Democratic Party of Puerto Rico Calls for Statehood - 10:45 AM 10/8/2019
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Democratic Party of Puerto Rico Calls for Statehood - 10:45 AM 10/8/2019
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠ | ||
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| Democratic Party of Puerto Rico Calls for Statehood | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 08:50:38 -0400
The Democratic Party of Puerto Rico sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking her to support statehood for Puerto Rico for the same reasons she supports statehood for Washington, D.C.
“We are grateful for your support,” the letter begins, citing the Speaker’s support for equal treatment of Puerto Rico under Medicaid and other federal programs. “But the truth remains, as long as Puerto Rico continues to be a territory and the fundamental issue of statehood is not addressed by Congress, U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico will always be treated differently when invoking their rights as equal citizens under the law.”
The letter goes on to detail the basic inequality Puerto Rico experiences as a territory of the United States. Residents of Puerto Rico, even though they are U.S. citizens, cannot vote in presidential elections and do not have Senators or voting members of he House of Representatives.
“The fact is that the president and Congress approve laws and establish policies that affect the daily lives of the island residents without the consent of the governed.”
The writers remind Speaker Pelosi of the exemplary military service of citizens from Puerto Rico, recalling the death of Elis Barreto-Ortiz, one of hundreds of Puerto Rican soldiers who have given their lives for the United States without equal representation in American Democracy.
The letter continues with a reminder of fundamentals. “The 2016 Democratic Party platform states, ‘Puerto Rico should be able to vote for the people who make their laws, just as they should be treated equally’ and the belief that they ‘should determine their ultimate political status from permanent options that do not conflict with the Constitution, laws, and policies of the United States.’ The only way Puerto Rico can achieve equal treatment under U.S.laws and voting rights is by becoming a state.”
Reminder of statehood votes
The letter goes on to cite the pro-statehood votes of 2012 and 2017. The writers point out that the Democratic National Committee voted to support statehood for Puerto Rico in 2017. They remind Pelosi of the devastation of Hurricane Maria and the sluggish federal response. They also refer to the Gallup poll showing that 66% of Americans on the mainland support statehood for Puerto Rico.
“The experience of the past two years in relation to the federal response is further evidence of the neglect and discrimination allowed under our current undemocratic status,” the letter goes on.”For all these reasons and many more, the leadership of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico supports the admission of Puerto Rico into the Union.”
The letter concludes with a call for Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in Washington to do what is right, noting that “the hopes and aspirations for equality of the people of Puerto Rico rest in the leadership and members of the Democratic Party in the United States Congress.”
 
The letter is signed by Charles Rodriguez, Johanne Velez, Maria “Mayita” Melendez, and Luis Davila-Permas.
The post Democratic Party of Puerto Rico Calls for Statehood appeared first on Puerto Rico Report.
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 08:32:17 -0400
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| Puerto Rico’s reckless involvement could worsen the Venezuela crisis | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:36:57 -0400
A so-called #BarcoPuertoRico (the Puerto Rican Ship) was sent by the government of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to deliver aid to Venezuela. As with the events unfolding on the Venezuela-Colombia border, there was a lot of hype from Rosselló and his secretary of state, Luis Rivera MarÃn (a prominent Latino Republican). The U.S. territory took the calculated risk of trying to shock the world by doing something that not even the country that colonized it could accomplish: bring actual aid into Venezuela that would get attention and tip the scales in Guaidó’s quest to become the country’s next president.
Problem is, the ship never even got close.
Through a statement from Rosselló himself, the government of Puerto Rico claimed that the ship was directly threatened by the Venezuelan navy. If #BarcoPuertoRico got closer to the Venezuela, it would be shot at, risking the lives of the U.S. citizens on board. The threat was so real for Rosselló that the governor even reported it to the United States.
Rosselló’s statement caught the attention of Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. It also caught Guaidó’s eye.
On the morning of Feb. 24, however, there were serious questions about whether the threats to #BarcoPuertoRico were as real as Rosselló was claiming. The Puerto Rican government insisted that video of the alleged threat was available and that any journalist interested should contact Telemundo Puerto Rico, which had a reporter on the ship.
By late Monday night of last week, the government of Puerto Rico stood by its claims, via a tweet from CBS News’ David Begnaud. Anyone who was asking questions was essentially working for Venezuela, was in effect the message coming from a government spokesperson. Soon enough, the news fizzled out and Rosselló never provided conclusive evidence of an armed threat. The boat, which had some journalists on board, sailed back to Curacao.
The admission was not the first time that the Rosselló administration decided to play a hand in the Venezuela crisis. Before #BarcoPuertoRico, there was a plane filled with aid that allegedly landed in Venezuela early in February. That is if you believe Secretary of State Rivera MarÃn, who went on CNN en Español to proclaim that the Puerto Rican plane had indeed landed inside Venezuela. A day after MarÃn said that, he took back his claim and said the plane never did land.
It is clear that humanitarian aid to Venezuela is being used as impetus for Guaidó to gain political momentum, so it’s not a stretch to state that what Puerto Rico tried to do twice was a foreign policy move. The question is: Why is Puerto Rico, as a territory of the United States, conducting foreign policy when it can’t? Unless the U.S. State Department is aware of what Puerto Rico is doing and has given it explicit permission, the sudden pushes by Rosselló and Rivera MarÃn to focus on Venezuela are bizarre.
What if #BarcoPuertoRico had been shot and sunk? What if Rivera MarÃn’s plane had been taken down? Were these two attempts to bring aid into Venezuela a disguise to provoke an armed conflict and give the United States the justification it needed for military intervention?
These moves by the Rosselló administration are very dangerous. Even the most ardent anti-Maduro nations, particularly those in Latin America, think military intervention and war would be disastrous not only for Venezuela but also for the region. Was Puerto Rico’s humanitarian aid trying to poke a bear that doesn’t need any poking?
Rosselló no longer has a good political relationship with the Trump administration, ever since the federal government’s failed response to Hurricane MarÃa. But was this Venezuela push a way to gain some political favor with Trump? Recently Rosselló posted a photo on Twitter with Vice President Pence at the White House during the National Governors Association gala. And this week, during his reelection announcement, Rosselló told his supporters that he will not stay silent about the Maduro regime.
It’s hard to tell. Rosselló's administration and supporters dismiss these and other questions as Maduro-funded propaganda. It is easier to paint critiques of #BarcoPuertoRico as a global leftist plot than to actually answer what is Puerto Rico’s role in Venezuela policy and why did it think such moves were wise.
So we will likely never know what the real motives were, but we can say this: Puerto Rico needs to step away from being a foreign player in the most important political story of the Western Hemisphere. Rosselló's reckless involvement could trigger an armed conflict that could have an immense impact for generations to come.
Read more:
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:22:27 -0400
After massive protests, Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricky Rosselló had finally announced his resignation on Thursday, July 24 at midnight. The activist demonstrations were a response to his scandal involving his private text messages that had been released to the public. The “chat-leak” totaled to more than 800 pages riddled with offensive dialogue between fellow board members and lobbyists. Some notable remarks include calling the democratic politician and former speaker of New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito a “whore,” joking about shooting Rosselló’s political “opposer” and mayor of San Juan, Carmen YulÃn Cruz, and most shockingly, the mocking of dead bodies that have “piled up” since Hurricane Maria.
