Category Archives: Insurgency

The Cuban Adjustment Act ala Mexico

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The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1996 (CAA) provides for a special procedure under which Cuban natives or citizens and their accompanying spouses and children may get a green card (permanent residence). The CAA gives the Attorney General the discretion to grant permanent residence to Cuban natives or citizens applying for a green card if:

They have been present in the United States for at least 1 year
They have been admitted or paroled
They are admissible as immigrants

HAVANA — President Obama’s opening to Cuba has accelerated a surge in Cuban migration to the United States, the latest U.S. statistics show, as many on the island grow worried that America’s long-standing immigration benefits for Cubans are now in jeopardy.

Last month the Coast Guard intercepted 481 Cubans in rickety boats and rafts, a 117 percent increase from December 2013. But the boaters account for only a fraction of those attempting to reach the United States. At the Miami airport and ports of entry along the Mexican border, the number of Cubans who arrived seeking refuge jumped to 8,624 during the last three months of 2014, a 65 percent increase from the previous year.

Many Cubans have heard warnings for years that their unique immigration privileges — which essentially treat anyone from the island who sets foot on U.S. terra firma as a political refugee — would not last forever.

Mexican border now a major entry point for Cuban migrants

Although a homemade raft overloaded with desperate people is the most enduring image of the decades-long migration to the U.S. from Cuba, that is not the way most Cubans without visas now arrive.

Most walk across the Mexican border.

“It is surprising. And it is surprising that we are now seeing those numbers officially reported,” said Jorge Duany, a Florida International University professor who studies migration patterns. During the last three months of 2014, nearly 6,500 Cubans arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That figure is up from 4,328 from the same period the previous year, an increase of 50 percent.

Sombrero Beach, in Marathon, Florida

The number of Cubans without visas processed through the agency’s Miami field office more than doubled over that same period, rising from 893 to 2,135. Many flew directly to Miami aboard flights from Spain, South America, the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands, using passports from Spain and other third countries.

The 1,900-mile long Southwest border, for years the main entry point for undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America, was also ground zero for a recent spike in Cuban migrants.

The spike includes arrivals of Cubans by air and sea, and was fueled in part by fears that talks between the Obama Administration and Cuba could result in changes in the preferential treatment undocumented Cuban migrants have enjoyed since 1966.

Rumors that the Adjustment Act — and the 1995 amendment providing for the so-called “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy – was at risk began to sweep the island in the wake of President Obama’s Dec. 17 speech in which he said the U.S. wanted to normalize relations with the Castro government. Existing policies allow Cubans who reach U.S. soil– with or without visas – to stay and within a year apply for permanent residency.

“The primary concern is the possibility of the Cuban Adjustment Act being affected,” said Oscar Rivera, director of the resettlement agency Church World Service in Doral. “That seems to be an issue in Cuba right now. That’s what we’re hearing.”

The surge in Cuban migrants triggered by the announcement may be most evident in the number of Coast Guard interdictions at sea. In December 2014, 331 Cubans in boats and rafts were stopped before they could reach the U.S. All were taken back to Cuba. During the last three months of 2014, 132 Cubans made it to shore in Florida, up from 105 during the same period in 2013, according to Border Patrol figures. Unknown is the number who landed without being detected and did not report to U.S. officials, or who perished at sea. But balseros, or rafters, make up only a fraction of those attempting to reach the U.S. “It is no longer chiefly the heroic individual who floats himself across,” said Duany, director of FIU’s Cuban Research Institute. “Much of the traffic in people now is well-organized by smuggling groups. It is how the coyotes (smugglers) make a living.”  Many of those Cubans who enter the U.S. through Mexico begin their journey in Ecuador. In the past six years, more than 100,000 Cubans have left the island for the Andean nation because Ecuador does not require a visa or special permission to visit.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the anti-Castro group Democracy Movement, said the Cuban government welcomes the flow of its citizens to South America, through Mexico and into Florida because it relieves social pressure on the island.

Once in the U.S., those arrivals then “refresh the source of income” to Cuba by sending money home to relatives on the island, Sanchez said.

Cubans also enter the U.S. with visas issued by the Interest Section in Havana. Current accords call for a minimum of 20,000 visas a year, but Duany said that recently the number of visas issued has averaged 32,000 annually.

Regardless of any changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act, or the lifting of the embargo, Duany predicts migration from Cuba will increase over the next decade. “The economic conditions, the living conditions in Cuba, don’t seem to improve, and the force of family ties remains strong,” he said. “I don’t see any indication that will change.”  David Abraham, a University of Miami law professor and expert in Cuban migration, agrees. “Change in Cuba comes slowly,” he said. “What’s driving people to come here doesn’t change. That’s economic opportunity.”

