I just do not understand how people so readily forget that Pompeo was running in the aeronautics industry before he got a law license, long before he was appointed by Trump to be CIA Director, which means he already knows what is going on with Whelan.
In 1998, Pompeo moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he and three other West Point friends, Brian Bulatao, Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Michael Stradinger, acquired three aircraft-part manufacturers there (Aero Machine, Precision Profiling, B&B Machine) and in St. Louis (Advance Tool & Die), renaming the entity Thayer Aerospace after West Point superintendent Sylvanus Thayer.[23][24][25] Venture funding for the private organization included a nearly 20% investment from Koch Industries [26] as well as Dallas-based Cardinal Investment, and Bain & Company (Brechbuhl worked for Bain at the time).[27][23] Brechbuhl and Stradinger left the company shortly after it was founded, but Pompeo and Bulatao continued. In 2006, he sold his interest in the company, which by then had been renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace, to Highland Capital Management, which had clients including Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream Aerospace, Cessna Aircraft, Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems and Raytheon Aircraft.[28] Pompeo then became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturer that was also a partner of Koch Industries.[29] In 2017, when Pompeo became head of the CIA, he named his former business partner, Brian Bulatao, the agency's chief operating officer.[24]
After nearly 18 months in prison, Michigan's Paul Whelan is expected to be sentenced Monday in Moscow as his espionage trial there concludes.
Prosecutors are seeking up to 18 years in a labor camp, which Whelan's family and attorneys consider particularly harsh, Whelan's twin brother David said.
Whelan, 50, of Novi has maintained his innocence. His attorneys pressed for acquittal.
His family doesn't really know what’s going to happen Monday, but they expect Whelan will be automatically convicted under Russia's justice system, which involves no due process. A conviction in Russia, David said, means the defendant didn't confess.
"I’m concerned and anxious for Paul. No one wants to be sentenced to 18 years, even if it’s for show. He is the one who will face going to a labor camp in 30 days," David said. "But I really am very hopeful that finally that’s out of the way."
The family is eager for the verdict because that means Whelan can finally move to the next step, where diplomats become heavily involved.
The Russian foreign ministry has indicated during the last year its interest in trading the American for certain Russian prisoners or for access to diplomatic properties the they've been denied access to in New York and Maryland, David said.
"Conviction is a necessary occurrence, so that Paul can then be considered in that potential for whatever concession the Russian government is looking for," David said.
"The sentence is almost immaterial because we don’t want him to have any of the sentence over there. It’s much more about getting past this procedural milestone, so on the government-to-government side they can have discussions about some sort of future exchange."
Paul Whelan, who grew up in Ann Arbor, was arrested in December 2018 in a Moscow hotel room and charged with espionage, which carries up to 20 years in prison in Russia.
The former U.S. Marine was director of global security for auto parts supplier BorgWarner in Auburn Hills and was visiting Moscow for a friend's wedding, according to his family.
He has denied being a spy and urged President Donald Trump to intervene, telling reporters in Moscow that a Russian friend in law enforcement planted a hard drive on him without his knowing.
Russian media reported during the trial that Paul believes Ilya Yatsenko, an FSB agent, set him up to avoid repaying a $1,400 loan to Paul, David said. The FSB is the successor agency to the communist KGB secret police.
In prison, Paul was denied treatment for a painful hernia that worsened and led to emergency surgery two weeks ago. He was transferred back to Lefortovo prison the next day, David said.
U.S. lawmakers and diplomats have repeatedly urged Russia to send Paul home, criticizing the fairness of the judicial process, the lack of evidence against him and the conditions in which he's been held.
“We ... call on Russia to do the same for Paul Whelan, who needs to be released now," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Wednesday in Washington.
Ryan Fayhee, the Whelan family's attorney, has said Paul doesn't fit the profile of a spy, as the U.S. government wouldn't send someone to engage in intelligence gathering without diplomatic cover.
It's unclear why Paul was arrested — whether it was carefully orchestrated or was the product of negligence, said Fayhee, who worked in the Justice Department's counter-espionage section.
"What is clear is that Paul is not a spy and that he has subsequently been held, isolated from his family and subjected to a secret 'trial' that will lead to its forgone conclusion," Fayhee said Friday.
"This has all been done to seek some advantage or to extract some benefit from the U.S. government, as has been made quite clear time and again openly by Russian officials."