Nearly half a million people took to the streets for two whole weeks to express their shared outrage. But this rage has been building up for several decades. Puerto Rico has been drowning in the government’s debt. Back in 2016, the United States Congress passed the Puerto Rice Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), which allowed Puerto Rico to declare a form of bankruptcy; today that debt has grown to $129.2 billion dollars. In 2017, the tragedy of Hurricane Maria exacerbated all of the island’s existing problems. As many protestors in the demonstration expressed, the culmination of crisis made Rosselló’s scandal seem like the last straw on the camel’s back.
Those who were unaffected by Hurricane Maria are for the most part unaware of the destroyed state the island is still in. Since the storm, the island has been struggling to return electricity to people’s homes, provide clean water and rebuild damaged infrastructure. As many mainlanders have heard, basic needs are still not being met. Last time I spoke to my abuelo, he said islanders living in remote areas still don’t have access to clean drinking water since the storm. After the hurricane, my family on the mainland had to wait six months to hear from our relatives on the island. When we finally heard back from my abuelo, he told us that the family farm (which my Puerto Rican family relies on for food and income) was destroyed and that all the animals were gone. He showed little worry despite the destruction, even calling himself a “lucky one” for surviving the storm with his brother, sister, nephew and three-year-old granddaughter by his side. Unfortunately, many others on the island have not been so lucky.
The perception of Puerto Rico’s crisis has only been worsened by Trump’s tweets and numerical claims in regards to the hurricane and debt. At first, Puerto Rico’s government inaccurately reported 64 deaths; after backlash from the community, who noted nearly 3,000 deaths, the number was corrected. However, Trump denies the number is correct and claims the jump in deaths was something of “magic.” Trump also falsely tweeted that the Puerto Rican government had “foolishly” received $92 billion dollars in relief aid. In reality, $92 billion dollars is the estimated cost for what the island would need to be fully restored. Even so, Congress cut that number in half, declaring in courts that the Puerto Rican government will receive $42.5 billion in aid. However, almost three years have passed and only $14 billion has been received, which many people have accused Rosselló of mismanaging.
An example of Rosselló’s mismanagement, and one of the most tragic public spending cuts the island has ever seen, was the permanent shutdown of one quarter of Puerto Rico’s public schools last June. This decision was made by Julia Keleher, the Secretary of Education appointed by Rosselló. In total, 254 schools have been closed indefinitely, which has displaced 60,000 K-12 students. Moreover, many of the school closures have affected remote areas where local communities rely heavily on public schools to unify children, parents and teachers to foster a constructive upbringing for disadvantaged children. Keleher stood by her decision, claiming, “We saw in the redesign as a unique opportunity to improve the system in an inclusive, respectful and sensitive way.” One Facebook comment in response sums up the community’s feelings about school shutdowns: “No to the closing of schools. If they want to save money, then reduce the salary for themselves and stop playing with the children’s education.” What’s worse is that the school closures have disproportionately affected children living in low-income communities who were hit hardest by the hurricane.
At any rate, there are many complex issues to be dealt with on the island. At times, it’s difficult to imagine transformative change, especially considering the government’s overwhelming debt. However, after the resignation of Rosselló, optimism is at an all-time high. The win of the people sparked massive celebration. I even saw my own father become emotional with relief when he heard the news. He expressed his feelings to me over FaceTime, tearing up: “I’m so happy we got to see this in our shared lifetime. Through everything Puerto Ricans have been through, peaceful protest is able to bring change. It can happen!” I realized my dad was right. These protests were not about reacting to a scandal; they were truly a lesson. They were proof that civic action can foster real change. In any case, they serve as a much needed reminder to Americans that in a democratic state you do not have to settle for leadership you don’t approve of, and you can fight against a system of corruption in a peaceful manner.
Looking forward, many Puerto Ricans are wondering what the future government will look like. And if you weren’t wondering yourself, you should, considering that all of the billions in relief aid being given to Puerto Rico’s government, come directly from the American taxpayers. Unfortunately, the multiple arrests since the scandal have created a hole in Governor Rosselló’s line of succession. Now, Wanda Vázquez Garced is next in line and to assume the position, despite publicly voicing that she did not want the job. The appointment for responsible leadership may still be up in the air for Puerto Ricans, but America and the world should take note of this victory. In a political climate that feels divisive and difficult to change, the little island has given us a huge lesson. It wasn’t just about Rosselló’s scandal — the Puerto Rican protests were a master class on how to demonstrate your democratic rights.
Nina Nazario believes that the only way people can change politics is by engaging in organization, demonstration and peaceful protests.
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| Puerto Rico Crisis of July 2019 - Google Search | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:21:58 -0400
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:21:06 -0400
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| Puerto Rico and Venezuela - Google Search | ||
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| 6:12 AM 10/8/2019 » State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil - Google Search 08/10/19 06:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:15:51 -0400
 
» State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil - Google Search
08/10/19 06:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks Michael_Novakhov shared this story . 640 × 658 Collections Get help Send feedback BBC [PDF] Venezuela crisis: Brazil to send army to safeguard border ...
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:07:49 -0400
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| Crisis and suspicion await Wanda Vázquez | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:06:25 -0400
The woman in the line of succession to become the next governor of Puerto Rico has been criticized for her objections when facing the problems of the administration of the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, during her almost two years as head of the forces of security in the territory .
Related Note:
It is likely that these criticisms complicate the task of the secretary of Justice, Wanda Vázquez, to complete the mandate of Rosselló before a general public discontent towards the outgoing governor and some of his collaborators, after the leak of a chat in which they mocked voters and made insulting comments about women.
Vázquez, a 59-year-old former prosecutor, has limited experience directing official agencies, much less an entire government.
The secretary released a statement Thursday morning, shortly after Rosselló announced his resignation.
"We understand that it is the best decision he could make, for the good of the country and his family," he said. "We will be working together to carry out an orderly and transparent transition process."
Antes de asumir la secretarÃa de Justicia en enero de 2017, trabajó como fiscal de distrito durante dos décadas en el Departamento de Justicia de la isla, y en 2010 fue nombrada directora de la Oficina por los Derechos de las Mujeres.
Tras convertirse en secretaria, fue criticada por no ser lo bastante agresiva con investigaciones anticorrupción que afectaban a miembros de su Partido Nuevo Progresista, partidario de convertir a Puerto Rico en un estado de Estados Unidos y al que también pertenece Rosselló.
Sus detractores también dijeron que Vázquez, que como fiscal gestionó casos de agresiones sexuales y violencia doméstica, no dio prioridad a los casos de violencia de género como secretaria.
Casi dos años después de asumir el cargo, Vázquez se vio inmersa en un conocido caso judicial que le puso en contra a algunos puertorriqueños.
