Facebook Primed for Illicit Funds Use/Money Laundering

Posted on July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by Denise Simon

America’s rivals are increasingly turning to bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned.

Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the technology in an attempt to counter American economic might – and an expert says these nations are forming alliances through the technology.

A form of digital money, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. Its major appeal is it is untraceable.

U.S. sanctions work by placing bans on dealings and transactions with persons, nations and companies.

When ransomware is planted on state or local government systems and theft of data occurs, cities are forced to pay ransom to regain ownership and control.

Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.

Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.

For years, ransomware has been a particularly annoying cybersecurity threat. And despite reports that cybercriminals are shifting their efforts away from encrypting malware to cryptomining malware, ransomware infections continue at an alarming rate.

In one week in March 2018 alone, government-run targets in two of the biggest cities in America — Atlanta and Baltimore — were hit by ransomware. These attacks, which disrupted important city services, are far from isolated; similar ransomware attacks have targeted U.S. municipalities for years.

Stories about smaller cities falling victim to ransomware often go unreported by the national news … or anywhere at all. Nevertheless, municipalities and cities in all corners of the U.S. have seen ransomware infect their networks.

So, here comes the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin with a major concern and warning for Facebook. What about this new Libra currency that has been launched?

(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday that the Treasury department has serious concerns that Facebook Inc’s proposed LIBRA cryptocurrency could be misused for money laundering, adding to the growing regulatory skepticism of the company’s digital asset plans.

Secretary Mnuchin also said that the agency has warned Facebook that it must enact proper safeguards against illicit use such as money laundering.

“Treasury has been very clear to Facebook…and other providers of digital financial services that they must implement the same anti-money laundering safeguards in countering the financing of terrorism as traditional financial institutions,” Mnuchin said.

Meanwhile:

Activists and Democratic lawmakers blasted the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion fine against Facebook as “chump change” and lambasted the agency’s settlement as toothless.

The settlement, which was reportedly voted along party lines, gaining support from the FTC’s three Republicans while being rejected by its two Democrats, is the beginning of the end for the agency’s probe of Facebook’s alleged mishandling of more than 87 million users’ private data during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Although the fine sets a record in terms of the agency’s actions against Big Tech, a chorus of Democratic lawmakers, technologists and activists excoriated the FTC for not doing enough and not imposing a larger penalty.

“The sad reality is that this does not go nearly far enough. For a company that last year alone generated revenue nearly 11 times greater than the reported fine, the Federal Trade Commission should send a clear signal to Facebook and so many other tech companies that privacy is their ultimate responsibility,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is chairwoman of the consumer protection and commerce subcommittee in the House, said in a statement. “If these reports are true, then they failed.”

Will Facebook pay the fine using Libra? Well, when it comes to the Facebook blockchain debate, Facebook declares the Swiss government will regulate it all. Really? There is a Congressional hearing in the Senate by the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee where Libra is to be explained. Frankly, isn’t PayPal a form of cryptocurrency too? Anyway, this testimony found here is regarding Facebook’s Libra Project.

Read it here.

The Jalisco Drug Cartel, the Terror Training Camp

Posted on July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by Denise Simon

In part:

“If you want to go, fine, get out of here. The only way out of here is in a body bag. Whoever wants to go with him better speak up now. We’re not here to play.”

“Then I understood, and we all understood, that we were in big trouble. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, but you have to stay quiet and very serious because they could take any movement the wrong way,” Francisco recalls.

For years, videos of dismembered bodies, shootings, decapitated heads and all types of violence attributed to the CJNG ran through his mind. “I thought a lot about my son,” Francisco says. He ultimately decided to stay.