 

 

Merkel, Obama and Putin

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Exactly why is Angela Merkel of German visiting the White House today? Putin is in Cairo today expanding his influence or is he? There is a real split on arming Ukraine, on a military solution or giving diplomacy more time with regard to getting Putin out of Ukraine. There have been numerous cease-fire agreements, each have collapsed, such that 5400 people in Ukraine are dead. What about Greece? There is also the question of what Putin is doing with Cyprus.

Cyprus has denied Russian media reports that it is ready to lease two military bases to Russia.

“There is no question of Russian air or naval military bases on the soil of Cyprus,” said Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides.

Earlier, Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta said Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades would make the offer on an official visit to Moscow on 25 February.

Cyprus is in the EU but not in Nato.

The leasing deal would concern an air base near Paphos and a naval base at Limassol, according to Rossiiskaya Gazeta. Russia can already use the bases temporarily.

But Mr Kasoulides dismissed the leasing claim, saying “there has never been any request from Russia about this”, the Cyprus News Agency CNA reported.

He said President Anastasiades was referring to “the renewal of a military co-operation agreement with Russia consisting of maintenance of military equipment sold to Cyprus years ago, as well as the purchase of spare parts according to existing contracts”.

He added that “as regards the offering of facilities, these are of a purely non-military humanitarian nature, such as the evacuation of Russian civilians from the Middle East if the need arises”.

Russian warships can already use the Limassol base for refuelling and the Andreas Papandreou air base for humanitarian missions.

Commander of US Army in Europe Sees Russia Mobilizing for War  ‘I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years —not that they’re going to start a war in five or six years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within the next five or six years.”

So says Lt. Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe….

“Strong Europe!” reads a sign on one of the walls. Next to it is the U.S. Army Europe insignia, a burning sword set against a blue shield. The two signs represent the strategic framework the three-star general has introduced—building on America’s decades-long role on the Continent—since taking command last year of the 30,000 or so U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe.

The U.S. military presence in Europe is more vital at this moment than it has been in many years. American engagement is essential if the West is to deter a revanchist Russia that has set out to “redraw the boundaries of Europe,” Gen. Hodges says with a native Floridian’s drawl….

The Russians have “got some forces in Transnistria,” he says of the state that broke away from Moldova in the 1990s. “They’ve got forces in Georgia. And I think they view China as their existential threat, so they’ve got a lot of capacity out there.” The Russian military is thus already somewhat stretched, and Moscow had to carve out from existing units the battalion task groups currently arrayed near eastern Ukraine. Yet “they are clearly on a path to develop, to increase, their capacity,” Gen. Hodges says. Add to this expansion that “they’ve got very good equipment, extremely good communications equipment, their [electronic-warfare] capability, T-80 tanks.” How long will it take for Russia to reach its desired military strength? “I think within another two or three years they will have that capacity,” he says….

Then there is the Kremlin’s sheer aggressiveness, not least on the nuclear front. The Pentagon last year announced that it is removing missiles from 50 of America’s underground silos, converting B-52 long-range bombers to conventional use and disabling 56 submarine-based nuclear-launch tubes—all well ahead of the 2018 New Start treaty deadline. Moscow, by contrast, has been simulating nuclear strikes on Western capitals as part of annual exercises.

Gen. Hodges won’t comment on the U.S. strategic-force posture in Europe other than to say he is “confident in that process.” But he adds that the fact that the Russians rehearse nuclear-strike scenarios “shows that they’re not worried about conveying a stark message like that. You know, frankly, you hear this often from many people in the West, ‘Oh, we don’t want to provoke the Russians.’ I think concern about provoking the Russians is probably misplaced. You can’t provoke them. They’re already on a path to do what they want to do….

“I’ve never been bashful about telling allies, ‘Hey, you have a responsibility here, too. You all agreed to spend 2% of your GDP on defense. Right now only four countries are doing it.'”

Yet the failure of many of European leaders to live up to their defense commitments “doesn’t change our interest,” Gen. Hodges says. “And the U.S. economic link to Europe, to the EU, dwarfs any other economic link in the world, anywhere in the Pacific, China, India, you name it. So if for no other reason it’s in our interest that Europe be stable, that people make money so they can buy U.S. products. . . .

We provide capability assurance here by being present here.”