La Oficina de Ética Gubernamental dijo el pasado noviembre que habÃa recibido una queja de posibles infracciones éticas relacionadas con Vázquez, acusada de intervenir en un caso en el que se sospechaba de robo de propiedad del gobierno en una vivienda donde residÃa la hija de la secretaria de Justicia. Vázquez compareció ante el tribunal para afrontar cargos que incluyeron dos violaciones de las leyes de ética gubernamental. Un juez determinó en diciembre que no habÃa pruebas suficientes para detenerla.
La exfiscal será la segunda mujer gobernadora de Puerto Rico. Según la constitución de la isla, el primero en la lÃnea de sucesión si el gobernador renuncia al cargo es el secretario de Estado. Sin embargo, el secretario de Estado Luis Rivera MarÃn, uno de los 12 hombres que participó en la conversación filtrada, renunció el 13 de julio en medio del escándalo.
Poco después de que se filtrara la conversación de 889 páginas, Vázquez emitió un comunicado en el que dijo estar “profundamente afligida y triste” por los comentarios del gobernador y sus colaboradores.
“Reconozco que en la privacidad de una amistad y de una situación en particular se expresen las frustraciones y presiones del dÃa a dÃa de una manera incorrecta”, indicó. “Pero, no puedo dejar de expresar el profundo pesar que toda esta situación me causa como mujer, como madre, como profesional y como ciudadana de esta bella isla”.
Nota relacionadas:
Vázquez prometió este mes cooperar con las autoridades estadounidenses en la lucha contra la corrupción y expulsar a todos aquellos acusados de malas prácticas, después de que agentes federales detuvieran a la secretaria de Educación de la isla, Julia Keleher, y a otros miembros del gobierno acusados de corrupción.
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| Puerto Rico and Venezuela Crisis - Google Search | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:05:30 -0400
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| Puerto Rico and Venezuela Crisis - Google Search | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:05:07 -0400
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:04:38 -0400
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:03:41 -0400
Web results
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| State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil - Google Search | ||
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| State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil - Google Search | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:00:41 -0400
How America and Colombia can tackle Venezuela crisis ...
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| State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil - Google Search | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 05:59:42 -0400
Web results
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| A Tale of Two Policies: Trump’s Hypocrisy and State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil | ||
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 05:58:26 -0400
Comparing the rates of violent abuses of state security agents in Venezuela with those of state actors like Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, or Mexico, it becomes clear that Venezuela is far from being an outlier, but rather part of a disturbing pattern of abusive, tough-on-crime, “mano dura” (“iron fist”) security policies in Latin America. What is an outlier, however, is the disproportionate media attention directed at Venezuela’s human rights situation, in comparison to other Latin American nations.
Another outlier is the US approach to Venezuela, which is clearly driven by the political aims of President Donald Trump — not by any particular concern for human rights. To get a sense of Trump’s double standard when it comes to human rights, one need look no further than how his administration treats Venezuela’s neighbor, Brazil.
Trump and Venezuela
In January 2019, Juan GuaÃdo, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself the president of Venezuela. This declaration did not come out of nowhere, but, as was later reported, was coordinated with politicians and senior government officials in the United States. GuaÃdo was recognized as the president of Venezuela, in short order, by President Trump — exercising his exclusive presidential power to recognize foreign governments. Around 50 countries, concentrated in Europe and the Americas, have followed the US’s lead in recognizing GuaÃdo.
It’s worth noting that recognizing GuaÃdo is a blatant violation of customary international law, which prohibits the recognition of non-de facto governments with the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs of another state. Article 3 of the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) — of which the United States is a founding member — specifically prohibits OAS member states from “intervening in the affairs of another State.”
Trump has also violated international law by insisting that “all options are on the table” for deposing Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro — thinly-veiled code for threatening military intervention. Article 2 of the United Nations Charter prohibits member states from employing “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
Trump has used the recognition of Guaidó, and Maduro’s subsequent refusal to step down, as justification for further tightening sanctions against Venezuela’s elected government. This escalation will be disastrous, as US economic sanctions imposed since August 2017 have, according to a recent CEPR report, already led to the deaths of an estimated 40,000 Venezuelans through the end of 2018 by making it much harder for Venezuela to acquire the foreign exchange needed to import food and medicine.
The use of unilateral sanctions for the purpose of influencing another state’s behavior is, in itself, a breach of international law. Unilateral sanctions that generate a humanitarian crisis in the target state specifically violate international humanitarian law. Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (to which the US is a signatory) require states to respect the rights of all to “adequate food” and to “physical and mental health.”
Trump and Brazil
The legality of recognizing GuaÃdo rests on the argument (whether valid or not) that the mandate Maduro won in the 2018 election was illegitimate. However, if indeed the Trump administration believes that the Venezuelan elections were flawed, the administration appears to be applying a very different standard in the case of Brazil.
In the case of Venezuela, the US administration deplored the fact that various opposition politicians were excluded from running. However, in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro won because of the incarceration of former president and leading presidential candidate Lula da Silva, in judicial proceedings which were severely marred by politically-motivated collusion between a judge, SergÃo Moro — later appointed Justice Minister by Bolsonaro — and prosecutors involved in the case (a saga laid out in detail in social media messages leaked to The Intercept).
Yet, there has been no US-led effort to reject the legitimacy of Bolsonaro or recognize Lula as the president of Brazil. In fact, Trump’s approach to Venezuela — where he has used maximum pressure in an attempt to oust Maduro, violating international law every step of the way — could not be more different from his approach to Brazil.
Trump has unequivocally embraced Bolsonaro as he engages in an all-out assault on human rights in Brazil. In May 2019, Amnesty International identified eight separate areas of concerning policy changes under Bolsonaro, including undermining the ability of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to oversee abuses and infringing the rights of victims of the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. In March 2019, Human Rights Watch decried Bolsonaro’s planned state celebration of the 1964 coup d’etats.
This assault has fallen most disastrously upon the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Bolsonaro’s attacks on women, the LGBTQ community, indigenous communities, and Afro-Brazilians have already been decried in three separate letters from members of Congress to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Some defenders of the human rights of the marginalized have been driven into exile by constant death threats.
But opposition to human rights protections is part of Bolsonaro’s brand. On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro opined that “a good criminal is a dead criminal.” He has said that a criminal should not be thought of as a “normal human being” and that police who kill “criminals” should not be prosecuted, but rather given awards. He has worked to liberalize gun laws “to guarantee citizens their legitimate right to defense,”making it easier for civilians to pursue vigilante justice.
Predictably, the burden of increased state-sanctioned violence has fallen upon the racially marginalized. Police operations in Rio de Janeiro state — military-style invasions increasingly using helicopters — have disproportionately targeted Afro-Brazilian neighborhoods. Violent land grabs of indigenous territories are on the rise. In March and April of 2019, there were three massacres of indigenous people in the Amazon in 12 days.
In keeping with Trump’s pattern of praising leaders accused of human rights abuses, it perhaps comes as no surprise that upon Bolsonaro’s inauguration, he congratulated the new Brazilian president, proclaiming, “The U.S.A. is with you.” Bolsonaro did, after all, have ties to former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, and he ran a campaign, like Trump’s, that was fueled by disinformation (“fake news”).
