Kase Lawal, Hillary, Barack and Boko Haram

Posted on September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by Denise Simon

Bring Back Our Girls: Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai support campaign for return of kidnapped Nigeria schoolgirls

BuzzNigeria.com A video was released in August with new Boko Haram demands but YouTube removed it.

McClatchy: HOUSTON — A Texas oilman who’s accused of defrauding the Nigerian government by illegally pumping and exporting 10 million barrels of oil is a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Kase Lawal of Houston is at least the fourth person accused or convicted of criminal wrongdoing to help finance Clinton’s political ambitions since 2000 and the second in her quest for the White House. The list also includes Chinese and Pakistani fugitives and a former Miami lawyer who was convicted of defrauding Cuba.

There’s no indication that Clinton’s campaign was aware of Lawal’s legal problems when it accepted his help in raising more than $100,000, but a McClatchy investigation in the U.S. and Nigeria suggests that her campaign did little to scrutinize the background of one of its top fundraisers.

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In 2010, Kase Lawal, Member, Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations for the White House. CAMAC Energy, NYSE (CAK) was founded in 2005. CAMAC Energy Inc. has offices in Hartsdale, New York; Houston, Texas; Beijing, China and Lagos, Nigeria.

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Lawal maxed out donations to Hillary’s 2016 primary campaign, and his wife Eileen donated $50,000—the most allowed—to President Obama’s 2009 inaugural committee.

Lawal describes himself as a devout Muslim who began memorizing the Quran at age 3 while attending an Islamic school. “Religion played a very important role in our lives,” he told a reporter in 2006. “Every time you finish a chapter they kill a chicken, and if you finish the whole thing, a goat.” In Africa, Lawal has been at the center of multiple criminal proceedings, even operating as a fugitive. Over the last decade, he faced charges in South Africa over an illegal oil scheme along with charges in Nigeria of illegally pumping and exporting 10 million barrels of oil.

Hillary Clinton Obstructed Boko Haram Terror Designation as Her Donors Cashed In

Source: Hillary Obstructed Boko Haram’s Terror Designation as Her Donors Cashed In | PJ Media

By Patrick Poole

…as Boko Haram began to ramp up its terror campaign in 2011 and 2012, Hillary Clinton obstructed the official terror designation of the group over the objections of Congress, the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Department.

Why did Hillary Clinton’s State Department drag its feet on the terror designation in the face of near unanimous opposition from the rest of the U.S. government?

A recent series of reports exposes that a close Clinton family confidante — and Hillary campaign bundler — profited from Nigeria’s lucrative oil fields. He engaged in multiple illegal deals throughout Africa. …

Why is no one in the media talking about Hillary and Boko Haram?

It is worth nothing that Congress had to drag a reluctant State Department kicking and screaming to get Boko Haram designated in November 2013, after Hillary Clinton had left office.

Hillary Clinton’s willful obstruction in the matter is easy to document:

Members of Congress discovered in 2014 that the Clinton State Department intentionally lied and downplayed the threat from Boko Haram, and worked to kill bills in both the House and the Senate calling for their designation in 2012.

As Reuters reported, the Justice Department’s National Security Division strongly urged the State Department to designate Boko Haram, but then a group of 21 American academics rallied to the State Department’s aid by sending a letter to Hillary Clinton strongly arguing against Boko Haram’s designation.

We also now know that the Obama administration was sitting on intelligence— obtained as a result of the Bin Laden raid— that revealed Boko Haram’s direct connection to al-Qaeda and the international terror network in 2011 and 2012. In other words, Hillary’s State Department was arguing that Boko Haram had no such connections, that it wasn’t a transnational terror threat, even though the Obama administration — and likely Clinton herself — knew that was false.

