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

 

 

Nunes RICO Lawsuit v. Fusion GPS

This is a 3 part RICO case against Glenn Simpson, all things Fusion GPS and Campaign for Accountability, Inc..

Very interesting of the details that Nunes and his lawyer provide in detail. While Conngressman Nunes is suing for at least $9.9 million, it is not so much about an end result but more about the discovery process in the case. That means in layman’s terms, a document production requirement which is all the Republicans have been demanding of government agencies during the whole Russian collusion case. Government agencies, including the Department of Justice and the FBI for the most part have either slow-walked responses, redacted documents or have been completely non-responsive. In this type of lawsuit, where a jury is demanded, documents must be produced.

California Rep. Devin Nunes named to Trump's transition ...

Read the complaint here.

Meanwhile, Congressman Nunes could have a real ally in this lawsuit. He is one Bill Browder, a former U.S. citizen, now a citizen of Britain. You may remember Mr. Browder as he has been on the quest to have foreign government adopt the Magnitsky Act, a law fully adopted by the United States several years ago.

Northwest Research | & Covert Book Report

You may also remember that little meeting that got so much press that included Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Natalia Veselnitskaya. Fusion GPS did the same thing to Mr. Browder that Congressman Nunes is alleging in his complaint.

Following California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes’ $9.9M lawsuit against Fusion GPS over alleged “smear” tactics, businessman and Magnitsky Act advocate Bill Browder told Fox News that the opposition research firm behind the anti-Trump Steele dossier also targeted him with an organized misinformation campaign.

Browder is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, which was once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia. He told Fox News that Fusion GPS and founder Glenn Simpson were working with Russians who wanted the Magnitsky Act repealed — and that they “played dirty.”

“It appears on a whole range of stories they are in the lying and smear campaigning business,” Browder said. “My experience does not look like an isolated incident. These guys play dirty, and I have seen it firsthand.”He continued: “I had an experience with Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS in spring 2016 where they were paid agents for individuals connected to the Russian government. They lied to journalists and other thought leaders in Washington about me and the Magnitsky case to have the act repealed.”

***

In part from the Washington Examiner:

Veselnitskaya was a Russian prosecutor, then performed government-related lobbying in the U.S. against the Magnitsky Act. Prevezon was a company alleged to have laundered fraudulent money exposed by Magnitsky, so Veselnitskaya hired BakerHostetler to help Prevezon in court — and the law firm hired Fusion GPS.

Russian lawyer questions why Mueller hasn't contacted her

Glenn Simpson, the opposition research firm’s founder, testified he started working with Veselnitskaya in 2014 and said “she would have arranged for Prevezon to pay Baker Hostetler which paid us.” Simpson knew the research he conducted opposing the Magnitsky Act, criticizing Magnitsky advocate and friend Bill Browder and defending Prevezon, made its way to Veselnitskaya. And Simpson met with Veselnitskaya the day before the Trump Tower meeting, the day of it, and the day after. Simpson claimed he didn’t know she was connected to the Kremlin and didn’t know about the Trump Tower meeting beforehand.

Veselnitskaya attended the meeting with a Russian translator and fellow Russian anti-Magnistky Act lobbyists and Prevezon case workers. Veselnitskaya presented a document echoing official Kremlin talking points criticizing the Magnitsky Act and attacking Browder and others by alleging financial misconduct in their support for Democrats. When Don Jr. asked for proof, she had none. The Russians also complained about U.S. sanctions imposed under the Magnitsky Act and Putin’s response banning U.S. adoption of Russian children. Trump associates expecting dirt on Clinton considered the meeting a waste of time. The media revealed the meeting’s existence in July 2017.

Operation No Safe Haven V

If you see a Democrat, ask them what they know about this operation and have them explain it to you please. Let just see if they get it right, OR if they know about it at all….

BTW, have you seen this guy? Martinez-Rojas, Severiano

ATLANTA – On May 21, 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta and the FBI conducted search and arrest warrants for several individuals suspected of human trafficking.

Since 2006, Severiano Martinez-Rojas, along with family members Arturo Rojas-Coyotl, Odilon Martinez-Rojas, Daniel Garcia-Tepal and others, all from Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, conspired and brought multiple women into the United States from Mexico and Guatemala, all for the purpose of forcing them to engage in prostitution.

Eight victims from Mexico and Guatemala were rescued during the course of the investigation.

Odilon Martinez-Rojas and Rojas-Coyotl have been sentenced to 21 years and 16 years in prison, respectively. Severiano Martinez-Rojas is believed to have returned to Mexico prior to the warrant execution and remains a fugitive in this case.

***

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 39 fugitives – 30 males and nine females – sought for their roles in known or suspected human rights violations during a nationwide operation that took place from Aug. 27 to 29.

The ICE National Fugitive Operations Program in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, worked with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal (ERO) Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco field offices to arrest these fugitives.

The foreign nationals arrested during this operation all have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation to their countries of origin. Of the 39 known or suspected human rights violators arrested during Operation No Safe Haven V, 16 individuals are also criminal aliens in the U.S. with convictions for crimes including, but not limited to, domestic violence, driving under the influence of liquor, drug distribution, firearm possession, grand theft, reckless endangerment, robbery, fraud and theft. Their countries of origin include: El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Liberia, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. This operation more than doubled the number of known or suspected human rights violators arrested during the first nationwide No Safe Haven operation, which took place in September 2014.