As a matter of policy, U.S. officials have necessarily been deferential to the Russian judicial process, Fayhee said, but once there is a conviction that deference will cease on both sides.
"And so, optimistically, Paul’s family very much hopes that with Paul’s conviction, a more intensive political process can begin after 18 long months," Fayhee said.
"We hope and expect, come Monday, the full court press will begin. ... We look forward to the coming engagement, whatever it brings."
It is probably not appropriate for me to castigate Emperor Pence rallying the christian sleeper cells of the church-ez, due to the fact that SCOTUS is about to rule on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in dealing with the ICC war crimes against U.S. military, and its contractors, when it comes to trafficking tiny humans through Faith Based Funding.
We have yet to release the Emperor's emails when he was Governor of Indiana, with his butt buddy Tony Perkins.
We have not even broached the subject of Pennsylvania and Jerry Sandusky trafficking tiny humans.
Heck, we have not even addressed the #coloredrevolution when it comes to the Faith Based Funding of political campaigns.
I have yet to have one single person, except in hearings, raise the fact that race is a pseudo-scientific construct of propaganda, for there does not exist any measurement of racial classification, unless we use the residuals of the peculiar institution on the hierarchy of human property ownership called Partus Sequitur Ventrum.
I only call this alliance unholy due to the simple fact that it seems Trump was falsely advised in the signing of this Executive Order, just like they did with Obama, all the time, like with DACA, which is a policy, not a law, because only congress makes laws.
Now, why would I make such an allegation that the U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of State & Secretary of Defense falsely advised Trump?
So, if Trump is not duly elected, that would mean the unholy alliance is not duly appointed, which means they do not possessed sovereign nor qualified immunities, which means they will not just fall from the heavens upon defrocking, but will be prosecuted by the laws of the land.
Of course, everyone knows the U.S. never signed onto the Rome Statute, which makes the ICC jurisdiction improper, but, in this instance, the unholy alliance would have their parental rights to keep and bear the arms of the U.S. terminated, meaning, they slide right back down the rungs of the hierarchy of juridic persons, as chattel, under the guardianship of the U.S., to be tried on U.S. soil.
I am going to go out there on a soothsaying limb and just toss out there the possibility that the proper jurisdiction is going to be Detroit.
See, Boo Boo Barr just instructed MIED Matt Schneider to look into Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Executive Orders to see if they were constitutional.
I will tell you right now that Whitmer's Executive Orders are all unconstitutional because she is illegitimate, too, being, also, unduly elected.
That would mean Boo Boo Barr would have a transposable model to self-extract himself from office, or rather throw himself from the heavens.
It would also mean that Trump's Executive Orders, all of them, are illegitimate, meaning, we are looking at, not just a constitutional crisis, but the unmasking of the Arch-President.
But, hey, what do I know?
I know trafficking tiny humans operations when I see them because this is the reason they are pushing, really, truly hard, Religious Freedom Restoration Act to secure those Corporate Parental Rights in the name of the tax exempt god, to keep their most precious treasures they have pilfered through the world called the children's trust funds.
Hey, Boo Boo, can I get a #MeToo?
#sealsmatter #maytheheavensfall
Executive Order on Blocking Property Of Certain Persons Associated With The International Criminal Court
NATIONAL SECURITY & DEFENSE
Issued on: June 11, 2020
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the situation with respect to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its illegitimate assertions of jurisdiction over personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including the ICC Prosecutor’s investigation into actions allegedly committed by United States military, intelligence, and other personnel in or relating to Afghanistan, threatens to subject current and former United States Government and allied officials to harassment, abuse, and possible arrest. These actions on the part of the ICC, in turn, threaten to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and impede the critical national security and foreign policy work of United States Government and allied officials, and thereby threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, has never accepted ICC jurisdiction over its personnel, and has consistently rejected ICC assertions of jurisdiction over United States personnel. Furthermore, in 2002, the United States Congress enacted the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (22 U.S.C. 7421 et seq.) which rejected the ICC’s overbroad, non-consensual assertions of jurisdiction. The United States remains committed to accountability and to the peaceful cultivation of international order, but the ICC and parties to the Rome Statute must respect the decisions of the United States and other countries not to subject their personnel to the ICC’s jurisdiction, consistent with their respective sovereign prerogatives. The United States seeks to impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, which may include the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members. The entry of such aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States and denying them entry will further demonstrate the resolve of the United States in opposing the ICC’s overreach by seeking to exercise jurisdiction over personnel of the United States and our allies, as well as personnel of countries that are not parties to the Rome Statute or have not otherwise consented to ICC jurisdiction.