An important two-part investigative series by WORLD magazine reporters Mindy Belz and J.C. Derrick provides some insight:

Part 1 of our series on Clinton State Dept & Boko Haram @WORLD_mag https://t.co/Vf1AezkhSF and Part 2 https://t.co/gUTv3yrruF #Nigeria

— Mindy Belz (@mcbelz) June 30, 2016

Belz and Derrick discovered that Hillary Clinton’s obstruction of the Boko Haram designation, and the continuing chaos in northern Nigeria — Africa’s largest economy and the 10th largest oil producer in the world — directly benefited Clinton Global Initiative donors and a close Clinton confidante who bundled campaign cash for Hillary.

From the second article from Belz and Derrick:

Perhaps the most prominent Nigerian with ties to the Clintons is Houston-based Kase Lawal. The founder of CAMAC Energy, an oil exploration and energy consortium, Lawal had a long history with Bill Clinton before becoming a “bundler” for Hillary’s 2008 presidential bid, amassing $100,000 in contributions and hosting a fundraiser in his Houston home — a 14-room, 15,264-square-foot mansion. Lawal maxed out donations to Hillary’s 2016 primary campaign, and his wife Eileen donated $50,000 — the most allowed — to President Obama’s 2009 inaugural committee.Lawal describes himself as a devout Muslim who began memorizing the Quran at age 3 while attending an Islamic school. “Religion played a very important role in our lives,” he told a reporter in 2006. “Every time you finish a chapter they kill a chicken, and if you finish the whole thing, a goat.”

Today the Houston oil exec — who retired in May as CEO but continues as chairman of the board of CAMAC, now called Erin Energy — tops the list of wealthiest Nigerians living in North America. His firm reports about $2.5 billion in annual revenue, making it one of the top private companies in the United States.

In Africa, Lawal has been at the center of multiple criminal proceedings, even operating as a fugitive. Over the last decade, he faced charges in South Africa over an illegal oil scheme along with charges in Nigeria of illegally pumping and exporting 10 million barrels of oil.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lawal arranged a 2011 plot to purchase 4 tons of gold from a rebel warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, linked to massacres and mass rapes.Ntaganda was on a U.S. sanctions list, meaning anyone doing business with him could face up to 20 years in prison. Lawal contacted Clinton’s State Department, and authorities in Congo released his plane and associates in the plot.

He never faced charges in the United States, and he remains a commissioner for the Port Authority of Houston.

Lawal’s energy firm holds lucrative offshore oil licenses in Nigeria, as well as exploration and production licenses in Gambia, Ghana, and Kenya, where he operates in a conflict-ridden area largely controlled by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants.

The firm also has held contracts in Nigeria for crude oil lifting, or transferring oil from its collection point to refineries. Until last year, when newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari began an effort to reform the process, contracting for lifting has been awash in kickbacks, bribes, and illegal activity.

Overland lifting contracts often involve partnership with the North’s past and present governors, including those who serve as quasi-warlords with ties to Boko Haram and other militants.

Lawal’s enterprises have long been rumored to be involved in such deals, as have indigenous oil concerns like Petro Energy and Oando, Nigeria’s largest private oil and gas company, based in Lagos and headed by Adewale Tinubu, another controversial Clinton donor.

In 2014, Oando pledged 1.5 percent of that year’s pre-tax profits and 1 percent of future profits to a Clinton Global Initiative education program. This year, Adewale gained notoriety when the Panama Papers revealed he holds at least 12 shell companies, leading to suspicion of money laundering, tax evasion, and other corruption.

In 2013 Bill Clinton stood alongside Adewale’s uncle, Bola Tinubu, while attending the dedication of a massive, controversial reclamation project called Eko Atlantic. Critics call Bola Tinubu, leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress party, Nigeria’s “looter in chief.” A Nigerian documentary says that when the billionaire landowner was governor of Lagos State (1999-2007), he funneled huge amounts of state funds — up to 15 percent of annual tax revenues — to a private consulting firm in which he had controlling interest.

In the United States, where he studied and worked in the 1970s and ’80s, Tinubu is still a suspect in connection with a Chicago heroin ring he allegedly operated with his wife and three other family members. In 1993 Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to American authorities, who believe he trafficked drugs and laundered the proceeds.

