FBI’s Terror Watch List Ruled Unconstitutional

Swell eh? This case was brought into Federal court by the Muslim ‘civil rights’ group CAIR, Council for American Islamic Relations.

The watchlist is disseminated to a variety of governmental departments, foreign governments and police agencies. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit were the heads of the Terrorist Screening Center, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, the TSA, and CBP.

The judge said he was seeking additional legal briefs before deciding what remedy to impose, and wanted both sides to explain “what kind of remedy can be fashioned to adequately protect a citizen’s constitutional rights while not unduly compromising public safety or national security.”

The plaintiffs said that they were wrongly placed on the list, and that the government’s process for adding names is overbroad and riddled with errors.

The FBI declined comment on the ruling. More here.

 

Terror Watchlist Opinion by Law&Crime on Scribd

It is important to note there are flaws associated with the list, yet it is not meant to be a permanent list, in fact people are removed. The list is a guidance document requiring all associated agencies to review, investigate and amend as required.

It is a security tool and as for traveling and being detained, there are remedies as noted below”

The Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) is a single point of contact for individuals who have inquiries or seek resolution regarding difficulties they experienced during their travel screening at transportation hubs – like airports – or crossing U.S. borders.

This includes:

  • watch list issues
  • screening problems at ports of entry
  • situations where travelers believe they have been unfairly or incorrectly delayed, denied boarding or identified for additional screening at our nation’s transportation hubs

We cannot overlook the historical facts of militant Islam and the condition that the United States is still at war with terror factions. Further, the U.S. Justice system still prosecutes and applies prison terms to those that are found guilty of proven ties to terrorism, human trafficking, foreign criminal cases and more.

For reference the Watchlisting Guidance is below for reference. It is unknown whether this is the most current iteration of guidance, but it is good for reference. Gotta wonder if this Federal judge was presented with details, context, cases and background.

 

2013 Watchlist Guidance by juan_de_herat on Scribd

 

 

California Strikes Down Police Assistance Law

California has now driven a larger divide between the public and law enforcement. You can bet a few other states may follow the same tactic.

California’s new law drives a major wedge between police and the public (Photo – Screenshot – YouTube)

If you saw an officer in need of help… what would you do?

Most people would step in and offer assistance… no questions asked.

But in California’s latest move to further the divide between the police and the public, citizens would now be legally allowed to refuse to help a police officer who needs assistance.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed their newest anti-police bill into law on Tuesday, the Sacramento Bee reported. State leaders have said that it now allows citizens to avoid “an untenable moral dilemma.”

Moral dilemma? From assisting an officer with an arrest if he’s in need of help?  We get it. Maybe there shouldn’t be a fine or a jail sentence associated with choosing to not get involved. Perhaps the original law from the 1870’s is a bit outdated.

But what is this bill really saying?

Essentially, it’s driving a bigger wedge between officers and civilians.

People now are essentially told to let a cop fend for himself if he’s being overpowered by a dangerous victim. It affirms the decision to stand by and film or watch while a hero’s life is in danger.

The new bill would get rid of the old law – the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872, which required a civilian to step in and assist an officer during an arrest if necessary. For those who ‘violated’ it, they could face up to a $1,000 fine.

9,999 times out of 10,000… an officer isn’t going to ask for an untrained bystander to step in and help. But sometimes it’s necessary… and it could mean the difference between life and death.

Let’s look at this objectively.

How many people were ever really charged with this misdemeanor? What Governor Newsom did was remind everyone that they have a choice — and basically push them to make the choice to carry on with their lives instead of getting involved.

Our question is… if this law had simply remained the way it was, how many people would have chosen to step in and help when they saw another human in need?

And how big of a drop-off rate would we see now that this bill is being pushed in the public eye? Will people see a police officer being attacked and because they don’t like cops, they choose to stand there and watch him die?

It brings back memories of the time when a bystander chose to broadcast an officer’s death to Facebook Live instead of putting down the phone and doing what they could to help.

Is this the country we want to live in?

Will protesters and anti-police ‘activists’ feel even more emboldened by their supposed morals?

The California State Sheriff’s Association said they were “unconvinced that this statute should be repealed.”

Of course. Though it may have stemmed from the days of slavery… this law is ultimately about doing what’s right and assisting a public servant in their time of need. Read more here.

 

Local/National Politicians Expanding Narcotics Crisis

Do you realize under these programs, governments are actually buyers/customers of unlawful narcotics. State and local governments are essentially becoming a legal drug cartel. Read on to see how this works.

To Fight The Opioid Crisis, Health Experts Recommend Safe ...

A week after President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health experts and the Clinton Foundation released a report with suggestions for curbing the epidemic that’s killing 90 Americans each day.

Among the collaboration’s top recommendations was a progressive suggestion: establishing “safe consumption sites” ― centers where drug users can go to consume or inject their drugs in a medically supervised environment. More here.