Gen. Hodges says there is also a huge payoff in U.S. security from U.S.-European cooperation. The main lesson of the post-9/11 wars is that “we are not going to do anything by ourselves militarily,” he notes. The U.S. “needs the capacity that other countries can bring.” These benefits come “from a relatively small investment—I mean, U.S. Army Europe is 2% of the Army’s budget and about 5% of the Army’s manpower. . . . You can’t sit back in Virginia, Texas or Oregon and build relationships with people here.” He quotes his predecessor, Lt. Gen. Donald Campbell: “You can’t surge trust.”

Nor can the U.S. project national power world-wide, as it has since the end of World War II, with an overstretched Army. “There are 10 division headquarters in the Army,” he says. “Nine of them are committed right now. I’ve never seen that. I don’t think at the height of Iraq and Afghanistan you had nine out of 10 division headquarters committed against some requirement.” That leaves little in reserve if another conflict breaks out.

What Keeps FBI Director up at Night

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Ex-Terror Task Force Member: Average Americans Are Targets in US

Average Americans should take heed of FBI Director James Comey’s warning to a Mississippi audience Tuesday that Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists are a real threat on U.S. soil, ex-Terrorism Task Force member Steve Rogers says.

“In the early 2000s when I was on the National Joint Terrorism Task Force, I remember reading al-Qaida’s training manual,” Rogers told Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Wednesday.  “This was a 10-, 20-, 30-year strategic plan to do what? To go after the big prize, take down the United States of America … in America.”

“In that training manual, it was clear: Infiltrate their universities, infiltrate their schools, their neighborhoods, their market, infiltrate the news media, embed yourself in every neighborhood,” he said.

No one should be surprised there are ISIS sympathizers within our borders, Rogers said. After all, there were Nazi sympathizers in the United States during World War II and Soviet agents during the Cold War.

“Mississippi is a great state,” Comey said during a stop in that state, The Clarion-Ledger reported.  “But like all 50 states it has troubled souls that might look to find meaning in this sick, misguided way.” The FBI has investigations on possible terror suspects in every state but Alaska, Comey said.

“The challenge that we face in law enforcement is that they may be getting exposed to that poison and that training in their basement,” Comey said. “They’re sitting there consuming and may emerge from the basement to kill people of any sort, which is the call of ISIL (or ISIS), just kill somebody.”

Rogers agreed.

“Look, I’m sure they’re here,” he said. “And I believe the FBI director was making it kind of through a back way of saying it, they’re here. So you know what, be on the look out.”

Ironically, the very administration for which Comey works has crippled intelligence capabilities, and isn’t protecting the borders from allowing more people with terrorist ties to enter, Rogers said.

He joined critics of President Barack Obama who say he should label the enemy “Islamic terrorists.” “Mr. President, say these are Islamic terrorists, for goodness sakes,” he said.

***                                         

Then there is Canada, a close neighbor that needs attention.

Mysterious woman from Canada’s rapid rise in ISIS puzzles intel analyst

A mysterious jihadist who left her home in Canada in late November to join ISIS has toured the caliphate like a VIP, appearing in key locations throughout Syria and Iraq and prompting intel analysts to wonder what is behind her seemingly elevated status.

Little is known about the woman who calls herself “Lama Sharif al-Shammari” on Twitter and who terrorism experts simply call “L.A.” They believe she left Canada some time after Nov. 23 to join Islamic State, arrived on Dec. 8 and was in Syria as recently as Tuesday. Analysts believe she may be a Sunni Muslim of Saudi descent.

But what sets “L.A.” apart from thousands of radicalized foreigners who have flocked from North America and Europe to the terrorist army’s killing fields is that her Twitter account shows she has been to virtually every corner of Islamic State’s bloody realm within a three-week period, according to analysts. They believe her whirlwind itinerary indicates she is somehow significant and has risen inexplicably through the ranks.

“What is really surprising is that in a very short period of time, L.A. appears to have taken an extremely active role with ISIS,” said Veryan Khan, of the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC), a Florida-based global research firm specializing in political violence and terrorism.

Government and private intelligence agencies closely monitor social media accounts of known jihadists, not only for the substance of their chatter, but also for its origin. Khan said the woman known as L.A. has sent Tweets applauding Islamic State atrocities from “virtually every major city that ISIS controls.”

“We have never seen someone move about this rapidly,” Khan said. “What makes it even more unusual is that she is newly traveled to Islamic State. Having only been there since Dec. 8, it is odd that she would become so active so quickly once arriving,” said Khan.