I therefore determine that any attempt by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States, or of personnel of countries that are United States allies and who are not parties to the Rome Statute or have not otherwise consented to ICC jurisdiction, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat. I hereby determine and order:
Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person, of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
(i) any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General:
(A) to have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States;
(B) to have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any personnel of a country that is an ally of the United States without the consent of that country’s government;
(C) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any activity described in subsection (a)(i)(A) or (a)(i)(B) of this section or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(D) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.
Sec. 2. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the types of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to section 1(a) of this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1(a) of this order.
Sec. 3. The prohibitions in section 1(a) of this order include:
(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to section 1(a) of this order; and
(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Sec. 4. The unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1(a) of this order, as well as immediate family members of such aliens, or aliens determined by the Secretary of State to be employed by, or acting as an agent of, the ICC, would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and the entry of such persons into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, is hereby suspended, except where the Secretary of State determines that the entry of the person into the United States would not be contrary to the interests of the United States, including when the Secretary so determines, based on a recommendation of the Attorney General, that the person’s entry would further important United States law enforcement objectives. In exercising this responsibility, the Secretary of State shall consult the Secretary of Homeland Security on matters related to admissibility or inadmissibility within the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security. Such persons shall be treated as persons covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions). The Secretary of State shall have the responsibility for implementing this section pursuant to such conditions and procedures as the Secretary has established or may establish pursuant to Proclamation 8693.
Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
Sec. 6. Nothing in this order shall prohibit transactions for the conduct of the official business of the Federal Government by employees, grantees, or contractors thereof.
Sec. 7. For the purposes of this order:
(a) the term “person” means an individual or entity;
(b) the term “entity” means a government or instrumentality of such government, partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization, including an international organization;
(c) the term “United States person” means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States;
(d) the term “United States personnel” means any current or former members of the Armed Forces of the United States, any current or former elected or appointed official of the United States Government, and any other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of the United States Government;
(e) the term “personnel of a country that is an ally of the United States” means any current or former military personnel, current or former elected or appointed official, or other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of a government of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member country or a “major non-NATO ally”, as that term is defined by section 2013(7) of the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (22 U.S.C. 7432(7)); and
(f) the term “immediate family member” means spouses and children.
Sec. 8. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to section 1 of this order would render those measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1 of this order.
Sec. 9. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions within the Department of the Treasury. All departments and agencies of the United States shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.
Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).
Sec. 11. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
For those of you who have yet to grasp what is going on, we have what I am calling a Happy Watergate 2.0 Saturday Night Massacre Birthday Celebration (even though it took place, hopefully, sometime after midnight) because the original model was transposed and manipulated from the Watergate Saturday Night Massacre, where Nixon was getting everyone to fire the special prosecutor.
Happy Birthday, Sweetie!
In this modern day situation, we have a president who is not firing U.S. attorneys, but Inspector Generals.
According to Wikipedia, Steve leaked stuff through a private attorney who was never appointed to represent the U.S., with advice and consent of the Senate, to U.S. House Judiciary Committee Member Jamie Raskin, who has never, once, spoken about those trafficking tiny human issues, Like TARP, Detroit, or those gloriously autocephalious, cherished children's trust funds.
Early in his career, Linick served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and as an associate at the Newman & Holtzinger law firm in Washington, D.C. Linick served as an Assistant United States Attorney in California from 1994 to 1999 and Virginia from 1999 to 2006. He also served as Executive Director of the Department of Justice’s National Procurement Fraud Task Force and Deputy Chief of its Fraud Section in the Criminal Division from 2006 to 2010. During his tenure at the Department of Justice, he supervised and participated in white-collar criminal fraud cases involving corruption and contract fraud against the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.[10] He served as the first Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency from 2010 until 2013. Linick began his tenure as the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State on September 30, 2013. As Inspector General, Linick was the senior official responsible for identifying operational risks within the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, assessing the sufficiency of internal controls, and conducting administrative and criminal investigations of waste, fraud, mismanagement, and misconduct. He was responsible for providing oversight to more than 70,000 Department of State and U.S. Agency for Global Media employees, 270 overseas missions and other facilities worldwide, and more than $70 billion in Department of State, U.S. Agency for Global Media, and foreign assistance resources. He also served as the Associate Inspector General for designated overseas contingency operations. Trump–Ukraine scandal In the midst of the Trump–Ukraine scandal, Linick transferred a packet of documents from Rudy Giuliani by way of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin.