But wait, there’s more:

Beneath the surface, literally, Boko Haram was making it possible for illicit operators to lay claim to the area for their own purposes, and to pump oil from Nigeria’s underground reserves to Chad. Using 3-D drilling, Chad operators can extract Nigerian oil — without violating Nigerian property rights — to sell on open markets. One benefactor of the arrangement is Ali Modu Sheriff, a leading politician in the North, Borno State governor until 2011, and an alleged sponsor of Boko Haram, who is close friends with longtime Chad President Idriss Déby.The very terrorism that seems to be deterring oil exploration in reality can help illicit extraction, forcing residents to flee and giving cover to under-the-table oil traders. In 2015, a year when overall oil prices dipped 6 percent, Lawal’s Erin Energy stock value skyrocketed 295 percent—the best-performing oil and gas stock in the United States.

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Hillary Clinton’s obstruction of the Boko Haram terror designation in the face of FBI, CIA, DOJ, and Congressional urging to do so is a documented fact. But the reason for Hillary’s obstruction, which the establishment media has never pressed Clinton for, remains unanswered.

The New Faces of Illegal Immigrants into America

Posted on September 7, 2016September 7, 2016 by Denise Simon

Mexico issues transit visas to surge of African migrants

MEXICO CITY (AP)— Mexican immigration authorities say 424 migrants from African countries arrived at the southern state of Chiapas over two days last week.

The National Immigration Institute said Tuesday that it has issued them 20-day transit visas that will allow the migrants to reach the U.S.-Mexico border, where they plan to request asylum.

Officials call it an unusual surge and say most of the migrants first went to Brazil or Ecuador to start their journey through Latin America.

Most of the Africans presented themselves voluntarily to immigration officials in the Chiapas town of Tapachula. They did not specify their nationalities. Immigration support staff in Tijuana has been aiding migrants from the Congo, Somalia and Ghana to arrive at the U.S. port of entry at San Isidro.

DailyCaller has more:

Guatemala is facing an influx of African immigrants on their way to the United States, having caught 56 times more so far in 2016 than they did in all of 2015.

Only 13 African immigrants were caught in Africa in all of 2015, and by September 2, 2016 729 Africans had been caught by Guatemalan authorities, La Prensa reports. The majority of the African immigrants are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, and Somalia.

The country is facing an increase of immigrants in general. In 2015, the national police reported 1,131 immigrants caught from various countries. By August 29, 2016, they had intercepted 2,514 immigrants, an increase of 122.2 percent.

Jorge Pereza Breedy, head of the International Organization for Migration in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Hondoras, said that changes in the situation in Europe has led these immigrants to come to Central America. “The saturation of the transit route in Europe and the increase in border security is one of the principal factors in the increase of Asian and African emigrants in Central America,” Breedy told La Prensa.

The African immigrants aren’t in Guatemala to stay there and instead are making there way northward towards Mexico and the United States. “It’s not that they want to come to this country to stay, they want to get to the United States,” Danilo Rivera of the Central American Institute for Social and Development Studies said to La Prensa. (RELATED: Mexico Shipping Hundreds Of Illegal Africans To US Border)

Recently, El Salvadoran authorities busted a human smuggling ring which generated $150,000 a year bringing immigrants illegally to the United States from Brazil.

**** But there is still more:

The New Face of American Immigration

This year candidates have focused on migrants from Mexico, but nationally and in most states, India and China have become the top sources for new arrivals.

By Jieqian Zhang, Paul Overberg and Andrew Van Dam WallStreetJournal

Click here for the interactive map.

Mexico: 37,290
India: 13,662
El Salvador: 8,709
Honduras: 7,925
China: 6,249

Additional Notes:

Totals reflect the estimated number of non-U.S. citizens who reported living each source country a year earlier, regardless of immigration status.

Totals for China don’t include Taiwan. Other than that, countries were coded and grouped according to Ipums’ definitions.

Popups on the map show the values for India, China and Mexico, and the two other highest sources of immigrants.

