Bobb has already undermined Trump's baseless claim that the FBI may have "planted" evidence during the search while no one was looking, revealing that Trump and his family were able to watch the entire raid through CCTV.

Trump's other Florida-based lawyer is Lindsey Halligan, a Florida insurance lawyer that handles residential and commercial claims but has never handled a federal case.

Trump's other attorney in the documents investigation is Alina Habba, who has a small practice near Trump's Bedminster, N.J., golf club. She previously worked as general counsel at a parking garage company. Habba has also represented Trump in his dubious lawsuits against the New York Times, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and his niece, Mary Trump.

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman noted that this is Trump's seventh or eighth legal team since he became President.

"Finding a new one has been a challenge amid his desire to treat this as a short term PR issue as opposed to a longer term legal one," she wrote.

The New York Times reported last week that one of Trump's lawyers signed a statement in June certifying that Trump had returned all classified documents to the National Archives after a grand jury subpoena was issued in the case. Investigators subsequently learned from inside sources that there were still classified documents at the resort. It's unclear which of Trump's attorneys signed the document.

"You get these guys who just live to be around him, and mistakes get made," an unnamed attorney told the Post. "These guys just want to make him happy."

"Either the attorney acted in good faith on what turned out to be false factual representations made by Mr. Trump or someone else communicating on his behalf, in which case Mr. Trump or his proxy would have criminal jeopardy for false statements or obstruction of justice, or the attorney knowingly gave false assurances to the government," David Laufman, the former head of the DOJ's counterintelligence division, told the Post. "And it's hard to believe that a lawyer knowingly would have lied to the government about the continued presence of classified documents."

Trump, who has faced myriad legal scandals from two impeachments to local criminal investigations, has repeatedly struggled to find elite attorneys to represent him.

"In olden days, he would tell firms representing him was a benefit because they could advertise off it. Today it's not the same," former Trump lawyer-turned-critic Michael Cohen told the Post. "He's also a very difficult client in that he's always pushing the envelope, he rarely listens to sound legal advice, and he wants you to do things that are not appropriate, ethically or legally."

Another attorney recalled Trump's legal team urging him to avoid tweeting about the Mueller investigation early in his presidency only to see a tweet about it before they even got to the end of the White House driveway. "Several people said Trump was nearly impossible to represent and that it would be unclear if they would ever get paid," the Post reported.

"This is not good," one Trump confidant told the outlet. "Something big is going to pop. Somebody needs to be in charge."

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dottable · 3 years

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what really constitutes toxicity anyway ?

So you still think Paxton is toxic? Is it because of how he acts in Season 2? I get it.

Buckle up my doods, I think this will be a long one.

Based on what we've seen so far from Paxton's behavior, particularly how he responds to learning that he messed up, if you were to call him out on potential toxic tendencies, he would really listen, admit where he fell short, and make it right immediately.

Now for some bullet power points ! Some to back up what I just said, others to just further elaborate how Paxton has shown impressive growth.

Rebecca is brutally honest with Paxton.

In the first season, she sees past his remark about trying to maintain his cool facade and gets him to admit how affected he truly is by Nalini's comments. The next time we see him, he's at Devi's front door and leaving her a voicemail. In the second season, she reproached him for making Devi do his homework and how it would make him feel about future successes he will acquire going forward. This, in addition to his pep talk with Oji-chan, pushes him to work harder for better grades.

In both instances, he already had some idea of why he was behaving that way (i.e. icing out Devi and making her do his homework), but being dragged by Rebecca made him confront these issues head-on.

Devi lets Paxton know where he went wrong.

She really is the best peer tutor Paxton could ever hope to have because she also tackled Paxton's approach to school. If this were Season 1 Devi, she wouldn't be able to provide the constructive criticism he needs to improve his academic performance (See 1x03). He would still be apathetic towards school and never really deal with his insecurity surrounding intelligence. On the other hand, Season 2 Devi gave Paxton some tough love by letting him know that some things don't come easy and that he can't always just blame her for poor school performance if he fails. Don't get me wrong, it was wrong of her to shout at Paxton. That being said, she made him understand that he can't keep on relying on her guidance. She made him realize he has to take some initiative and gain some independence. When we see him again in episode 8, we see he actually read the novel and wants to contribute to his group for the trial. He even had a whiteboard and everything !! He's actually trying to improve his grades without Devi's help just like she said. Yet he still wasn't content with his performance. Enter tutor Devi once again with the best Paxton-esque advice ever: Swim to San Diego. Without this extra push, we wouldn't have gotten his thoughtful report that featured beloved Oji-chan. He attributes his first pivotal academic moment to Devi. Who knows how long Paxton would have been dependent on Devi if it weren't for those instances ?

Besides academic matters, Devi didn't hesitate to tell Paxton that their date wasn't ideal, and even knew that it wasn't the best. So he immediately offers to take her on a real date !! She also wasn't afraid to express that she wouldn't settle just being a secret. He understood that, thought about things, got the call, and realized what he had to do to make things right. Devi communicated what she wanted and why she had to walk away at first, and Paxton stepped accordingly, showing up to be her public boyfriend. It's worth noting that one of the lessons we learned in Season 2 is that when it comes to grand gestures, it's not about the physical size, but how much heart was put into it. And I think Paxton put a lot of thought into being there for Devi. His heart was definitely in the right place.

