Exactly When Does Fentanyl get Included in Title 42?

Posted on June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 by Denise Simon

President Biden is completely absent and indifferent to this crisis and so is the Department of Justice. Just consider this from two days ago…

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — A Fullerton man is facing several felony charges for possessing enough fentanyl to kill 12 million people, nearly four times the population of Orange County, authorities announced Friday.

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 60-year-old Alfonso Gomez-Santana was arrested Wednesday when California Highway Patrol Officers pulled him over near South Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton. Officers found four kilos of fentanyl inside his vehicle and 20 more kilos in his home. They also found $250,000 worth of fentanyl pills and 122 grams of methamphetamine, according to authorities.

source

The district attorney’s office said it takes about 2 milligrams of fentanyl to be considered a lethal dose.

“It is unconscionable that someone who has the ability to kill 12 million people is facing just a handful of years in jail,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a news release. “Fentanyl is a national epidemic that killed more than 100,000 Americans last year and it’s not going to stop unless we have the tools as prosecutors to hold these drug dealers and drug manufacturers accountable for peddling death. Every parent in America should be petrified that one day they are going to walk into their child’s bedroom and find them dead because their child thought they were experimenting with recreational drugs and instead drug dealers sold them a deadly dose of fentanyl. This is not fear-mongering; this is reality – and if we don’t start strengthening penalties for drug dealers it’s going to be the reality for you or someone you love.”

Gomez-Santana has been charged with one felony count of sale or transport of a controlled substance and two felony counts of possession of sale with intent to sell.He faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months in jail if convicted on all counts.

In November, Orange County prosecutors issued a warning to drug dealers, manufacturers, and distributors, saying if their deals result in someone’s death, they could be charged with murder.

Now to the matter of Title 42….

There are many chapters inside Title 42….all under the code dealing with public health….it was originally launched in 1944 to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and is managed by the CDC. In short, it is to prevent entry into the United States anything that is a threat to U.S. health law. So how does fentanyl get into the United States? Mostly trafficking through the southern border and in other cases through the U.S. Postal system. We know precisely how the supply chain operates and who is responsible. Really you say?

Yes….learn about the King Pin Act –>

FACT SHEET
Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act

Introduction
The Administration has released the names of three Mexican organizations against which the President has decided to impose sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the “Kingpin Act”) (21 U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182). Kingpin Act targets, on a worldwide basis, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and operatives.

Background
The Kingpin Act became law on December 3, 1999. Its purpose is to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and to prohibit all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals. The Kingpin Act authorizes the President to take these actions when he determines that a foreign person plays a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. Congress modeled the Kingpin Act on the effective sanctions program that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) administers against the Colombian drug cartels pursuant to Executive Order 12978 issued in October 1995 (“Executive Order 12978”) under authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”).

Implementation
The Kingpin Act requires that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency coordinate to identify drug kingpins and propose them to the President for sanctions. The Department of Homeland Security and the Directorate of National Intelligence are also included in the process. The Act calls for the President to report to specified congressional committees by June 1 of each year on those “foreign persons [he] determines are appropriate for sanctions” and stating his intent to impose sanctions upon those Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Act. While previous Presidential determinations have been tied to the statutory June 1 timetable, the President may also identify Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers at any other time pursuant to the Act.

Under the Kingpin Act, the President may identify foreign entities as well as foreign individuals as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers, or “kingpins”: a foreign person is defined in the Act as “any citizen or national of a foreign state or any entity not organized under the laws of the United States, but does not include a foreign state.” Likewise, the President is not required to designate Colombian persons exclusively under Executive Order 12978, and may impose sanctions on a Colombian individual or entity under the Kingpin Act, which is intended to be global in scope.

