US Seeks Forfeiture of the Oil from IRGC Tanker

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by Denise Simon

A civil forfeiture complaint is merely an allegation. The United States bears the burden of proving that the oil in question is subject to forfeiture in a civil forfeiture proceeding. Funds successfully forfeited with a connection to a state sponsor of terrorism may in whole or in part be directed to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (http://www.usvsst.com/) after the conclusion of the case.

NEW YORK – The United States filed a forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that all oil aboard a Liberian-flagged vessel, the M/T Achilleas (Achilleas), is subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism forfeiture laws. This investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York and the FBI’s Minneapolis office.

U.S. Looks to Courts to Seize 2 Million Barrels of Alleged ...

The complaint alleges a scheme involving multiple entities affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to covertly ship Iranian oil to a customer abroad. Participants in the scheme attempted to disguise the origin of the oil using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents and other means, and provided a fraudulent bill of lading to deceive the owners of the Achilleas into loading the oil in question.

The complaint alleges in part that the oil constitutes the property of, or a “source of influence” over, the IRGC and the IRGC-QF, both of which have been designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations. The documents allege that profits from oil sales support the IRGC’s full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad.

“This latest civil forfeiture action exemplifies the remarkable work of this multi-agency task force that works tirelessly toward furthering our shared goal of protecting the homeland from regimes that threaten our national security,” said Special Agent in Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh for HSI New York. “This investigation sends a message that the attempted circumvention of U.S. sanctions by the IRGC-QF will not be tolerated. HSI will continue to work with our partners and utilize the full scope of our authorities to disrupt the attempts of hostile countries and regimes to generate profits from oil sales used to support terrorism and the proliferation and delivery of weapons of mass destruction.”

“Iran uses profits from its petroleum sector to fund the malign activities of the IRGC-QF, a designated terrorist group,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael F. Paul of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office. “The FBI will continue to prioritize the enforcement of sanctions, and we applaud the efforts of our agents and partners on this investigation.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia will continue working with our law enforcement partners to stem the flow of illicit oil from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Qods Force,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin. “We will use all available tools, including our jurisdiction to seize and forfeit assets located abroad, to combat funding for terrorists and those who would do harm to the United States.”

“The forfeiture complaint filed today serves as a reminder that the IRGC and IRGC-QF continue to exert significant control over the sale of Iranian oil,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the National Security Division. “As we have demonstrated in the past, the department will deploy all tools at its disposal to ensure that the IRGC and IRGC-QF cannot use profits from the sale of Iranian oil to fund terrorism and other activities that threaten the safety and security of all Americans.”

HSI New York and the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office are leading the investigation of Iranian petroleum shipments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael P. Grady and Brian P. Hudak of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney David Lim of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division are prosecuting the case, with support from Paralegal Specialist Brian Rickers and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section’s Program Operations Staff of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division has provided extensive assistance throughout the investigation.

SecDef Austin Fires all Advisory Board(s) Members

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by Denise Simon

Dismissed were hundreds of members of 42 Pentagon advisory boards. 42 separate advisory boards? Really?

Current members being told to step down are only those appointed by the Pentagon and not those appointed by the White House or Congress. For example four people appointed by the Pentagon to a congressionally mandated commission on stripping the names of Confederate generals from military bases will be removed but others on that panel appointed by Congress will remain.

A review of all the boards, and whether they are still needed, will now be the focus before new members are named.

The 42 advisory boards cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and some of their work is believed to be potentially redundant, which added to the need for the review.

The action effectively removes, for now, several hundred people serving on boards who advise on everything from defense policy, science, innovation, health issues, coastal engineering, sexual misconduct and diversity and inclusion.

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed every member of the Pentagon’s policy advisory boards Monday, ousting last-minute Trump administration nominees as well as officials appointed by previous administrations.

Lloyd Austin Confirmed As 1st Black Pentagon Chief In U.S. History : President Biden Takes Office : NPR

By removing every member, Mr. Austin avoided selectively firing those appointed by the Trump administration. The defense chief will name new members to each of the least a dozen boards in the coming weeks.

The move was foreshadowed last week when Mr. Austin suspended the onboarding process for Trump administration nominees to Pentagon advisory boards, effectively preventing them from being seated.

Mr. Austin’s directive last week applied to Trump nominees who were still in the security clearance process. Among those who were affected then were Corey Lewandowski, former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, and David Bossie, a former Trump deputy campaign manager, both of whom had been named to the Defense Business Board, an unpaid group that advises the defense secretary and other leaders on business practices.

Because of their potential access to classified information, it can take months for someone to get through the security clearance process and formally join a board. Mr. Austin’s directive last week suspended that process.

In the last weeks of the Trump administration, then acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller named at least a dozen supporters of President Trump to various Pentagon advisory boards.