The point is Paxton’s mistakes have been brought to his attention so many times, and there has been quite the variety: He's been called out on conceited behavior, wrong mindsets he has about school, how he is as an actual boyfriend ! In every one of these scenarios, he tried to make things right immediately. No defensiveness, no denial, just determination to fix things.

If you like Ben, then that's good for you !! He's shown the capability for sweetness with both Devi and Aneesa. I appreciate that. No problems here. But to compare the two and insist that Paxton is toxic is simply unfair. I won't talk about Ben because I don't want to drag him. This post is only for boosting up characters pls.

Should we determine the nature of someone based on how many times they mess up ? That's unrealistic and unreliable because we all mess up !! Our faves are bound to fall short. That's what makes them human after all.

If we're judging someone's character, maybe we shouldn't look at how often they mess up, but we should focus on how they respond to learning they messed up.

And by that standard, Paxton is definitely not toxic.

thank you for your time, appreciate you for making it to the end. here's a meme summary of this post:

credits to @as-your-boyfriend-devi for the pic i used for the meme !!

#paxton hall yoshida #devi vishwakumar #ben gross #never have i ever #nhie #sorry so defensive all of a sudden #paxton protecc squad #we need to do better doods #paxton is trying #my ted talk #it's okay if you don't agree #just please leave daxton blogs alone #rebecca hall yoshida #PREACH THE PAXTON SOFT BOI AGENDA #can u all tell #i have feelings on the matter #but i was also being as objective as i could pls

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artielu · 4 years

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[Yes, this is long, but it is worth your time to read the whole thing.]

January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

This morning, results from the Georgia senatorial runoff elections showed that Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff had beaten their Republican opponents—both incumbents—by more than the threshold that would require a recount. The Senate is now split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, so the position of majority leader goes to a Democrat. Mitch McConnell, who has bent the government to his will since he took over the position of majority leader in 2007, will be replaced.

With the Democrats in control of both Congress and the Executive Branch, it is reasonable to expect we will see voting rights legislation, which will doom the current-day Republican Party, depending as it has on voter suppression to stay in power.

Trump Republicans and McConnell Republicans had just begun to blame each other for the debacle when Congress began to count the certified electoral votes from the states to establish that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. The election was not close—Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by 306 to 232—but Trump contends that he won the election in a landslide and “fraud” made Biden the winner.

Trump has never had a case. His campaign filed and either lost or had dismissed 62 out of 63 lawsuits because it could produce no evidence for any of its wild accusations. Nonetheless, radical lawmakers courted Trump’s base by echoing Trump’s charges, then tried to argue that the fact voters no longer trusted the vote was reason to contest the certified votes.

More than 100 members of the House announced they would object to counting the votes of certain states. About 13 senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), agreed to join them. The move would slow down the count as each chamber would have to debate and take a separate vote on whether to accept the state votes, but the objectors never had anywhere near the votes they needed to make their objections stick.

So Trump turned to pressuring Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over the counting, to throw out the Biden votes. On Monday, Trump tweeted that “the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” This would throw the blame for the loss onto Pence, but the vice president has no constitutional power to do any such thing, and this morning he made that clear in a statement. Trump then tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

It seemed clear that the voting would be heated, but it was also clear that most of the lawmakers opposing the count were posturing to court Trump’s base for future elections. Congress would count Biden’s win.

But Trump had urged his supporters for weeks to descend on Washington, D.C., to stop what he insisted was the stealing of the election. They did so and, this morning, began to congregate near the Capitol, where the counting would take place. As he passed them on the east side of the Capitol, Hawley raised a power fist.

In the middle of the day, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke to the crowd, telling them: “Let’s have trial by combat.” Trump followed, lying that he had won the election and saying “we are going to have to fight much harder.” He warned that Pence had better “come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country.” He warned that Chinese-driven socialists are taking over the country. And he told them to march on Congress to “save our democracy.”

As rioters took Trump at his word, Congress was counting the votes alphabetically by state. When they got to Arizona, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood up to echo the rhetoric radicals had been using to discredit the certified votes, saying that public distrust in the election—created out of thin air by Republicans—justified an investigation.

Within an hour, a violent mob stormed the Capitol and Cruz, along with the rest of the lawmakers, was rushed to safety (four quick-thinking staffers brought along the electoral ballots, in their ceremonial boxes). As the rioters broke in, police shot and killed one of them: Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran from San Diego, QAnon believer, and staunch Trump supporter. The insurrectionists broke into the Senate chamber, where one was photographed on the dais of the Senate, shirtless and wearing a bull costume that revealed a Ku Klux Klan tattoo on his abdomen. They roamed the Capitol looking for Pence and other lawmakers they considered enemies. Not finding them, they ransacked offices. One rioter photographed himself sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk with his feet on it.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Capitol police provided little obstruction, apparently eager to avoid confrontations that could be used as propaganda on social media. The intruders seemed a little surprised at their success, taking selfies and wandering around like tourists. One stole a lectern.