The long-term effectiveness of the Kingpin Act is enhanced by the Department of the Treasury’s authority (in consultation with appropriate government agencies and departments) under the Act to make derivative designations of foreign individuals and entities that provide specified types of support or assistance to designated traffickers, or that are owned or controlled by such traffickers, or that act on their behalf. This authority broadens the scope of application of the economic sanctions against kingpins to include their businesses and operatives. Including this year’s action, the President has named a total of 78 Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers since the first set of kingpins was announced on June 1, 2000. The Department of the Treasury’s OFAC has issued a total of 496 derivative designations pursuant to its authorities under the Kingpin Act; these entities and individuals are subject to the same sanctions that apply to kingpins.

Individuals who violate the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and/or fines pursuant to Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Entities that violate the Act face criminal penalties in the form of fines up to $10 million; officers, directors, or agents of an entity who knowingly participate in a violation of the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 30 years in imprison and/or a $5 million fine. The Kingpin Act also provides for civil penalties of up to $1.075 million against individuals or entities that violate its provisions.

So, most of us know about some king-pins….El Chapo was a king-pin…then there are the cartels that are making billions per month not only trafficking narcotics but people across our southern border.

It all begins in China and the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. There are other countries for sure inside the supply chain map that include India, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and more…the Chinese mafia is well connected to the Mexican mafia, hence the Mexican drug cartels.

The Sinaloa cartel has a sizeable network in China for narcotics including fentanyl but also for money laundering. Then in balance, China has a large network in Mexico. There are a couple of standout names of which you can research on your own but they include:

14K

Zheng Cartel

Broken Tooth

Tse Chi Lop’s Sam Gor Syndicate

Big Circle Boys

In closing but not the end of the story, the U.S. Treasury has a 33 page list of ‘sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics KingPin Designation Act. Sanctions dont work so well …..do they?

Modern Day Nuremberg Required for Russian War Crimes

Posted on June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 by Denise Simon

Russia war crimes did not begin with the invasion of Ukraine, those with short memories should be reminded that all the same tactics were used in Syria and went unpunished. Shameful, but read on.

***

As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces. But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and how many accused Russian war criminals could ultimately face justice.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

“This is a Nuremberg moment in terms of just the sheer scale of the breach of the rules-based international order that has been perpetrated by Russia in this invasion,” said Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice. “Even the most well-resourced prosecutorial office would have a hard time grappling with the sheer scale of the criminality that’s been on display.”

The United States joined a slew of other Western countries and international institutions in devoting resources to help Ukraine document and collect evidence on as many alleged war crimes as possible, from Russian soldiers torturing, raping, and executing Ukrainian civilians to Russian armored units and air forces indiscriminately shelling civilian targets. Keep reading here.

Weapons experts from France are helping their Ukrainian counterparts collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in the northern region of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Friday.

The French Gendarmerie’s experts, including specialists in drone modelling, ballistics and weapons of mass destruction, have been collecting evidence at sites of destruction from Russian shelling.

They replaced group of gendarmerie forensic experts who arrived in mid-April to help establish what happened in Bucha, near Kyiv, where the killing of many civilians provoked a global outcry.

“It will soon be two months since (French experts) have been with us ‘on the ground’,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova wrote on her Facebook account.

“They work in the Chernihiv region and conduct research at sites destroyed by shelling,” she wrote. “These war crimes must be punished, and we are ready to do together everything to do
so.”

The Chernihiv region has been shelled frequently since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. Ukraine is also investigating potential war crimes by Russian soldiers in Chernihiv during their occupation in March.

Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies say Russia invaded its neighbor without provocation. source

***

Ukraine has identified several thousand suspected war crimes in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are pressing their offensive, Kyiv’s chief prosecutor said Tuesday.

“Of course we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague as she met international counterparts.

“If we speak about war crimes, it’s about possible transfer of people, we started several cases about possible transfer of children, adult people to different parts of the Russian Federation,” she said.

“Then, of course, we can speak about torturing people, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.”

Ukrainian authorities did not have access to Russian-held areas of Donbas, but they were interviewing evacuees and prisoners of war, Venediktova told the press conference at the headquarters of EU judicial agency Eurojust.

