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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 16h

At some point, people are going to suspect I'm paying administration officials to make my point for me:

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 3d

Terrific writeup from @nickturse.bsky.social as always.

@bcfinucane.bsky.social's point is undoubtedly correct. Yet the admin has already stated its (wrong) position that there IS an armed conflict.

So what will Congress+ courts do about it? Their post-9/11 complacency just became more dangerous.

Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · 3d

“Given that there is no armed conflict, there is no basis to hold these survivors as law of war detainees,” @bcfinucane.bsky.social, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, told @theintercept.com

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 3d

This is why I said it was so dangerous when the Trump admin stated the US is in an armed conflict with cartels. It's not just the military strikes - they are likely now going to claim the power to indefinitely detain people they decide are associated with cartels.

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 4d

There is so much phenomenal detail in this great M. Gessen profile of Francesca Albanese (details on the crushing impact of sanctions, terrific history of difficulty getting legal accountability for atrocities...) but 🤯 at seeing this point in the NYT:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/o...

M. Gessen in NYT: "International law began as a Western project — indeed, as the legal scholar Lawrence Douglas argues in his upcoming book, it has aided the Western imperial project. Its priorities have largely followed those of the Western powers. Some Western leaders cheered the I.C.C.’s arrest warrant for Putin, which it issued in March 2023, yet were appalled by the warrant for Netanyahu a year and a half later. (The court also issued a warrant for the Hamas commander Muhammad Deif, but Israel killed him.)

And just like that, the Western powers, which had never fully embraced this invention of theirs, became willing to leave international justice for dead."

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beavers

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

"If a terrorist designation doesn't authorize the president to take military action, what does it do?"

This is a question I have received a few times as small speedboats continue to be targeted by the US military with the justification that they contain designated "terrorists." 🧵

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

For more on the designations process and my view of the many associated problems, see:
digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/nslb/vol15/i...

The Danger in Designations: U.S. Terrorism Designation Lists in Gaza and Beyond

What is “terrorism”? The term has surged in U.S. political discourse following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel’s subsequent onslaught of Gaza, and escalating violence in the region...

digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

🚨It becomes punishable by criminal law for anyone to knowingly provide "material support" to the group (defined broadly)

⚖️The group may be sued in U.S. courts by private actors under the Anti-Terrorism Act

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

💲Sanctions authority unlocks, allowing the U.S. government to freeze their assets and prohibit any U.S. persons or financial institutions from transactions with the group

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

Once a group is added to the Foreign Terrorsist Organization list:

❌All associated with the group are barred from entering the United States and potentially subject to deportation if already here

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

It's an understandable question. First of all, because the U.S. government has spent more than two decades behaving as if unilaterally designating "terrorists" means we are at war with them under the "War on Terror" framework.

Here's what it actually means legally. 👇

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

"If a terrorist designation doesn't authorize the president to take military action, what does it do?"

This is a question I have received a few times as small speedboats continue to be targeted by the US military with the justification that they contain designated "terrorists." 🧵

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 6d

alright folks it's Tuesday night you know what that means

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 10d

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

More on how every president since 9/11 has made the current lawless war on cartels easier both politically and legally:

responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-911/

The roots of Trump's wars on terror trace back to 9/11

After the attacks on New York and Washington, the US built a legal framework for permanent conflict that all presidents since have systematically abused

responsiblestatecraft.org

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

My pre-Khalil et al prediction:

responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-protes...

How a post-9/11 law could enable a crackdown on speech

If Trump Justice Department lawyers want to avoid First Amendment arguments, this is likely where they'll go

responsiblestatecraft.org

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

A podcast episode discussing the problems inherent in "terrorism" frameworks:

responsiblestatecraft.org/us-terrorism...

Are you a terrorist?

New episode of 'Always at War' with Elizabeth Beavers explores how U.S. laws have been used to quash dissent

responsiblestatecraft.org

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

A condensed op-ed-size argument for why terrorism designations should be ditched:

inkstickmedia.com/its-time-for...

It’s Time for the US to Ditch 'Terrorism' Designations Altogether

Ultimately, the United States' terrorist designations are political tools that serve Washington's geopolitical goals.

inkstickmedia.com

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

My law journal article on the terrorism "designation" regime and its many dangers (focused on its application to the Gaza genocide but broadly applicable outside the context):

digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/nslb/vol15/i...

The Danger in Designations: U.S. Terrorism Designation Lists in Gaza and Beyond

What is “terrorism”? The term has surged in U.S. political discourse following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel’s subsequent onslaught of Gaza, and escalating violence in the region...

digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 17d

As we watch counterterrorism infrastructure be used to silence dissent and terrorize marginalized people, I want to re-up some of my analysis on how the law makes this possible and must be changed 👇

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 18d

Essential reading from @jakeromm.bsky.social 👇

Jake Romm @jakeromm.bsky.social · 19d

The liberal international order is dying, the culmination of a trend that was put into overdrive by the so-called global war on terror.

What’s coming is something worse, unless we stop it

My latest for @thenation.com

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Why Trump’s Venezuela Attacks Matter So Much

They signal a US empire increasingly willing to dispense with even the perfunctory legal legitimation that past presidents leaned on.

www.thenation.com

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 18d

This is an EXTRAORDINARILY dangerous development. Immediately, we need all forces of government and civil society to shut this down.

From there, it is IMPERATIVE to fully excavate the precedent and infrastructure of the War on Terror that will keep haunting us until it's gone.

President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week.

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beavers

Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 19d

Israel has just arrested Greta Thunberg and many others.

Statement from the Global Sumud Flotilla:

“People of conscience have been abducted. The flotilla broke no laws. What is illegal is Israel’s genocide, Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, and Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon.”
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 19d

Close to 65k watching the livefeed from the Global Sumud Flotilla off the coast of Gaza.

Israel seems to be intercepting right now.

All eyes needed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEN2...

24/7 LIVESTREAM OF GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA

YouTube video by Global Sumud Flotilla

www.youtube.com

80 3K 5.2K

Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 20d

way bigger news than Jimmy Kimmel 👇

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...

Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech

In a blistering opinion, a federal judge in Boston said the Trump administration used the threat of deportations to systematically intimidate certain campus demonstrators into silence.

www.nytimes.com

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 23d

Democratic leadership will do actual gymnastics to avoid talking about what they see as "wedge issues" - immigration, militarism, etc. They push the caucus not to get "distracted" from "kitchen table issues." They call it message discipline. It's cowardice.

Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 24d

Meanwhile, in Hakeemland, the only thing happening this week is health care

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Elizabeth Beavers @elizabethrb.bsky.social · 23d

The intentional conflation of civilian law enforcement, counterterrorism, mass deportation, and warfare continues, complete with a made-up enemy. Many possible ways this can get ugly fast.

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