Category Archives: government fraud spending collusion

Human smuggling network dismantled

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One must keep in mind that this is yet a result of the Obama White House backdoor Dreamer program.

A human smuggling network that operated in Central America, Mexico and the United States was dismantled in a multinational operation.

Eleven members of the network, that used sea routes to transport undocumented immigrants trying to reach the United States, were arrested in three Mexican states: Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero.

The Attorney General’s Office said that the migrants arrived to the port of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and were taken from there to the U.S. border by land. It added that cash, credit cards, weapons, ammunition, mobiles and five cell phones were seized as part of the operation, for which Mexico shared information and coordinated with authorities in the United States, El Salvador and Guatemala.

***

FoxLatino: “As a result of actions against a transnational criminal organization dedicated to trafficking in people, including unaccompanied minor migrants, that operates in Central America with the United States of America as its destination via Mexico, 11 members of said group have been detained,” the AG’s office said in a statement.

The suspects were arrested in Oaxaca and Guerrero states, both in southern Mexico, and in the central state of Puebla, the AG’s office said.

The arrests were made as part of an investigation that started several months ago and is being coordinated with officials in El Salvador and Guatemala, the SEIDO organized crime unit said.

The people trafficking network used maritime routes on Mexico’s Pacific coast to move the migrants, the Special Unit for Investigations of Trafficking in Minors, People and Organs, or UEITMPO, said.

Migrants were taken to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and later moved by land via several other states to northern Mexico, the UEITMPO said.

Investigators searched 10 properties, including a bar, in Oaxaca, as well as one property in Puebla and two in Guerrero.

Cash, bank cards and documents, firearms, ammunition, cell phones and five vehicles were seized, the AG’s office said.

The suspects were turned over to federal prosecutors, who plan to charge them with people trafficking and organized crime.

How bad is this human trafficking?

InSight: Authorities in Mexico have uncovered a web of human trafficking alliances stretching across 17 states and involving groups from the biggest cartels down to family-run crime clans, in an illustration of the scale of the trade and the pressure on major criminal organizations to move into new businesses.

Based on testimony from victims, the Attorney General’s organized crime unit (SEIDO) linked crime families in the small central state of Tlaxcala to drug cartels including the Zetas, the Familia Michoacana, the Knights Templar and the Gulf Cartel, reported Excelsior.

One of the routes used by the networks is to bring minors from the southeast states of Oaxaca, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Chiapas and transport them by truck to safe houses in Tlaxcala, from where victims are either moved to Tijuana near the US border or to Mexico City.

The tactics used to obtain victims have reportedly developed over time, with criminal groups now often using social networking sites rather than kidnapping to recruit victims, found SEIDO.

According to Excelsior, 70,000 people become victims of human trafficking every year in Mexico. The crime earns criminal groups an estimated $42 million annually — which amounts to about $600 per victim — and 47 criminal organizations are involved.

InSight Crime Analysis

In 2010, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean (CATW-LAC) reported that an estimated 1.2 million people in Mexico were victims of human trafficking. The National Refuge Network has reported that 800,000 adults and 20,000 children are trafficked for sexual exploitation in the country each year.

As highlighted by Excelsior, the human trafficking business model is sophisticated, with the work divided between a range of criminal groups responsible for different aspects of the trade, such as recruitment or transport.

Human trafficking in the country used to be dominated by small, independent networks, but drug cartels have taken an increasingly important role in the crime as they seek to diversify their revenue streams in the face of pressure on the drug business. In 2013, the regional head of CATW-LAC stated that 70 percent of sex trafficking cases reported to the organization involved drug gangs.

The importance of Tlaxcala in the human trafficking networks may be due to the state’s central location and proximity to Mexico City. Between January 2010 and July 2013, Tlaxcala saw the greatest number of convictions for human trafficking and tied with Baja California for the largest number of cases opened for this crime. The state was also the site of a major sex trafficking network dismantled in 2011.

 

The Political War has Been Launched

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The annual Spring meeting for the DNC is going on in Minneapolis and of particular note with the chatter about Joe Biden entering the presidential race, he was not in attendance. Truth be known, he is quite undecided regard of the ‘Draft Joe Biden’ campaign and Jill Biden does not want him to run for the Oval Office for the third time.