Steve Linick was appointed by Barack Obama, to oversee spending and detect mismanagement at the state department
The US state department's inspector general, Steve Linick, has become the latest senior official to be fired by US President Donald Trump.
Mr Trump said Mr Linick no longer had his full confidence and that he would be removed in 30 days.
Mr Linick had begun investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for suspected abuse of office, reports say.
Democrats say Mr Trump is retaliating against public servants who want to hold his administration to account.
"It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general," Mr Trump is quoted as saying in a letter sent late on Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, US media report.
Not long after Mr Linick's dismissal was announced, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Mr Linick had opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"This firing is the outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the secretary of state, from accountability," Eliot Engel, a Democrat, said in a statement.
"I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Mr Linick's firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation."
Mr Engel did not provide any further details about the content of this investigation into Mr Pompeo.
Congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, have been quoted in different media as saying that Mr Linick was examining complaints that Mr Pompeo may have improperly used staff and asked them to perform personal tasks.
Mr Linick, a former prosecutor, was appointed by Mr Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to oversee spending and detect mismanagement at the state department.
'Retaliation'
Democrats have been reacting to the move. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Linick was "punished for honourably performing his duty to protect the constitution and our national security".
The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President’s dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people. https://t.co/VavmuJpX25
"The president must cease his pattern of reprisal and retaliation against the public servants who are working to keep Americans safe, particularly during this time of global emergency," she added in a statement.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee needed to learn more about the dismissal.
If Inspector General Linick was fired because he was conducting an investigation of conduct by Secretary Pompeo, the Senate cannot let this stand.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee must get to bottom of what happened here.
The Vatican is a geopolitical nation state, which is foreign to the United States, complete with voting districts called parishes and dioceses, under the principalities or the princes, called archbishops.
The Vatican, has their own set of law, over the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a foreign corporation.
Pope Francis leads the opening of the 91st judicial year of the Vatican City state court during an audience in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Feb. 15, 2020. In mid-March Pope Francis updated the norms governing the Vatican City State judiciary system.
ROME — Pope Francis updated the laws that govern the Vatican judicial system in an effort to establish greater transparency and independence, particularly in financial and criminal matters.
The pope said the new measures, issued “motu proprio,” on the pope’s own accord, March 16, are meant to emphasize that the administration of justice is not just a “temporal necessity.”
“The cardinal virtue of justice, in fact, enlightens and synthesizes the very purpose of the judicial power proper to each state in order to cultivate the personal, generous and responsible commitment of those invested with the jurisdictional function which is, above all, essential,” the pope wrote.
The updated laws will replace the previous legislation on the Vatican’s judicial system issued by St. John Paul II in 1987.
The Vatican press office said that the updated law was necessary in the wake of financial, economic and criminal regulatory reforms, as well as the Vatican’s “accession to important international conventions.”
At the same time, the Vatican said, it “preserves and ensures the specificity of Vatican law, which recognizes the canonical system as the first source of legislation and the first criterion of reference for interpretation.”
Confirming the independence of the Vatican’s judicial system and judges, the measures state that judges are “hierarchically dependent only on the Supreme Pontiff” and must exercise their duties with impartiality.
Vatican judicial authorities also have direct use of the Vatican police force and are granted Vatican citizenship during their terms, the legislation states.
The Vatican tribunal is comprised of a president and four judges. The pope increased the tribunal membership by one, and further specifying that at least one of the judges must serve full time and exclusively in the Vatican judicial system.
He also specified the judges “are chosen among university professors and among jurists of evident reputation, with proven experience — judicial or forensic — in civil, criminal or administrative matters.”
The Vatican’s prosecutor’s office, known as the office of the Promoter of Justice, will also exercise its functions autonomously and independently from the tribunal, according to the new legislation.
In addition, Pope Francis updated the requirements for lawyers of the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that mainly handles marriage cases. Those wishing to enroll in the Roman Rota’s bar association must also be registered with the bar association of their state of residence.
Lawyers for the Roman Rota are also required to show “proof of knowledge of canon law and Vatican law,” the motu propio states.
Now, why would Pope Francis update the nation's judicial system?