As the White House, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security all remained silent, President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to cameras urging calm and calling on Trump to tell his supporters to go home. But CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins later reported that she spoke to White House officials who were “genuinely freaked… out” that Trump was “borderline enthusiastic” about the storming of the Capitol because “it meant the certification was being derailed.”

At 4:17, Trump issued his own video, reiterating his false claims that he had been cheated of victory. Only then did he conclude with: “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” Twitter immediately took the video down. By nighttime Trump’s Twitter feed seemed to blame his enemies for the violence the president had incited (although the rhythm of the words did not sound to me like Trump’s own usual cadence): “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

As the afternoon wore on, police found two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as a truck full of weapons and ammunition, and mobs gathered at statehouses across the country, including in Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Georgia.

By 5:00, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had conferred with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and had fully activated the D.C. National Guard.

He did not mention the president.

By late evening, Washington, D.C., police chief Robert J. Contee III announced that at least 52 people had been arrested and 14 law enforcement officers injured. A total of four people died, including one who died of a heart attack and one who tased themself.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged people to stay away from Trump to limit their chances of being prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. By midnight, four staffers had resigned, as well as Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, with other, higher level officials also talking about leaving. Even Trump adviser Stephen Miller admitted it was a bad day. Quickly, pro-Trump media began to insist that the attack was a false-flag operation of “Antifa,” despite the selfies and videos posted by known right-wing agitators, and the fact that Trump had invited, incited, and praised them.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis laid the blame for today’s attack squarely at the feet of Trump himself: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, and effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

The attempted coup drew condemnation from all but the radical Trump supporters in government. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement “on insurrection at the Capitol,” saying “it is a sickening and heartbreaking sight.” “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election,” he said, and accused such leaders of enflaming the rioters with lies and false hopes. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) was more direct: “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States.”

Across the country tonight are calls for Trump’s removal through the 25th amendment, impeachment, or resignation. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have joined the chorus, writing to Pence urging him to invoke the 25th. Angry at Trump’s sabotaging of the Georgia elections in addition to the attack on our democracy, prominent Republicans are rumored to be doing the same.

At 8:00, heavily armed guards escorted the lawmakers back to the Capitol, thoroughly scrubbed by janitors, where the senators and representatives resumed their counting of the certified votes. The events of the afternoon had broken some of the Republicans away from their determination to challenge the votes. Fourteen Republican senators had announced they would object to counting the certified votes from Arizona; in the evening count the number dropped to six: Cruz (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Six senators and more than half of the House Republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government, in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying the election results.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

[Heather Cox Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. She has daily posts on Facebook that summarize the day's political events and puts them in historical context. The Facebook post link's first comment are her citations to sources.]

#read the entire thing #domestic terrorism #fuck trump #heather cox richardson

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victory-rose · 4 years

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January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

He did not mention the president.

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

#tw #tw politics #us #us politics #tw us politics

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daybreak-dragon · 4 years

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January 6, 2021

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

He did not mention the president.

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

-Heather Cox Richardson

American historian and Professor of History at Boston College

#us politics #washington dc #capitol insurrection #heather cox richardson #trump #if you aren't angry you should be #i'm absolutely furious #politics

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antoine-roquentin · 6 years

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Somebody who I wrote about in that Intercept piece was a New York Times reporter, John Crewdson in late 70s, 80s wrote these series of heartbreaking reports about sexual violence and torture and murder that are just wrenching and it was largely ignored. He won a Pulitzer for it, but it didn’t lead to larger calls for the reformation of the border patrol.

JS: Talk about some of the tactics that were used by the border patrol and also Operation Wetback.

GG: Operation Wetback was what might be called the modernization of deportation — deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrant workers mostly from California, but also from other states in the Southwest. One of the things that it did was it was an upscaling of intelligence and [an] increase in coordination of the border patrol with other law enforcement agencies, local police agencies, and even the FBI. And they put into place mechanisms that could analyze data information tips, including data about harvests and employment, act on that information, and then turn it into more intelligence that they can act again.

One of the agents in charge of that intelligence gathering, John Longan, then moved on to work for the State Department’s Public Safety Agency, which was really a front for the CIA, where he would work with intelligence agencies in third world hotspots. Longan, in particular, worked in Thailand, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. And basically, he did in those countries what he did in California was he professionalized the intelligence agency and when I say professionalized I mean increase its capacity to gather information mostly through brutal interrogations including torture, act on that information, meaning go out and capture more people, get more information through more torture, and then act on it again. The Central Intelligence Agency, that’s exactly what it does. It centralizes the activity of many of these different branches. And so, you see a direct relationship between these very brutal tactics that were worked out at Operation Wetback and then exported abroad during the Cold War.

JS: One of the things that you point out is that in the early 70s, the U.S. was training Latin American security forces. A majority of them in countries run by military governments, and they were training them at the Border Patrol Academy in Texas and the Los Angeles Times, at the time, points out that CIA instructors trained them in the design, manufacture, and potential use of bombs and incendiary devices. So, talk about that connection between the CIA and regime change in Central and Latin America and also, the training of law enforcement military intelligence by the U.S. in some of these countries.