Part of the agenda at the DNC meeting was to present a Iran deal ‘yes’ vote resolution but the DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz refused to bring it up.

Meanwhile, the most precious asset for the Democrats is Barack Obama’s database of donors, powerbrokers and operatives and that database has been passed on to the DNC.

The database consists of voting records and political donation histories bolstered by vast amounts of personal but publicly available consumer data, say campaign officials and others familiar with the operation. It could record hundreds of pieces of information for each voter.

Campaign workers added far more detail through a broad range of voter contacts — in person, on the phone, via e-mail or through visits to the campaign’s Web site. Those who used its Facebook app, for example, had their files updated with lists of their Facebook friends, along with scores measuring the intensity of those relationships and whether they lived in swing states. If their last names sounded Hispanic, a key target group for the campaign, the database recorded that, too.

The result was a digital operation far more elaborate than the one mounted by Obama’s Republican rival, Mitt Romney, who collected less data and deployed it less effectively, officials from both parties say.

To maintain their advantage, Democrats say they must navigate the inevitable intraparty squabbles over who gets access now that the unifying forces of a billion-dollar presidential campaign are gone.

 

Democrats Get The Keys To Obama’s Massive Campaign Email List

Obama’s vaunted campaign email list has been turned over to the DNC, doubling the size of the party’s email list.

MINNEAPOLIS — The most envied digital contact list in politics is now in the hands of the Democratic Party.

Party officials and the remnants of President Obama’s 2012 campaign team have hashed out a deal that turns over control of the campaign’s email list to the DNC, a move that more than doubles the party’s current email contact list and puts some of the most advanced digital contact infrastructure in the complete control of the Democratic Party.

DNC officials declined to discuss the size of the list, but DNC digital director Matt Compton’s excitement at owning the list that helped Obama raise “more than $500 million” last cycle according to the Wall Street Journal was palpable in an intervew at the DNC’s Summer Meeting. DNC officials said the list was the “largest political email list in the world.”

“The email list will help the DNC expand its reach online, build support for a new generation of leadership, and test new tactics for activating Democratic voters in future elections,” he said. “Email is critically important tool for fundraising, grassroots engagement in support of key issues, and setting the record straight about the Republican candidates as well.”

The DNC formally acquired the list earlier this month, and has already used it to send out an email aimed at boosting support for Obama’s clean power proposal. The DNC has used the list before, but only after messages were approved by the campaign organization that owned it. Now, the DNC is free to use it as they please.

 

What sets the list apart is its enhancements. More than just a huge file of emails, the Obama 2012 list includes information about which specific type of appeals a supporter responded to, how much they donated and when, how they prefer to be contacted, and other granular data that helped make Obama’s digital grassroots outreach the best over two separate campaign cycles.

DNC control means that eventually the party’s presidential nominee will get access to the email list Obama built. Every Democratic presidential campaign would love access to the list, and there has been public grumbling about whether or not Obama would give it up for months. There are no current plans for the competing Democratic primary candidates to get access to the list, DNC officials said, but that could change in the future.

For now, Democratic Party officials are excited to have one of the most sought-after tools in politics. Compton said the list gives Democrats a huge leg up over the GOP in digital outreach.

“The acquisition of this dataset is part of the DNC’s broad efforts to build on its success in political technology and digital organizing, and to keep us many steps ahead of our RNC rivals — and to widen that gap even further,” Compton said.

How Big is the Federal Govt? No One Actually Knows

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Feds wildly disagree on number of agencies, range is 60-430

How big is the federal government? So big, it has lost count of just how many department and agencies it has, according to a federal watchdog group.

Quoting federal officials, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said the number given ranges from a mere 60 to a whopping 430.

In face, Clyde Wayne Crews, vice president of policy for CEI, found this gem of a quote inside the Administrative Conference of the United States source book. It lists 115 agencies in the appendix but adds:

“[T]here is no authoritative list of government agencies.”

Don’t laugh. Yet.

