Category Archives: FBI

Twitter: Selective Free Speech, Approves Muslim Brotherhood

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Congressman, Keith Ellison, MN must be getting quite nervous and if he is not yet, he will be. Will there be others in Congress?

Egypt’s military-backed government declares Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization

UK Declares Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Group, Breaks With Obama  To view the final report issued by the U.K. of which Barack Obama strongly condemned the U.K., go here.

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Members of both Houses of the U.S. Congress have submitted:

A BILL

To require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Muslim Brotherhood

5 Terrorist Designation Act of 2015’’.

“This bill puts the lie to the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a peaceful political organization that can be a legitimate partner for America,” the lawmaker said. “In 2008 the Justice Department successfully prosecuted the largest terrorism-financing trial in American history arguing that the Muslim Brotherhood directed U.S. affiliates such as the Holy Land Foundation to provide ‘media, money and men’ to Hamas. That support was used for terrorist attacks against Americans and our allies in the Middle East.  When they are capable they will try to do the same thing here.”

The bill, which includes a lengthy history of the Brotherhood’s links to radical terrorist leaders and violent incidents, concludes that “the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization.”

It would require the State Department and other agencies to determine whether the Brotherhood officially meets the requirements to be designated under U.S. law as a terrorist organization.

However, “if the Secretary of State determines that the Muslim Brotherhood does not meet the criteria,” it must submit to Congress “a detailed justification as to which criteria have not been met,” according to the bill.

Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as well as the group’s members have been listed as sponsors of terrorism in the past by the U.S. government.

Five countries—Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Russia—already consider the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom are examining the possibility of designating it a terrorist organization as well. In 2014, a senior member of the Brotherhood was hosted at the White House last year, while other representatives of the group have been granted entrance to the United States. More here from FreeBeacon.

While members of Islamic State have accounts on Twitter, there is a mobilized team of people that work daily to take down those terror Twitter accounts. Yet all this seems to be good for Twitter when it comes to giving terror groups an approved and verified status on social media.

The matter of domestic proof of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror organization has been a large part of discussions in Congress at least since 2010. One such letter is noted here:

mb-congress-letter

Twitter Verifies Muslim Brotherhood’s Account Despite Pledges to Curb Hate Speech

Twitter has verified an official English account of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the platform’s pledge to fight hate speech. Multiple countries have designated the organization as a terrorist group.

On Saturday, Twitter awarded the Muslim Brotherhood a “verification check”, normally given to legitimate and prominent accounts on the platform. The reason for verification remains unclear due to Twitter’s policy of not commenting on individual accounts.

But under chief executive Jack Dorsey Twitter faced increasing controversy when it comes to free speech issues: prominent conservatives and an account dedicated to women’s rights in Saudi Arabia were suspended this year, for allegations of incitement or other reasons many critics called frivolous.

The Muslim Brotherhood account, however, has been openly aligned with another designated terrorist organization — Hamas — which seeks the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people and has been linked to numerous terror attacks. Back in April, Twitter shut down accounts associated with Hamas.

The now-verified Muslim Brotherhood account once compared Israel to South Africa’s apartheid system and reaffirmed its “deep appreciation” and “full support”of the so-called resistance movement Hamas and its military wing Qassam Brigades.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s non-English account on Twitter openly celebrates the death of Jews and is widely shared among Twitter’s radical Islamists. More here from HeatStreet.
Egypt confiscates assets of 46 Muslim Brotherhood members

November 21, 2016: FNC: CAIRO –  An Egyptian government committee has ordered the confiscation of assets of 46 members and supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The move is part of the crackdown on the Brotherhood, once Egypt’s largest opposition group, since the ouster President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president whose rule proved divisive.

The government committee, which is affiliated with the Justice Ministry, says the confiscated assets include five companies involved in trade, construction, and pharmaceuticals.

It says Mohammed Abdel-Gawad, a former head of the pharmacists’ union under the Brotherhood’s rule of Egypt, is among those affected by Monday’s order.

Over the past three years, Egypt has confiscated assets of scores of Brotherhood members and seized their businesses, including schools, hospitals, and companies. Thousands of Brotherhood figures are also jailed or imprisoned.

IRS Audit Proves Taxpayer Data Exposed

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The report is here and the numbers mentioned were a random sampling.