It was still a shock to some, however, when Trump declared Brazil a “major non-NATO ally” (MNNA), a designation currently shared by only 16 other countries (plus Taiwan). With MNNA status, Bolsonaro will be granted greater access to advanced military technologies and military equipment. He will accrue the benefits of increased collaboration with the most powerful armed forces in the world as US military spending nears its post–World War II-era high reached during the Iraq War.
Comparing State Violence in Venezuela and Brazil
It is in light of Trump’s highly dissonant policies toward Brazil and Venezuela that one should read the recent report on abuses in Venezuela from the OHCHR.
The major finding of the OHCHR report, amplified by the media, was that 5,287 people had been killed in security operations in Venezuela in 2018. This 5,287 figure does not come from opposition activists or Florida Republicans. It is based on the Venezuelan government’s own accounting (see: paragraph 50 of the report).
Upon the release of the OHCHR report, The New York Times summarized it as “detailing wide-ranging government abuses targeting political opponents.” José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch (which has long had a revolving door with the US State Department), compared Maduro to notorious Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Steve Levitsky, Harvard Professor and author of 2018’s How Democracies Die (which repeatedly refers to Hugo Chávez as an authoritarian, without presenting strong evidence to back this claim), went so far as to say that Maduro was “worse than Pinochet.”
Yet, as few in the media have acknowledged, the OHCHR does not allege that many of these security-related killings were political in nature. In fact, as Gabriel Hetland has pointed out in The Nation, the OHCHR only attributes political motivations to six killings by the Fuerza de Acción Especial (FAES) — the branch of the Bolivarian National Police which features most prominently in the report (see: paragraph 52).
The nongovernmental organization Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia (Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, or OVV by its initials in Spanish) puts the number of killings by security forces at a higher figure: 7,523. Of course, the exact number of killings in Venezuela may well lie somewhere between the estimate of the government of Venezuela and the approximately 50 percent higher figure estimated by OVV.
Using this high-end figure of 7,523 killings, this means that, for 2018, there were over 20 killings by security forces per day in Venezuela. OVV also reports killings for January through May 19th, 2019, at 2,124 — or about 15 per day. This would mean state violence is down by almost 26 percent since last year. This decrease is despite the fact that Venezuela ranked as the “most worsened” country in the world on the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index for 2019 — and despite the attempted coup by GuaÃdo and his supporters on April 30th.
By contrast, state violence has been increasing in the Brazilian State of Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, police killings of civilians in the State numbered at 1,534 — the highest annual figure since 2007. In 2019, police killings numbered at 731 for January through May — the highest figure, over that time period, since 2003. These figures break down to about 4.2 police killings per day in 2018 and 4.8 per day in 2019, an increase of 15 percent — and this is only one state in Brazil.
In the spirit of Bolsonaro’s rhetorical demand for “dead criminals,” Wilson Witzel — a hardline tough-on-crime ally of Bolsonaro who has been governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro since January — has responded to these disturbing figures by declaring the increase in police killings “normal.”
“Nobody wants to kill bandits,” Witzel said. “We want to arrest them. But they need to know we are going to act with rigour. When we arrive, they either surrender, or die.” “Bandit” is, in Portugese, “bandido”— the same word Bolsonaro uses which English-language media translates as “criminal.”
It is important to consider factors which make a direct comparison of the two rates of state killings very difficult. Crucially, Venezuela was almost 76 percent more populous than the State of Rio de Janeiro in 2017, the last year for which reliable statistics are available for both (29.4 million vs. 16.7 millionresidents).
Moreover, the 2018 homicide rate in Venezuela was nearly 109 percent higher than that of Rio de Janeiro state — 81.4/100,000 vs. 39/100,000. As Venezuela is far more dangerous, it is not unreasonable to expect that police there would be under greater threat and thus respond with greater force.
Andres Antillano, Chair of Criminology at the Central University of Venezuela, has explained that Maduro’s presidency has seen a return to the same ineffective, hardline criminal justice policies which were rejected during the presidency of Hugo Chávez. He argues that increasing police killings paradoxically increase violent crime, thus encouraging even more violence from the police — which he describes as a “circle of violence.”
Bruno Paes Manso of the University of São Paulo has pointed to a similar process in the State of Rio de Janeiro, where the government increasingly sees state violence as the only way to contain crime — and yet increased brutality by the state only increases criminal violence. “If you treat [the people who live in the favelas] like enemies,” he argues, “they will organize against the state, they will see the state as their enemy.”
Upon closer examination, therefore, the patterns of violence perpetrated by state agents in Brazil and Venezuela are not so different. US policy toward these two countries, however, could not be more different.
Taking State Violence Seriously
The direct responsibility of Bolsonaro and Maduro for killings by security forces which occur during their tenure
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| ransomware - Google Search | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 18:44:06 -0400
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| FBI warns of major ransomware attacks as criminals go “big-game hunting” | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 17:54:49 -0400
The FBI has issued a public service announcement entitled "High Impact Ransomware Attacks Threaten US Businesses and Organizations." While the announcement doesn't provide any details of specific attacks, the Bureau warns in the announcement:
This pronouncement will come as no surprise to anyone who's followed the wide-ranging ransomware attacks against cities, counties, state agencies, and school districts over the course of 2019. While some of the most publicized attacks—such as the Baltimore City "RobbinHood" attack in May—have appeared to be opportunistic, many more have been more sophisticated and targeted. And these attacks are but the most visible part of an upsurge in digital crime seen by commercial information security firms thus far in 2019. In fact, sophisticated criminal attacks have nearly fully eclipsed state actors' activity—despite there not being any reduction in state-sponsored attacks.
Data from CrowdStrike has shown a rise in what the firm refers to as "big-game hunting" over the past 18 months. These attacks focus on high-value data or assets within organizations that are especially sensitive to downtime—so the motivation to pay a ransom is consequently very high.
"Big-game hunters are essentially targeting people within an organization for the sole purpose of identifying critical assets for the purpose of deploying their ransomware," said Jen Ayers, CrowdStrike's Vice President in charge of the Falcon OverWatch threat-hunting service in an interview with Ars. "[Hitting] one financial transaction server, you can charge a lot more for that than you could for a thousand consumers with ransomware—you're going to make a lot more money a lot faster."
While CrowdStrike saw a significant uptick in this sort of attack in the second half of 2018, Ayers explained, "we've seen quite a bit of that happening in the beginning half of the year, to the point where it's actually dominating our world right now in terms of just a lot of activity happening."
The industries targeted by these sorts of attacks have included healthcare, manufacturing, managed services, and media. But since May, attacks increasingly targeted state and local governments, library systems, and school districts. Since many government agencies are short on budget and security resources but have a strong need to stay up and running to provide services, they have naturally become an attractive target to these sorts of attacks.
Ayers acknowledged:
That understanding comes down to having done reconnaissance on organizations' key calendar dates. A series of ransomware attacks against schools last month appeared to be timed to have ransoms expire just before the first day of school—putting districts in the position of having to either delay opening or pay up.
Breaking and entering
The FBI IC3 notice cited three primary ways ransomware operators are getting into networks for these targeted attacks: email phishing campaigns, exploitation of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and known vulnerabilities in software.
