Uber Top Choice for Smuggling Migrants to Border

Posted on July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

Smugglers Use Uber-Registered Drivers to Move Migrants to U.S. Border

But it’s uncertain if they used the app.

(Reuters) – Human traffickers are finding increasingly creative ways of shuttling Central American migrants through Mexico to the U.S. border and that includes hiring Uber-registered drivers.

On June 10, five vehicles carrying 34 Central American migrants were apprehended while traveling together between the northern Mexican states of Zacatecas and Coahuila, said Segismundo Doguin, a Coahuila state official at the National Migration Institute (INM).

Four of the vehicles were linked to the Uber Technologies platform, Doguin said, but it was unclear whether the human smugglers had hailed the drivers using the Uber app. The drivers said they were not the owners of the cars but worked as Uber chauffeurs, he said.

Uber Mexico said in a statement that it bore no responsibility but was cooperating with authorities.

“The company does not own the cars registered on the platform, nor does it employ the drivers, who are independent contractors,” Uber said.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of Central American children and families trying to reach the United States this year, a hot button issue in the U.S. presidential race. Republican candidate Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to keep them out.

Mexican migration officials attribute the increase to migrants finding new routes past checkpoints, increasingly through varied forms of transport.

“First we saw them on trains, then on buses, then on trucks and today we see them in rented vehicles,” Doguin told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday.

The drivers left the northern Mexican city of Monterrey and picked up the migrants in Matehuala, 323 kilometers (201 miles) further south, Doguin said. The caravan was headed for the city of Reynosa, 551 kilometers (342 miles) north, on the border with Texas.

The migrants told investigators they each paid 3,000 pesos ($162) to make the journey, Doguin said.

Uber said it does not offer services in Matehuala.

Only three of the drivers were registered in the database, Uber said. One of them was dismissed nine months ago for unrelated reasons. The other two were discharged when the INM flagged the situation, the company said.

This is not the first time Uber-registered cars have been used to ferry migrants, Doguin said.

“About two months ago, seven other vehicles were detected in the area of San Luis Potosi state … and were also in the Uber system,” he said.

So, Back to That Chattanooga Terrorist, al Qaeda

Posted on July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

On the case of the Orlando terrorist, Omar, U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch followed the White House script and announced the attack was merely a hate crime against the LGBT community. The enemies of America are studying and al Qaeda replied with:

Al Qaeda urges lone wolves to target whites, to avoid ‘hate crime’ label

Lone wolf jihadists should target white Americans so no one mistakes their terror attacks for hate crimes unrelated to the cause of radical Islam, Al Qaeda writes in the latest edition of its online magazine.

In an article first reported by The Foreign Desk, Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) called for more self-directed Muslim terrorists to kill in America. But the article, titled “Inspire guide: Orlando operation,” tells terrorists to “avoid targeting places and crowds where minorities are generally found” because if gays or Latinos appear to be the targets, “the federal government will be the one taking full responsibility.” More from FNC.

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was radicalized a year before Chattanooga terror attack: FBI agent

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the lone-wolf terrorist who fatally shot five military personnel at two locations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last summer, had been radicalized for at least a year, according to an FBI agent.

Abdulazeez was radicalized online before a July 2014 trip to visit family in the Middle East and discussed committing jihad before carrying out the July 16 attack, FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“I know he wanted to commit jihad and commit jihad here in the United States, but I don’t think the specific target was necessarily picked out too far in advance,” Mr. Reinhold told the newspaper. “There was some planning involved, but not years worth.”

Mr. Reinhold said evidence collected by authorities shows Abdulazeez was a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki and radicalized after devoting himself to the deceased al Qaeda leader’s online sermons.

Abdulazeez, who was shot to death by police during the attack, was not on any terrorist watch lists and had no prior convictions, although he was facing a July 30 court appearance for an April DUI arrest. More from Washington Times.

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Per the White House:

What We’re Doing

President Obama has a strategy to defeat ISIL, fight terrorism, and protect the homeland.

The President is pursuing a comprehensive strategy that draws on every aspect of American power. Here’s an up-to-date look at what we’re doing to combat the threat of terrorism abroad and here at home.

Supporting and Enabling Our Global Partners

On September 10, 2014, President Obama announced the formation of a broad international coalition to defeat ISIL. Since then, the United States has led 66 international partners in a global coalition to counter ISIL with a focus on liberating ISIL-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. The mission is aimed at striking ISIL at its core, degrading its networks, and constraining its prospects for expansion. This is a multi-year effort, but we are united with our Coalition partners in making progress together to degrade and destroy ISIL.