IRS exposed taxpayers’ info through shoddy emails, audit shows

Staff sent tax return data through unencrypted messages

WashingtonTimes: A surprising number of IRS employees are sending unencrypted emails containing personal taxpayer information to private accounts, putting that information at risk of being stolen, the agency’s inspector general said Thursday.

Auditors found hundreds of unencrypted emails sent that risked leaking taxpayers’ personal information, after running through a random sample of 80 employees’ emails from the IRS’s small business/self employed division for four weeks in 2015. Extrapolated over a year, that could mean more than 1.1 million emails, covering more than 28 million taxpayers’ information, could have been sent by the division.

“These unencrypted e-mails violated IRM requirements and potentially compromised the security of taxpayer information,” Inspector General J. Russell George said.

Most of the unencrypted messages were sent to other IRS employees, posing a lower risk because they were inside the agency’s firewall. But some 15 percent of the messages were sent outside the IRS — including some that IRS agents sent to their own personal email accounts, for reasons that were unclear.

The IRS, in its official response, said the review didn’t prove that information had gotten into the wrong hands, and said most of the messages identified were at least kept within the agency’s firewall.

“These communications are within the extensive protections of the IRS firewall, and pose a minimal risk of disclosure or access,” Karen Schiller, commissioner of the small business division, wrote. “But, nonetheless, we agree that encryption provides an added layer of protection.”

She said the agency has already upgraded some of its checks since the inspector general’s 2015 review.

IRS officials have repeatedly warned employees to be careful with what’s dubbed “personally identifiable information,” or PII in government-speak. Email is a particular risk, the agency says.

Personal information can be sent within the IRS to other employees who have a need to know, but even then it’s supposed to be encrypted. And sending personal information outside the IRS is forbidden, even if a taxpayer gives OK, unless an exception is specifically approved.

During the four-week test, involving 80 employees, the auditors found 32 of them — 40 percent — broke the rules by sending a total of 326 unencrypted messages containing “tax return information” from more than 8,000 taxpayers.

Of those, 51 were sent outside the IRS. More than half were sent directly to taxpayers, 14 were sent to taxpayers’ representatives, three were sent to other government agencies or third parties, and in six cases employees sent taxpayers’ information to their own personal email addresses. In some cases they sent their own information to themselves — which is still prohibited.

IRS rules allow for employees to be admonished or fired for breaking email privacy — though neither the audit nor the agency’s official response said whether anyone has been disciplined.

In a separate audit released Thursday the inspector general said the IRS didn’t always take steps to protect data transferred in bulk to other federal agencies, state and local governments, banks or contractors.

“It is essential that the IRS fully protect sensitive personal and taxpayer information that it transmits externally,” Mr. George, the inspector general, said.

Will Obama Burrow-in on the Trump Admin? Likely

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A smooth and successful transfer of power on the surface perhaps…but beware of those in the shadows and lurking forever in dark hallways inside the beltway.

Primer: Obama tells anti-Trump protestors to march-on.

President Obama, speaking at a press conference in Germany, passed up the opportunity Thursday to tamp down the anti-Donald Trump protests back home — urging those taking part not to remain “silent.” 

The president fielded a question on the protests during a joint news conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

“I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that hasn’t been subject to these protests,” he answered. “So, I would not advise people who feel strongly or who are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised during the course of the campaign, I wouldn’t advise them to be silent.” 

He added: “Voting matters, organizing matters and being informed on the issues matter.” 

Have you heard of the Senior Executive Service?

The Senior Executive Service (SES) lead America’s workforce. As the keystone of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the SES was established to “…ensure that the executive management of the Government of the United States is responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise is of the highest quality.” These leaders possess well-honed executive skills and share a broad perspective on government and a public service commitment that is grounded in the Constitution.

Members of the SES serve in the key positions just below the top Presidential appointees. SES members are the major link between these appointees and the rest of the Federal workforce. They operate and oversee nearly every government activity in approximately 75 Federal agencies.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) manages the overall Federal executive personnel program, providing the day-to-day oversight and assistance to agencies as they develop, select, and manage their Federal executives.

Obama by using his mighty pen and phone can covert some of his most trusted operatives to be permanent government employees, undermining the missions of the next administration. Let that sink in a moment.

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Personnel—Political-to-Career Conversions (“Burrowing In”)

Some individuals, who are serving in appointed (noncareer) positions in the executive branch, convert to career positions in the competitive service, the Senior Executive Service (SES), or the excepted service. This practice, commonly referred to as “burrowing in,” is permissible when laws and regulations governing career appointments are followed. While such conversions may occur at any time, frequently they do so during the transition period when one Administration is preparing to leave office and another Administration is preparing to assume office.