The phishing attacks the FBI has investigated in connection with ransomware recently "have been more targeted" than past opportunistic attacks. The phishing is often focused initially on compromising the victim's email account so that an internal email account can be used to spread malware and evade spam filtering.
Email credentials may also be used in remote desktop-based attacks. But in general, the RDP attacks—common in gaining access to hospitals and other organizations that leave RDP accessible for third-party service providers to perform product support—have generally relied on one of two things. They either use brute-force "credential stuffing" attacks against logins, or they have used credentials stolen by others that are sold on underground online marketplaces.
"Once they have RDP access, criminals can deploy a range of malware—including ransomware—to victim systems," the FBI warned.
Scanning for vulnerabilities was a primary means of initial compromise for attacks such as the SamSam ransomware that hit several hospitals in Maryland in 2016. But targeted attacks are also leveraging vulnerabilities to gain a foothold to deploy their attacks. The FBI notice reported that "cyber criminals recently exploited vulnerabilities in two remote management tools used by managed service providers (MSPs) to deploy ransomware on the networks of customers of at least three MSPs." This statement is likely at least partially in reference to the over 20 Texas municipalities hit by ransomware this summer through an MSP's network.
Rent-a-hack
Two other areas of criminal hacking have spiked in the first half of this year, according to CrowdStrike's data—and one of them is tied closely to some of the ransomware attacks. Ayers said that there has been an uptick in criminal organizations essentially selling access to the networks of victims. The organizations are performing nearly nation-state style intrusions to provide other actors with a footprint for attacks.
"The higher-level organizations within the criminal realm are selling and outsourcing their distribution mechanisms to get a bigger, wider spread," Ayers said. "So we've seen a lot more players in sort of the big-game hunting than we had last year because it is now much more, much easier to do."
Smaller organizations will rent capabilities to gain access to potential victims. Then they'll use that access to perform reconnaissance before eventually dropping ransomware.
The third group seen on the rise, Ayers said, is "really still focused on the data—on exfiltrating and taking information." But this group is using more advanced capabilities to hang around, with an uptick in what Ayers described as "hands-on keyboard types of activity"—using their access to manually explore victims' networks, much like state actors have in espionage operations.
"We haven't quite yet made an inference in terms of what the objectives are at this point," she said. "But it is certainly a third tier that we hadn't seen in the past."
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| 5:42 PM 10/7/2019 - NYTIMES.COM Two Candidates, Two Investigations, One Deeply Flawed Agency With “Deep State,” James B. Stewart adds his voice to the | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 17:46:13 -0400
5:42 PM 10/7/2019
NYTIMES.COM
With “Deep State,” James B. Stewart adds his voice to the conversation
NONFICTION
Two Candidates, Two Investigations, One Deeply Flawed Agency
Image
CreditCreditJoan Wong. Photograph from John Lund/Getty Images By Jonathan Chait Oct. 7, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET
DEEP STATE
Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law By James B. Stewart
During the 2016 presidential election, one of the two major candidates labored under the shadow of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I. That candidate was Hillary Clinton. As we now know, though voters had little reason to apprehend it at the time, there were actually two investigations underway — and, while the probe into Clinton’s mishandling of emails played out in public, the more serious probe of Donald Trump’s secret political and financial connections with Russia remained largely unknown until well after the voting had concluded.
In “Deep State,” James B. Stewart, a columnist for The New York Times and the author of “Blood Sport” and “Den of Thieves,” among many other books, tells the story of both investigations. His account produces few new facts, nor a bold new thesis, that would dramatically alter our understanding of either. Instead, his contribution is to combine the two accounts into a single chronological narrative. He shows how the twin investigations turn out to be closely linked, and not just because an election pitted their subjects against each other.
The F.B.I. agents investigating Clinton’s use of a personal email account realized early on that they would never have a prosecutable case. While Clinton had violated laws pertaining to the handling of classified material, she had apparently done so out of a combination of technical ineptitude and convenience, and the government had never charged an offender without establishing nefarious motives. As a result, the bureau concluded it didn’t “have much on the intent side.”
You might think this decision made life easier for the F.B.I., which would be spared the ordeal of having to insert itself into a presidential campaign. Instead, it made life harder. The reason for this: The bureau contained what some Department of Justice officials considered “hotbeds of anti-Clinton hostility,” especially in the Little Rock and New York offices. Stewart describes how F.B.I. officials encouraged colleagues investigating the Democratic nominee with messages like “You have to get her” and “You guys are finally going to get that bitch.” James Comey, the F.B.I. director during the Clinton email probe, went so far as to tell Attorney General Loretta Lynch, “It’s clear to me that there is a cadre of senior people in New York who have a deep and visceral hatred of Secretary Clinton.” Those agents leaked regularly to right-wing media sources that the bureau was turning a blind eye to what they saw as Clinton’s criminality.
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This pressure drove Comey to make two fateful decisions. First, when he announced that the bureau was not bringing charges against Clinton, he denounced her “extremely careless” behavior, as a kind of middle course between what the law dictated and what Republicans demanded. Second, when an unrelated investigation into sex crimes by the former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner turned up more Clinton email 11 days before the election, Comey felt trapped into announcing that he had reopened the investigation.
Image“Deep State” is the product of two years of reporting. Its epigraph is a quote from Mark Twain, tweeted by Donald Trump on January 29, 2014: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
“Deep State” is the product of two years of reporting. Its epigraph is a quote from Mark Twain, tweeted by Donald Trump on January 29, 2014: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times Stewart shows how Comey violated the F.B.I.’s norm of doing everything possible to avoid involving itself in election campaigns, especially at the end. He believed that failing to intervene would lead conservative agents to leak the story — and would result in his own impeachment by the Republican Congress after the election. As a result, Comey told his staff he needed to publicly reopen the investigation lest he create “corrosive doubt that you had engineered a cover-up to protect a particular political candidate.”
This was a catastrophic violation of protocol — and probably a decisive one; as Stewart notes, the new email story led the news in six of the seven days in the final week before the election. But what drove Comey to this error was the refusal of Republicans in the bureau and Congress to accept and follow the rules. Stewart’s narrative shows Democrats still believed in institutions and norms — even after Comey’s extraordinary intervention against Clinton, he was still treated warmly by President Obama and cordially by Loretta Lynch. Comey felt bound to appease the Clinton-haters because they refused to accept any process that failed to yield their preferred outcome.
Notably, the Republican William Barr enthusiastically endorsed Comey’s decision to reopen the case against Clinton, but then — once Comey became a threat to Trump — cited that very decision as grounds to fire him. Barr’s subsequent elevation to attorney general is an ominous development that hangs over the second half of Stewart’s book.
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Unfortunately, his account of the Russia investigation is less satisfying. When Comey briefs Trump on the so-called Steele dossier and its litany of supposed ties between Trump and Russia — including the unproven allegation that Trump had watched prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room urinating on a bed where the Obamas once slept — we see the new president give suspiciously unconvincing denials. “Almost to himself, Trump repeated the year ‘2013’ and seemed to be searching his memory,” Stewart recounts. Trump tells Comey he would not need to pay for sex, and links the charges to other women who have accused him of groping them — charges that have high levels of credibility. He insists his well-known fear of germs would preclude him from enjoying such a performance, even though he could easily have done so at a safe distance.