A Powerful Cartel

The CJNG has grown to become one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, according to analysts and security forces. The Attorney General’s Office estimates that the cartel maintains a presence in 28 of the country’s 32 states, according to local media reports. The cartel has also established alliances with local criminal groups in the states of Durango, Campeche, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

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The CJNG has also expanded abroad, “with a significant presence not only in the United States and Mexico, but also in Europe, Asia and Australia,” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The genesis of this criminal organization, according to Sam Houston State University professor Nathan P. Jones, dates back to the July 2010 death of Sinaloa Cartel boss Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” He specialized in methamphetamine production in the region around Jalisco. When Mexican authorities killed him, his operations fragmented into several groups. One of them was led by El Mencho. He was able to take advantage of Jalisco’s geographical location near Mexico’s Pacific ports. This allowed him to increase the volume of his business thanks to the sale of methamphetamine in markets in Europe and Asia, and the sale of fentanyl in the United States. Control of the ports was key to the CJNG being able to obtain the resources that allowed them to expand territorially, to corrupt Mexican government officials and to train their assassins as an elite force.

The Training

Francisco’s training camp was in Talpa de Allende, a municipality of just over 15,000 people in western Jalisco. A group of men armed with assault rifles and portable missile launchers loaded the 19 men into luxury trucks and drove them on dirt roads out to a hidden place in the Sierra de Talpa. The first truck stopped, then someone pulled a gun out the window and shot three times, which automatically opened a gate. They all passed and, again, another three shots were fired to signal the gate to close.

Once inside, the armed men took their cell phones and stripped them. “They had some car batteries. They got us wet and made us grab the terminals. So, if you had a GPS [Global Positioning System device] hidden inside you, it would burn. The shock was so strong that I practically peed,” Francisco explained.

The local boss was a young man about 28 years old, according to Francisco. He chose a nickname to address each of them. Then the training began with instructions on how to handle short and long weapons: handguns, AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers similar to the one the CJNG used to shoot down a Mexican Army helicopter in an attack that killed seven soldiers in May 2015.

The instructors let the men know all of the cartel’s rules imposed by El Mencho. They started with those related to firearms.

“Rule number one: Your finger should always be away from the trigger. Otherwise, in front of a cartel leader or high-ranking commander, you could be considered a threat and they could kill you.”

“Rule number two: Always check the safety.”

“Rule number three: Know how to hand over a weapon. Always pass it with the butt of the gun and not the barrel.”

The instructors imposed strict discipline. One mistake could be fatal. As was the case for one of the 19 recruits who nervously failed to put together a gun.

“In the blink of an eye, he killed him. He told us that he wasn’t useful because in a real confrontation, he would panic and put us all in danger,” Francisco said. Then began what the cartel called “the christening.” They all approached the corpse of their recently murdered companion.

“What is the first rule?” the plaza boss asked.

“If there isn’t a body, there isn’t a crime to pursue,” two of the commanders responded.

“Ok, Shaggy, come here. Cut off his hand. You don’t want to do it? Just tell me you don’t want to,” one commander said.

“You knew that if you said no, they were going to kill you,” Francisco recalls. Trembling, he began to cut off the dead man’s hand. Francisco touched his forearm. “I had to do it, you have no choice. I remember the fear, the blood.”

They were going one by one. The commanders saved the most timid group of recruits for the most difficult task: to decapitate the dead man and crush his head with a stone. When the body was severed, they were forced to eat some parts of it.

“There was one recruit who couldn’t eat it and vomited, but they picked up the piece of flesh from the dirt and forced him to eat it.”

These cannibalistic practices described by Francisco coincide with what a group of cartel hitmen arrested last June revealed. They said they did it to become desensitized to violence. The Attorney General’s Office in Jalisco has discovered at least five camps that the cartel used as clandestine training centers and narco-laboratories. Two more have been dismantled in Veracruz and Tabasco.

For Francisco, this was only the first part of a three-month stay in captivity.

*** In Bolivia, where he spent over two years evading justice, he was known as Jafett Arias Becerra, a respectable cattle rancher. José González Valencia is a man of many names.

González Valencia flew in and out of Bolivia multiple times in 2016 and 2017, raising questions about how it was so easy for him to live comfortably as a wealthy cattleman when he was wanted by the United States on charges of conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine.

Bolivian authorities blame Mexico for the lapse, but also admit their fertile Santa Cruz region, known as “Bolivia’s barn,” is a popular hideout for drug traffickers on the lam. They acknowledge that they need to corral criminals like the Shrimp who find safe haven there.