Boston Globe: US Senator Bernie Sanders released a criminal justice reform plan Sunday that includes proposals to legalize marijuana, expunge past cannabis convictions, and provide for safe injection sites to combat the opioid crisis.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate emphasized racially disparate arrest rates for marijuana and said that such disparities “pervade every aspect of the criminal justice system.”
“When Bernie is president, we will finally make the deep and structural investments to rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate,” his campaign website states.

A key component of the senator’s comprehensive proposal is changing federal drug laws and treating addiction as a mental health issue.

According to an outline of the plan, if elected president, Sanders will legalize marijuana while ensuring that revenue from cannabis sales are reinvested in communities “hit hardest by the War on Drugs.”

Sanders discussed aspects of his criminal justice reform vision at a campaign event in South Carolina where he addressed the cash bail system and drug criminalization. A tweet with video from the event points out that people continue to linger in prison due to high bail costs, including for simple marijuana possession arrests, while adults in legal states are able to “get marijuana delivered to your home.”

***

But it is really worse than that at the local level. Injection sites already exist threatening public safety.

Seattle has injection sites and local government is considering expanding the program at taxpayer expense. Get that? Everyday citizens taxes are paying for banned narcotics use.

Community Health Engagement Locations” (CHEL), in King County: one in Seattle and one outside of Seattle, “reflecting the geographic distribution of drug use in other King County areas.” The CHEL sites would provide supervised consumption of illicit drugs for adults with substance abuse disorders in addition to a number of other services:

  • Hygienic space and sterile supplies
  • Overdose treatment and prevention
  • Rapid linkage to medication-assisted treatment, detox services and outpatient/inpatient treatment services
  • Direct provision or linkage to basic medical treatment, wraparound social services and case management
  • Syringe exchange services
  • Sexual health resources and supplies
  • Health education
  • Peer support
  • Post-consumption observation plan

Remember, we just had a recent shooting in Philadelphia in a neighborhood infested with drug use. And the Mayor is more concerned with how the several times convicted felon got all that firepower when the city has this other long term/growing issue. So what does he do?

The mayor of the city hit hardest by the opioid epidemic in the United States was in Vancouver last week to learn from police and harm reduction workers how injection sites have saved lives of drug users.

Jim Kenney of Philadelphia — a city of 1.6 million people that recorded 1,116 drug deaths last year — said he wanted to see first-hand what Vancouver’s experience is with injection sites and how the service intersects with community and law enforcement.

Like British Columbia, which has a population of five million and saw 1,535 people die of an overdose last year, the majority of drug deaths in Philadelphia have been linked to fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid.

Why is fentanyl so prevalent in Philadelphia?

“I have no idea,” Kenney said. “If I knew, I would tell the U.S. attorney’s office to go get [whoever brought it to Philadelphia] and have the FBI arrest them.”

And the idiot Democrat Larry Krasner, the front-runner to become Philadelphia’s next district attorney, says he supports city-sanctioned spaces where people addicted to heroin can inject drugs under medical supervision and access treatment, a move advocates see as a promising step toward making the city the first in the U.S. to open such a site.

What about San Francisco and New York or Denver?

Denver Council President backs safe injection sites for ... Denver

Well in 2018, the Justice Department is threatening to shut down San Francisco’s proposed test of supervised injection sites amid the opioid crisis even before the governor has a chance to sign the pilot program into law.

The looming showdown could affect similar efforts in New York, Philadelphia and Seattle, where officials have grappled with the ramifications of setting up spaces where drug users could shoot up while gaining access to clean syringes, medical professionals and treatment services as an approach to curb opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

Just the facts and there are more. What the hell are we doing in America and is this giving us a generational failure?

 

 

Hey Bernie and Kamala, Government Can’t Run Medicare

Legitimately that is. The crimes and fraud within the system are so bad already that the FBI is and has been overwhelmed with cases.

Image result for Medicare Fraud Strike Force (MFSF)
Heck, just last month, the FBI announced the results of Operation Brace Yourself. 24 people were arrested due to Medicare fraud billing amounting to over $1 billion. Get that? One case, over a billion dollars. A medical equipment company out of the Philippines recruited people, there were kickbacks, money-laundering, yachts, luxury real estate deals all inside of at least 100 equipment companies. This FBI investigation involved 20 field offices, agency partners, the IRS, the IRS, Health and Human Services, the Department of Veteran Affairs and even Secret Service.

But wait, that was just one case.

How about a few more?

District of Columbia Physician Indicted for Alleged Role in $12.7 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme
A physician with a practice in the District of Columbia was charged in an indictment unsealed today for his role in an alleged $12.7 million health care fraud scheme to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare for complicated medical procedures he never provided.

Telemarketer And His Companies Agree To Pay $2.5 Million To Settle Allegations That They Operated Telemedicine Schemes Involving Illegal Kickbacks And Unnecessary Prescriptions
United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez and U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey for the Eastern District of Tennessee announce that Scott Roix, together with several entities through which he ran his telemarketing business, including HealthRight, LLC; Health Savings Solutions, LLC; Vici Marketing, LLC; and Vici Marketing Group, LLC (hereinafter collectively referred to as “marketing companies”), have agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve allegations that Roix and these marketing companies violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false claims to federal healthcare programs in connection with telemedicine health care fraud schemes.