We also see Trump or his agents dangling pardons before Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, the two advisers who had the closest political contacts with Russia and WikiLeaks, leading to both men refusing to cooperate with the investigation. We come to see Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general and supervisor of the Mueller report, as human Jell-O, losing his composure at times to the point of seeming unhinged. Stewart points out that Rosenstein agreed to meet with Trump privately. “Each time, against seemingly long odds, Rosenstein emerged with his job intact,” he notes. “What did he offer Trump in return? What threats, explicit or implied, did Trump bring to bear?”
Stewart also recounts the harsh treatment dispensed to government officials who, as a result of their involvement in the Russia investigation, became Trump’s targets. The Department of Justice publicized an affair between two agents working on the probe. It demoted the Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr after he spoke out, and ended the career of the longtime F.B.I. agent Andrew McCabe. All of these things, Stewart writes, “raise disturbing questions about their willingness to stand up to a president and preserve the long tradition of independent law enforcement and the rule of law.”
However, for all the suspicious patterns he reveals, for all the dots he connects, Stewart does not manage to produce a smoking gun that proves misconduct. We never learn the depth of Trump’s involvement with Russia, or whether he or Attorney General Barr applied undue pressure on the department. If these questions have incriminating answers, the people who hold them probably have no incentive to reveal them and possibly never will. What “Deep State” does tell us is that there are ample grounds for suspicion that Trump’s well-documented efforts to obstruct justice succeeded. To what end? That remains a mystery.
Jonathan Chait is a writer and commentator for New York magazine and the author of “Audacity” and “The Big Con.”
DEEP STATETrump, the FBI, and the Rule of LawBy James B. Stewart384 pp. Penguin Press. $30.
Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.
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Mon, 07 Oct 2019 17:38:31 -0400
Jonathan Chait is a writer and commentator for New York magazine and the author of “Audacity” and “The Big Con.”
DEEP STATETrump, the FBI, and the Rule of LawBy James B. Stewart384 pp. Penguin Press. $30.
Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.
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| Former CIA Operative Baer: Intel Community 'Self-Editing' Under Trump | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 15:45:32 -0400
Agents in the nation's intelligence communities are deciding not to risk their careers going after operatives from Russia or elsewhere because of the current actions of President Donald Trump's White House and its supporters, according to former CIA operative Robert Baer.
"They're demoralized, the federal government, especially the FBI," Baer, now a CNN intelligence and security analyst, told network correspondent Brianna Keilar. "These hard-right conspiracy theorists are claiming there is a deep state, that there is an active program to undermine this administration, which is just not true."
Baer said he's "never seen it so bad" as the current state of the nation's intelligence community under Trump, and that means Americans are "less safe."
"Let's take Syria, pulling out of Syria," said Baer. "We're less safe. This president is endangering lives by closing off the intelligence community because it is fact-based. He doesn't like the facts and it's hurting us."
Baer's comments came in response to an interview from Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who told NBC's "Meet the Press" anchor Chuck Todd that he does not trust the FBI, the CIA, and that he, like most Americans just wants the truth.
"The FBI deals in facts, as does the CIA, and you've got a lot of FBI agents asking now, the question, should I risk my retirement to go after one of these subjects whether it could be Russia, Iran or anything else?" Baer said. "They're truly worried about ending up like l because they're truly worried about ending up like the former (Deputy) FBI Director (Andrew) McCabe, under some sort of indictment or threat."
That is not only demoralizing but it's causing "major damage" to the U.S. intelligence community, said Baer.
"Let's say there is a Russian case that comes up," he said. "If you're an FBI agent, should you take it on or just turn the guy away? I can't give you specifics, but in a lot of cases they're turning them away."
He added that he knows "for a fact" that FBI and CIA agents are self-editing cases they take because of Trump.
"They don't want to touch it," he said. "They're very worried. They're saying, 'look, this is the commander in chief. We take orders from the commander-in-chief, the chief law enforcement officer. If he doesn't care about the facts involving Russia or North Korea or Iran or the rest of it, it's not our business to change it.'"
© 2019 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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| 07/10/19 14:00 - Ruling on Trump’s Tax Returns: 5 Takeaways - The New York Times | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 15:02:36 -0400
» NPR News Now: NPR News: 10-07-2019 2PM ET
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Editor’s note: This is Part II of this week’s Thinking Security column by Adam Silverman.
With the revelation Wednesday by The Washington Post, that the details and context around an Intelligence Community (IC) whistleblower’s complaint, the general public might not be aware of the intricacies of what is occurring in Washington, D.C. The complaint concerned the President of the United States and a promise or request made to a foreign leader during a phone call with that foreign leader, which might compromise our national security.
That senior intelligence officer was assigned, through at least the summer of 2019 to the National Security Council’s (NSC) national security staff to the White House. As reported, the official was so concerned by what had occurred, that a formal complaint was filed. Part I of this column detailed the reasons why the intent of the Whistleblower Protection Act appears not to be working as envisioned.
Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Jospeh Maguire will testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) next week. Maguire (he is the actual, Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, but only the acting Director of National Intelligence) is basically a caretaker administrator until the president nominates a director, who must be confirmed by the Senate to serve as DNI. This situation provides an example of why it is a bad idea for this, or any future administration, to heavily rely on acting, senior appointed officials. Even Senate-confirmed top political appointees, like cabinet secretaries and the DNI, serve at the pleasure of whichever president appoints them. Senate confirmation provides a layer of protection so that those appointees can act independently for the public good while still trying to fulfill the president’s agenda.
Image courtesy of <a href="http://Fedsmith.com" rel="nofollow">Fedsmith.com</a>
What we know of the intelligence officer’s complaint raises a major counterintelligence concern. There are several reasons for this. Despite what I’m sure will be attempts to make them partisan issues in our domestic political disputes, those concerns exist; regardless of what the president may have promised that foreign leader, whether the promise is a good idea or a bad one, or whether the promise is good for U.S. interests or bad for them.
In an attempt to cut down on information leaking by White House officials that has plagued every administration, the Trump administration stopped releasing summaries and read-outs of calls the president had with foreign leaders. The president also had limited note-taking for his phone calls and limited distributions of the transcripts of those calls to curb the leaks. He also recommended to foreign leaders that they call him on his unsecured cell phone instead of on the official White House system.
He has also limited note-takers and transcripts for other interactions with foreign leaders, including his one-on-one meetings with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. We also know that foreign intelligence services have been setting up mobile surveillance near the White House to intercept the president’s unsecured phonecalls. The Israelis have been specifically identified as one of the culprits doing the surveillance.
Counterintelligence concerns
This is where the counterintelligence concerns arise. It goes without saying that the president is unconventional. He came to the office without any previous political or public service experience. His administrative or executive experience was in running his family business, the Trump Organization, and a second and long career in reality television. The president’s unconventional approach to communicating with foreign leaders, outside advisors, and others, however, creates a counterintelligence problem for him and the United States.