Well, considering the fact that the Vatican is a foreign nation, whereby its GDP is based upon its thousand years global industry of trafficking tiny humans, I am going with "war crimes" as my final answer.
New law assures judiciary independence and brings Vatican into line with international legal treaties, while maintaining the paramount place of canon law
This new judicial organization proposed by Pope Francis is 'in many ways very modern,' assures the president of the Vatican tribunal Giuseppe Pignatone.
As small as it is — no more than 44 hectares — Vatican City State is nonetheless independent and therefore governed by its own judicial system.
On Monday, March 16, Pope Francis revised this system by promulgating Law 35.
It replaces previous legislation that John Paul II decreed in 1987.
In the preamble to the 31 articles of this new law, Francis says changes were required to reflect "a significantly different historical and institutional context."
He notes that it is in line with recent "normative reforms in economic-financial and penal matters, as well as a consequence of adherence to important international conventions.
"The pope says it is also a question of improving the "efficiency" of the Vatican's justice system.
The Holy See Press Office said the new law aims in particular to "guarantee the independence of judicial bodies and magistrates."
Magistrates "exercise their powers with impartiality," the law states.
They have the faculty to directly call on the judicial police, which is exercised by the Vatican Gendarmerie.
The text also states that magistrates depend only on the pope.
He appoints them and grants them Vatican citizenship for the duration of their term of service.
Qualification requirements for judges
The new law says the virtue of justice must be the basis of the small state's judicial system.
"The cardinal virtue of justice, in fact, enlightens and synthesizes the very purpose of the judicial power proper to each state in order to cultivate the personal, generous and responsible commitment of those invested with the jurisdictional function which is, above all, essential," the pope says.
Magistrates will be "chosen preferably from among tenured or retired university professors, and in any case from among renowned jurists who have acquired proven experience in the judicial or forensic, civil, criminal or administrative fields."
In addition, specialized magistrates may be recruited in response to "specific requirements."
This increase in requirements is also reflected in the composition of the Court of First Instance, which is now composed of the president and four other magistrates, one more than under the law in force until now.Of these judges, at least one exercises this task "on a full-time basis, without having subordinate working relationships or carrying out independent activities of a continuous nature."
A 'very modern' lawPope Francis notes another important point of this new law in his preamble.
Namely, that it "preserves and ensures the specificity of Vatican law, which recognizes the canonical system as the first source of legislation and the first criterion of reference for interpretation."
It is thus required that one of the magistrates of the Vatican Tribunal be an expert in canon law.
Likewise, one must have "proven knowledge of canon law" to be a lawyer.
This new judicial organization is "in many ways very modern," assures Giuseppe Pignatone, the President of the Vatican Tribunal.
Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, he said it aims to "guarantee the conditions of independence and efficiency" of magistrates.
There are other provisions, such as the possibility of the addition of judges to judge in collegial form a cassation case — this law is due to come into force in one month.
Confessed Russian agent Maria Butina, who was released from prison and immediately deported back to Moscow in October, has been invited to join Russia's High Commissioner for Human Rights to assist citizens in various predicaments overseas, according to comments she made in an interview published Tuesday.
Speaking with Russia's Federal News Agency, Butina said as part of her post-incarceration advocacy she will work to raise funds for Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout, two Russians serving lengthy prison sentences in the United States.
Yaroshenko, a former aircraft pilot, was convicted in April 2011 of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The Justice Department says he is a trans-national drug trafficker "who transported thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine throughout South America, Africa, and Europe."
Bout, an international arms dealer, was convicted by a U.S. jury in November 2011 for his participation in a conspiracy to sell weapons to Colombian FARC rebels, an armed guerilla group that had long been in conflict with the country's security forces. The FARC officially disarmed in 2016 amid a broader peace deal with the Colombian government.
In the interview, Butina decried the "huge sentences" and "terrible conditions" both men are facing. Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison; Bout was sentenced to 25.
In response to a request for comment, Lee Ginsberg, a lawyer for Yaroshenko, provided Newsweek with the following statement:
"I always believed that Mr. Yaroshenko's prosecution was the result of the overreaching of the U.S. government in a drug sting operation. Hopefully, this new development will lead to his release from custody."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Federation's Commissioner for Human Rights about Butina's work and has not yet heard back.
As part of her plea deal with federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia, Butina admitted to establishing "unofficial lines of communication" with American powerbrokers in order to influence domestic politics at Russia's behest. Working to advance the interests of a foreign entity often requires pre-registration with the Justice Department, which Butina admitted did not do.