GG: In Latin America, after the Cuban revolution in 1959, but even after the overthrow of Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954, the U.S. through its various foreign policy agencies — the State Department, the CIA — begin to focus on upscaling the internal defense capacity of security forces of its allied countries. The idea was to avoid getting into another Korean War where the United States was committed to military containment of communism and train their local allies to be able to root out what they call the internal enemy. This was the heart of the National Security Doctrine and that entailed, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, spending [an] increasing amount of money and resources and technology on professionalizing the intelligence agencies of its allied countries.

This all culminates in what becomes known as Operation Condor after the overthrow of Allende, Salvador Allende, in Chile in 1973 where the U.S. helps preside and coordinate the work of the intelligence agencies in its allied countries. Interestingly enough, the border patrol is involved in this. Who would have thought? Most critics of the border patrol, even those who criticize its brutality, tend to think of it as this kind of sleepy backwater federal agency, but it turns out that it was sending a number of its agents to allied countries as part of this police training. And in addition to bringing up police and soldiers to learn these torture techniques and bomb-building techniques and interrogation techniques in places like the Panama Canal and the School of the Americas, they were also bringing up these police officers to the Border Patrol Academy in Fresno, California.

JS: You also write: “There have been contradictory judicial rulings, but historically, agent power has been limited by no constitutional clause. There are few places patrollers can’t search, no property belonging to migrants, they can’t seize, and there’s hardly anybody they can’t kill provided that the victims are poor Mexican or Central American migrants. Between ’85 and ’90, federal agents shot 40 migrants around San Diego alone killing 22 of them. Since 2003, border patrol agents have killed at least 97 people including six children. Few agents were prosecuted.” How powerful have these agencies become — Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol — and what would it look like to even hold them accountable?

GG: They are incredibly powerful and they operate with near complete impunity. Those are the deaths and killings that we know of. It’s really a kind of lawless region, the borderlands. I would argue based on my reading of the sources is that the vast majority of abuse and brutality just went under the radar, that we just don’t know about it. Again, John Crewdson, that New York Times reporter would just offhandedly talk about border patrol agents telling him that they threw “illegals off the cliff” and made it look like an accident. They would seize their property. They would seize the documents — the birth certificate of citizens, U.S. citizens. But if they were poor and Latino, they would have to spend an enormous amount of resources trying to get their birth certificates re-issued. So, there was no, there’s no accountability. Their power is practically limitless.

JS: And this issue of separating migrant families, there wasn’t really an official government policy on this but isn’t it the case that these agents still were doing it just sort of freelance?

GG: Yeah, they would target children and migrant crossings as a way of using them as bargaining chips with their families — forcing them to confess, forcing them to turn themselves in. There’s cases of children who were U.S. citizens who were captured by the border patrol and then just released in Mexico with little recourse or means for how they can return. The practice that’s been reported on now of placing migrants in extremely cold holding centers that dates back at least to the 1980s. Crewdson reports on INS officials trading young Mexican women to Los Angeles Rams for season tickets. I mean, this is a level abuse and impunity and horror that’s hard to wrap one’s mind around.

JS: We know that thousands of children have been separated from their parents and held in prisons, camps, but at the same time, we’ve had several deaths that seem to have been preventable of children who were then taken into U.S. custody. What do you see that has happened there and is it different than deaths that happened under the Obama administration or previous presidencies?

GG: No, I think that what Trump has done is by politicizing the issue rather than making it about pragmatic or technocratic policy concern about border security, he’s pulled the curtains back to reveal the horror of the border. This has been going on — certainly, the deportations under Obama increased — and with the same intent to create a deterrent. So, in many ways, it’s a continuation. I think what Trump does is he turns it into spectacle and obviously, it’s related to maintaining his own political base right of 35, 38 percent.

JS: Trump loves to, you know, he says, “Oh, I just had you know, Nancy and Chuck —” referring to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer “— in the White House,” or their representatives. And you know, there’s all this fanfare on Twitter about how he told them to get lost, you know because they weren’t agreeing to his border. But we don’t really have an effective opposition coming from the leadership of the Democratic Party on this. Break down what we’re sort of, seeing the elites of the Democratic Party staking out as their position right now.

GG: They’re staking out the position that they’ve had basically since the late 1970s with Jimmy Carter, the idea that you can trade border security for some kind of limited reform whether it be a one-time amnesty. Bush tried this, George W. Bush, Barack Obama tried this. The idea that you can give the border brutalists, the nativists whatever they want in terms of security, in terms of billions and billions of dollars to turn the border into, what Chuck Schumer in 2013 called, “tough as nails” in exchange for some kind of one-off reform. Now we’re talking about DACA, the deferred, which would legalize the status of undocumented residents who came here as children. It’s a devil’s bargain and it can’t work.