Intel analysts want to know more about her, and what is responsible for her lofty status in the world’s biggest terror army. Hundreds of women are among the radical Islamists who have traveled to join Islamic State, but have so far served primarily in supportive roles or as brides, according to experts.

None are known to belong to self-professed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s inner circle, and none have appeared in the videos in which ISIS fighters have executed captives or issued threats to the West. Khan believes this makes L.A.’s movements even more significant.

“Based on L.A.’s locations and congruent battles in these locations, it is been assumed that she is conducting, at least on some level, surveillance for the Islamic State,” Khan said.

L.A. – or “Toronto Jane” as she has also been dubbed by Khan’s group – has been to at least five cities within the vast territory controlled by Islamic State, leaving tracks in strongholds like Raqqa, Syria, as well as appearing in Kobani, where the terror group fought its most ferocious battles with Kurdish forces supported by U.S. airstrikes. She has also turned up in the Syrian cities of Dier ez Zur and Aleppo and in Mosul, Iraq.
“It is not merely the amount and location, but also the time frame — she has been very active in what essentially adds up to three weeks,” Khan said.
Tweets sent by L.A. reveal a committed radical enthusiastically promoting Islamic State’s signature atrocity – beheadings. While FoxNews.com will not link to L.A.’s Twitter feed, her banner is an image of a severed head, taken from an infamous ISIS propaganda video in which an Islamic State leader orchestrates an unprecedented simultaneous beheadings of 22 people.

“Though we have seen this trend of using the images of the foreign fighters of this video as avatars on Twitter, it is pretty bold to feature the severed head,” Khan said.
L.A. has posted 131 tweets, all in Arabic, to her 145 followers, according to her Twitter page. Her most recent tweet, from Syria, came on Jan. 23, the day Saudi monarch King Abdullah died.

“Fill the world with the noise of his news, like he filled the land of ‘Al-Haramain’ (Saudi Arabia) with the bases of the American Military invader,” read the tweet, according to a translation provided for FoxNews.com by Craig Smith, chief investigator with BrightStar Investigations. “Write him (King Abdullah) as many laments as are his treasons.”
Based on an analysis of her tweets, Smith believes L.A. is a Saudi Arabian whose family is from the Al-Shamry tribe, and that she harbors “extreme hatred” for the Saudi royal family for allowing the U.S. military on Saudi soil during the Iraq War.
Her posts were first noted by the Ontario-based intelligence research company iBRABO, which worked with TRAC while monitoring her cell phone location matching it up with corresponding tweets. The firm claims it has pinpointed her recent presence in Kobani and Mosul down to specific homes.
“She had interactions with key players known in the region,” Khan said. “Plus there is no way to fake the location services pinging from the actual phone. If you look at her locations outside of Kobani and Mosul — they were all strongholds we can pinpoint down to the actual house on the street.”  Geo-mapping the locations of people has been around for a number of years, said Chris Roberts, founder of One World Labs, an organization that specializes in cyber security and threat intelligence.
“Most people on the planet don’t seem to realize they are being tracked by several applications on their phone,” Roberts said, adding that Twitter development has a “geo tag” that uses two pieces of data, the “reference” to the user’s location, which can be set, and the latitude/longitude code from the phone’s triangulation capabilities.
The terrorist group has been active on social media, using it to issue threats and post videos of its bloody handiwork, but top ISIS brass apparently realizes that they can be tracked through tweets.
Al-Baghdadi and Islamic State spokesman Mohammad al-Adnani issued a statement earlier this week about unauthorized messages from within their organization in which they said neither has a personal account.
“The Caliph Abu Baker Al Baghdadi and Shaykh Abu Mohammad al-Adnani al-Shami do not have accounts on social media,” read a translation obtained by Fox News.
But social media is a powerful recruitment tool for Islamic State, and sick messages and images sent by devoted adherents like L.A. help swell its ranks, according to Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the Clarion Project. L.A.’s new prominence could even help Islamic State lure more women to Syria and Iraq, he said.
“These men are interested in having ‘wives’ come to the so-called caliphate to live with them,” Mauro said.
He said promotion of women like L.A. could be a deliberate effort by Islamic State to change its image.
“Islamic State wants to redefine feminism by characterizing Western society as oppressive towards women,” he said. “They choose to highlight women to show that their ideology treats women fairly as equals in jihad.”

 

Saudi King Salman, a Reformer?

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Barack Obama visited the Saudi kingdom to pay respects for the passing of King Abdullah.

