February, 20 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kari Birdseye, NRDC, kbirdseye@nrdc.org, Â (415) 875-8243;Â Dustin Renaud, Healthy Gulf, dustin@healthygulf.org, (504) 525 1528 ext. 214
Conservation Groups Sue Trump Adminstration to Protect the Gulf of Mexico Whale
Federal agency ignored deadline to list imperiled species as Endangered
WASHINGTON
Conservation groups sued several Federal agencies today, after the Administration missed deadlines to list the Gulf of Mexico whale, a subspecies of the Bryde's whale, as an endangered species. The Gulf of Mexico whale is one of the most endangered species on the planet, with fewer than fifty whales left.
"The Trump administration's policies target the Gulf of Mexico whale for extinction," said Zak Smith, senior attorney with the Marine Mammal Protection Project at NRDC. "Every day these animals go unprotected from oil and gas development and other threats, we come that much closer to wiping them out. And when we lose them, we lose an important part of the Gulf's unique natural heritage."
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), along with Healthy Gulf, formerly Gulf Restoration Network, filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Secretary of Commerce, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), NMFS--the agency charged with protecting whales and other marine mammals--was required to take action within a year of publication of its proposed listing decision, which was December 8, 2016.
"It's beyond comprehension that these Federal agencies will not take action to protect this population of Gulf whales that they admit were impacted by the BP drilling disaster and are at risk of extinction," said Cyn Sarthou, executive director of Healthy Gulf. "These whales that are unique to the Gulf of Mexico need protection now."
The Gulf of Mexico whale population, though once found throughout much of the northern Gulf, is now reduced to the upper waters of a single submarine canyon, lying largely off the Florida panhandle. The population faces a suite of threats in the Gulf of Mexico's industrialized waters, as well as demographic, genetic, and other pressures that can drive small, range-limited populations to extinction.
NRDC and Healthy Gulf's lawsuit seeks to compel the listing of the Gulf of Mexico whale as endangered pursuant to the ESA. Once the listing occurs, all of the protections found in the ESA, such as barring all harm that threatens the species' extinction, will apply to the Gulf of Mexico whale, increasing its chances of surviving and thriving in the future.
The press release can be found online here.
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Wyden Says Spying Bill Would Force Americans to Become an 'Agent for Big Brother'
"If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy," said Sen. Ron Wyden.
Apr 17, 2024
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to speak out against a chilling mass surveillance bill that lawmakers are working to rush through the upper chamber and send to President Joe Biden's desk by the end of the week.
The measure in question would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years and massively expand the federal government's warrantless surveillance power by requiring a wide range of businesses and individuals to cooperate with spying efforts.
"If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy," said Wyden (Ore.), referring to an amendment that was tacked on to the legislation by the U.S. House last week with bipartisan support. "That means anyone with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone, or a computer. So think for a moment about the millions of Americans who work in buildings and offices in which communications are stored or pass through."
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Wyden's remarks came after the Senate narrowly approved a motion Tuesday to proceed to the FISA reauthorization bill ahead of Section 702's expiration at the end of the week. The Oregon senator, an outspoken privacy advocate, was among the seven members of the Democratic caucus who voted against the procedural motion.
Despite its grave implications for civil liberties, the bill has drawn relatively little vocal opposition in the Senate. A final vote could come as soon as Thursday.
Titled Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), the legislation passed the Republican-controlled House last week after lawmakers voted down an amendment that would have added a search warrant requirement to Section 702.
The authority allows U.S. agencies to spy on non-citizens located outside of the country, but it has been abused extensively by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency to collect the communications of American lawmakers, activists, journalists, and others without a warrant.
Privacy advocates warn RISAA would dramatically expand the scope of Section 702 by broadening the kinds of individuals and businesses required to participate in government spying. A key provision of the bill would mandate cooperation from "electronic communications service providers" such as Google, Verizon, and AT&T as well as "any other service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used" to transmit or store electronic communications.
That would mean U.S. intelligence agencies could, without a warrant, compel gyms, grocery stores, barber shops, and other businesses to hand over communications data.
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Wyden said during his floor speech Tuesday that some of his colleagues "say they aren't worried about President Biden abusing these authorities."
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More than two dozen House Democrats on Tuesday challenged the Biden administration's claim that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in compliance with domestic and international law—an assertion made amid an ongoing World Court probe of "plausibly" genocidal Israeli policies and practices in Gaza.
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The wife of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sharply criticized "assurances" the U.S. government made as the U.K. High Court considers allowing the 52-year-old Australian's extradition to the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison.
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Responding on social media, his wife, Stella Assange—who is an attorney—blasted the U.S. assurances as "weasel words."
"The United States has issued a nonassurance in relation to the First Amendment, and a standard assurance in relation to the death penalty," she said. "It makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution's previous assertion that Julian has no First Amendment rights because he is not a U.S citizen."
"The Biden administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late."
"Instead, the U.S. has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can 'seek to raise' the First Amendment if extradited," she added. "The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family's extreme distress about his future—his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in U.S. prison for publishing award-winning journalism. The Biden administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late."
The U.K. court's next hearing is scheduled for May 20. Last week, reporters asked U.S. President Joe Biden about requests from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and members of the country's Parliament to drop the extradition effort and charges. He said that "we're considering it."
So far, the Biden administration has ignored significant pressure from Australian and U.S. politicians as well as human rights and press freedom groups, and continued to pursue the extradition of Julian Assange, who was charged under former President Donald Trump—the Republican expected to face the Democratic president in the November election.
Assange was charged under the Espionage Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for publishing classified documents including the "Collateral Murder" video and the Afghan and Iraq war logs. Since British authorities dragged Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London—where he lived with political asylum for seven years—he has been jailed in the city's Belmarsh Prison.
The WikiLeaks founder's wife, with whom he has two children, was not alone in condemning the U.S. assurances on Tuesday.
"This 'assurance' should make journalists even more worried about how the Assange prosecution could impact press freedom in the U.S. and globally. The U.K. should grant Assange's appeal and refuse to extradite him," said the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "The U.S. doesn't disclaim the ability to argue that the First Amendment doesn't apply to Assange because of his nationality or other reasons, or for a court to rule against a First Amendment challenge to his prosecution."
Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, similarly said that "no one who cares about press freedom should take any comfort at all from the United States' assurance that Assange will be permitted to 'rely upon' the First Amendment."
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