Additional reporting from Janet Adamy

Source: Census Bureau via University of Minnesota (Ipums)

Going back to 2010, the matter of Africans fleeing to Latin America and then to the United States began for several reasons.

YaleGlobal: Latin America is becoming an increasingly common destination for African immigrants as Europe tightens its immigration controls and suffers from xenophobia and migration-related violence. Brazil, for example, which has the largest black population outside Africa, offers a more culturally receptive society. Though most of the population is white, Argentina receives a fair share of African migrants too. That country is attractive because immigrants can legalize their status and receive temporary work permits, even with the high level of unemployment, and have access to free healthcare and Spanish classes taught by Catholic church charities. While Europe shutters its borders, and the US tightens immigration, other countries that have historically grown through immigration are picking up the slack. – YaleGlobal

More African Immigrants Finding a Home in Latin America

As European countries tighten up border controls, a rising number of Africans fleeing trouble in their homelands are arriving at ports in Latin America

From Raqqa to Paris and Other Targets in Europe

Posted on September 6, 2016September 6, 2016 by Denise Simon

ISIS cell behind Paris atrocity ‘planned attacks on shopping centre and targets in Holland’: Full scale of attack revealed as official warns operatives are trying to reach UK

ISIS fanatics killed 130 people in the French capital on November 13
But papers claim murderous team may have been plotting wider attack
Investigators believe shopping centres and targets in Holland identified
Official says ISIS has stepped up moves to infiltrate operatives in the UK

DailyMail: A network of ISIS extremists who targeted Paris in November last year had ambitious plans to carry out yet more atrocities, it has emerged.

Fanatics killed 130 people in the French capital on November 13 when they massacred music fans in the Bataclan theatre hall, set off suicide bombs at the Stade de France and gunned down revellers outside bars.

But the terror group’s external operations wing, known as Amn al-Kharji, may have been planning for the murderous team to hit other targets, including supermarkets and packed shopping centres, it has been reported.

A network of ISIS extremists who targeted Paris in November last year had made ambitious plans to carry out yet more atrocities, it has emerged. People are pictured fleeing from the Bataclan on November 13

There are also suggestions their hit list included targets in the Netherlands while one official said ISIS has stepped up moves to infiltrate its attackers into Britain.

Details of an apparent wider plot emerged after CNN examined tens of thousands of pages of documents from investigations into the Paris massacre.

The papers revealed that the ISIS network may have been planning to follow up the slaughter in Paris with attacks in several other locations.

CNN says the documents show a suspected terrorist called Abid Tabaouni, believed to have been linked to the Paris terror cell, was at large in Europe for months after the atrocity. He was only arrested in July this year.

A European counter-terror official told CNN that Paris was a ‘slimmed-down’ version of a far wider plot.

Sources told the broadcaster that, even now, operatives planted in Europe are waiting for instructions from key ISIS strategists based in the terror group’s Syrian stronghold.

The terror group’s external operations wing, known as Amn al-Kharji, may have been planning for the murderous team to hit other targets, including supermarkets and packed shopping centres. The exterior of the Bataclan, where 90 people died, is pictured above

According to the CNN reporters Scott Bronstein, Nicole Gaouette, Laura Koran and Clarissa Ward, documents revealed that two terror suspects who were delayed in reaching France ahead of the November 13 killings may have been plotting to return to the French capital for a further attack at a later date.

Adel Haddadi and Muhammad Usman had reportedly been looking at train times to Paris and made a number of overseas calls in the days before they were arrested – and investigators believe they were waiting for a third man to join them.

The attack on Paris was one of a series of jihadist strikes on French soil.

In January last year, terrorists shot 12 people dead at the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Days later a Jewish supermarket was targeted with four shot dead.

In June this year Police officer Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his wife were knifed to death inside their home near Paris by a man who said he had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

And on July 14, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, thought to have links with ISIS, murdered 84 when he drove a lorry into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.