A Cartel in the Crosshairs

The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) has alarmed authorities in the United States and Mexico with its brutal tactics and rapid growth since it was formed in 2011.

Based in Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, CJNG is behind some of the most notorious drug crimes of the past decade, including the 2011 torture and massacre of 35 rival cartel members in Veracruz and the downing of a military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade in 2015. The cartel even uses cannibalism as an initiation rite for new members.

The CJNG now has a presence in most of Mexico and connections in the rest of Latin America, the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia. It is responsible for trafficking at least five tons each of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States every month, according to former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Last October, Sessions announced new measures targeting the CJNG, including hefty rewards for the capture of its leaders and economic sanctions against several of the Cuinis. He also unsealed indictments of 11 alleged members of the cartel, including Jose González Valencia.

Sessions called the CJNG one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal groups in the world.

“We are hitting them from all sides and with every weapon we have,” he said at a news conference. “They are in our crosshairs. This cartel is a top priority.”

Like many criminal organizations, CJNG is a family affair. José González Valencia — the man who lived as a cattle rancher in Bolivia — is the brother-in-law of its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, who is also known as “El Mencho.”

The cartel’s rise and expansion are due largely to Los Cuinis, which according to US officials is dominated by the González Valencia family.

El Mencho’s wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, and three of her brothers, José, Gerardo, and Abigael, played a dominant role in establishing and operating Los Cuinis, with Abigael serving as “El Cuini” — the top squirrel.

In an interview with the Mexican news magazine Proceso in 2015, a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official described El Cuini as an intelligent trafficker whose diversification strategy differentiates CJNG from other cartels.

“The ‘Cuini’ focused on partnering with drug traffickers and narco-rebels of Colombia and other South American countries to sell cocaine and other drugs in Europe, without regard to the United States. That made a big difference in terms of profits earned,” he said.

“‘El Cuini’ and ‘El Mencho’ understood that there was more risk … if they were to compete with other cartels for the U.S. market,” another official told the magazine.

José González Valencia took over cartel finances after his brother Abigael was arrested in February 2015, according to the Center for Investigation and National Security, a Mexican intelligence agency. He was also allegedly responsible for providing security for the leader, El Mencho, making alliances with criminal groups in Asia and Europe, and establishing relationships with arms traffickers in the United States and Central America, Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported.

But despite his high profile, José González Valencia moved easily from Guadalajara to Bolivia, entering the country for the first time later that year. His ticket was a Mexican passport he had obtained in Guadalajara in 2013 under the name Jafett Arias Becerra.

It is unclear what he did to obtain that document, but it bought him years of freedom. In 2016, the year after he first came to Bolivia, he used it to obtain a Bolivian ID for foreigners. He was also granted a temporary stay valid for one year and applied for a second that would have been valid until March 2019.

Court records show American officials had been aware of his alias since January 2016. But according to Bolivian authorities, Interpol never issued any alerts for “Jafett Arias Becerra.”

González Valencia was finally caught in December 2017 — not in Bolivia, but in Brazil. He had flown there with a Bolivian friend, Mario Genaro Soljancic Fernandez, a vendor of veterinary products for cattle.

González Valencia was planning to meet his wife and children, who live in the United States, for a holiday in the tourist hub of Taíba on Brazil’s northeastern coast. Under Soljancic’s name, they rented a car and a seaside villa, complete with a basketball court and a small swimming pool, for 15 days.

In response to a US arrest request passed on by officials in Brasilia, police in the city of Fortaleza identified the rental car and then spent days monitoring security camera video until they found it, said Aldair da Rocha, the officer in charge of the operation. González Valencia was arrested at the stores in front of Beach Park, a nearby water park and tourist resort, on December 27, 2017. He was carrying his Bolivian ID card. Read the full fascinating wild story here from InSight. Amazing work.

Search Warrant Results on Epstein’s Home

Posted on July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by Denise Simon

Primer: Epstein’s lawyers have proposed 14 conditions for pretrial release, including the use of surveillance cameras and GPS monitoring. Prosecutors say his vast resources and history of sexual offenses make him a flight risk and a danger to the community. He is presently is the same jail, just three cells away from el Chapo Guzman. Will he soon be moved? Likely….