Generally, these appointees were selected noncompetitively and are serving in such positions as Schedule C,  noncareer SES, or limited tenure SES24 that involve policy determinations or require a close and confidential relationship with the department or agency head and other top officials. Many of the Schedule C appointees receive salaries at the GS-12 through GS-15 pay levels. The noncareer and limited tenure members of the SES receive salaries under the pay schedule for senior executives that also covers the career SES.  Career employees, on the other hand, are to be selected on the basis of merit and without political influence following a process that is to be fair and open in evaluating their knowledge, skills, and experience against that of other applicants. The tenure of noncareer and career employees also differs. The former are generally limited to the term of the Administration in which they are appointed or serve at the pleasure of the person who appointed them. The latter constitute a work force that continues the operations of government without regard to the change of Administrations. In 2007, Paul Light, a professor of government at New York University who studied appointees over several Administrations, indicated that the pay, benefits, and job security of career positions underlie the desire of individuals in noncareer positions to “burrow in.”

Beyond the fundamental concern that the conversion of an individual from an appointed (noncareer) position to a career position may not have followed applicable legal and regulatory requirements, “burrowing in” raises other concerns. When the practice occurs, the following perceptions (whether valid or not) may result: that an appointee converting to a career position may limit the opportunity for other employees (who were competitively selected for their career positions, following examination of their knowledge, skills, and experience) to be promoted into another career position with greater responsibility and pay; or that the individual who is converted to a career position may seek to undermine the work of the new Administration whose policies may be at odds with those that he or she espoused when serving in the appointed capacity. Both perceptions may increase the tension between noncareer and career staff, thereby hindering the effective operation of government at a time when the desirability of creating “common ground” between these staff to facilitate government performance continues to be emphasized.28

Appointments to Career Positions

Appointments to career positions in the executive branch are governed by laws and regulations that are codified in Title 5 of the United States Code and Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, respectively. For purposes of both, appointments to career positions are among those activities defined as “personnel actions,” a class of activities that can be undertaken only in accordance with strict procedures. In taking a personnel action, each department and agency head is responsible for preventing prohibited personnel practices; for complying with, and enforcing, applicable civil service laws, rules, and regulations and other aspects of personnel management; and for ensuring that agency employees are informed of the rights and remedies available to them. Such actions must adhere to the nine merit principles and thirteen prohibited personnel practices that are codified at 5 U.S.C. §2301(b) and §2302(b), respectively. These principles and practices are designed to ensure that the process for selecting career employees is fair and open (competitive), and free from political influence.

Department and agency heads also must follow regulations, codified at Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, that govern career appointments. These include Civil Service Rules 4.2, which prohibits racial, political, or religious discrimination, and 7.1, which addresses an appointing officer’s discretion in filling vacancies. Other regulations provide that Office of Personnel Management (OPM) approval is required before employees in Schedule C positions may be detailed to competitive service positions, public announcement is required for all SES vacancies that will be filled by initial career appointment, and details to SES positions that are reserved for career employees (known as Career-Reserved) may only be filled by career SES or career-type non-SES appointees.

During the period June 1, 2016, through January 20, 2017, which is defined as the Presidential Election Period, certain appointees are prohibited from receiving financial awards. These

appointees, referred to as senior politically appointed officers, are (1) individuals serving in noncareer SES positions; (2) individuals serving in confidential or policy determining positions as Schedule C employees; and (3) individuals serving in limited term and limited emergency positions.

When a department or agency, for example, converts an employee from an appointed (noncareer) position to a career position without any apparent change in duties and responsibilities, or the new position appears to have been tailored to the individual’s knowledge and experience, such actions may invite scrutiny. OPM, on an ongoing basis, and GAO, periodically, conduct oversight related to conversions of employees from noncareer to career positions to ensure that proper procedures have been followed. More here from FAS.

 

There Already is a Registry Database, NSEERS Kinda

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It is called NSEERS.

There is an entry and exit program managed by the Department of Homeland Security….well they maintain it but don’t use it to remove people…but it does exist to the point of a backlog of 1.6 million and it actually a Visa Overstay system.