Butina's years-long efforts included attempts to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) and ingratiate herself with influential conservatives. By attending various NRA conferences and co-mingling with Republican attendees, she hoped to establish an unofficial back channel to a prospective Trump administration.
More than just a rogue operator, Butina has become a cause célèbre in her native Russia after making well-publicized comments about the conditions of her confinement in the United States.
Her characterizations of the American prison system and descriptions of languishing inside solitary confinement have served as fodder for Russian propaganda, but they also recall credible criticisms of how the United States treats detainees.
As part of the work she says she will do for the human rights commission, Butina described a hotline she will purportedly help develop to provide legal assistance to Russian citizens. She also said she will push to eliminate abusive prison practices internationally.
"I will be working to ban torture in the form of prolonged solitary confinement in places of imprisonment around the world," she said. "You need to call things by their names, a person is not meant to live in isolation. Solitary confinement is torture. Even though the U.N. convention classifies it as torture, this method of punishment is still widely used, especially in the United States. My four months in solitary confinement is a great example."
In the interview, Butina also recounted a previously untold story about being welcomed back to Russia once her prison sentence was complete. After being put on an Aeroflot plane in Miami, she claims, a reporter handed her a phone with Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry, on the other end of the line.
According to Butina, Zakharova comforted her, saying, "Maria, the whole country is looking at you. Get ready, we have been waiting for you so much."
Butina says she will work on preparing a forthcoming report on the status of Russians currently in legal jeopardy abroad.
In terms of the cases of Yaroshenko and Bout, which the Russian government has been pressing for years, Butina believes that the President Donald Trump's administration is no longer willing to cooperate on these sorts of issues.
"We expected one thing, for example, that a friendly [President Donald] Trump would be interested in building a new, good relationship between Russia and the United States, and that the United States would stop being hostile towards Russia," she said. "But as you see, it turned out to be the opposite of that."
Butina professed a sense of patriotic duty in her purported work for Russian citizens on behalf of the government, which regularly detains dissidents and utilizes torture, according to Human Rights Watch.
"The Russians do not abandon their own, so now the baton is in my hands, and I consider it my duty to help those who find themselves in the same situation," she said.
The International Criminal Court will also look into possible crimes by Taliban militants and Afghan government forces.
International Criminal Court appeals judges authorized Thursday an investigation into allegations of war crimes by United States military and intelligence personnel, Afghan forces and the Taliban in Afghanistan, in a case that has triggered a diplomatic backlash from Washington.
“The prosecutor is authorized to commence investigation in relation to alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan in the period since 1 May 2003,” Judge Piotr Hofmański said, adding that other alleged crimes committed on the territory of other states, which are party to the ICC, but that are sufficiently linked to the armed conflict in Afghanistan could also be investigated in the period since July 1, 2002.
In late 2001, the U.S. toppled the Taliban after the group sheltered Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the court's decision as a "truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body."
"It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan — the best chance for peace in a generation," Pompeo said in the statement, referring to an agreement signed between the U.S. and the Taliban in the Gulf nation of Qatar on Saturday which paves the way for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan.
The decision by the Hague-based court overturns a ruling by a lower chamber last year that blocked the investigation concluding, among other reasons, that its chances of success and of prosecution were “extremely limited.”
The ruling by the lower chamber in April came after Pompeo announced that the U.S. would repeal or deny visas to International Criminal Court staff seeking to investigate Americans in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
"We are determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation," Pompeo said last March, announcing the decision.
The office of lead prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said it has determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed by members of the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan and by members of the CIA in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan and in other countries, particularly between the period 2003-2004.
It has also determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by the Taliban and their Haqqani network and that war crimes were committed by the Afghan National Security Forces.
The court decision follows Saturday's ceremony during which the U.S. and the Taliban signed an agreement in which Washington committed to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan within 14 months in exchange for the Taliban cutting ties with any terrorist groups and entering into peace talks with Afghan government officials, representatives of the opposition and members of the civil society.
America’s war in Afghanistan — its longest — has raged for more than 18 years costing the lives of around 2,300 U.S. troops and wounding many thousands of others.
The conflict has inflicted a deadly toll on the Afghan people. Afghanistan currently tops the list of the world’s deadliest conflicts.
Since 2016, children have accounted for nearly a third of the estimated 11,000 civilian casualties every year in the conflict, according to Human Rights Watch.
