MoveOn On Cyber Security and Cyber Stalking

MoveOn Decries Trump Cyber Stalking Americans While Weakening Our Cyber Security

MoveOn has uncovered a new Trump abuse of power. In Trumpworld, cyber security from Russia takes a back seat to domestic cyber stalking of his enemies in the anti-Trump resistance. Imagine being targeted by federal agencies for trying to undo some of the many harms caused by Donald Trump. Then fight back.

Dear MoveOn member,

An explosive investigative report this morning revealed that Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security spied on MoveOn and our partners at the height of the family separation crisis, when we were organizing 750 peaceful protests across the country.1

Throughout American history, government monitoring, harassment, and surveillance has been used to stoke fear, attack free speech, and cripple important movements for social justice and civil rights.

We will not be silenced or intimidated. And we will not stand idly by while our government inappropriately surveils Americans exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly—in this case speaking out against Trump’s abhorrent policy of forcibly taking migrant children from their families and putting them in cages.

In this critical moment, MoveOn needs your help to beef up our cybersecurity, to fund the fight for answers through Congress and, if appropriate, the courts, and to double down on our work to stand up to Trump.

Will you rush an emergency contribution of $3 right now to help us fight back? Click here now.

Here’s what we know happened so far: Looking Glass, a for-profit government contractor whose CEO was a donor to the Trump campaign, collected information on about 600 of the protests that MoveOn organized with the broader Families Belong Together coalition and other partners on June 30 of last year.2

That included monitoring the social media and online information about the events.3 They then passed along this information to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.4

Once the government received the information, the Trump administration deemed it important enough to share with many offices within the department, including ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and so-called “fusion centers.”5 Those “centers” are special law enforcement offices created after 9/11 that combine local police with federal officers to monitor terrorist activity, and they have long been accused of violating civil liberties.6

You read that right: DHS sent info about our peaceful protests to law enforcement groups focused on “terrorism.”

Luckily, MoveOn’s digital security protocols are best in class, and none of the private information of MoveOn members was hacked during this effort. But this operation was still a major violation of the First Amendment rights of hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members and our allies, and we must get to the bottom of exactly what happened and why Trump’s government is continuing to monitor and harass activists opposed to his policies.

We cannot let them get away with this. So please click here to rush a contribution of $3 to our efforts to fight back against this blatant attack on lawful and peaceful dissent.

We already knew that the Trump administration was putting activists, lawyers, and journalists fighting the family separation crisis onto a mysterious “watch list.”

Now, we’re finding out that the administration was also—without any legitimate law enforcement reason—monitoring the Families Belong Together protests last summer, where hundreds of thousands of people from all backgrounds gathered to express their outrage at the administration’s family separation and detention policies.

How is it that the Department of Homeland Security is spending its limited resources on disseminating information related to our peaceful protests, including at a time when white nationalist violence is on the rise? We must come together in this dangerous time to stand up to Trump’s authoritarianism and protect our civil liberties and democracy.

Stand with us. Click here to chip in $3 now.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert, Kenia, Nick, Allison, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Homeland Security Used a Private Intelligence Firm to Monitor Family Separation Protests,” The Intercept, April 29, 2019
2. Ibid. 
3. Ibid. 
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid. 

 

Trump Cyber Stalks Us Instead of Defending Us Against Cyber Attacks
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. 


An Example Of Trumps Misuse of Power Against Americans

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

Our son Scott is facing three federal felony charges for offering humanitarian aid to two migrants in the southwest borderlands of the United States. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison—for trying to avert more preventable deaths in the Sonoran Desert. 

All charges against our son should be dropped. In addition, all charges should be dropped against anyone who is providing kindness and humanitarian aid to those who are traversing the harsh and remote terrain of the Sonoran Desert. 

Drop all charges against Dr. Scott Warren that stem from his humanitarian aid work in the US-Mexico border region of Arizona. The U.S. attorney’s office must cease prosecution of all humanitarian aid workers and allow them to provide life-saving aid without fear of government harassment and prosecution.

Get Involved Here

Persons fleeing poverty, oppression, and violence in their home countries make the desperate decision to confront Arizona’s western desert, one of the harshest landscapes on earth, in search of a better life. For many, the decision ends in a painful and lonely death in the remote reaches of the Sonoran Desert.

Click here to sign this petition demanding that the U.S. attorney’s office drop all charges against Dr. Scott Warren.

No one deserves to die in the desert. And no one deserves to go to prison for trying to prevent those deaths. The work of Scott and other humanitarian aid volunteers to alleviate suffering should be upheld as a standard of virtue for all of us rather than be punished by threat of prison. Help us show the U.S. attorney’s office that there is widespread support for humanitarian aid work and that prosecuting our son is both morally wrong and politically unpopular. 

Scott’s devotion to his humanitarian work consistently inspires us. We first realized the extent of his commitment when we saw—as his parents, felt—the pain he suffered upon encountering the bodies of migrants in the desert, and the deep sense of responsibility he feels to commemorate their journeys both as migrants and as human beings. That the U.S. attorney’s office would seek to criminalize compassion and respect for human dignity is unconscionable.1

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks for all you do.
-Pam and Mark Warren

Source: 

1. “Bodies in the Borderland,” The Intercept, May 4, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65337?t=11&akid=233563%2E37212143%2E88mGmq

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. 

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