What the Democrats need to do is that they need to seize on the migration issue as a moral issue — something equivalent of the Civil Rights issue. Just as you couldn’t have Bull Connor police departments and Jim Crow laws and call yourself a democracy in the 1960s and 1970s, you can’t have a country where over more than 10 million people live completely vulnerable in the shadows and call yourself a democracy. But the Democrats constantly trim on the issue and they’re constantly trying to — I mean, look when Schumer and Pelosi sat down with Trump, Trump said, “Well, we all agree on that border security is important” and Schumer said, “Yes, we agree on that,” and then Trump said “Well, we agree. Well, we agree on that.” So you’re seeing the Democratic leadership at least caught in the contradiction of policy impasse that’s three or four decades in the making.

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underwoodlawsociety · 5 years

Text

Freedom of Speech in South Korea

- Jaehyun Choi, Yonsei University (Justice and Civil Leadership

Abstract

It is widely accepted fact that South Korea is a consolidated democracy, but there is growing evidence that South Korea has demonstrated poor performance with respect to freedom of expression. The article begins by looking at the status of South Korea’s freedom of speech through reports presented by NGOs and international rankings. Then the article raises several issues of Korean criminal law: laws governing defamation; the rules governing election campaigns, national security limitations on free speech, restrictions related to the internet, and partisan use of state power to control the media. This article will consider each of these areas in greater detail through a brief examination of prominent cases.

Introduction

In April 2017, a former Sunchon National University Professor Park You-ha questioned a widely accepted views on comfort women and suggested that not all the women were forced and some even established “emotional bonds” with Japanese soldiers. Gwangju District Court found Professor Park guilty of defamation and issued a six-month jail term for defaming the victims of Japanese sex slavery. In the midst of intensifying feud between Seoul and Tokyo over Korea’s demand for ‘comfort women’ apology, Professor Park’s remark enraged Korean public. The Seoul High court ruled that Park insulted the victims with offensive remarks and said “Park used definitive expressions in some parts of her book which could make readers think that … the victims voluntarily joined military brothels with an intention to sell sex.”

Although there was a wide consensus on the criminal prosecution of You-ha, there was another concern over laws governing defamation. Too much restrictions on freedom of speech can cause a decline in freedom of speech. The debate about Professor Park’s offensive bigoted expressions raises a hard question: Is it acceptable for an individual to be deprived of his or her freedom of speech if his or her statement is supposedly offensive to the majority?” If there should be a limit imposed on freedom of speech, how much? Who should determine whether speech is bigoted or not? What is the best way to address this issue from policy perspective? Although this article doesn’t deal with all these questions, they help to understand the issue of criminal law governing defamation. I consider this issue in greater detail. I conclude with some comments on possible policy actions.

Keywords: Freedom of Speech, Democracy, Criminal Law

Discussion

According to International measures of freedom of speech, evaluated by Freedom House in 2011, South Korea’s performance with respect to freedom of expression has deteriorated. Freedom House downgraded South Korea’s “freedom of the press” status from “Free” to “Partly Free” in 2011, and it still remains to be “Partly Free” according to the most recent report in 2018. Freedom House classified South Korea’s “internet freedom” status as “Partly Free” in 2019. In 2012, Reporters Without Borders designated South Korea as a “country under surveillance”. In 2014, Amnesty International voiced concern over “chilling consequences of freedom of expression and association in the country”1 when South Korea’s Constitutional Court dissolved a political party in the name of national security.

In addition, Freedom House (2011) provides a lengthy explanation for the status of South Korea’s freedom of speech in 2010:

“South Korea declined from Free to Partly Free (in 2010) to reflect an increase in official censorship, particularly of online content, as well as the government’s attempt to influence media outlets’ news and information content. Over the past several years, an increasing number of online comments have been removed for expressing either pro-North Korean or anti-South Korean views. The current conservative government has also interfered in the management of major broadcast media, with allies of President Lee Myung-bak receiving senior posts at large media companies over the objections of journalists.”2

In short, South Korea is a consolidated democracy, but there is growing evidence that South Korea’s “freedom of speech” has lagged. Stephhen Haggard and Jong-sung You from University of California, San Diego argue that one of the problems identified with respect to South Korea’s “freedom of expression” is the abuse of criminal defamation.

Laws governing criminal defamation should walk a fine line between the need to protect citizens’ reputations and the need to prevent stifling free speech. In recent years, the issue of criminal defamation laws has become an international concern. ARTICLE 19, a British human rights organization, takes the position that “all criminal laws are contrary to the guarantee of freedom of expression.”

The defamation laws are needed to protect citizens from false statements or statements that are factually true but insulting. But the consequence of indictments of defamation is not only confined in criminal record of the convicted. Many other people are subsequently silenced because they are afraid of penalties associated with convictions. For these reasons, in 2012 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated that “the criminalization of libel violates freedom of expression and is inconsistent with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Since the Organization for Security and Cooperation launched a campaign against criminal defamation laws, many member states removed defamation for their criminal code.3 Nonetheless, under South Korean jurisdiction, defamation is under the criminal code which can subject defendants to imprisonment of up to five years for false statements and two years for true statements.

Figure 1 shows that in the first two decades after the Gwangju Democratization Movement, the number of indictments is quite constant, but then it skyrockets in 2003, around the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun presidencies. In 2011, the fourth year of the Lee Myung-bak administration, it reaches above 9000. Although it is hard to draw a correlation between the number of indictments for defamation and the status of democracy in Korea, sharp increase raises concerns over Korea’s freedom of speech due to previously stated reason. It can chill out other people because they are afraid of heavy penalties.