Patient Recruiter Found Guilty in $1.3 Million Medicare Kickback Scheme
A federal jury in Detroit, Michigan found a patient recruiter guilty today for his role in a scheme involving approximately $1.3 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for home health care that were procured through the payment of kickbacks.

Medical Business Owner Sentenced to More Than 10 Years in Federal Prison for Medicare Fraud
AUGUSTA, GA: The owner of a Thomson, Ga., medical equipment company was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison Tuesday, July 30, for a wide-ranging Medicare fraud scheme.

Millcreek Community Hospital Will Pay $2,451,000 to Settle Claims for Medically Unnecessary Inpatient Rehabilitation Services
PITTSBURGH – Millcreek Community Hospital, located in Erie, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $2,451,000 to resolve claims that the hospital violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary inpatient rehabilitation services, Scott W. Brady announced today.

Read more here.

This information is coming from the Inspector General’s Office and is but a random sampling of cases in the last 3-4 weeks. Get that? 3-4 weeks.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force (MFSF) was established in 2007. Imagine what was/is going on that a strike force had to be established….The Strike Force operates out of Baton Rouge, Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Tampa Bay.

So, next time you see Bernie, Kamala or Liz or any of the rest of them, mention this little factoid. Could make for good TV and obviously an item that CNN missed altogether in the televised debates.

32 Arrested Major Drug Bust San Francisco

Attention to AOC, Booker, Castro, Biden, O’Rourke and the rest…remember when President Trump said they dont send us their best? Check it, mostly Hondurans.
Hey Pelosi, hey Feinstein, what say you? Maybe someone can alert Shepard Smith too.

Fentanyl…..

U.S. Attorney David Anderson announces a new federal crime-fighting initiative in San Francisco on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019. Seventeen federal law enforcement agencies will team up for a yearlong crackdown on a notorious area of San Francisco where open drug use has been tolerated for years. (AP Photo/Samantha Maldonado) photo

The alleged leaders of the two organizations were Andy Reanos-Moreno and Eduardo Alfonso Viera-Chirinos, according to federal criminal complaints filed on Aug. 1 and July 29 and made public Wednesday.

Nielsen said the two cases were the first time in his law enforcement experience that he had seen the model of the leaders of a drug ring renting housing to the drug sellers.

The residences included apartments and houses in Oakland, Hayward and elsewhere and as many as five dealers, sometimes with partners and children, lived in each unit, according to the complaints.

In part: (AP) — The first step in a sweeping crackdown on crime ranging from drugs to sex trafficking in a notorious San Francisco neighborhood yielded 32 arrests of mostly Honduran nationals tied to two international operations that poured heroin and cocaine into the community, U.S. prosecutors announced Wednesday.

In his first news conference since being appointed by President Donald Trump in January, U.S. Attorney David Anderson said he could no longer stand by as tourists, government workers and residents wade through a daily slog of crime. He said an enforcement initiative by more than 15 federal agencies would not affect “innocent” homeless people or drug users but would tackle high-level drug dealing, fraud, identity theft and firearms.

“My belief is that the Tenderloin, in fairness, deserves the rule of law every bit as much as other fine neighborhoods in San Francisco,” he said. “This is not an immigration initiative. This is not a deportation initiative. This is a public safety initiative.”

Still, San Francisco is a city that strongly opposes federal immigration sweeps, and immigration agents are among those joining the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and others in the effort. San Francisco was a sanctuary city before the rest of California largely pledged not to work with federal authorities on deporting people in the country illegally.

Chris Nielsen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco, said an investigation launched in late 2017 uncovered two independent operations stretching from Mexico to Seattle in which mostly Honduran nationals living on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area commuted daily to the Tenderloin to sell drugs.

He said the “commuter drug dealers” acted like “independent contractors,” selling drugs in exchange for housing.

“Each morning, drugs were dropped off with dealers in the East Bay and then commuted into the city to sell to people from all over the area,” he said.

The federal crackdown, however, was criticized by San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness, whose officials say the Trump administration is targeting immigrants and the poor. “We are deeply concerned that low level offenders, drug users and individuals who do not have homes and are therefore more likely to come in contact with law enforcement will be disparately impacted,” said Sam Lew, the coalition’s policy director.

Others say the neighborhood desperately needs help. Andrea Fogelbach opened her “Slingshot Cafe” coffee shop two months ago in the neighborhood, where discarded needles litter the streets and people sleep in tents or out in the open.

“It’s pretty bad. They’re just shooting up right in front of you,” she said. “I’m afraid for my dog stepping on needles most of the time. If I had children, I don’t think I could live here.”

The organized nature of drug peddling in the Tenderloin was cited in an April city report, which stated that more than half of nearly 900 people booked into jail or cited for incidents tied to drug sales in 2017-18 were cited or arrested by police in the Tenderloin. It said a high percentage of drug sales involve organized crime and “sellers often give drugs to homeless people who are addicted in exchange” for holding the drugs.

The U.S. attorney’s office said it is devoting 15 prosecutors to the crackdown for at least a year.