In total, Ukraine had identified 15,000 war crimes cases across the country since Russia’s invasion on February 24, she added.

Ukraine had identified 600 suspects for the “anchor” crime of aggression, including “high level of top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russian Federation,” the prosecutor general said.

Nearly 80 suspects had been identified for alleged war crimes that had actually taken place on Ukrainian soil, she added. source

Does the FBI List Perkins Coie as an Official Office Location?

Posted on June 2, 2022June 2, 2022 by Denise Simon

Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz have sent a letter demanding answers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding a “Secure Work Environment” the bureau has apparently been operating for years in the Washington, D.C., office of the Democratic law firm Perkins Coie.

Gaetz told Tucker Carlson on Fox News Tuesday night that he received a letter from Perkins Coie lawyers confirming that the FBI has been maintaining a “Secure Work Environment” within Perkins Coie office for more than a decade, dating back to 2012, and that it is still in operation today.

“Perkins Coie is responsible to the FBI for maintaining the Secure Work Environment,” the letter reportedly said.

Gaetz said he’s spoken with multiple former federal prosecutors who have described the arrangement as unusual. He and Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding an explanation.

“We have learned that since March 2012, the FBI approved and facilitated a Secure Work Environment at Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C. office, which continues to be operational,” the letter states. “In a letter dated May 25, 2022, the law firm confirmed and acknowledged the arrangement.” source

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Who worked in that ‘secure workspace’ exactly…well the now acquitted Michael Sussman. To read the full background and details on the charges against Sussman, go here.

The Florida congressman explained that he had learned from a whistleblower that Perkins Coie, “the law firm that received 42 million dollars from the Democrat party,” had been sharing a workspace with the FBI.

“Why in the world would that be the case?” Gaetz asked. “Why would [FBI Director] Christopher Wray allow it to continue?”

Gaetz told Carlson incredulously that a person operating out of that work space for the past 12 months was none other than Michael Sussmann himself.

Gaetz said that it was his hope that the facility will be shut down.

“The Democrat party shouldn’t have this special access, this special portal to the FBI, especially knowing what we do now—that they were often trying to take this opposition research, and use that for law enforcement counterintelligence purposes,” he said.

Carlson agreed, saying, “you can’t politicize the country’s biggest law enforcement agency. That’s completely third world.”

What is not being mentioned is the extent of the computer portal the law firm has into the FBI databases. That means that the DNC and the whole Hillary Clinton operation, including her legal team HAS FBI database access. That could and likely means that Perkins Coie, the DNC and the entire Clinton operation has access to query any American citizen, putting a new definition into opposition research. Anyone remember 702 abuses going back to perhaps 2012?

Non-compliant queries since 2012.

85% of the FBI and contractor searches are unlawful.

Many of those searches involved the use of the “same identifiers over different data ranges.” Put in plain terms, the same people were continually being tracked, searched and surveilled by querying the FBI database over time.

The non-compliant searches go back to 2012. The same date mentioned for the FBI portal to begin operating inside the Perkins Coie office.

This specific footnote is a key. Note the phrase: “([redacted] access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding entered into [redacted])”, this sentence has the potential to expose an internal decision; withheld from congress and the FISA court by the Obama administration; that outlines a process for access and distribution of surveillance data.

Note: “no notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016“, that is important.

♦Summary: The FISA court identified and quantified tens-of-thousands of search queries of the NSA/FBI database using the FISA-702(16)(17) system. The database was repeatedly used by persons with contractor access who unlawfully searched and extracted the raw results without redacting the information and shared it with an unknown number of entities.

The outlined process certainly points toward a political spying and surveillance operation. When the DOJ use of the IRS for political information on their opposition became problematic, the Obama administration needed another tool. It was in 2012 when they switched to using the FBI databases for targeted search queries. hat tip to CTH

The Butcher(s) of Bucha, Ukraine and the War Crimes Evidence Details

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Denise Simon

InformNapalm volunteers named Omurbekov as unit 51460 of the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade amid suspicions of grotesque war crimes in Bucha.