Figure 1. Indictments for Defamation, 1987-2011

UN Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Expression and Opinion Frank La Rue pointed out that “many of these criminal prosecutions are the very cases where private persons are subjected to criminal prosecution for defamation in defense of public officials’ reputation.”4 The most famous case is the PD’s Notes case. In March 2009, six producers of a documentary program PD’s Notes were accused of broadcasting the danger of mad cow disease associated with American beef. The prosecutors charged that the documentary defames the agricultural minister because the minister is the one who confirmed the safety of American beefs and decided to import them. Although the all six producers were found not guilty, the prosecution alone chilled other producers into silence.

Conclusion

A concern about South Korea’s free speech rights is not only confined in the abuse of criminal defamation law. There is an ongoing debate about National Security Law, the rules governing election campaigns, online restrictions, and so on. Examination on international rankings and reports show that South Korea’s freedom of speech has a long way to go. Based on the recommendations given by the UN Special Rapporteur, South Korean government should act in line with the global trend; remove defamation as a criminal offence from Criminal Act. Also, the public officials in high rankings should refrain from filing defamation suits so that citizens can actively practice public scrutiny.

References

1. South Korea: Ban on political party another sign of shrinking space for freedom of expression. (2014, December 14). Amnesty International News. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/12/south-korea-ban-political-party-another-sign-shrinking-space-freedom-expression/

2. Freedom House; South Korea. (2011). South Korea Status Change Explanation. Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2011/south-korea

3. Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region: A Comparative Study. (2017). Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe The Representative on Freedom of the Media, 541–562. Retrieved from https://www.osce.org/fom/303181?download=true

4. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, on his mission to the Republic of Korea (6-17 May 2010), A/HRC/17/27/Add.2, paras. 25, 89 http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G11/121/34/PDF/G1112134.pdf?OpenElement

#Yonsei University #yonsei #uls #underwood law society #legal writing #freedom of speech #democracy #south korea #republic of korea #domestic law #national law #2019-1

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theculturedmarxist · 5 years

Link

By Kevin Reed

24 June 2019

A series of recent reports—based on documents obtained from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filings and other leaked information—have revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is violating the First Amendment right to free speech and assembly by gathering social media data for surveillance purposes and targeting organizations and individuals for harassment, intimidation, deportation and arrest.

Among the facts revealed by these reports are:

DHS is using increasingly sophisticated methods for collecting and analyzing social media data to monitor political protests and demonstrations against US government policies.

These methods are being used to target left-wing and oppositional political organizations and individuals in the name of “national security” and “public safety.”

DHS is working with private security firms to scrape individual social media information including profile photographs, organizational affiliations, event activity and page roles.

Once individuals and organizations have been targeted by DHS through their social media activity, their identities and dossiers are merged with other big data resources of the surveillance state including those of the Departments of Justice, State, Defense and the CIA.

ICE’s “Anti-Trump Spreadsheet”

On March 6 of this year, the Nation published a report—based on documents obtained in a FOIA request—that shows how the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) used social media intelligence to track a series of protests in the summer of 2018. These demonstrations were organized to promote immigrant rights, oppose the deportation policies of the Trump administration and protest the politics of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

In one case, the Nation report says, the Homeland Security Investigations arm of ICE distributed an email with an attachment containing the headline “Anti-Trump Spreadsheet 7/31/2018” to a DHS representative and an undisclosed list of others on the eve of protests against racism and xenophobia in New York City.

The spreadsheet provided detailed information about demonstrations opposed to the immigration policies of the Trump administration taking place between July 31 and August 17. It included the names of groups participating in the demonstrations and the number of individuals who had signed up on Facebook to attend it.

Among the organizations listed were the Young Progressives of America, Refuse Fascism NYC, NYC Says Enough, the New Sanctuary Coalition and Rise and Resist. The Nation report says the documents show how ICE “has been keenly attuned to left-leaning political activity” and “highly aware of organizations and advocates opposed to their controversial agency, which includes detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.”

The Nation reported on another incident on July 24, 2018 where the deputy director of ICE’s New York Field Office sent an email to top local ICE officials with information copied from the Facebook event page of a demonstration scheduled to take place two days later. The information included the name of the event, the number of people who signed up on Facebook to attend it and the names of the sponsoring organizations such as the Legal Aid Society and the New Sanctuary Coalition.

The Nation quoted from the July 24 ICE email, “This e-mail is to inform you of a planned protest at the ERO [ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations] NYC Area. … The protest is being coordinated by approximately 40 different groups located throughout the NYC area.”

In response to these revelations, the New Sanctuary Coalition and other groups filed a lawsuit against ICE for violating the First Amendment by targeting prominent immigrant rights activists for surveillance, arrest and deportation. The lawsuit says that ICE specifically targeted individuals for deportation in order to suppress their political speech.

CBP’s San Diego target list

In March, NBC 7 San Diego obtained and published a series of leaked Customs and Border Protection (CBP) slides showing the agency maintained a secret database of 59 individual activists, journalists and social media influencers associated with the Migrant Caravan that was making its way to the US-Mexico border in late 2018. The leaked document, called “San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch: Migrant Caravan FY-2019, Suspected Organizers, Coordinators, Instigators and Media,” was dated January 9, 2019.