That counterintelligence problem exists regardless of what he may, or may not, have promised a foreign leader over the series of phone calls and interactions at the heart of the intelligence official’s complaint. It exists whether or not it is good for the U.S. and American interests.
By getting rid of note-takers, getting rid of readouts and summaries, either eliminating or extremely restricting transcripts of his phone calls and meetings, and by often using an unsecured cell phone, the president has made it all but impossible for officials in his administration to actually document and know what he is saying to, and hearing from, the foreign leaders he is interacting with.
This places the president, and by extension, the United States, at the mercy of these foreign leaders. Right now, we do not know with whom the president was speaking to in these phone calls. It would be a safe assumption that the foreign leader was making a recording of the call, as well as having a note-taker taking detailed notes.
This provides that foreign leader with leverage over the president, and the United States, should he or she choose to use it. While those governments can disclose as much or as little of the conversations (and spin them) however they want, the United States’ government has limited information about the communications. The U.S. is, therefore, operating at an asymmetric disadvantage.
The same problems exist for the president’s one-on-one meetings with Putin and Kim. We have no officially documented notes or transcripts representing the U.S. side of the meetings. If you think that Putin and Kim didn’t record those meetings, I have a bridge and some beachfront property to sell you.
We do not know which foreign leader the president spoke with, or what, if anything the president promised that foreign leader. We don’t know if the promise is good for the U.S.’s national interest, or bad for it. We do not even know how the intelligence official came to know this information.
We don’t know if he or she was part of the limited chain of distribution for a transcript of the call. We do not know if he or she saw a Signals Intelligence Intercept (SII) of the call (which would be done if we have that foreign leader under full-time SII surveillance). We do not know if he or she was in the presence of the president when the phone call (and other, multiple activities that were reported) occurred.
But we do know one thing: the foreign leader in question knows what the president promised and, from a responsible counterintelligence perspective, it can be assumed that foreign leader has a recording of the call. That could give that foreign leader leverage over the President and the United States.
That is the major counterintelligence problem for the United States at this moment — something that should be of concern to all Americans regardless of political affiliation.
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| Top U.S. counterintelligence official praises whistleblower protections as espionage threats intensify | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 10:19:59 -0400
Strong whistleblower protections for intelligence community employees can help stem potential espionage threats from the country's top adversaries, according to the nation's most senior U.S. counterintelligence official. He weighed in amid attacks by President Trump and his allies against an anonymous intelligence community whistleblower who has filed a complaint involving Mr. Trump.
"As head of counterintelligence, I want to advocate for the Whistleblower Protection Act," Bill Evanina, who has served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) since 2014, said this week. "We do believe this is a viable, productive legislative act that we encourage employees in the intelligence community to utilize to be able to facilitate their frustration or identification of waste, fraud and abuse."
The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, passed in 1998, established a process for intelligence officers to relay matters of "urgent concern" to the intelligence community's inspector general, who, after a review, may ask the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to pass them to Congress.
"I would much rather have a whistleblower give that information to the DNI than give it to the Russians or Chinese or Iranians," Evanina said. He declined to address previous remarks made by President Trump that a whistleblower complaint now fueling an impeachment inquiry in the House was informed by "spying" in the White House.
"I would refer you to what's already been said out in the public" about the complaint, he said.
Evanina spoke to a handful of reporters on Tuesday at the NCSC headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, where he and a small team were unveiling a newly built "Wall of Spies" museum. Its exhibitions showcase the accounts of 135 U.S. spies — 119 men and 15 women — who were recruited throughout history to commit espionage by foreign powers. CBS News had the only video camera in the room.
While the museum itself will not open to the public, most of the information contained in its exhibitions will be posted online in phases in the coming months.
"From the American Revolution to the cyber revolution, spies among us have caused lasting damage to our national security," Evanina said. "And just as our adversaries and the threats we face continue to evolve, counterintelligence and security professionals…must evolve as well."
The museum's main display stretches chronologically, beginning in the late 18th century, down a hallway in one of the buildings making up NCSC's recently renovated campus. It covers the stories of well-known figures like Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, and Edward Snowden, as well as lesser-known and more recent incidents; the last spy profiled is Kevin Mallory, a former CIA officer sentenced in May of 2018 to 20 years in prison for passing national defense secrets to Chinese intelligence services.
"This museum is designed to serve as a daily reminder for all of our employees in our workforce and the broader intelligence community about the persistent threats we face from espionage and the need to remain ever vigilant," Evanina said.
Artifacts on loan from other intelligence agencies' museums — including the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency — are on rotating display. Among the items revealed Tuesday are the colored chalk and thumbtacks used by Hanssen, a former FBI agent, to pass information to his Soviet and Russian handlers, as well as the handcuffs used to arrest him.
The museum's precursor was a series of roughly 70 headshots of American spies displayed in a gloomier installation formerly known as the "Wall of Shame," whose content was donated over a decade ago by espionage artifact collector and historian H. Keith Melton. They lined a side entrance and "didn't tell a story," according to NCSC Executive Director Patricia Larson, who helped lead the more than two-year effort to research and organize the updated material.
The new museum instead includes a "Soviet Wall of Shame" that depicts six former high-ranking Soviet officials who spied for the United States during the Cold War.
"It's been said that those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it," Evanina said. "It's imperative that we understand our past and continuously learn from it."
The museum's unveiling comes amid a number of recent prosecutions involving espionage or foreign agent violations committed by U.S. officials. Last week, California resident Edward Peng was charged with delivering classified information to a Chinese intelligence service in one of three China-related cases brought in 2019 alone.
Since 2018, there have been nearly 20 alleged Chinese economic espionage or trade theft cases brought by the Justice Department.
Evanina has previously warned that China is devoting "ungodly resources" and employing "more aggressive" tactics to conduct espionage against the United States.
Julia Boccagno contributed to this report.
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| Director Of U.S. Counterintelligence William Evanina Outlines Espionage Threats : NPR | ||
Mon, 07 Oct 2019 10:08:02 -0400
Director Of U.S. Counterintelligence William Evanina Outlines Espionage Threats
Heard on All Things Considered
William Evanina, head of U.S. counterintelligence, speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about current espionage threats, as well as the whistleblower complaint against President Trump.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And I'm about to take you inside an unusual museum - unusual because most people will never see it. Normally, you need a top-secret security clearance to get up here.
So we've just walked down. You've just pulled back the curtain. And what are we looking at?
BILL EVANINA: The very first thing we see is the portrait and the story of John Jay, who we believe is the founding father of American counterintelligence.
KELLY: Speaking there is the current head of American counterintelligence, Bill Evanina. He is showing me this big portrait of John Jay, who you may remember as the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. But did you know he also helped unravel a British plot to kidnap and kill George Washington? This is part of the Wall of Spies, an exhibit chronicling traitors and tradecraft. Evanina points to his personal favorite - an East German tooth.
A fake tooth that could unscrew the top and hide microdots and film inside - wow.