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From CNN in part:

Suspected ISIS operative map graphic

The documents show:

a fuller portrait of the suspected terrorists’ extensive use of social media platforms such as Viber, Telegram and WhatsApp, many encrypted for secure communication. One app let them pick their own phone number, allowing them to disguise who was calling them and from where.

how ISIS handlers protect their missions by: giving operatives only as much information and money as they need to reach the next phase; contacting them on each leg of their journey; and insisting on pseudonyms, even within teams.

how the suspected terrorists constantly exchanged logistical advice with others in their network, including whether or not to use real names at border crossings and how to sneak across those borders illegally. One tip was to hide in train restrooms.

A senior European counter-terrorism official who spoke to CNN said that according to investigations into the network that carried out the Paris attacks, they were a slimmed-down version of an even more ambitious plan to hit Europe.

After interrogating suspects and gathering intelligence, European investigators now believe that ISIS initially planned for the operatives it sent last year to also attack the Netherlands, as well as other targets in France including shopping areas and possibly a supermarket in Paris, the official said.

In addition, recently obtained intelligence indicates that ISIS has stepped up efforts to infiltrate operatives into the UK to launch attacks there, an official told CNN.

The senior European counter-terrorism official told CNN that security services were “uncovering more and more ISIS operatives” on continental European soil. ISIS operatives dispatched back to Europe have taken advantage of encryption, especially the Telegram messenger app, to communicate securely, the official told CNN, frustrating European security services.

“Encrypted messaging groups have the potential to revolutionize terror plot planning by allowing entire cells to coordinate in real time without compromising themselves,” said CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Europe’s security agencies have had important successes, though. One major breakthrough was the capture of two men who authorities believe intended to travel to France alongside the two suicide bombers who eventually blew themselves up outside a Paris stadium.

Investigators: Two ISIS attackers who never reached France

Those two suspected ISIS operatives are identified in the documents as Algerian-born Adel Haddadi and his Pakistani travel partner, Muhammad Usman.

Algerian-born Adel Haddadi is a suspected ISIS operative.

Muhammad Usman is a suspected ISIS operative from Pakistan

Documents that detail their capture and extensive interrogations, particularly with Haddadi, show how ISIS supported the attackers throughout their journey from Syria through Europe — and how future attacks might be organized. The following account of their journey to Europe is based on those documents, which include evidence gathered by investigators, and their conclusions.

Haddadi and Usman, who was identified by investigators as a suspected bombmaker for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, set out from the capital of the self-declared ISIS caliphate in Raqqa, Syria, six weeks before the Paris attacks.

They were part of a team, investigators concluded. The two others, Ahmad al-Mohammad and Mohamad al-Mahmod, would later blow themselves up outside the national stadium in Paris. The team crossed the border from Syria into Turkey in early October and headed for the Turkish coast.

Ahmad al-Mohammad was one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks.

Mohamad al-Mahmod was one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks.

The four men didn’t seem to know each other’s real names, or what their final mission would be. All Haddadi knew, he later told interrogators, was that they were being sent to France to do “something for the good of God.”

The documents show that their journey was directed by a shadowy ISIS leader in Syria, known only as Abu Ahmad. Operating like a puppet-master from afar, Abu Ahmad handled their logistics: connecting them with smugglers and cars for transport, providing pre-programmed cell phones and getting them fake Syrian passports.

He wired them money as they moved, using intermediaries who couldn’t be traced, and communicated using encrypted apps.

“Abu Ahmad … is key in sending those individuals, at least the foreigners, into the Paris attacks,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, president and chairman of the French Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, who reviewed the documents for CNN.

“He is the one who recruited them, who funds them, who trained them,” said Brisard. “He was always in contact with them.”

Throughout their journey, Abu Ahmad gave the men only enough money and information to get to the next stop, rarely if ever telling them what would happen next, the documents show.

Posing as Syrian refugees

The documents reveal fresh details about their journey and the way they posed as Syrian refugees, blending in with thousands fleeing the war-torn country.

They made the treacherous crossing from Izmir, Turkey, into Greece in a boat filled with dozens of refugees. But they were then intercepted by the Greek Navy.