The published list contained head shots—including many gleaned from Facebook profiles—along with dossiers of the individuals, 40 of whom were US citizens. According to the NBC 7 report, “The individuals listed include ten journalists, seven of whom are US citizens, a US attorney, and 48 people from the US and other countries, labeled as organizers, instigators or their roles ‘unknown.’ The target list includes advocates from organizations like Border Angels and Pueblo Sin Fronteras.”

The NBC 7 report said that among those profiled in the document, “Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least two photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.” Other reports about the incident said that 43 of those on the list had alerts placed against their names so that they would be tagged for questioning and stopped for additional screening by US border agents. Among the information scraped from their social media accounts was their “role” in Facebook pages set up to support those in the caravan such as administrator or editor.

In one case, Nora Phillips, a US attorney who specializes in legal aid to migrants, refugees and deportees in Tijuana was listed in the database and has since been denied entry to Mexico because an alert was placed on her passport. Phillips and two other lawyers say that border agents placed them on the target list to retaliate and harass them for defending asylum seekers and being publicly critical of CBP practices.

As of May 24, four separate requests from members of Congress for detailed information about the target database—including a recent letter from US Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Udall (D-NM) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to DHS Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan—had no response.

Social media intel from private security firms

On April 29, the Intercept published a report—based on documents obtained by the America Immigration Council through a freedom of information request—showing that a private intelligence firm gathered and provided to DHS social media information on people preparing to participate in more than 600 demonstrations across the country at the end of June 2018.

According to the Intercept report, LookingGlass Cyber Solutions of Reston, Virginia scraped social media information of individuals in the days leading up to the protests against the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families at the border. This information was shared with DHS and then distributed through “fusion centers” nationwide to local law enforcement.

According to the DHS website, fusion centers operate as “focal points for the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat-related information between federal; state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT); and private sector partners.”

The Intercept said the documents showed that a LookingGlass “Threat Analyst” emailed the finished intelligence report to a “LookingGlass Shared Services” web address on June 28, two days before the protests were to take place. The analyst’s report included the following summary: “LookingGlass has compiled a spreadsheet for State Fusion Centers detailing over 600 planned ‘Family Separation Day Protests’ across the US on June 30. These originated from Cyber Threat Center (CTC) and are broken out by City and State; they provide physical location and the Facebook event ID.”

A DHS official confirmed the role of LookingGlass in social media analytics saying, “In this particular instance, a private sector entity shared unsolicited information it collected through publicly available channels with DHS I&A [Office of Intelligence and Analysis] on protests that were scheduled to take place near Federal facilities.”

The claims of “unsolicited” private sector participation notwithstanding, the involvement of firms like LookingGlass—a global provider of “360° cybersecurity and intelligence” with former CIA and US military-intelligence representatives on its executive team—indicates that corporate-military entities are involved in perfecting methods of harvesting social media information for DHS.

Brennan Center report on social media monitoring

On May 22, the Brennan Center for Justice of the NYU Law School published an extensive report entitled, “Social Media Monitoring: How the Department of Homeland Security Uses Digital Data in the Name of National Security.” This document substantiates the facts in the above reports from the Nation, NBC 7 San Diego and the Intercept and provides critical details about the scale and scope of the social media data gathering operations of DHS.

The Brennan Center document analyzes how DHS and its agencies—CPB, TSA, ICE and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—are “vacuuming up social media information” from a variety of sources and using it “to evaluate the security risks posed by foreign and American travelers.”

Among the key findings of this important report are:

Social media information is being collected from travelers, including Americans, even when they are not suspected of any connection to illegal activity

Social media checks extend to travelers’ family, friends, business associates and social media contacts

DHS is continuously monitoring some people inside the US and plans to expand these efforts

DHS is increasingly seeking and using automated tools to gather and analyze social media data

Social media information collected by DHS is shared with other law enforcement and state security agencies under broad standards

The Brennan Center report analyzes how DHS gathers basic traveler information through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)—where foreign travelers must complete an online application—and then connects it up with social media data and other “link analysis” to make an evaluation of the “national security threat” or “potential risk to the homeland” of individuals.

When an individual is applying for a visa waiver (permission to travel to the US for 90 days or less without a visa), for example, their social media information is stored in the CBP’s Automated Targeting System (ATS). The ATS data and other information are then fed “into a number of other watch lists, such as the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database and TSA Watch Lists, as well as analytical products on trends and threats.”

All of this information—about the applicant, their family and friends—is disseminated to a series of agencies including the Departments of Justice and State, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the CIA and Department of Defense through an organization called the National Vetting Center (NVC).

The NVC was established under the Trump Administration on February 6, 2018. According to the DHS website, “The NVC is a collaborative, interagency effort to provide a clearer picture of threats to national security, border security, homeland security, or public safety posed by individuals seeking to transit our borders or exploit our immigration system.”