Let us remember when Hillary Clinton called Bashir al Assad, the tyrant Islamist ruler of Syria a reformer and many are calling King Abdullah’s replacement, King Salman the same thing. Head-scratch. Seems King Salman’s past and perhaps current nefarious connections need some real scrutiny.

“Yet Salman has an ongoing track record of patronizing hateful extremists that is now getting downplayed for political convenience. As former CIA official Bruce Riedel astutely pointed out, Salman was the regime’s lead fundraiser for mujahideen, or Islamic holy warriors, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as for Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan struggles of the 1990s. In essence, he served as Saudi Arabia’s financial point man for bolstering fundamentalist proxies in war zones abroad.

As longtime governor of Riyadh, Salman was often charged with maintaining order and consensus among members of his family. Salman’s half brother King Khalid (who ruled from 1975 to 1982) therefore looked to him early on in the Afghan conflict to use these family contacts for international objectives, appointing Salman to run the fundraising committee that gathered support from the royal family and other Saudis to support the mujahideen against the Soviets.

Riedel writes that in this capacity, Salman “work[ed] very closely with the kingdom’s Wahhabi clerical establishment.” Another CIA officer who was stationed in Pakistan in the late 1980s estimates that private Saudi donations during that period reached between $20 million and $25 million every month. And as Rachel Bronson details in her book, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, Salman also helped recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Salafist fighter who served as a mentor to both Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.”

***

Saudi Arabia crowns new king who financed jihad

In 1978, the Saudi monarchy decided to expand the exportation of fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam across the world through the establishment of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). About 10 years later, IIRO’s Philippine branch was established by Osama Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, which subsequently funded Philippine terrorists. By the 2000s, IIRO’s branch in Indonesia began funding Al Qaeda training camps.

The Bush administration designated IIRO-Philippines and IIRO-Indonesia as terrorist entities in 2006. IIRO’s U.S. offices were closed at the time, although IIRO appeared to reopen an office in Florida 2010. IIRO is the fourth best-funded Islamic foundation in the world according to a 2011 study.

The man who selected the leadership of IIRO and approved its spending from its inception is the new king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz:

Saudi Crown Prince Salman

From the Washington Free Beacon:

…[T]hroughout his public career in government, Salman has embraced radical Muslim clerics and has been tied to the funding of radical groups in Afghanistan, as well as an organization found to be plotting attacks against America, according to various reports and information provided by David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

In 2001, an international raid of the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia, which Salman founded in 1993, unearthed evidence of terrorist plots against America, according to separate exposés written by Dore Gold, an Israeli diplomat, and Robert Baer, a former CIA officer.

Salman is further accused by Baer of having “personally approved all important appointments and spending” at the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a controversial Saudi charity that was hit with sanctions following the attacks of September 11, 2001, for purportedly providing material support to al Qaeda.

Salman also has been reported to be responsible for sending millions of dollars to the radical mujahedeen that waged jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s, according to Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who is now director of the Brookings Intelligence Project.

“In the early years of the war—before the U.S. and the Kingdom ramped up their secret financial support for the anti-Soviet insurgency—this private Saudi funding was critical to the war effort,” according to Riedel. “At its peak, Salman was providing $25 million a month to the mujahedeen. He was also active in raising money for the Bosnian Muslims in the war with Serbia”…

 

Past and a Present Secret of the Waldorf Astoria

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More than once I personally was an overnight guest at the Waldorf Astoria and it is a tradition to visit the famous hotel when visiting New York. The hotel holds many secrets and some fascinating facts.

It’s Called the Presidential Suite for a Reason
It’s not the finest suite in the city or even at the Waldorf Astoria, but unique amenities like multiple adjacent rooms for staff, bulletproof glass windows, and an interior design similar to the White House make this grand accommodation high up on the 35th floor the number one choice of sitting presidents when they visit New York. Every president since Herbert Hoover has stayed here, including President Obama, who sleeps here every time he’s in town. Each president has also left the hotel a gift that is now featured in the suite (JFK left a rocking chair), so check back in a couple years to see what Obama leaves.

Famous Faces Moving In
There have been several notable Americans to call the hotel home over the years including Herbert Hoover (after his presidency), Cole Porter, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and three five-star generals (MacArthur, Eisenhower & Bradley). These guests didn’t just book a room or suite for the weekend. They rented one-of-a-kind apartments. There are several residential units in the hotel, located on the 28th to 42nd floors known as the Waldorf Towers. These are some of New York’s most desired homes, the smallest coming it at 1,600 square feet and many with a private terrace. All include 24-hour maid service, a private entrance and sky high price tags—some of these rent for upwards of $100,000 per month.