Moving on to the search warrant. A fake Saudi passport? Really?

In part from Reuters:

Prosecutors said their case is getting “stronger by the day” after several more women contacted them in recent days to say he abused them when they were underage.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller also revealed Monday that authorities found “piles of cash,” ”dozens of diamonds” and an expired passport with Epstein’s picture and a fake name during a raid of his Manhattan mansion following his July 6 arrest.

Epstein’s lawyers said he has not committed crimes since pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and that the federal government is reneging on a 12-year-old plea deal not to prosecute him. They said they planned to file a motion to dismiss the case and that Epstein should be allowed to await trial under house arrest in his $77 million Manhattan mansion, with electronic monitoring.

In a written submission Friday to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman, prosecutors shared new information about their investigation and why they perceive Epstein as dangerous.

They said several additional women in multiple jurisdictions had identified themselves to the government, claiming Epstein abused them when they were minors. Also, dozens of individuals have called the government to report information about Epstein and the charges he faces, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they believe Epstein might have tried to influence witnesses after discovering that he had paid a total of $350,000 to two individuals, including a former employee, in the last year. That came after the Miami Herald reported the circumstances of his state court conviction in 2008, which led to a 13-month jail term and his deal to avoid federal prosecution . “This course of action, and in particular its timing, suggests the defendant was attempting to further influence co-conspirators who might provide information against him in light of the recently re-emerging allegations,” prosecutors said.

The decade-old secret plea deal led to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s resignation last week. Acosta came under renewed criticism following Epstein’s arrest over the 2008 non-prosecution agreement he oversaw as the U.S. attorney in Miami.

In addition to the charges in the indictment, prosecutors are also reviewing dozens of electronic files seized during a raid on Epstein’s residence after his July 6 arrest, finding even more photos than the hundreds or thousands of pictures of nude and seminude young women and girls they had reported prior to a court hearing a week ago.

In their submission to the judge, Epstein’s lawyers say their client has had a clean record since he began registering as a sex offender after his Florida conviction.

They said the accusations against Epstein are “outside the margins of federal criminal law” and don’t constitute sex trafficking since there were no allegations he “trafficked anybody for commercial profit; that he forced, coerced, defrauded, or enslaved anybody.”

Prosecutors said efforts by defense lawyers to characterize Epstein’s crimes as “simple prostitution” were “not only offensive but also utterly irrelevant given that federal law does not recognize the concept of a child prostitute – there are only trafficking victims – because a child cannot legally consent to being exploited.”

Last week, USAToday reported in part:

Federal agents who searched the East Side Manhattan mansion of wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein turned up a “vast trove of lewd photographs” of young-looking girls, including hundreds of meticulously labeled nude pictures locked in a safe, according to federal court documents.

The description, laid out ina memo by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, was aimed at convincing a federal judge that Epstein, who was arrested July 6 upon return from Paris on his private jet, should not be freed pending trial on charges of sex trafficking.

Agents used crowbars to force open the front door of the seven-story Upper East Side mansion.

The memo said the search turned up not only evidence supporting its sex trafficking allegations against Esptein but also “hundreds – and perhaps thousands – of sexually suggestive photographs of fully – or partially – nude females.”

Then in the Irish press, there is the matter of the Prince…

Prosecuters believed Jeffrey Epstein was tampering with potential witnesses when he was investigated over underage sex crime allegations, court documents have revealed.

A document titled ‘Statement of Undisputed Facts; drawn up in 2008 by Bradley Edwards, a lawyer for one of Epstein’s victims says: “Edwards has had a good basis to believe and did in fact believe that to avoid the Government learning about his abuse of minor girls, Epstein threatened his employees and demanded that they not cooperate with the government.

“Epstein’s aggressive witness tampering was so severe that the United States Attorney’s Office prepared negotiated plea agreements containing these charges.”

The documents describe Epstein ‘harassing and pressuring’ one of his alleged sex slaves into not co-operating with the investigation.