*****

Islamic State has gained almost exclusive focus while the matter of the Chattanooga terrorist was inspired by Anwar al Alawki. He was al Qaeda and was killed in a drone strike in Yemen under the specific orders from the Obama kill list. Is anyone paying attention to al Qaeda at all?

It is noted just today, July 1, 2016:

DailyMail: The leader of terror group al-Qaeda has warned the United States there will be grave consequences if they execute Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri has appeared in a new video threatening America if the death sentence is carried out on the 22-year-old.

The footage shows the Egyptian-born Islamic extremist wearing white robes and sitting in front of green velvet robes.

He urges Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the ‘Crusaders’ Campaign led by the United States’.

He says: ‘If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it … will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences.’

Nearly 1 Million Immigrants Ignoring Deportation

Posted on July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

It is quite interesting that the Obama administration can release proven known terrorists from the Guantanamo Detention Center to either home countries or any other country that the administration colludes with to accept them.

We have a former detainee that was released to Uruguay that has fled alleged to Brazil.

MiamiHerald

But…..this policy does not seem to apply to the Department of Homeland Security or ICE.

Specifically, the law states:

On being notified by the [DHS Secretary] that the government of a foreign country denies or unreasonably delays accepting an alien who is a citizen, subject, national, or resident of that country after the [DHS Secretary] asks whether the government will accept the alien under this section, the Secretary of State shall order consular officers in that foreign country to discontinue granting immigrant visas or nonimmigrant visas, or both, to citizens, subjects, nationals, and residents of that country until the [DHS Secretary] notifies the Secretary that the country has accepted the alien. (8 U.S.C. § 1253(d); Emphasis added.)

Nearly 1 million immigrants — including more than 170K convicts — ignoring deportation

WashingtonTimes: Nearly 1 million immigrants are ignoring deportation orders to remain in the U.S. — including more than 170,000 convicted criminals, according to a new report Thursday that suggests the government’s deportation efforts are still falling short.

Only a small fraction of the immigrants are even being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), meaning most of them remain free on the streets, where they can commit crimes and continue living in the shadows, according to the study by Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

“The fact that almost 10 percent of the illegal resident population has already been ordered removed and is still here illustrates just how dysfunctional our immigration enforcement system is. It also should be of great concern that 20 percent of them are conviction criminals, and that most of these are at large in our communities,” Ms. Vaughan said.

She said the 925,193 aliens who were still here despite a deportation order break down into three categories. In some cases their home countries refuse to take them back, and U.S. officials feel constrained by law to release them; other times they are released by sanctuary cities, who help thwart deportations; and still others abscond on their own.

Mexicans account for the most aliens, with nearly 200,000 ignoring deportation orders. About a third of those are convicted criminals, Ms. Vaughan said. El Salvador accounts for more than 150,000 of the aliens, but just 10,000 of them are convicted criminals.

Perhaps most troubling is that the population is steadily growing, with the Obama administration tracking down fewer than 10,000 fugitives a year on the streets. Even when criminals snagged by checking local prisons and jails are included, the number of those deported from the interior of the U.S. is far less than 100,000.

But some 179,040 new criminal aliens were given final orders or removal in 2015 yet remained in the country, Ms. Vaughan said, citing data obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Related reading: The law requires the State Department to impose visa sanctions on countries that won’t take their own citizens back, a requirement Secretaries Clinton and Kerry have simply ignored. NRO

DoJ Files for 27 Month Delay on Clinton Records

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

Can you feel the outrage building yet? Imagine if this DoJ was investigating and prosecuting the mafia…oh wait….

From The Daily Caller:

Department of Justice officials filed a motion in federal court late Wednesday seeking a 27-month delay in producing correspondence between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s four top aides and officials with the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings, a closely allied public relations firm that Bill Clinton helped launch.

If the court permits the delay, the public won’t be able to read the communications until October 2018, about 22 months into her prospective first term as President. The four senior Clinton aides involved were Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin.

The State Department originally estimated that 6,000 emails and other documents were exchanged by the aides with the Clinton Foundation. But a series of “errors” the department told the court about Wednesday evening now mean the total has grown to “34,116 potentially responsive documents.”

U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, a President Obama-appointed judge, had previously ordered the State Department to release the requested documents by July 21. But Department of Justice lawyers informed Contreras Wednesday night that “the [State] department discovered errors in the manner in which the searches had been conducted in order to capture documents potentially responsive to plaintiff’s request.” The motion was filed by Justice Department attorney Joseph Borson on behalf of the State Department.