The two who would go on to strike the Paris stadium passed through Greece and started moving across Europe toward their target in France. Greek officials declined to explain how the two got through.

But Greek authorities discovered Haddadi and Usman’s fake Syrian passports. The pair were arrested, their money was taken, and they were held for nearly a month.

Sources told CNN that investigators believe that delay was significant; as a result, they would not have a chance to become part of the Paris attacks.

The Greeks released Haddadi and Usman in late October. They immediately contacted their ISIS handler, Abu Ahmad, who arranged for someone to wire them 2,000 euros. Flush with cash, the pair continued along the refugee route.

It was likely a quiet journey.

The documents show that Usman spoke only Urdu, while Haddadi spoke mostly Arabic. And as they travelled north, Usman was preoccupied with a strikingly un-Islamic hobby — using his phone to peruse almost two dozen X-rated sites, including “sexxx lahur” and “Pakistani Lahore college girls … ImakeSex.”

Both men’s phones have given European officials rich investigative veins to mine, revealing dozens of contacts across Europe and the Middle East.

One of the people Haddadi reached out to for help was a technician at one of the most important nuclear research centers in Europe. That man was placed under immediate observation by French authorities, the documents show.

Data pulled from the phones also revealed how the operatives functioned both with extreme care and sometimes, seemingly, by the seat of their pants. In one exchange, Haddadi asks a contact for advice about what to do at a border crossing and whether a friend should use his real name. The friend is so worried about this, Haddadi gripes that he’s “driving me crazy.”

This graphic, featuring suspected ISIS operative Adel Haddadi, shows Haddadi’s global network.

Other online conversations, notably with Abu Ahmad, are clearly in code. One message investigators pulled from Haddadi’s phone shows the ISIS handler counseling patience, though the exact meaning of his message isn’t clear. “Yes, but not yet,” it reads, “the drugs are not good.”

On November 14, the day after the Paris attacks, Haddadi and Usman arrived in Salzburg, Austria, applied for asylum and settled into one of the city’s refugee centers, where they waited for weeks.

Investigators: Planning for another strike

They were waiting with a purpose, according to the documents.

European investigators concluded that Haddadi and Usman were part of the same terror cell as the Paris bombers and, having failed to participate in that bloody day, were planning another strike.

Investigators found that in the days before their arrest, Haddadi and Usman were researching trains to Paris and making a flurry of phone calls overseas , including to contacts in Belgium and France.

The documents also reveal that investigators believe that Haddadi and Usman were waiting for a third man to join them — Abid Tabaouni. Keep reading here from CNN, this was remarkable work by these journalists.

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Paris attacks: French authorities file terror charges against Pakistani man

29-year-old Algerian Adel Haddadi, 35-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Usman were charged with criminal conspiracy with terrorists

Conditions at the Border and the Cost of the Wall

Posted on September 4, 2016September 4, 2016 by Denise Simon

Millions per mile for the border wall and defined by the General Accounting Office.

BizPacReview

Mexico issuing transit visas to African migrants flocking to U.S.-Mexico border

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican immigration authorities say 424 migrants from African countries arrived at the southern state of Chiapas over two days last week.

The National Immigration Institute said Tuesday that it has issued them 20-day transit visas that will allow the migrants to reach the U.S.-Mexico border, where they plan to request asylum.

Officials call it an unusual surge and say most of the migrants first went to Brazil or Ecuador to start their journey through Latin America.

Most of the Africans presented themselves voluntarily to immigration officials in the Chiapas town of Tapachula. They did not specify their nationalities.

Immigration support staff in Tijuana has been aiding migrants from the Congo, Somalia and Ghana to arrive at the U.S. port of entry at San Isidro.

Meanwhile:

Shootouts in Mexico border city kill 11, including bystander

ABCNews: Two highway shootouts between soldiers and suspected drug gang members in a northern border city resulted in 11 dead Saturday, including a bystander caught in the crossfire, Mexican authorities reported.

The violence in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, prompted the temporary closure of the highway, which is a major artery for travel and commerce between the United States and Mexico.