Following a complaint from the mother of a 14-year-old from Florida, Epstein was arrested on suspicions of paying her £130 for an erotic massage in 2005.

More than a dozen victims had come forward with similar tales of their abuse at the hands of Epstein when he secured a controversial deal with US prosecutors.

Those who did not co-operate with Epstein were apparently warned ‘bad things’ would happen to them if they helped prosecutors, the Daily Mail reports.

Epstein pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of soliciting minors – which earned him an 18-month jail sentence of which he served less than 13 months. But he was granted immunity from prosecution on a series of other underage sex charges that could have seen him locked away for a decade.

Epstein is a self-made billionaire who met Prince Andrew on several occasions around the world in exclusive locations during a close relationship spanning a decade.

Epstein’s global property portfolio included Manhattan’s largest private residence, a ranch in New Mexico, a mansion in Florida and private island neighbouring Richard Branson’s in the Caribbean.

He claimed the likes of former US president Bill Clinton, supermodel Naomi Campbell and actor Kevin Spacey were among his friends and house guests. Although there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on their part.

A father of one of his students recommended him to a Wall Street financier who set Epstein on the path to untold riches. One estimate puts his overall wealth at more than one billion dollars.

His true wealth remains unknown as much is hidden in the Caribbean tax haven of the US Virgin Islands.

It is believed Prince Andrew met Epstein through former wife Sarah Ferguson and Epstein’s companion Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell was the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991 after falling from his yacht when it emerged he had stolen hundreds of millions from the Daily Mirror pension fund. Epstein earned her gratitude and unswerving loyalty when he picked her up after her father’s death.

But court documents filed last week say their relationship took a sinister turn when Maxwell became “one of the main women whom Epstein used to procure under-aged girls for sexual activities and a primary co-conspirator in his sexual abuse and sex-trafficking”.

Roberts’ lawyers claim Maxwell took part in the sexual abuse and “took numerous sexually explicit pictures of underage girls involved in sexual activities” and shared these with Epstein.

In a strong rebuttal of the claims Maxwell said: “The original allegations are not new and have been fully responded to and shown to be untrue.

“Each time the story is retold it changes with new salacious details about public figures and world leaders. Ms Roberts’ claims are obvious lies and should be treated as such.”

The documents claim Epstein groomed “dozens” of children by inviting them to his Florida mansion to give him a massage which “turned into a sexual encounter”.

The private Caribbean island, called Little St James, allegedly became the scene of riotous orgies involving under-aged girls flown in from eastern Europe.

The home of American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Palm Beach (Image: Splash)

It is claimed that Virginia Roberts became Epstein’s “sex slave” and that he made her “available for sex to politically-connected and financially-powerful people”.

Prince Andrew is one of those identified by Roberts, a claim he emphatically denies.

The court document claim Epstein offered Roberts and other girls to influential friends and contact in order to “ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political and financial gain, as well as to obtain potential blackmail information”.

There is no suggestion Prince Andrew was aware of Epstein’s sordid other life. But they regularly enjoyed each other’s company.

Epstein flew in his private Gulfstream jet to the Bahamas in 1998 to meet Fergie and her daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The following February, Prince Andrew visited the US Virgin Islands where he stayed on Little St James, Epstein’s private tropical paradise.

He is also reported to have visited Epstein’s sugar-pink mansion in an exclusive area of West Palm Beach, Florida.

This property was later raided by the FBI and found to contain numerous pictures of Epstein’s underage victims, who he allegedly groomed from the age of 14 and paid £130 an hour for sordid “erotic massages”.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Caribbean island (Image: Splash)

The following year, Epstein and Maxwell were granted a rare honour given to only some foreign dignitaries – a stay at the Royals’ much-loved Craigowan lodge on the Balmoral estate.

A visit to Sandringham followed. One source told Vanity Fair in 2011 that Epstein “taught Andrew how to relax”, adding: “I remember when Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein first became friends.

“Jeffrey had Andrew put on a pair of sweatpants for the first time in his life. He had him wear jeans for the first time.”