Lieutenant Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov is suspected to be the commander of Russian operations in Bucha source

Coal

Click the ‘coal’ link above but fair warning of graphic video of Bucha.

The Russian commander behind the atrocities in Bucha has been named and pictured.

It comes as “mounting evidence” of war crimes committed by Russian forces in the city near capital Kyiv will be discussed by a United Nations Security Council today.

The Ukrainian President – who was seen holding back tears as he visited the aftermath on Monday – will address the council, which is pushing to ensure “justice is done”.

Volodymyr Zelensky surveyed the alleged atrocities near capital Kyiv, describing the discovery of raped women and murdered children among the dead.

He was accompanied by defending servicemen after invading troops had retreated from the area.

US President Joe Biden called for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial, adding he is now seeking further sanctions against Russia.

“This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it,” he said in an impassioned speech last night.

A satellite image shows Yablonska Street in the aftermath of the massacre

A satellite image shows Yablonska Street in the aftermath of the massacre (Image: via REUTERS)

Ukrainian officials have vowed to hunt down the “butchers of Bucha” after hundreds of dead civilians were discovered.

Furthermore, there are several Associated Press reports by journalists on the ground.

(AP) — Six charred bodies piled together were being investigated on Tuesday in Bucha, the town outside of Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces.

It was not clear who the people were or under what circumstances they were killed. One of the bodies was smaller than the others, likely a child, said Andrii Nebytov, head of police in the Kyiv region. One of the bodies had a gunshot wound to the head.

The pile of bodies seen by Associated Press journalists was just off a residential street, near a colorful and empty playground, and was visible to passersby as they warily went outdoors to collect aid.

“It’s horrible,” said Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky at the scene, which included other journalists. The minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin should “go to hell.”

Ukrainian officials have said the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in towns around Kyiv that were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days. The Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office has described one room discovered in Bucha as a “torture chamber.”

Police carry a dead body of one of six civilians – three women, one teenager girl and two men who were found in Bucha, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president plans to address the U.N.’s most powerful body after even more grisly evidence emerged of civilian massacres in areas that Russian forces recently left. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – A police officer stands next to six unidentified charred bodies lying on the ground at a residential area in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president plans to address the U.N.’s most powerful body after even more grisly evidence emerged of civilian massacres in areas that Russian forces recently left. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Workers carry the body of people found dead to a cemetery in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the Russian military must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes, accusing invading troops of the worst atrocities since World War II. He stressed that Bucha was only one place and there are more with similar horrors. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

New additional detail:

Bucha’s butcher has a name and a face. Omurbekov Azatbek Asanbekovich is the name of the commander of the Russian troops who on March 31 demobilized from the town north of Kiev, leaving behind civilians corpses on the street, in mass graves, Ukrainians executed with a blow to the back of the head and their hands tied.

The activists of InformNapalm, who also published the email and the phone, perhaps turned off after the spread of news of the massacre, as no one answers, revealed his identity on Telegram.

The photo of Asanbekovich, commander of military unit 51460, 64th brigade of motorized riflemen, was also published: young man, in camouflage, a tank behind, full lips, elongated eyes of the Buryats, the largest ethnic minority of Mongolian origin from Siberia. And precisely from Siberia, to be precise from Knyaze-Volkonskoye, unit 51460 left.

“We were also able to find the home address of the Russian executioner,” wrote InformNapalm volunteers, announcing the publication of data, archives and explanations on how to find the Russian commander.

“Every Ukrainian should know their names. Remember. All war criminals will be tried and brought to justice for crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians, ”reads the statement of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, published on its website. Below is a detailed list of 87 pages with the names of the more than 1,600 Russian soldiers believed to be involved in the massacre. In the list, the soldiers are identified with military rank, name and surname, date of birth and passport details.