Those included retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, who weeks earlier had been rejected by the Senate for consideration as the Pentagon’s top policy official, even as he served in that position since June in an acting capacity. Senators and some retired generals expressed concern over inflammatory tweets he made years ago on Islam, President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers.

The advisory boards, some of which date back to at least the 1950s, were intended to be bipartisan and offer a diversity of opinion to Pentagon leaders on potential policies.

Among those removed from policy boards by Mr. Miller were former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) and former Rep. Jane Harman (D., Calif.), a onetime senior Democrat on the House Intelligence committee.

Child Pornography Raid Leaves 2 FBI Agents Dead

Posted on February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 by Denise Simon

According to emergency radio dispatches, the incident began to unfold as law enforcement gathered at the scene before dawn.

Sometime past 6 a.m., fire rescue personnel got a report of shots being fired with multiple victims. Two minutes later, someone at the scene got on a police radio to report five shooting victims, including an agent shot in the leg.

Two FBI agents were killed being in dutie in Sunrise and ...

SUNRISE, Florida—Two FBI agents were killed Tuesday morning while serving a warrant at the home of a South Florida man suspected of possessing child pornography.

The officers killed were Special Agent Daniel Alfin, 36, and Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger, 43, the FBI said on Tuesday afternoon. They died while “executing a federal court-ordered search warrant in a crimes against children investigation in Sunrise, Florida,” the feds said.

Three other agents were wounded, including two who were transported to a hospital in stable condition. The third agent did not need hospitalization, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. The suspect also died.

It’s the FBI’s deadliest day since 1994, when two agents were killed by a gunman inside Washington, D.C. police headquarters, according to the FBI’s Wall of Honor.

Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger.

CBS12

“Every day, the FBI Special Agents put themselves in harm’s way to keep American people safe,” Wray said, adding that the two agents “exemplified heroism today in defense of their country,” and that the “FBI will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery.”

FBI Agents Association President Brian O’Hare said in a statement to The Daily Beast, “These Agents were working to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”

The incident began at the Water Terrace apartment complex at around 6 a.m., a Sunrise Police spokesperson told The Daily Beast. When agents arrived, the suspect barricaded himself inside a unit.

Tiffany Walters, a 37-year-old resident at the apartment complex, told The Daily Beast she woke up around that time to a “loud bang” she initially thought was a car accident.

“After I heard sirens and eventually helicopters,” Walters said, adding that when she looked outside her window, she saw a helicopter fly away with what she believes was the FBI agent who was taken to the hospital.

By 9:04 a.m., authorities said the scene was deemed safe, but residents were still being asked to stay in their homes. Walters said at 9:15 a.m. she heard another loud bang, which she believes was associated with the suspect’s death.

“We’re still getting more information on what happened and we’ll have more to say, at a later date. We express our condolences,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press briefing.

A review of federal court records shows Schwartzenberger, who joined the FBI in 2005, had worked on several cases involving child exploitation, sextortion, and the internet. In 2013, she was a member of the FBI’s South Florida Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force and appears to have worked on cases involving armored car heists and bank robberies, among others.

News clips show she was active in raising awareness about cybersecurity and the threat of online sex crimes. She commented to local news outlets about sextortion scams and last February gave a lecture on cyber crimes at Rockaway Middle School.

Special Agent Dan Alfin, who joined the FBI in 2009, was a member of the bureau’s Violent Crimes Against Children division.

He was involved in Operation Pacifier, which took down Playpen, one of the largest child pornography networks on the dark web. Site operators masked Playpen’s location, users, and ownership using the Tor anonymity network. FBI agents managed to unmask the site and its visitors with an unknown hacking technique, leading to 350 arrests in the U.S., 548 arrests abroad, and the rescue and identification of nearly 350 children exploited as part of the dark web ring.

Court documents show that Alfin was one of a few FBI agents responsible for monitoring Playpen after the bureau was able to sidestep the Tor anonymity network’s encryption and identify the IP addresses of individual Playpen users. Prosecutors used Alfin’s testimony about the FBI’s hack of Playpen in several cases linked to the investigation.

“It’s the same with any criminal violation: As they get smarter, we adapt, we find them,” Alfin said in a 2017 FBI news release announcing the sentencing of the site’s founder. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game, except it’s not a game. Kids are being abused, and it’s our job to stop that.”

Last year, Alfin authored the criminal affidavit against former Miami mayoral aide Rene Pedrosa, who allegedly groped a teenage boy at City Hall and exchanged lewd photos.

John Young, a 74-year-old who lived close to Schwartzenberger in Coral Springs, said he always said hello to Schwartzenberger’s husband, Jason, and their two kids in the mornings on their way to school.