***But there is more.

A secretive U.S. government agency has cleared the way for a giant Chinese insurance firm to buy New York’s fabled Waldorf Astoria after a national security review that likely imposed conditions on the purchase.

Anbang Insurance Group Co. in Beijing announced the blockbuster deal. Hilton Worldwide, which sold the iconic hotel for $1.95 billion, confirmed its approval but declined to comment. The sale is expected to close on March 31.

“At this point, Anbang Insurance Group’s acquisition of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York has formally completed all the relevant procedures,” the Chinese conglomerate said in a statement.

The deal’s approval represents a precedent-setting action by the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States as it moves to vet major real estate transactions for national security implications.

In the past, the focus of the panel known by its acronym CFIUS has been on protecting foreigners’ access to sensitive data, classified information and high-tech equipment through purchases of American firms, many of which were government contractors.

The panel took up the Waldorf Astoria sale because the hotel serves as the home-away-from-home for presidents visiting New York and provides a residence for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, currently Samantha Power. Foreign dignitaries and celebrities also stay at the Art Deco landmark. Christopher Brewster, a Washington lawyer with Stroock & Stroock and Lavan who represents Chinese and other foreign businesses seeking to buy American companies, said CFIUS all but certainly would have required key mitigation measures in order to sanction the Waldorf Astoria deal.

“There would need to be certain protections put in place to ensure the integrity of the telecommunications systems used by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and to ensure that there is adequate physical security,” Brewster told McClatchy on Tuesday.

“There could very well be restrictions on access to the hotel by the foreign owners, restrictions on the staffing of certain positions and other management controls,” Brewster said.

It is even possible, Brewster said, that CFIUS required day-to-day management of the hotel to be limited to American citizens, perhaps under the oversight of a top boss vetted by the secretive agency.

“The idea that CFIUS would clear this transaction and then just walk away from it seems to me far-fetched,” Brewster said. “I have to believe that they required some kind of protections to be put in place.”

The original sales agreement granted Hilton management rights at the Waldorf Astoria for 100 years.

After controversial purchases of American properties in the 1970s by Japanese and Arab firms, President Gerald Ford established CFIUS in 1976 via executive order, and Congress later codified it into law.

The committee, whose work is classified, does not comment on its cases. It is chaired by the Treasury secretary, who is joined by the secretaries of Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, State and Energy, along with the Attorney General. The U.S. trade representative and the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy also belong.

As China in recent years has surged to the front of countries with foreign firms buying American companies, CFIUS has focused increased attention to some of its acquisitions.

After a lengthy review, CFIUS in September 2013 approved the purchase of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork producer, to Hong Kong-based Shuanghui International Holdings.

“A lot of people were laughing at the idea of CFIUS reviewing pig farms,” Brewster said Tuesday. “But the food supply has been recognized as part of the critical infrastructure of the United States. Smithfield plays a major role in the U.S. food sector, feeding our troops and supplying commissaries.”

In a more contentious case, CFIUS in 2012 denied the bid by Chinese-owned Ralls Corp. to buy a group of wind farms in Oregon, saying they were too close to a major U.S. naval base. After President Barack Obama rejected Ralls’ appeal of the decision, the Chinese firm sued him and CFIUS. A federal court last year ruled that Ralls’ constitutional due process rights had been violated and ordered the U.S. government to provide the company hundreds of previously concealed documents supporting its denial of the deal.

The 47-story Waldorf was the world’s biggest hotel when built in 1931 at its current location on New York’s Park Avenue between East 49th and East 50th Streets, about 10 blocks from the Grand Central train station.

An underground train transports presidents and other dignitaries from Grand Central to the Waldorf, carrying Secret Service limousines and other security vehicles.

Every White House occupant since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite on the 35th floor, with each U.S. leader leaving a gift.

Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter, Grace Kelly and Gen. Douglas MacArthur are among the many celebrities who’ve lived in the Waldorf’s palatial rooms and apartments, which feature around-the-clock food delivery and maid service.

Aaron Radelet, Hilton’s vice president for corporate communications, told McClatchy in October, when the Anbang purchase was first announced, that the iconic property would “undergo a major renovation” as part of the deal.

As China has quietly increased its investment in the United States, Beijing and Washington have engaged in more public political spats around accusations of spying and computer hacking.

In its most recent annual report to Congress, CFIUS disclosed that in 2012, for the first time, it had done more national security reviews of transactions involving China than of those involving any other country.