Thank you GW Bush, as NSEERS was launched in 2002 and used to collect names, backgrounds and locations of people that were inside the United States that would pose a threat and cause additional harm to the homeland. The Bush administration earnestly applied all elements of this program and performed thousands of deportations as well as criminal investigations on violators or those connected to nefarious groups and organization. By the end of the calendar year 2002, 3,995 wanted criminals had been arrested attempting to cross into the United States. 

The 9/11 Commission Report dedicated an entire chapter to immigration and the flaws. Many of the hijackers were in the United States illegally. Okay, then the 9/11 Commission also made stout recommendations of which everyone in Congress agreed to and signed. Then a few years later, those agreements began to fall apart on the Democrat side and continue to be forgotten today.

So, Obama Should Pardon ‘Dreamer’ Immigrants, Democrats Say

Bloomberg: A group of House Democrats called on President Barack Obama to pardon about 750,000 young undocumented immigrants who are temporarily shielded from deportation under a 2012 executive order, a move that reflects growing concern about a shift in immigration policy expected after President-elect Donald Trump takes power in January. More here.

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Back to that database.

Then the Obama administration decided there were legal challenges to its application and use.

GAO had previously reported that, as of January 2011, DHS had a backlog of 1.6 million unmatched arrival records that had not been reviewed through automated or manual processes. DHS tracks arrivals and departures and closes records for individuals with matching arrival and departure records. Unmatched arrival records indicate that the individual is a potential overstay. In 2011, DHS reviewed this backlog of 1.6 million records, closed about 863,000 records, and removed them from the backlog. As new unmatched arrival records have accrued, DHS has continued to review all of these new records for national security and public safety concerns. As of June 2013, DHS’s unmatched arrival records totaled more than 1 million. More here from the 2013 report.

The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was asked to take a hard look at the NSEERS program and they made some deletions with the approval of Secretary Jeh Johnson in 2011.

DHS Removes Designated Countries from NSEERS Registration (May 2011)

As part of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties‘ (CRCL) outreach efforts, we have translated the following announcement into Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, French, Pashto and Urdu.

DHS announced the removal of the list of countries whose nationals have been subject to registration under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS)—effectively ending the NSEERS registration process through the publication of a notice in the Federal Register.

DHS and the U.S. government have conducted roundtables, meetings, and town halls with our community partners around the nation, regarding the NSEERS process. NSEERS was first implemented in 2002 as a temporary measure in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was designed to record the arrival, stay, and departure of certain individuals from countries chosen based on an analysis of possible national security threats. The NSEERS registration required approximately 30 minutes in secondary inspection, per person, per arrival; and NSEERS registrants were also required to register upon departure at one of the 118 designated ports of departure, limiting travel flexibility.

So for the year 2015, DHS issued an Entry/Exit Overstay Report and the real change in word definitions began to change.

An overstay is a nonimmigrant who was lawfully admitted to the United States for an authorized period but stayed or remains in the United States beyond his or her lawful admission period. DHS identifies two types of overstays—those individuals for whom no departure has been recorded (Suspected In-Country Overstay) and those individuals whose departure was recorded after their lawful admission period expired (Out-of-Country Overstay). The overstay identification process is conducted through arrival, departure and immigration status information, consolidated to generate a complete picture of individuals traveling to the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects biographic information on all nonimmigrant arrivals to the United States through an inspection by a CBP officer. In the air and sea environment, CBP officers validate the manifest information provided by commercial and private aircraft operators. For many nonimmigrants, submission of biometric information is also required upon admission and is captured in the presence of a CBP officer.1 In addition, CBP has strengthened the document requirements at air, land, and sea Ports of Entry (POEs) by reducing the number of accepted travel documents one may use to enter the United States, 2 which in turn has increased CBP’s ability to quickly and accurately collect information on arriving aliens, particularly at the land borders.

The United States did not build its border, aviation, and immigration infrastructure with exit processing in mind. Consequently, United States airports do not have designated areas exclusively for travelers leaving the United States. Instead, departures of travelers are recorded biographically using outbound passenger manifests provided by commercial carriers. Under regulations governing the Advance Passenger Information System, carriers are required to validate the manifest information against the travel document being presented before a traveler is permitted to board their aircraft or sea vessel.