Young, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 33 years, said two months ago Schwartzenberger organized a block party for a homeowner who moved away. She also showered the new neighbor who moved in with warm greetings.

“Laura was a sharp lady and very friendly,” Young told The Daily Beast as he stood outside his two-story gray-brick home, among six houses with American flags in the front. “The lady who just moved in told me Laura came over with a bottle of wine and welcomed her.”

He thought Schwartzenberger was having a get together when he saw several cars parked in her driveway on Tuesday—then he turned on the news.

“For her to be killed serving a search warrant is a shock. It’s sickening,” he said. “I don’t understand why people say ‘defund the police.’ Law enforcement is a tough job. Now, you have a mom who’s not coming home tonight to see her kids.”

Police cars blocked the family’s cul-de-sac on Tuesday and a Coral Springs cop said, “The street is closed. Given it just happened, her family wants privacy at this time.”

According to its website, the Water Terrace apartment complex is an upscale gated community that houses a fitness center, spa, tennis courts, and a pool.

Andrew Solomon, a 31-year-old who just moved into the Water Terrace apartment complex, told The Daily Beast he woke up early for work on Tuesday morning to see “a helicopter flying over” the building. When he tried to leave, two Sunrise police officers were stopping residents, asking them to open their trunks.

Solomon said he was asleep when the shooting happened on the northwest side of the complex. Property managers sent around a “stay at home order” for all residents and he planned to leave work early to comply with the police order, he said.

“It is a real nice neighborhood [and] well kept around a pretty lake,” he added. “So it is surprising to hear something [like this] happened.”

Walters said the neighborhood, where she has lived for four years, is quiet. At first, her family thought the police presence might have been related to “folks from January 6th,” referring to the U.S. Capitol riot.

“Once I heard it was a police raid I knew it would be handled,” she said.

The FBI’s Inspection Division said the shooting is under investigation by the FBI’s Inspection Division.

Biden Going Agency by Agency and Undoing Trump’s Rescission Orders

Posted on February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 by Denise Simon

First, Charles Payne announced that President Biden has rerouted $30 billion in the Farmers Fund under President Trump to climate change. The fund that President Trump established was to be used on agricultural trade issues if needed to protect farmers. Biden has designated it for climate change.

The Biden administration wants to use the Agriculture Department money to tackle climate change, support restaurants and kickstart other programs without waiting for Congress. Go here for the report.

Long hidden in obscurity as a Depression-era financial institution, the Commodity Credit Corp. is shaping up as one of the first focal points for how the Biden administration is quickly revamping flexible programs left behind by former President Donald Trump.

Before the Trump era, the CCC was used in narrow ways to support farm income and prices, like helping cotton growers with ginning costs and purchasing cheese to boost dairy farmers. It’s also used to fund certain conservation programs, foreign market development, export credit and commodity purchases.

It became a signature tool in the last administration, which used it to dole out billions in aid to farmers suffering from Trump’s trade wars and tariffs. It was also dipped into to provide financial relief to farmers hit by the pandemic.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will use funds being made available from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act and CARES Act to support row crops, livestock, specialty crops, dairy, aquaculture and many additional commodities. USDA has incorporated improvements in CFAP 2 based from stakeholder engagement and public feedback to better meet the needs of impacted farmers and ranchers.

The Biden Executive Order is here.

As for the other agencies:

President Biden on Sunday formally revoked his predecessor’s effort to rescind $27 billion in funding spread across two-dozen federal agencies, unfreezing the money for immediate expenditure.

Just days before he left office, President Trump issued a rescission request under the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. Trump had warned he would issue such a proposal when he signed the fiscal 2021 omnibus spending package in December, which narrowly averted a shutdown. His request triggered a 45-day freeze on the funds, which Biden lifted in his Sunday action.

The previous White House, which noted the rescission package was the largest ever proposed, identified the funds as “wasteful and unnecessary spending” and amounts “no longer needed for the purposes for which they were appropriated.” It focused largely on international aid efforts through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, but the 73 targeted programs also included those related to climate research, federal student aid and renewable energy.

The 1974 rescission law allows the president to propose to rescind funding previously approved by Congress. Lawmakers have 45 days to consider the request and if they do not act to support the rescissions during that window, the request is denied. The Office of Management and Budget can direct agencies not to spend the funding proposed for rescission for the entire 45-day period, regardless of when Congress acts. The Trump White House briefly floated a rescission in 2019 less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year, which critics derided as illegal as it would have enabled the administration to freeze out funds from ever being spent. That followed a 2018 effort to rescind $15 billion in largely foreign aid funding, which the House approved but was narrowly rejected by the Senate.