Social media data scraping and warrantless searches

The Brennan report also reveals that as of March 2018, the State Department has begun collecting “social media identifiers” on all 15 million individuals who apply for visas each year. These identifiers are being scraped from 20 different social media platforms including the most widely used in the US (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) as well as others that are popular in China, Russia, Belgium and Latvia.

The CPB also uses warrantless searches of personal electronics at the border to gather social media information. By using powerful handheld devices called Universal Forensic Extraction Devices (UFEDs), CBP staff is copying “in a matter of seconds the entirety of a device’s memory, including all data from social media applications both on the device and from cloud-based accounts like Facebook, Gmail, iCloud and WhatsApp.”

According to the Brennan Center report, 30,200 people had their devices scrubbed in this manner at the border without a warrant in 2017. Although a subsequent lawsuit blocked these intrusions by CPB, a modification to the procedure still allows warrantless copying of device data if there is evidence of a vaguely defined “national security concern.”

The report also outlines the network infrastructure that has been erected by CBP for gathering and processing big data components from multiple sources. The CPB Intelligence Records System (CIRS) stores a “wide variety of information on individuals, including many who are not suspected of any criminal activity.” The CIRS gathers “commercial data, and information from public sources such as social media, news media outlets and the internet.”

This information gathering operation is exempt from certain requirements of the Privacy Act, such that the CIRS data “may be ingested, stored, and shared regardless of whether it is accurate, complete, relevant or necessary for an investigation. There is no public guidance on quality controls for information” in the CIRS.

Third-party data mining tools

The data from the ATS and CIRS are then integrated into a master database known as the Analytical Framework for Intelligence (AFI). According to the DHS website, the AFI has big data mining tools that provide “enhanced search and analytical capabilities to identify, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who pose a potential law enforcement or security risk.”

The AFI database is used for a host of law enforcement purposes and the analytics and data mining tools that access it are provided by third party private entities. One of these firms, Palantir, is a longtime contracting partner of the government and previously provided services to the National Security Agency in a massive public surveillance program.

The report describes the way Palantir analytics tools take “personal information about people that Palantir ingests from disparate sources—such as airline reservations, cell phone records, financial documents, and social media — and combines [it] into a colorful graphic that purports to show software-generated linkages between crimes and people.”

Another private company called Babel Street provides software that specifically scans social media platforms. The Brennan Center report says that Babel Street’s precise role is unknown, but “CPB likely uses Babel Street’s web-based application Babel X, which is multilingual text-analytics platform that has access to more than 25 social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.”

What is the Department of Homeland Security?

Since its establishment on November 25, 2002 by then-President George W. Bush, DHS has grown into a massive state apparatus of thirteen operational and support agencies with 240,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $45 billion. Founded in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks—with overwhelming bipartisan support from the Democrats and Republicans—DHS reorganized the previously separate departments of the Customs Service, the Coast Guard and the US Secret Service under one office. It was the largest federal government reorganization since the end of World War II.

From the beginning, DHS was established as a domestic instrument for suppressing democratic rights in concert with the militarism and illegal wars fought by US imperialism in the Middle East and elsewhere. Among its primary functions is to carry through the mandate of the Patriot Act of 2001—also passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and renewed in 2011 by then-President Barak Obama—which sanctions a host of undemocratic measures, including indefinite detention and warrantless searches, wiretapping and electronic surveillance, all in the name of “national security.”

During the Trump administration, DHS has shifted focus away from “the war on terror” as it had been utilized over the previous fifteen years. With the reorientation of foreign policy toward the conflict with US rivals Russia and China, DHS has been redirected towards enforcing Trump’s racist Muslim refugee ban, policing the manufactured “crisis” at the southern border and cracking down on migrants seeking asylum in America.

Understood within this context, the inclusion of social media information gathering and analytics as part the repressive apparatus of DHS is entirely in line with the attack on democratic rights and increasingly xenophobic and authoritarian character of the Trump administration.

While organizations such as the Brennan Center, the Nation and the Intercept have brought to light the use of social media data by DHS and its affiliates, their objections are largely based on appeals to Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C. and the courts to stop it. These appeals are frequently combined with criticism of the “ineffective” nature of social media data gathering as a law enforcement methodology.

The use of social media data by DHS and other federal, state and local police agencies exposes as a sham the professed opposition of various Democratic and Republicans Party politicians to “privacy violations” by the social media and technology corporations. As long as social media information is being gathered and used secretly by the state, the parties of the ruling elite have no problem with such violations.

Behind the campaign against “fake news” on social media platforms—and the growing calls for a government break-up of all the big technology companies—is a drive to censor online political content. With workers and young people internationally using social media to plan, organize and coordinate a wave of demonstrations and strikes, the ruling elite is working on the one hand to subordinate all online content to its interests and on the other to spy on the political activity of the public in order to suppress growing social opposition to the capitalist order.

The violation of free speech and assembly rights by the intelligence and surveillance state cannot be fought by appeals to the capitalist political parties and politicians. The defense of basic democratic rights can only be mounted in a coordinated struggle of the working class internationally on the basis of the fight for socialism.

#wsws #surveillance state #spying #freedom of speech #trump #us government #cops #acab #democracy #ICE #DHS #xenophobia #fascism

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