The Tamaulipas state government said in a statement that the armed confrontations began early Saturday when troops killed eight suspected criminals on the highway. Soldiers seized a truck and high-caliber weapons, it said.

An hour later another shootout broke out nearby in which two suspects were killed, along with a woman who was traveling in her car, authorities said.

Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carlos Canturosas said Saturday night via Facebook that the highway, which handles nearly half of the export-import cargo between Mexico and the United States, had reopened.

Nuevo Laredo has experienced high violence rates as rival factions of the Zetas drug cartel fight for control of the area.

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In part from KGW:

Every appropriations bill has included money to secure the border. So much so that funding increased from $1.5 billion in 2005 to $2.3 billion in 2007 — eventually increasing to $3.8 billion in the 2015 fiscal year.

In 2013, Congress again tried to pass immigration reform. Again the effort failed. The border security proposals of that so-called “Gang of Eight” bill would have increased dramatically, doubling the number of full-time border patrol agents to more than 38,400. It also would have added to the construction of a physical border, including double fencing. And it would have added to the amount of virtual security like drones and mobile surveillance.

That bill would have set aside a whopping $46.3 billion over ten years to move toward the more militarized border. But with the federal government now spending nearly $4 billion per year on border security, it’s not much less than what the Gang of Eight would have hoped. Read more here.

From DHS:

Border Security Overview

Protecting our borders from the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people, while promoting lawful entry and exit, is essential to homeland security, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty.

Expand All Sections

Protecting Our Borders

America shares 7,000 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico, as well as rivers, lakes and coastal waters around the country. These borders are vital economic gateways that account for trillions of dollars in trade and travel each year. They are also home to some of our nation’s largest – and safest – cities and communities. Protecting our borders from the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people, while promoting lawful entry and exit, is essential to homeland security, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty.

Creating a Safer Border Environment

DHS works to secure our borders through the deployment of personnel, technology, and infrastructure; as well as working closely with our neighbors in Canada and Mexico, and our many federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners.

CBP Border Patrol agents, agriculture specialists, Air and Marine agents, and officers guard America’s front lines. These men and women prevent terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States while continuing their mission of seizing contraband and apprehending criminals and others who illegally attempt to enter the United States.

Through increases in Border Patrol staffing; construction of new infrastructure and fencing; use of advanced technology—including sensors, radar, and aerial assets –investments to modernize the ports of entry; and stronger partnerships and information sharing, we are creating a safer, more secure, and more efficient border environment.

Making Travel Faster and the Border Safer

What is this Clinton Teneo Anyway?

Posted on September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 by Denise Simon

Teneo Org Chart According to Wikipedia, Teneo is an US-based global advisory firm that partners exclusively with the Chief Executive Officers and senior leaders of many of the world’s largest and most complex companies and organizations.^[3] The firm works with clients to address a wide range of financial, reputational and transformational challenges and has opportunities by combining the disciplines of strategic communications, investor relations, investment banking, financial analytics, executive recruiting, digital analytics, corporate governance, government affairs, business intelligence, management consulting and corporate restructuring on an integrated basis. Teneo’s clients include the CEOs of many Fortune 100 companies across a diverse range of industry sectors.

I N T E G R AT E D C O U N S E L F O R A B O R D E R L E S S WO R L D

From Politico, The four businesses of Teneo — which provides integrated counsel to a client list that includes FORTUNE 500 companies, philanthropies, governments and high net worth individuals – are Teneo Capital, Teneo Restructuring, Teneo Strategy and Teneo Intelligence. Ed Rollins recently joined as a public-affairs adviser.

From PRNewswire: New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton To Join Teneo

Teneo to launch new operating division advising major global companies and organizations on key risk identification, prevention and response.

From HumanEvents: A former MF Global employee accused former president William J. Clinton of collecting $50,000 per month through his Teneo advisory firm in the months before the brokerage careened towards its Halloween filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Teneo was hired by MF Global’s former CEO Jon S. Corzine to improve his image and to enhance his connections with Clinton’s political family, said the employee, who asked that his name be withheld because he feared retribution.