In the land environment, travelers arrive at land POEs via various modes of transportation, including cars, trains, buses, ferries, bicycles, trucks, and on foot. There are major physical infrastructure, logistical, and operational hurdles to collect an individual’s biographic and biometric data upon departure. Due to the existing limitations in collecting departure data in the land environment, this report does not include departure and overstay information from those travelers who entered the United States through a land POE. CBP is addressing these limitations through various efforts, including increased information sharing and partnerships, targeted operations, analyzing land POE departure traffic, and several pilots to experiment with innovative means of collecting biometric information from individuals departing via land POEs.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) anticipates the ability to provide a broader scope of data in future Entry/Exit Overstay Reports. Efforts by CBP, as described in this report, are ongoing and will continue to improve the existing process and availability of departure data.

In January 2012, CTCEU initiated the use of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in support of its Overstay Program to screen overstays by identifying potential matches to derogatory intelligence community holdings.

FY 2015 only, the Department determined that there were a total of 44,928,381 nonimmigrant admissions to the United States for business or pleasure through air or sea POEs that were expected to depart in FY 2015. Of this number, the Department calculated a total overstay rate of 1.17 percent, or 527,127 individuals. In other words, 98.83 percent had left the United States on time and abided by the terms of their admission.

At the end of FY 2015, Suspected In-Country Overstays were 482,781 individuals, with a Suspected In-Country Overstay rate of 1.07 percent. This data indicates that 98.93 percent had departed the United States or transitioned to a lawful immigration status.

If you can stand reading the report and how the numbers are filtered and sifted, go here.

 

German migrants ‘despise’ Christians, ‘Islamise’ the country

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SIMMERING HATRED

Refugee camp translator reveals how German migrants ‘despise’ Christians and want to ‘Islamise’ the country

Sun: Eritrean woman, 39, who worked in asylum centres for five years, claims women told her they were having as many kids as possible to ‘destroy’ Germany

A TRANSLATOR at refugee camps in Germany has claimed Muslim migrants hate Christians and want to Islamise the country.

The woman, 39, from Eritrea, came to Germany as a refugee herself in 1991, before volunteering at asylum centres to “give something back”.

A translator at German asylum centres said many Muslim migrants hated Christians (Pictured: Refugee centre in Erding near Munich)

Reuters
A translator at German asylum centres said many Muslim migrants hated Christians (Pictured: Refugee centre in Erding near Munich)

But the Arabic speaker said what she discovered when working with migrants over the last five years shocked her.

During her time at a number of centres across the country, she said she discovered Muslim refugees preaching “pure hatred” of Christians.

Muslim children were told by their parents not to play with Christian kids.

And she herself was told it was a sin for her to help feed and defend Christians.

She told German Catholic website Kath.net: “They want Germany to be Islamised. They despise our country and our values.”

She claimed many of the migrants showed their “true colours” only when they were away from people of other religions.

The translator explained: “Pure hatred against non-believers is preached, and children are brought here from an early age here in Germany.

“It’s very similar in asylum housing, where Muslim boys refuse to play with Christians.

“Some women told me ‘We will multiply our numbers. We must have more children than the Christians because it’s the only way we can destroy them here’.”

She said other translators were a part of the problem, claiming they prevented Christian refugees claiming permanent asylum by failing to tell them they were entitled to have their questionnaire’s translated.

In April of 2016:

Obama PRAISES Merkel for handling of migrant crisis but Germans want her OUT

BARACK OBAMA has praised Angela Merkel for her handling of the escalating EU migrant crisis despite growing cracks in the German chancellor’s power base as her approval ratings plummet over her immigration stance.

Express: During a visit to Hannover, the US president said: “She is on the right side of history on this.

“In this globalised world, it is very difficult for us to simply build walls.”

His remarks come amid an increasingly fractious debate over radical Islamism in Germany, sparked by Mrs Merkel’s ill-fated open door asylum policy.

Shocking opinion polls delivered a crushing blow to the German Chancellor as it was revealed Mrs Merkel’s conservatives lost in two out of three state elections.

Germans appear to be punishing her accommodative refugee policy.

More than 1.1 million migrants entered Germany last year, with most coming from Middle Eastern and North African countries.

But Mrs Merkel’s grip on power is growing ever weaker, with rebellion growing across the country against her controversial immigration policies.

She has consistently berated other EU states for introducing border controls to bring the migrant flow under control, ever since she made a pledge last summer to welcome all Syrians with open arms.

However growing cracks appeared and members of her own movement begin to openly question her stance on immigration following the horrific Cologne sex acts, forcing her to back down.