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capitol hill
150 Mennonites Arrested at Capitol for Peacefully Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire
Mennonite Action's fight against Israel's U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza is "rooted in values that our cultural or spiritual ancestors passed down: peace, justice, community, mutual aid, and service."
Jan 16, 2024
The faith-based pro-Palestinian rights group Mennonite Action on Tuesday reported that 150 members and supporters were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police for holding a peaceful occupation of the Cannon House Office Building, demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.
The group displayed signs reading, "Mennonites for a Cease-fire" and, "Let Gaza Live" as they sang hymns and other songs from a "cease-fire songbook" organizers had distributed.
On its Facebook page about two hours after the peace action began, Mennonite Action reported that "all Mennonites in the Cannon building have been placed in police custody, singing hymns through their arrest."
Mennonite Action describes itself as "a movement of Mennonites bonded by a common belief that we have a responsibility to use our voices as powerfully as possible for the cause of peace and justice."
Aleja Hertzler-McCain of the National Catholic Reporter noted that with 62,000 members of the Mennonite Church in the U.S., "if all those arrested are MCUSA members, roughly 1 in 500 Mennonite Church members were arrested today on Capitol Hill."
In addition to the action in the Cannon building, about 200 Mennonite Action members and members of the church held "a hymn sing and worship service" outside on Capitol Hill, urging members of Congress to back a cease-fire.
Last week, members of the group joined thousands of people in a march in Washington, D.C., demanding a cease-fire, and last month Mennonite Action held a national day of action, with members assembling at the offices of lawmakers including Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).
At least 24,285 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza so far. The Biden administration has repeatedly claimed that Israel is taking steps to protect civilian lives even as Israeli officials have explicitly said they plan to "flatten" the enclave.
Mennonite Action's fight against Israel's U.S.-backed occupation and bombardment of Gaza is "rooted in values that our cultural or spiritual ancestors passed down: peace, justice, community, mutual aid, and service," its website reads. "We know that these shared values fly higher than any nation's flag. We refuse to turn a blind eye to violence and oppression no matter who is perpetrating it—even, and especially, our own governments."
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Payday Loan Sharks Have Good Friend in Government: Democratic Party Chair
In backing bill to delay or block payday lender regulations, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz is aligning herself with the Republican Party
Mar 01, 2016
Sketchy payday loan sharks, whose short-term, high-interest loans trap millions of Americans in a cycle of debt, have a new ally on Capitol Hill--Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is reportedly pushing a bill that would "gut" forthcoming industry regulations.
According to a memo seen by the Huffington Post, Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is co-sponsoring legislation (pdf) to delay new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), meant to crack down on abusive payday lending that profits off deceptive terms, automatic "rollovers," staggering fees, and interest rates averaging over 300 percent annual percentage rate (APR).
The so-called "Consumer Protection and Choice Act" would delay those rules for two years and "permanently block them in any state that enacts the sort of ineffectual, industry-crafted regulatory sham Florida adopted in 2001," ThinkProgress reports.
In December, 265 civil rights, labor, and consumer advocacy groups signed a letter opposing the legislation, which they decried as "an attempt to codify industry-backed practices that do little to protect consumers."
In backing the bill, the HuffPo notes, Wasserman Shultz is aligning herself with the Republican Party, which has "assailed the agency from every conceivable angle--going after its budget, attempting to tie its hands with new layers of red tape, fomenting conspiracy theories about rogue regulators illegally shutting down businesses and launching direct attacks on payday loan rules themselves."
She is also going against public opinion. Last year, a poll by Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending showed that nearly two in three voters have a negative view of payday lenders. The same survey showed respondents viewed payday lenders as predators rather than resources by a margin of more than 3:1.
The move also puts Wasserman Schultz--who has come under fire for the DNC's perceived pro-Hillary Clinton bias--at odds with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who conceived of and established the CFPB and who has denounced payday lending schemes for targeting the poor.