From PRNewswire: NEW YORK and LONDON, July 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Teneo Holdings today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Blue Rubicon and StockWell, two of the UK’s leading strategic communications and reputation management firms.

The acquisitions of the two businesses, in addition to Teneo’s existing UK operations, will create one of the largest strategic communications practices in the European market. It will also augment Teneo’s operations in other parts of the world. All members of the Blue Rubicon and StockWell senior management team will continue as part of the Teneo leadership team. Terms of the transactions have not been disclosed.

Blue Rubicon, widely regarded as one of the most progressive strategic communications consultancies to have emerged in London in the last 20 years, provides senior counsel to some of the world’s largest companies as they navigate high-stake issues including succession planning, corporate restructuring, re-launches and post-M&A integration. Founded 15 years ago the firm has been led by Senior Partner, Fraser Hardie, CEO, Gordon Tempest-Hay, Partners Chris Jones and Fiona Joyce. Blue Rubicon today employs more than 225 people operating globally from offices in London, Doha, Dubai and Singapore.

StockWell was founded in 2010 and is led by its three Managing Partners: Tim Burt; Philip Gawith and Richard Holloway. The firm is headquartered in London and has 30 staff. StockWell specializes in providing boardroom level strategic communications advice to leading corporations and individuals across the UK, Europe and beyond.

It is intended that the London operations will be combined and co-located in London in the near future. They will report to Charles Watson in his capacity as Chairman of Teneo International.

“The acquisition of Blue Rubicon and StockWell is a transformational moment for Teneo as we continue to grow across the globe, building on our reputation as one of the world’s leading advisory firms,” said Declan Kelly, Chairman and CEO of Teneo.

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Then we have Justin Cooper….he was the original person that set up Bill and Hillary’s server(s). Where did he come from? Cooper is a Senior Advisor at Teneo Holdings LLC and a member of the Clinton Foundation.

Even Chelsea Clinton wanted to be hired at Teneo, but a weird collision course was ahead and the intersection got crowded, including the Clinton Global Initiative.

Teneo has divisions that cover the spectrum of all business, industry and government. For a view of division heads click here.

So is there an underlying objective to Teneo’s business model? Yes, it appears to be called ‘activist investments’. As noted here: Dealing with activist investors

On March 19, 2014, members of the Audit Committee Leadership Network (ACLN) met in New York to discuss investor activism, in particular the activism focused on company performance and shareholder value (as opposed to political or social causes).1 In this session, members were joined by Andy Merrill, senior managing director at Teneo Strategy2.

In 2014, Teneo published a lengthy document titled “Where is the World Going”, a comprehensive look at global conditions and submissions for what leaders of industry should and can do. In short, they cannot do what respective and distant government wont allow them to do unless there is ‘activism’ in global governance and of course diplomatic objectives can influence government certainly when it comes to money, power and recognition.

Teneo distinguishes itself in from its competitors in large part through the all-encompassing approach its takes to its services. The latest aspect to the business, Teneo Intelligence, is headed up by a former an ex-CIA and Department of Defense figure and aims to identify trouble spots around the world and analyse their potential effect on global markets.

So, about all those business and industry deals across the globe? Here are but 3 examples:

Digicell, Haiti

Uranium One, Russia

Ericsson, Iran

Hat tip to this site for packaging it all quite nicely and going the long keyboard work. Our friends at Judicial Watch have through legal proceedings provided the documents proving the crowded intersection.

In summary this Fox documentary is a good refresher that remains quite useful especially in light of the FBI releasing the server investigation documents.

In 2010: Hillary Clinton ordered American officials to spy on high ranking UN diplomats, including British representatives.

Top secret cables revealed that Mrs Clinton, the Secretary of State, even ordered diplomats to obtain DNA data – including iris scans and fingerprints – as well as credit card and frequent flier numbers.

All permanent members of the security council – including Russia, China, France and the UK – were targeted by the secret spying mission, as well as the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon.

Sigh….