Digging through other counts offered by federal officials, he found an online Federal Register Index of 257.

United States Government Manual lists 316.

Then there was a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during which a senator listed over 430 departments, agencies and sub-agencies.

“As bureaucracy sprawls, nobody can say with complete authority exactly how many federal agencies exist,” blogged Crews on the CEI site.

Nobody Knows How Many Federal Agencies Exist

Clyde Wayne Crews

As bureaucracy sprawls, nobody can say with complete authority exactly how many federal agencies exist.

The twice-annual Unified Agenda of Federal Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions, which compiles agency regulatory plans in the federal pipeline, listed 60 agencies in the Spring 2015 edition, a count that can vary slightly from report to report. The Fall 2014 edition that also contained many agencies’ Regulatory Plan also listed 60.

The Administrative Conference of the United States lists 115 agencies in the appendix of its “Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies, but notes: 

[T]here is no authoritative list of government agencies. For example, FOIA.gov [maintained by the Department of Justice] lists 78 independent executive agencies and 174 components of the executive departments as units that comply with the Freedom of Information Act requirements imposed on every federal agency. This appears to be on the conservative end of the range of possible agency definitions. The United States Government Manual lists 96 independent executive units and 220 components of the executive departments. An even more inclusive listing comes from USA.gov, which lists 137 independent executive agencies and 268 units in the Cabinet.

In a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, one senator noted that “The Federal Register indicates there are over 430 departments, agencies, and sub-agencies in the federal government.” The online Federal Register Index depicts 257. The list below summarizes various tallies.

How Many Federal Agencies Exist?

Unified Agenda: 60

Administrative Conference of the United States: 115

FOIA.gov (at Department of Justice): 252

United States Government Manual: 316

Federal Register Index: 257

Regulations.gov: 89

If nobody knows how many agencies exist whose decrees we must abide, that means we don’t know how many people work for the government (let alone contractors making a living from taxpayers) nor know how many rules there are. But even when we isolate a given, knowable agency, the rise of “regulatory dark matter” may make it hard to tell exactly what is and is not a rule.

The sprawling bureaucracy, plus growing concern that issuing a rule may not even be necessary for agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to impose their will on the public calls out for congressional response.

The Dark Part of Government:

Forbes: In pursuit of job creation and economic growth, Congress is debating several red tape reforms with elevated but still insufficient focus.

In the wake of its “Waters of the United States” rule, the Environmental Protection Agency just this week issued a 600-page rule on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles. Republicans object, but all such are made possible by Congress’ perpetual delegation of lawmaking power to agencies.

As I write this, the 2015 Federal Register has topped 40,000 pages, and contains 1,658 rules year-to-date.

Congressional reforms under consideration include automatic sunsetting of rules, versions of a base-closure style regulatory reduction commission (something bi-partisan for a change), and regulatory budgets.

Most worthwhile would be mandatory congressional votes and a presidential signature for the largest of each year’s 3,500-plus rules and regulations; that is, treat regulations like normal laws, since they are, after all, laws. Much more here.

 

Invisible Ink in this Iran Deal

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Could it be that this Iran deal had many written parts using invisible ink where formulas have been applied to see the realities?

Iran’s Rohani Opposes Parliament Vote On Nuclear Deal  Iranian President

Hassan Rohani has opposed a parliamentary vote on a landmark nuclear agreement with world powers.

Under the July 14 deal, Western sanctions will be gradually be lifted in return for Iran imposing curbs on nuclear activities, which the West suspects are aimed at making an atomic bomb.

Rohani said at a news conference on August 29 that the accord was a political understanding reached with world powers, not a new pact that requires parliamentary approval.

The parliament has set up a special committee to study the deal.

Rohani said the Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest security decision-making body, is already studying the agreement.

He also said Iran’s military capability has not been affected by the deal, saying, “We will do whatever we need to do to defend our country, whether with missiles or other methods.”

*** Give Iran a Passing Grade

If the IAEA’s Dec. 15 report is inconclusive, or if Iran challenges the report, Heinonen said, “it’s a heck of a political discussion in this town.”