The most recent rescission package, where funds are now unfrozen, included accounts within the following departments and agencies:

Agriculture

Commerce

Education

Energy

Health and Human Services

Homeland Security

Interior

Justice

Labor

State

Treasury

African Development Foundation

Commission of Fine Arts

Corporation for National and Community Service

District of Columbia

Environmental Protection Agency

Inter-American Foundation

Millennium Challenge Corporation

National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities

National Gallery of Art

Peace Corps

Presidio Trust

U.S. Agency for International Development

Army Corps of Engineers

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Legislative Branch

Twitter Being Sued for Refusing to Remove Child Pornography

Posted on February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 by Denise Simon

In short, child pornography does not violate their terms of use policies. While you’re at it…check out Facebook Messenger or any of the other platforms that are encrypted.

The 70 page lawsuit is found here.

source and TwitterGate

NYP:

Twitter refused to take down widely shared pornographic images and videos of a teenage sex trafficking victim because an investigation “didn’t find a violation” of the company’s “policies,” a scathing lawsuit alleges.

The federal suit, filed Wednesday by the victim and his mother in the Northern District of California, alleges Twitter made money off the clips, which showed a 13-year-old engaged in sex acts and are a form of child sexual abuse material, or child porn, the suit states.

The teen — who is now 17 and lives in Florida — is identified only as John Doe and was between 13 and 14 years old when sex traffickers, posing as a 16-year-old female classmate, started chatting with him on Snapchat, the suit alleges.

Doe and the traffickers allegedly exchanged nude photos before the conversation turned to blackmail: If the teen didn’t share more sexually graphic photos and videos, the explicit material he’d already sent would be shared with his “parents, coach, pastor” and others, the suit states.

Doe, acting under duress, initially complied and sent videos of himself performing sex acts and was also told to include another child in his videos, which he did, the suit claims.

Eventually, Doe blocked the traffickers and they stopped harassing him, but at some point in 2019, the videos surfaced on Twitter under two accounts that were known to share child sexual abuse material, court papers allege.

Over the next month, the videos would be reported to Twitter at least three times — first on Dec. 25, 2019 — but the tech giant failed to do anything about it until a federal law enforcement officer got involved, the suit states.

Doe became aware of the tweets in January 2020 because they’d been viewed widely by his classmates, which subjected him to “teasing, harassment, vicious bullying” and led him to become “suicidal,” court records show.

While Doe’s parents contacted the school and made police reports, he filed a complaint with Twitter, saying there were two tweets depicting child pornography of himself and they needed to be removed because they were illegal, harmful and were in violation of the site’s policies.

A support agent followed up and asked for a copy of Doe’s ID so they could prove it was him and after the teen complied, there was no response for a week, the family claims.

Around the same time, Doe’s mother filed two complaints to Twitter reporting the same material and for a week, she also received no response, the suit states.

Finally on Jan. 28, Twitter replied to Doe and said they wouldn’t be taking down the material, which had already racked up over 167,000 views and 2,223 retweets, the suit states.

“Thanks for reaching out. We’ve reviewed the content, and didn’t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time,” the response reads, according to the lawsuit.

“If you believe there’s a potential copyright infringement, please start a new report. If the content is hosted on a third-party website, you’ll need to contact that website’s support team to report it. Your safety is the most important thing, and if you believe you are in danger, we encourage you to contact your local authorities.”

In his response, published in the complaint, Doe appeared shocked.

“What do you mean you don’t see a problem? We both are minors right now and were minors at the time these videos were taken. We both were 13 years of age. We were baited, harassed, and threatened to take these videos that are now being posted without our permission. We did not authorize these videos AT ALL and they need to be taken down,” the teen wrote back to Twitter.

He even included his case number from a local law enforcement agency, but still the tech giant allegedly ignored him and refused to do anything about the illegal child sexual abuse material — as it continued to rack up more and more views.

Two days later, Doe’s mom was connected with an agent from the Department of Homeland Security through a mutual contact who successfully had the videos removed on Jan. 30, the suit states.

“Only after this take-down demand from a federal agent did Twitter suspend the user accounts that were distributing the CSAM and report the CSAM to the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children,” states the suit, filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and two law firms.

“This is directly in contrast to what their automated reply message and User Agreement state they will do to protect children.”

The disturbing lawsuit goes on to allege Twitter knowingly hosts creeps who use the platform to exchange child porn material and profits from it by including ads interspersed between tweets advertising or requesting the material.

Early Thursday, Twitter declined comment to The Post but later in the day, reversed course and sent a statement by email.

“Twitter has zero-tolerance for any material that features or promotes child sexual exploitation. We aggressively fight online child sexual abuse and have heavily invested in technology and tools to enforce our policy, a Twitter spokesperson wrote.

“Our dedicated teams work to stay ahead of bad-faith actors and to ensure we’re doing everything we can to remove content, facilitate investigations, and protect minors from harm — both on and offline.”