Since the United Nations began systematically documenting the impact of the war on civilians in 2009, it has recorded more than 100,000 civilian casualties, including more than 35,000 killed and 65,000 injured.
Last year, more than 10,000 civilians were either killed or injured in the conflict for which the Taliban were responsible for nearly half, Afghan National Security Forces for 16 percent and international military forces for 8 percent, according to the U.N.
If these war crimes have been conducted under the model of religion, then, it becomes a natural act of equilibrium to reciprocate its the application, through a generalized replication of the same model, in a court of law, to achieve justice and peace through due process, while preserving the public record.
And they cover it all up under religion as the work of god.
I just call it propaganda.
Do not be confused, we have yet to even touch christianity.
The christians are far nastier when it comes to hate, as shall be seen in the sophistication of trafficking tiny humans, deeply engrained as the the residuals of the peculiar institution throughout the centuries.
Praise the lord.
We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property [...] and to reduce their persons into perpetual servitude. ~ Dum Diversas, Papal Bull 1452
The confirmation hearing in the case The Prosecutor v. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud is scheduled to open on 8 July 2019 at 14:00 (The Hague local time) before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Pre-Trial Chamber I is composed of Judge Péter Kovács, Presiding Judge, Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut and Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou.
The purpose of the confirmation of charges hearing is for the judges to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that the person committed each of the crimes charged. If the charges are confirmed, in full or in part, the case will be transferred to a Trial Chamber, which will conduct the subsequent phase of the proceedings: the trial.
Mr Al Hassan is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2012 and 2013 in Timbuktu, Mali. The warrant of arrest was issued on 27 March 2018. He was surrendered on 31 March 2018 and made his first appearance before the ICC on 4 April 2018. Mr Al Hassan is in ICC custody.
400,000 Captagon Pills Confiscated by Syrian Security
The U.S. DoD dopes up its soldiers, too.
CIA terrorists deprived of more than 400k ATS.
Syrian security forces have deprived CIA terrorists of more than 400,000 Captagon pills. On 17 August, authorities in the suburbs of Damascus seized a truck with hidden compartments filled with a large quantity of this Amphetamine-type Stimulant (ATS) known as Captagon.
Captagon pills with other drugs were confiscated by the Syrian security who were monitoring the truck heading from Central Syria at the Lebanese borders towards the south of Syria, most likely towards Jordanian borders.
Upon careful inspection, the well-experienced officers discovered hidden compartments built within the container body of the large truck loaded with thousands and thousands of Captagon pills, most of which were already packed in smaller delivery retail-style bags.
Watch this video by Syrian Ikhbariya of the truck, its shipment, and the traffickers arrested in this successful raid:
Three members of the trafficking gang were arrested and has since been transferred to public prosecution for further investigation and to receive their punishment.
Captagon pills, Hash (Hashish), Cocaine, and a host of other drugs in very large quantities have been confiscated by the Syrian authorities throughout the current crisis. CIA-sponsored terrorists from Al-Qaeda, FSA, ISIS, whatever names the CIA finds suitable for them, were actively working on planting, manufacturing, and cross-border trafficking of this lucrative business for them, on one hand the NATO terrorists operating in Syria use it to enable them kill Syrians, maim living people and dead bodies, even blow themselves up with civilians with no remorse, committing unimaginable heinous crimes under influence of such drugs, narcotics, and Amphetamine-type Stimulant.
Another use of ‘investing’ in this business, CIA terrorists benefit from the revenues to finance their activities, pay high salaries to their recruits and their movements across their host countries. Their arms and logistics are taken care of the US taxpayers and the Gulfies. Before the current US-led War of Terror waged against the Syrian people, Syria was among the leading countries in the world of being clean of all sorts of drugs and related products, in producing and in trafficking. Capital punishment was introduced against those trafficking drugs to or through the country.
Saudi Prince of Captagon Abdulmuhsin Al Saud أمير الكبتاجون عبد المحسن بن وليد ال سعود
Captagon pills are widely used by the terrorists due to their ease of transportation and effects, also cheaper price compared with other drugs. Neighboring Lebanon is internationally known for growing Hashish and manufacturing Captagon pills. A Saudi prince – above photo – is serving a 6 years prison sentence in Lebanon after he was arrested with his private jet loaded with 1900 kilograms of Captagon pills and heading to Saudi from Beirut International Airport.