Enforcing President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran will greatly expand the work of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog and put it in a political spotlight that rivals, if not exceeds, the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

For months, lawmakers and former nuclear inspectors have expressed concerns that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s integrity and independence would be hurt by the pressure of policing Iran’s compliance with a deal in which the world’s most powerful countries have placed so much hope. Those concerns have been reinforced in the wake of reports that the agency may be willing to place an unprecedented level of trust in Iran’s integrity.

“From what we can tell, this inspection arrangement with Iran is far from established practice. It is far from routine, as the Obama administration claims. And it is very far from what we should find acceptable in an agreement so central to our security,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The agreement signed July 14 in Vienna between Iran and six major world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — would essentially freeze Iran’s nuclear program for 10 years in exchange for relief from sanctions that have crippled that country’s economy. Iran also agreed never to seek a nuclear weapon, and to accept enhanced monitoring from the IAEA, though Iranian officials dispute what the United States and its partners say that means.

The deal would greatly expand the IAEA’s role in Iran. Director General Yukiya Amano said Tuesday that the agency would need an additional $10.5 million a year to hire more inspectors and obtain new equipment to meet its requirements. Much of that will come from the United States, which provides about a third of the agency’s budget.

The initial and most significant phase of sanctions relief is set to come after the IAEA reports by Dec. 15 on Iran’s compliance with outstanding issues related to past work widely believed to have been aimed at developing a nuclear weapon. The process for resolving those issues is contained in a confidential side deal worked out between the agency and Iran and signed on the same day as the broader nuclear accord.

And that’s where the problem starts.

U.S. lawmakers already were skeptical of the secret side deal, and angry that the agency wouldn’t let them see it, when the Associated Press reported last week that it included an arrangement allowing Iran to use its own inspectors at the Parchin military base, where the United States and other nations believe illicit nuclear weapons work was done in the past.

This highly unusual step was seen by many lawmakers and experts as a bad precedent for future efforts and a sign that the IAEA is under heavy political pressure to ensure Iran meets the bar for sanctions relief.

“If the reporting is accurate, these procedures appear to be risky, departing significantly from well-established and proven safeguards practices,” wrote Olli Heinonen, a former IAEA deputy director, in an analysis for the nonpartisan Iran Task Force. “At a broader level, if verification standards have been diluted for Parchin (or elsewhere) and limits imposed, the ramification is significant as it will affect the IAEA’s ability to draw definitive conclusions with the requisite level of assurances and without undue hampering of the verification process.”

The AP story appeared to verify concerns raised in a July 21 report by the Institute for Science and International Security, whose founder, David Albright, also a former arms inspector, has warned for months that the Iran deal risks forcing the IAEA into a political role for which it is not suited.

“Allowing Iran to stonewall or deceive the IAEA and the E3+3 on the [possible military dimension] issue would significantly weaken the credibility of verification and increase suspicions that Iran is making time-bound concessions to defuse intense international pressure as part of a strategy to maintain its ability to acquire nuclear weapons later,” the report said.

Iran had demanded immediate relief from international sanctions during the two years of talks resulting in the nuclear deal, and much of the pressure to meet that demand has also now fallen on the IAEA. The agreement gives the agency only five months to resolve issues on which Iran has been stonewalling for years so sanctions relief can be implemented. Experts say those issues are crucial to knowing how close Tehran came to developing a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t think the IAEA can come with a conclusive report by Dec. 15. There’s simply not enough time,” Heinonen told the Washington Examiner. “This is a very tight schedule.”

If the IAEA’s Dec. 15 report is inconclusive, or if Iran challenges the report, Heinonen said, “it’s a heck of a political discussion in this town.”

***

Senators supporting the Iran deal may want to reflect long and hard about just what they are endorsing. The faults are many:

  • The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is far weaker than previous non-proliferation agreements with South Africa and Libya.
  • Contrary to White House talking points, the inspection and verification mechanisms are also weaker than previous agreements.
  • The JCPOA provides Iran rewards upfront, allowing it to cheat or walk away from the deal without consequence.
  • Secretary of State John Kerry has apparently acquiesced to Iran conducting its own sampling as the suspect Parchin site, where Iran is alleged to have conducted nuclear weapons work.