Borson also provided new details about how few resources the State Department has devoted to answering 106 separate Freedom of Information Act requests that are pending before it, many of them ordered by federal judges. Only 71 “part-time” retired foreign service officers are being used to review all of the pending FOIA requests.

Combine this with Loretta Lynch’s absurd “coincidental” meeting with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix Airport and you have shenanigans going on that would make Richard Nixon blush.

This is where I tend to get frustrated with GOP leadership. This is a situation where every prominent Republican, particularly GOP leaders, should be on every network and cable news show and quoted in every newspaper outlet clamoring for an independent prosecutor to look into Hillary Clinton’s emails. It is obvious, now that Hillary Clinton has secured the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, the Obama administration will do all it can to shield her from scrutiny and especially, prosecution. Full article from RedState.

**** Meanwhile if you would like more on the deposition of Patrick Kennedy:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released the deposition transcript of Patrick Kennedy, State Department under secretary for management, regarding Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s use of the clintonemail.com system to conduct official government business.

The deposition transcript is available here.

Kennedy testified that the significance did not “register” with him that Clinton was using a non-state.gov email account even though he communicated with her by email; and though he is under secretary for management of three of the four offices charged with ensuring State Department policies practices and procedures are followed, he had no opinion as to whether policies were violated except to say that State Department records-management policy encourages employees to use state.gov addresses for official business.

Kennedy is among seven depositions of former Clinton top aides and State Department officials that Judicial Watch has questioned under oath.

This discovery arises in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, former deputy chief of staff to Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about the clintonemail.com system. (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). Judge Sullivan ordered that all deposition transcripts be made publicly available.

Terror Database Hacked/Leaked

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

Terror-suspect database used by banks, governments, has been leaked

Thomson Reuters has secured the source of the leak

CSOnline: A database described by some as a “terrorism blacklist” has fallen into the hands of a white-hat hacker who may decide to make it accessible to the public online.

The database, called World-Check, belongs to Thomson Reuters and is used by banks, governments and intelligence agencies to screen people for criminal ties and links to terrorism.

Security researcher Chris Vickery claims to have obtained a 2014 copy of the database. He announced the details on Tuesday in a post on Reddit.

“No hacking was involved in my acquisition of this data,” he wrote. “I would call it more of a leak than anything, although not directly from Thomson Reuters.”Vickery declined to share how he obtained the data, but he’s already contacted Thomson Reuters about securing the source of the leak.

In an email, Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday that it was “grateful” to Vickery for the alert. The “third-party” that leaked the database has taken it down, the company added.

Vickery has previously exposed database leaks related to Mexican voters, a Hello Kitty online fan community and medical records.

His copy of the World-Check database contains the names of over 2.2 million people and organizations declared “heightened risks.” Only a small part of the data features a terrorism category. Additional categories include individuals with ties to money laundering, organized crime, corruption and others.

He is asking Reddit users whether he should leak the database to the public. His concern is that innocent people with no criminal ties may have been placed on the list.

The information isn’t really secret either. Users can buy access to the database from Thomson Reuters.

Leaking the database, however, could create risks and tip off “actual bad guys” that they’ve been placed on the list, Vickery said.

Thomson Reuters declined to say how it might respond if Vickery decides to publicize the information. The World-Check database is sourced from the company’s analysts, “industry sources” and government records.

Related reading: Thomson Reuters World-Check KYC, AML, CFT and PEP Due Diligence

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Much more goes on besides just a terror database:

Truth Technologies’ Sentinel with World-Check lets you quickly and cost-effectively mitigate risks associated with PEPs, money laundering and terrorist financing. Sentinel gives you seamless access to the Data-File to determine whether customers are Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), terrorists, or financial criminals, and to conduct enhanced due diligence. As a hosted solution for reducing your organization’s risk, there is no software for you to install, maintain or update, allowing you to focus on your core mission.

A comprehensive solution for regulatory compliance, World-Check’s risk intelligence database, contains hundreds of thousands of meticulously structured profiles on individuals and entities known to represent a financial, regulatory or reputation risk to organizations. Coverage includes; money launderers, fraudsters, terrorists, organized crime and sanctioned entities amongst other high risk categories. In addition, World Check tracks Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and their relationship networks plus individuals and businesses from other categories. World-Check’s database find direct application in financial compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), PEP screening, Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), fraud prevention, government intelligence and other identity authentication, background screening and risk prevention practices.