Another source claimed that Andrew’s friendship with Epstein was in part motivated by a desire to help his ex-wife Sarah, who had run up huge debts.

Though there is no suggestion that either of them was involved in anything illegal. Epstein once loaned Sarah £15,000 but she later regretted taking the money which she described as “a gigantic error of judgment”.

Epstein’s downfall was a dramatic as his rise to wealth in the first place.

Remarkably, Prince Andrew’s friendship with the now disgraced financier did not end there. In a decision that continues to haunt him, the pair were photographed together in New York’s Central Park in 2010 following Epstein’s release from prison the year before.

Epstein has not yet responded to the latest developments in the case.

Obama’s Aunt Ordered Deported, Remember?

Posted on July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 by Denise Simon

Auntie Zeituni was ordered to leave the country in 2003, but she stayed. Later that year, she tried to stay again. But she lost the appeal, and an immigration judge ordered her deported in October 2004.

Instead, Onyango remained in Boston and lived in state and federal public housing. Critics have denounced her for defying deportation and for living in public housing while scores of families are on waiting lists.

Her lawyers successfully argued to reopen her case, and she was granted asylum in 2010.

Or how about in 2018 when ICE had the case of the Nazi labor camp guard?

Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi labor camp guard in German-occupied Poland and a postwar resident of Queens, New York, has been removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Germany.

So, to Juan Williams, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Congresswam Jayapal or Senator Hirono, when a judge orders any consequence or punishment such as deportation, is it okay to defy those decisions? A judge or jury decides the sentence is 35 years for armed robbery or el Chapo Guzman to life, but never mind, just kidding? C’mon really?

The operations by ICE to begin aggressive deportations are for only cases that are judge ordered and are listed as fugitives and a public safety threat. These cases include MS-13 members, armed robbers, rapists, terrorists, aggravated homicides and human traffickers to list a few. So Juan or Nancy, you okay with Jose Raul Iraheta from El Salvador staying in the United States for aggravated murder? Or Darrick Bell, otherwise known in the underworld as ‘Tone’ hanging around Detroit for his 9 count indictment of forced labor, money laundering, extortion and a massive human trafficking operation where there is even a reward offered for his capture?

Under this upcoming ICE deportation, arrests would not include those such as Auntie Zeituni, who is now deceased by the way, but rather those Jose Medina Orlando Gonzalez of El Salvador.

One has to ask Chuck, Hillary or Senator Hirono their thoughts of the victims of illegal criminals (read Angel families). Would these Democrats approval of Alan Jacob Mogollon-Anaya of staying in Kenner, Louisana, his last known location? He is wanted for DUI vehicular homicide. He was ordered removed in November of 2017 but fled from Tennessee to Louisiana.

What about those visa-overstays? Should all these people be allowed to remain in the United States when their respective visas become null and void for violating visa conditions? This population is a growing trend as published in a study performed by Center for Immigration Studies.

All these progressives have returned to a pre-911 attitude. There is a specific chapter in the 9/11 Commission Report dedicated to immigration. All the attackers entered the United States on temporary tourist visas. There were overstays and during that time, they were able to obtain a drivers license in Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and California. What would Juan Williams have to say about Hani Hasan Hanjour? Image result for hani hanjour

The Pentagon Plane (AA Flight 77, Dulles to Los Angeles)
Hani Hasan Hanjour (26) — Saudi Arabian — pilot

First came to U.S. in Oct. 1991 to study English in Tucson, Arizona.
Had been in U.S. in April 1996, when he lived in Oakland, Cal. where he studied English, and later received flight training in Scottsdale, Arizona. He left in Nov. 1996 and returned again in Nov. 1997 while he obtained a FAA commercial pilot certificate. He left again in April 1999.
Obtained student visa (F-1) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in Sept. 2000 after an initial refusal. According to the 2/04 Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, Hanjour failed to reveal in his visa application that he had previously traveled to the United States.
Returned Dec. 2000 to study English at Holy Names College (Oakland CA) but never showed up at the school. In illegal status because he did not enroll, and his entry permit had expired at the time of the attack.
Lived in San Diego, Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz. (with Nawaf al-Hamzi), and later in Northern Virginia.
Had a Virginia driver’s license.