“ICE will not allow war criminals and human rights abusers to use the U.S. as a safe haven,” said Acting Director Matthew Albence. “We will never stop looking for them and we will never cease seeking justice for the victims of their crimes.”

Those arrested across the country included:

  • Fourteen individuals from Central America implicated in numerous human rights violations against civilians, to include the capture, arrest and/or transport of civilians who were subsequently mistreated, and in some cases, beaten, electrocuted, and killed;
  • Four known or suspected human rights violators from China, complicit in collaborating with the government to assist in forced abortions and sterilizations against victims;
  • Four individuals from West Africa connected to a range of atrocities, including civilian massacres, mutilations, recruitment of child soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights violations.
  • An individual from Europe implicated in human rights abuses against political opponents through work with a security agency.

ICE is committed to identifying, investigating, prosecuting and removing known or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the United States. ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) investigates human rights violators who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, severe violations of religious freedom, female genital mutilation/cutting and the use or recruitment of child soldiers. These individuals may use fraudulent identities or falsified documents to enter the country in an attempt to blend into communities in the United States.

Members of the public who have information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes are urged to contact ICE by calling the toll-free ICE tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also email [email protected] or complete ICE’s online tip form.

The HRVWCC was established in 2009 to further ICE’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the United States. The HRVWCC leverages the expertise of a select group of agents, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, historians and analysts who direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against these offenders.

Since 2003, ICE has arrested more than 415 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders against and physically removed more than 990 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States. Additionally, ICE has facilitated the departure of an additional 152 such individuals from the United States.

Currently, ICE has more than 170 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,600 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries. Since 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 75,000 lookouts for individuals from more than 110 countries and stopped over 300 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S.

ICE credits the success of this operation to the efforts of the U.S. National Central Bureau-Interpol Washington.

Judge to Release 1000’s More Epstein Documents?

Sealed court records contain the names of at least hundreds of third parties who were mentioned in a civil case involving sexual abuse allegations against the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge said Wednesday. The records also include hundreds of pages of investigative reports, said Jeff Pagliuca, an attorney for former Epstein girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. About one-fifth of all documents filed in the case were done so under seal, a level of secrecy the 2nd Circuit ruled was unjustified. The appellate court, in unsealing the records, issued an unusual warning to the public and the media “to exercise restraint” regarding potentially defamatory allegations contained in the depositions and other court filings. More here from the Miami Herald.

Hundreds more will be implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, claims Ghislaine Maxwell, as his victims ask judge to open 10,000 pages of secret files detailing the pedophile’s sex crimes

DM: As many as 1,000 people including celebrities are implicated in thousands of pages of court documents from a Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit which remains under seal.

The documents, some 10,000 of them, were part of a 2015 lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre Roberts, Epstein’s ‘sex slave’, who sued him and Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who many of Epstein’s victims say was his madam.

Ghislaine Maxwell   Virginia Giuffre Roberts,

They settled their lawsuit in 2017 and the case docket was made private, keeping all the allegations secret.

In August, in light of the pedophile’s arrest on human trafficking charges, an appeals court ordered that any pages of the case files which represented public interest should no longer be kept secret.

Around 2,000 have been released but thousands more are still under lock and key.

On Wednesday, Judge Loretta Preska listened to lawyers for Maxwell and Roberts at a hearing in New York court to determine if and how she should release any more of them.

Preska did not decide on whether or not to release the remaining pages on Wednesday, but has instructed the attorneys on both sides to file written briefings about them.

They have to categorize the documents into three types and then decide which will be released.

Roberts’ attorneys had argued that all but the social security numbers and names of underage victims should be released but the judge rejected her argument.

Maxwell, who has been named as Epstein’s madam by several of his accusers, was not in court.

Her attorneys are arguing against releasing the remaining pages, claiming that the names of the 1,000 ‘non parties’ should not become public.

‘There are literally hundreds of pages of investigative reports that mention hundreds of people,’ Jeffrey Pagliuca, Maxwell’s attorney, told the court on Wednesday.

The lawyers must now submit written briefings on how they think the remaining files should be split up and released.

The hearing follows a letter to the court from a John Doe – one of the many people named – who said it would be unfair for him and others to be dragged into the public scandal engulfing Epstein’s world.

‘As a non-party to these proceedings, Doe lacks specific knowledge about the contents of the Sealed Materials,’ his lawyers wrote.

‘But it is clear that these materials implicate the privacy and reputational interests of many persons other than the two primary parties to this action, Giuffre and Maxwell,’ they added.

The documents contain ‘a range of allegations of sexual acts involving Plaintiff and non-parties to this litigation, some famous, some not; the identities of non-parties who either allegedly engaged in sexual acts with Plaintiff or who allegedly facilitated such acts.’

The files that have already been released include Roberts’ unpublished memoirs about her years with Epstein and Maxwell.

She describes in the memoir how she was forced to have threesomes with the pair when she was a teenager and claims she spent her youth in sexual servitude to them before escaping in 2002.

She also describes nights on Epstein’s Caribbean island during which Al Gore and Bill Clinton were present as dinner guests.

There are mentions of the Simpsons creator Matt Groening, whose feet she says she massaged on a private jet, and of Prince Andrew who she claims she had sex with multiple times – a claim he vehemently denies.

Roberts lawsuit also includes the names of other women who say they are victims of Epstein and women who Roberts says worked for the disgraced pedophile as ‘recruiters’.

Epstein died in his cell in Manhattan at the beginning of August.

His attorneys say his death is suspicious and that the injuries on his neck indicate he was murdered.

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.