The Wall of Spies relaunched this week after a big renovation - a renovation to bring it up to date with the latest espionage cases. And you can't help but notice the most recent entries all have to do with China.
We sat down with Bill Evanina in a conference room off the museum, which is at his offices, U.S. counterintelligence headquarters in the D.C. suburbs. As you're about to hear, we asked about the whistleblower and about Russia. But we started with China. I asked Evanina whether he ranks China the top intelligence threat facing the U.S.
EVANINA: Absolutely. I would double down on that. I think from a perspective...
KELLY: More so than Russia, which we seem to hear...
EVANINA: It's not even close.
KELLY: ...More about.
EVANINA: Not even close. Now, Russia is more tactical. They will spend their time and effort on onesie-twosie to see recruitments of humans in less...
KELLY: Onesie-twosie recruitments.
EVANINA: Yeah, you know, ones that they'll work really hard to think they need to get an individual here or there strategically placed where the Chinese are more like a Shop-Vac. They'll facilitate that nationwide. But they have resources that are ungodly. They have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people in the MSS that they could use, as well as...
KELLY: The MSS being Chinese...
EVANINA: The Ministry of State Security. It's a combination of their CIA and FBI together. And I think the Chinese are less worried about getting caught. The Russians are still traditional in their espionage mentality where they do not want to get caught - that's embarrassing for them - whereas you see the Chinese - it happens almost on a daily basis. They'll just continue to deny. And for them, it's a loss leader, or it's a loss that they really don't care about. It's a no-risk, high-reward concept of cyber espionage.
KELLY: There've been a lot of these cases recently. In the last year, three former U.S. intelligence officers have either been convicted or have pleaded guilty to spying for China. Meanwhile, there's almost a dozen more cases of alleged Chinese economic espionage. Can you give me some sense of how many cases you're trying to keep track of out there that haven't yet come to the charging indictment phase?
EVANINA: Oh, there's a lot - right? - and working...
KELLY: Dozens.
EVANINA: Let's say dozens - right? - and I - it's an - a law of unintended consequences here. We've gotten to our robust outreach with us and DHS and the FBI. The private sector - they report more of this. Well, you report more of it; you have more cases. So we're trying to be more effective and efficient in identifying those companies who had the valuable assets the Chinese want so we can help protect that from going outside our borders.
KELLY: You're anticipating the next thing I was going to ask, which is, what does China want? It's research development, corporate stuff. Also, just they want to get some insight into what decision-makers here are thinking.
EVANINA: Well, yes, but two separate things - I think the insight, the plans, intentions of our leaders for sure - and that's the traditional espionage. What is our mindset on energy, on trade, on our relationship with the Middle East? That's traditional espionage. But with respect to tech companies, they want to know semiconductors, nanotechnology. They want a green energy biopharma. That's the leading-edge technology they plan to steal after we spent a decade researching, developing. So when we talk about approximately $400 billion a year in economic loss, that's what that is.
KELLY: It's a big number.
EVANINA: That's a big number.
KELLY: Question number two on Russia - the last time I interviewed you, you told me that there were, give or take, a hundred Russian intelligence officers operating here on U.S. soil at any given time. Does that hold true?
EVANINA: It does not. So we were very successful subsequent to the mitigations and after the 2016 election and some of the actions...
KELLY: Kicking out Russian undercover intelligence officers...
EVANINA: Yeah, kicking out all the intelligence officers, which we believe...
KELLY: ...And shutting their consulates.
EVANINA: (Unintelligible) their consulates, and we got rid of most of them. And we've seen a significant reduction in their intelligence collection here in the U.S. So the consulates were home base for that, and I think for the first time...
KELLY: Not to get hung up on the numbers, but...
EVANINA: Sure.
KELLY: ...Where would you put it now?
EVANINA: We were successful in getting approximately 70 kicked out.
KELLY: I have to point out that they did the same thing. They kicked out a bunch of our people and shut our consulates. Has the U.S. also suffered...
EVANINA: We have in...
KELLY: ...In terms of trying to collect intelligence on the ground in Russia?
EVANINA: Great question, Mary Louise. And we have, but I think we knew making this decision from a policy perspective - the White House knew that when we made a decision to - we call PNG all these Russian diplomats...
KELLY: Persona non grata.
EVANINA: Right - that the Russians would retaliate. And we had to be able to be in a posture to facilitate working in a minimalist mentality in Moscow. And we were, for the first time, OK with doing that because we knew long-term, we had to equal the battlefield 'cause I can tell you we did not have anywhere near a hundred diplomats in Moscow.
KELLY: Are you using the term diplomats loosely?
EVANINA: Yes. Yes. Yes.
KELLY: (Laughter) On that note, I have to ask you about the whistleblower and the story that's currently dominating Washington and the nation. Understanding there's much you can't comment on, are you comfortable with how things have unfolded these last couple weeks?
EVANINA: I think it depends on where you sit.
KELLY: From where you sit.
EVANINA: Yeah, from where I sit, I am, and I'll tell you why. In the intelligence community, we have and we sit by the whistleblower protection. The legislation that was set forth is critical for us because we would prefer someone be a whistleblower in the venue that this current whistleblower did than not give the classified information to the media or to a foreign entity.
KELLY: If I hear you right, you're saying the process worked. Somebody who thought they saw behavior - not - I'm not asking you to characterize it - but thought they saw behavior that they were uncomfortable with or that crossed a line - that they were able to report it through the proper channels. It maybe took a little while, but it has reached the people it was intended to reach.
EVANINA: That would be correct. As a whistleblower fan, I think the process worked the right way.
KELLY: Given that, can you speak to the delay that it took to reach the intelligence committees? The DNI knew about this for a while, and it wasn't reported.
EVANINA: Yeah, unfortunately, I would not have optic to that, which is a good reason because I think the individuals that are in the center of that circle need to remain small and precise in - to protect the whistleblower.
KELLY: Acting DNI Maguire says he doesn't know who the whistleblower is. Do you?
EVANINA: I do not, and I don't expect to. And I think that's great that the DNI does not know that because I think that's the - one of the more fundamental parts of being a whistleblower is to avail yourself to that protective measure. And I think right now, the process continues to work.
KELLY: The president has called for the - he wants to know who the whistleblower is. You said you don't know. The DNI doesn't know. Should the president know?
EVANINA: Well, I think, in my opinion, the Whistleblower Protection Act is set forth to be able to protect the whistleblower from any reprisals or any kind of punishment that may come along. I think this is a very unique situation. And I think it's going to have to play itself out. But I'm a traditionalist in this mindset that if you make the determination - a brave determination to be a whistleblower against any kind of waste, fraud and abuse, you deserve all the protections that are provided you in the legislation.
So with respect to who needs to know that, I think that's for the attorneys involved. But for me, I think that if I was going to be a whistleblower, I would hope that my identity was able to remain confidential to protect me as I go forward.
KELLY: So bottom line, you would prefer for this whistleblower's identity to be protected and kept confidential.
EVANINA: If that's what's called for in legislation, that's correct.
KELLY: Director Evanina, thank you.
EVANINA: You're welcome. Thanks for opportunity.
KELLY: Bill Evanina - he's director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
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