So, to the reader, you have some real facts now for a viable argument on public safety and national security threat deportations.

The Other Items Complicating a China Trade Deal

Posted on July 11, 2019July 11, 2019 by Denise Simon

Beyond the traditional trade talks between the U.S. Trade Representative and envoy with Beijing, there are complicating factors that enter into the debates and it is generally dealing with military aggression and espionage. So consider the following items:

New Delhi: China has recently leased vast tracts of land along the coast of the Koh Kong province of Cambodia to turn into a seaside resort. An area of 45,000 hectares — 20 per cent of the coastline — has been leased for 40 years for a paltry annual rent of US $1 million.
A Chinese private company called Union Development Group (UDG) is undertaking the project, named the Dara Sakor Seashore Resort Long Term Project.

However, there has also been increased military cooperation between Beijing and Phnom Penh, and the US has raised concerns, with Vice-President Mike Pence writing to Cambodian PM Hun Sen that these facilities could be put to military use.

Paul Chambers, professor of international affairs at the Naresuan University in Thailand, has claimed that senior Cambodian officials privately admitted that Hun Sen was considering approving a Chinese naval base at Kiri Sakor.

Hun Sen has claimed there are no foreign troops on Cambodian soil, but China has been accused of using debt traps to get its way. And according to satellite imagery accessed by ThePrint, there is a real possibility of the resort project currently under construction turning into a Chinese military base.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – China’s ZTE opened a cybersecurity lab in Brussels on Wednesday, aiming to boost transparency four months after bigger telecoms equipment rival Huawei [HWT.UL] did the same to allay concerns about spying.Chinese vendors of network gear are being scrutinized by the United States and some of its allies who believe the equipment could be used by Beijing to spy on customers if deployed in 5G networks, which are beginning to be built around the world.
Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecoms network gear, has been blacklisted by the U.S. government, meaning that U.S. companies need special approval – which they are unlikely to get – to export products to the Chinese company.
The Chinese military has deployed military personnel and armored medical vehicles to Germany for joint drills, a first for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army as it attempts to forge closer ties with Europe.

The joint exercise — Combined Aid 2019 — is focused on preparing troops with the medical service units of the Chinese and German armed forces to respond to humanitarian crises, such as mass casualty incidents and serious disease outbreaks, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.

The exercise follows a cooperative military medical training exercise in 2016 in Chongqing, where the PLA and the German Bundeswehr practiced responding to an imaginary earthquake scenario.
Over one million Uyghurs and Muslims from other ethnic minority groups have been detained by the Chinese government and sent to “re-education” internment camps. Sources indicate that detainees are psychologically and physically abused. Uyghurs outside the camps in Xinjiang are also not free, as they are kept under constant surveillance, often using advanced technology. The Chinese government is increasingly testing this technology in Xinjiang and exporting it nationally and globally, with concerning implications for democracy and human rights.
(UPI) — China is condemning a recent U.S. decision to sell $2.2 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan, saying the “reckless” policy tampers with Chinese sovereignty.

Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Tuesday at a regular press briefing China opposes U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, a country China recognizes as a breakaway province.

“The United States has recklessly interfered in Chinese domestic affairs,” Geng said. “It has undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests.”

The U.S. State Department on Monday approved two potential arms sales to Taiwan, worth $2.2 billion.

The weapons to be sold to Taiwan include 108 Abrams tanks, 250 Stinger missiles and related equipment.

On Tuesday Geng reminded reporters Beijing does not recognize Taiwanese sovereignty.

“Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory,” the foreign ministry spokesman said. “Do not underestimate the Chinese government and the people’s will to defend national sovereignty and territory.”

Geng added the United States was in “severe violation” of Beijing’s “One-China” policy.

Tensions have grown between Taiwan and China since President Tsai Ing-wen assumed office in 2016.

Tsai’s recent decision to stay in the United States for four nights during a “layover” has angered China. Beijing, under its law, bans the Taiwanese leader from making contact with U.S. politicians.