Among the surnames there are also some of the most common in Chechnya. Some of their faces can be seen in the photos posted on the net: boys, almond-shaped eyes, smiling in front of the lens.

Bucha residents, for their part, told the news site Obozrevatel that the Russian soldiers “simply went from yard to yard shooting all the men and boys. Among them we recognized Buryats with narrow and long eyes ”.

For Moscow, on the other hand, those corpses, those photos that shocked the whole world, are propaganda, a “staging of the West and Ukraine”.

Ukrainian Hackers Take Aim at Russian Artillery, Navigation

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Denise Simon

Primer: There are several global hacking groups taking on all things Russia and some have moved their targets to Belarus, now a nation state of Russia. The BBC reported recently the following in part:

The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring “cyber war” on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans.

Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out.

The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict.

The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media accounts with millions of followers. “JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine,” one post read.

It quickly racked up millions of views.

source

Additionally, the WSJ reports in part:

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian technology workers have taken part in cyberattacks against Russia’s government, media and financial institutions in recent days, a top Ukrainian cybersecurity official said Friday.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just over a week ago, Ukraine’s sprawling and fast-growing technology industry says it has sprung to action not only to keep working but also to support the country’s resistance by helping with cyberattacks against Russia.

The IT Army could number more than 400,000 people inside and outside the country, and it has done more than deface or take down Russian websites, said Viktor Zhora, deputy chief of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection, which is responsible for cybersecurity in the country.

Mr. Zhora said the IT Army, members of which have taken credit for temporarily knocking an array of Russian government and bank websites offline, has also helped their country by providing intelligence and attacking military systems. He also said the movement has attempted to circumvent Russian domestic censorship of news about the war by sending Russian individuals information and pictures about the war by phone, text and messaging app.

A group of Ukrainian hackers says it has found ways to disrupt Russian military units’ navigation and is working on ways to disrupt artillery fire as well.

The nearly two dozen volunteers of the CyberPan Ukraine group work with the Ukrainian military and get funds from sources in Israel and the United States, group members told Defense One.

In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, one member said, the group has found ways to keep some field units from receiving signals from the GLONASS system, Russia’s version of the U.S. GPS satellite navigation constellation. Lost Russian forces are easier to find and target than ones that know where they are going.

Currently, the group is looking for ways to disrupt artillery fire, at least from systems that employ precision guidance systems. The member said the group has identified several computer servers linked to Russian rockets.

“We found many mistakes inside the system,” he said.

Poor communications tech has hobbled the Russian war effort. Its Era secure cellphones aren’t working, in part because the invading forces destroyed many of the system’s cell towers, Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grovez said on March 7. This has forced many Russian units to use unencrypted phones, whose calls have been picked up by Ukrainian forces, foreign journalists, and others.

Russia does have better communication equipment, like software-defined radios such as the R-187P1 Azart and R-168-5UN-2.

“The impression provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the years has been that this equipment was widespread and that the majority of the Russian Armed Forces (RuAF) were operating digital radios and systems designed to facilitate planning and decision-making,” Sam Cranny-Evans and Thomas Withington wrote in a March 9 article for the Royal United Services Institute.” But that clearly isn’t the case, the authors note.

Meanwhile, Russian state media have reported that the government is investigating corruption allegations against some Russian makers of communications equipment.

Some of the communications problems are likely due to poor preparation of the invasion force, said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and an adviser at the CNA Corporation.

“Some were not fully aware they were going into an actual war [but] thinking they were part of a military drill,” Bendett said. “Perhaps they did not fully combat-proof their comms equipment as a result, and that is how Ukrainians are able to intercept.”

Bendett also pointed out that the United States and other allies were training and equipping Ukraine, which has had years to prepare for this invasion.

“The Ukrainian military knows what technology the Russian military uses and this preparation gave them the opportunity to learn how to disrupt Russian comms,” he said.