Now it’s time to add another problem: Kerry, in his myopic quest for a Nobel Prize, appears to have put China in charge of redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor, where Iran can produce plutonium. According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua (emphasis added):

The accord helps maintain the non-proliferation mechanism and safeguard Iran’s rights on civil nuclear energy, [Foreign Minister] Wang [Yi] said, adding it also “created more favorable conditions for the development of the China-Iran relationship.” China will work closely with Iran to ensure the implementation of the deal and continue to play a positive and constructive role in redesigning the Arak heavy-water reactor and other issues, Wang added.

Given that China has always been North Korea’s number one sponsor, what could go wrong?

Minneapolis is a National Security Risk

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A Terror Suspect on the ‘No Fly’ List Just Got His Trucking License in Minnesota

A Minnesota terror suspect may be on the “No Fly” list, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting his Class A trucking license.

Back in 2007, the FBI arrested Amir Meshal on suspicion of leaving a terror training camp in Somalia. But this month, Meshal was granted a license to drive semi-trucks after he passed his road test. He also applied for a school bus endorsement.

Meshal was asked to leave two different U.S. mosques due to suspected radicalization of other members.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – A Minnesota man, who Homeland Security identifies as a terror suspect who is on the “No Fly” list, now has his Class A commercial license, which will allow him to drive semi-trucks.

The FOX 9 Investigators revealed last May that Amir Meshal was attempting to get his Class A license from a Twin Cities truck driving school. The $4,000 tuition was paid for through the state workforce program.   The Minnesota Department of Public Safety confirms he was granted the license after passing a road test on August 8. A spokesperson said Meshal has also applied for a school bus endorsement, pending the outcome of a criminal background check.

In May 2014, Meshal was removed and trespassed from a Bloomington, Minn. mosque, Al Farooq, after he was suspected of radicalizing young people who would later travel to Syria. According to the police report, religious leaders said, “We have concerns about Meshal interacting with our youth.”  Meshal had previously been asked to leave an Eden Prairie, Minn. mosque for similar reasons.

The ACLU recently sued TSA and Homeland Security to have Meshal removed from the “No Fly” list.  But Homeland Security responded in a letter obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators that Meshal, “..may be a threat to civil aviation or national security,” adding that, “It has been determined that you (Amir Meshal) are an individual who represents a threat of engaging in or conducting a violent act of terrorism and who is operationally capable of doing so.”

In 2007, Meshal, a U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, was arrested in Kenya by the FBI, suspected of leaving a terror training camp in Somalia. Meshal, via the ACLU, is also suing the U.S. government for detaining him overseas for three months. In the lawsuit, Meshal claims the FBI tried to convince him to become an informant — an offer he says he declined.

The FOX 9 Investigators asked the Minnesota Department of Public Safety why they issued a Class A license for someone who Homeland Security believes has the “operational capacity” to carry out a terror attack. We have not heard back.

Statement from Hina Shamsi, ACLU attorney representing Amir Meshal

“Mr. Meshal has never been charged with a crime and has sued the government to obtain a fair process to challenge his wrongful inclusion on the No Fly List.  Like many other unemployed Americans, he’s trying to obtain credentials for a job so he can build a life for his family, including a baby.  Any suggestion that Mr. Meshal’s efforts to get a job somehow present a concern is shameful. On Mr. Meshal’s cases: his unlawful rendition and detention case is on appeal. The latest in the No Fly List case is described here.

In 2014, there was a deeper FBI investigation.

A Minnesota youth center is at the heart of a federal grand jury investigation into a suspected ISIS terrorist pipeline.

The FBI says that someone on the ground in Minnesota is convincing young people to join the terror fight in Syria, then giving them money to get there.

Up to 30 Somali-Americans who have reportedly joined or tried to join terrorist groups overseas had attended Al Farooq Youth and Family Center in Minnesota. That’s the same mosque that kicked out 31-year-old Amir Meshal this summer for allegedly proselytizing radical Islam ideologies.