As Eric Levitz of New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer said Tuesday--his tongue firmly in his cheek: "With such brave legislators leading the Democratic Party, it's difficult to understand how Bernie Sanders can get so mad at the 'Establishment'."
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Not Backing Down on Backdoors, Apple Takes Privacy Fight to Capitol Hill
Congressional hearing comes one day after Apple wins 'major legal victory' that could impact outcome of California case
Mar 01, 2016
Apple and the FBI will take their high-profile encryption battle to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with both sides calling on Congress to weigh in on the "watershed" privacy case and the significant precedents it could set.
FBI Director James Comey, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and Apple's senior vice president and general counsel, Bruce Sewell, will testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy."
Sewell is expected to reiterate Apple's argument that building a backdoor to the iPhone linked to the San Bernardino attacks "would not affect just one iPhone."
"The FBI is asking Apple to weaken the security of our products," Sewell wrote in prepared testimony (pdf). "Hackers and cyber criminals could use this to wreak havoc on our privacy and personal safety. It would set a dangerous precedent for government intrusion on the privacy and safety of its citizens."
On the other hand, Vance will urge Congress to pass a law requiring companies like Apple to retain user keys for decrypting user data, according to testimony on the committee's website. A November proposal from Vance's office argued that Congress requires any phone manufactured or sold in the U.S. "must be able to be unlocked, or its data accessed, by the operating system designer" pursuant to a court order.
Not doing so, Vance will argue, "cripples even the most basic steps of a criminal investigation."
But in a statement on Tuesday, digital rights group Fight for the Future warned that "what the FBI is asking Apple to do will make us less safe, not more safe."
"If we allow the government to set a precedent that they can force private companies to punch holes in the technological defenses that keep us safe, it's not a question of if someone to will exploit that to cause harm to the public, it's a question of when," Fight for the Future co-founder Holmes Wilson said. "Congress needs to listen to security experts by unequivocally supporting strong encryption and opposing backdoors."
The hearing will occur at 1 p.m. EST, and can be watched on C-SPAN 3. The House Judiciary Committee hosts its own livestream as well.
The proceedings come one day after Apple "scored a major legal victory" when a judge in New York ruled that the U.S. government could not compel the tech company to unlock an iPhone so investigators could analyze its data as part of a drug case.
In a 50-page ruling, Magistrate Judge James Orenstein found that the All Writs Act--the same law the government is citing in the San Bernadino case--did not justify the government's request. According to Reuters, "Orenstein also found that Apple was largely exempt from complying with such requests by a 1994 law that updated wiretapping laws."
Ars Technica writes that "[t]he ruling, the first of its kind on the topic, has no legal bearing on the outcome of the California case as they are proceeding in different federal judicial districts. Apple hopes, however, that that Riverside judge will be 'persuaded' by the decision, according to a company executive who was granted anonymity on a call with reporters."
Meanwhile, security and law enforcement experts told Politico this week, it's unlikely that investigators will find "much useful new information" even if they are granted access to the iPhone in question.
So why do all the hubbubs happen over one single smartphone?
Politico reports: "Critics say the FBI is picking a fight with Apple over long-standing tensions about the increasing impenetrability of the iPhone's encryption, rather than acting from an immediate, pressing need to extract evidence."
As one ex-Department of Homeland Security official said, echoing arguments made by Apple and its supporters: The FBI is "hoping to set a precedent."
Indeed, said former FBI special agent and whistleblower Colleen Rowley in a recent op-ed, Comey's assertion to the contrary is "disingenuous."
"Does he not know that the government's 'Plan B' secret agenda to create 'workarounds' to defeat encryption recently came to light?" Rowley wrote. "Does he expect us to believe that he was not part of the secret White House meeting last fall where senior national security officials ordered agencies to find ways to counter encryption software and gain access to the most heavily protected user data on the most secure consumer devices, including Apple Inc.'s?"
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