The U.S. and the Vatican want to integrate chattel law in China.
Why?
Because it is so passe' to use the term assimilation.
Oh, and UNIDROIT et al is rewriting chattel law to create Corporate Parental Rights, or rather to recodify the hierarchy of human asset management to better maximize revenues in what the world is coming to see as modern human trafficking in the name of the tax exempt god.
People may conjure images of Native American christian boarding schools, whose histories are exclusively excluded from U.S. curriculae and literature, because, you know, if we preserved the legacies of this nation, I would not have to constantly document this crap covering up the residuals of the peculiar institution which is the Child Welfare System, for they only slapped a cross on the salvific plantations after the Emancipation Proclamation, because you have to be over the age of 15 years to qualify.
China has lots of people who make lots of babies the private corporations like to use to make those wonderful, magical pills to cure all your ills, researched and administrated by the Vatican.
Do not let me mention the revenue maximization possibilities of all those absolutely glorious churches, who shall evangelized that turn key Detroit transposable model of stealin' the children, land & vote, the same thing they did in Russia.
Since 2004, CRS has supported the development of the emerging social service sector in China, with a particular focus on providing care and support services for people with HIV and their families. CRS expanded in 2012 to include services for cancer patients and their families.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of cancer cases is rising “ferociously” in China. About 2.2 million people die every year from the disease. For men, the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease is lung cancer. For women, it is breast cancer. WHO says many deaths could be prevented, mainly by reducing the country’s very high smoking rates. There are more than 300 million smokers in China with more than half of all men as regular smokers. WHO says air pollution, particularly in urban areas, is also a contributing risk factor for cancer in China.
I wonder what will happen when the people do not want to accept the christian integration socioeconomic model when the find out it failed, miserably, in its first test pilot City of Detroit.
*awkward*
The evangelical corporate parental rights human asset forfeiture network is already up and running.
I want to know why Pompeo is engaging in private matters on behalf of private corporations like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who are the ones running all the child welfare contracts when it comes to trafficking tiny humans.
Is christian integration election interference or are we to stick with the more traditional evangelical term of gerrymandering?
Better yet, I want to know why Pompeo is touching anything dealing with Catholic Charities when he should be fully aware of a matter pending before SCOTUS on whether or not to terminate the right to keep and bear the arms of the United States on November 4, 2020, the day after the 2020 Presidential Election, which is based upon the Electoral Vote of Electors who cast ballots, and not the Popular Vote by Qualified Voters who vote for the Electors, who will constantly change the the vote, by blackmail or bribe of a foreign actor, rather a christian corporation, registered under a state seal, with foreign oaths of fealty, like Christ, but the children's trusts are a completely different subject matter in dealing with all that money laundering out the IOR, more readily recognized as the Vatican Bank, by and through DeutscheBank and GoldmanSachs, in the heavy presence of Detroit legal situations.
Moscow – The US Embassy in Moscow said Tuesday it had no information on the whereabouts of an American convicted in June of espionage, despite reports that he is being transferred to a prison colony in central Russia.
Paul Whelan’s brother David said Tuesday on Twitter that he “appears to now be in Mordovia, on his way to prison camp IK-17.” The republic of Mordovia, about 350 kilometers (210 miles) east of Moscow, is home to several prison camps.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who was arrested in Moscow at the end of last year, was detained at the end of December for alleged spying.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who was arrested in Moscow at the end of last year, was detained at the end of December for alleged spying. (Photo: Pavel Golovkin, AP)
The Interfax news agency cited David Whelan as saying he received the information from the British Embassy. Paul Whelan holds US, British, Irish and Canadian citizenship.
US Embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Ross said on Twitter: “We have not received official notification from Russian authorities of any such move, despite our repeated recent attempts to gain consular access to Paul.”
Whelan, a former corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018; he was convicted in June and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whelan’s lawyer has said his client was handed a flash drive that had classified information on it that he didn’t know about.
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."
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.
"Yes, yes! Nobody in the U.S. can buy and sell me anymore!"
Tea sets, bows, a doll house, a pink duvet covering the bottom bunk bed and a photo tacked onto the fridge — these are just some of the Driver family’s reminders of a little girl in a Chinese orphanage waiting to be adopted.
Cady and Chris Driver of Garner, North Carolina, anticipated adopting 2-year-old Ella earlier this year. But instead of flying to China in February, they had to delay their plans because of travel restrictions associated with the coronavirus outbreak.
“It makes me feel very sad and frustrated. We’ve been waiting so long to meet her and make her a part of our family, but we are resigned to waiting it out for the good of everyone,” Mrs. Driver said. “Within the adoption community on social media, parents are just devastated that they can’t go get their children, but I mean, obviously, we want to be safe.”
As the outbreak appears to be subsiding in China, American families whose adoption plans have been delayed express hope that they will be able to travel to the country in late spring.
China on Saturday reported no new coronavirus infections in Hubei province, where the outbreak originated. Residents in Hubei province have resumed a more normal routine, with some businesses and factories reopening and many domestic travel restrictions being lifted.
“As soon as we possibly can, we would like to go get Ella and bring her to her forever home here. As soon as it’s safe for everyone involved and we will, of course, take every precaution,” Mrs. Driver said.
Despite some good news out of China, the increase in infections elsewhere, including in the U.S., creates uncertainty for families trying to adopt internationally. The State Department on Thursday issued an advisory urging citizens to avoid all travel abroad because of the global impact of COVID-19.
The Drivers started the adoption process for Ella through the International Adoption Net in January 2019. They have set up a bedroom for her to share with their 6-year-old son, Lian, who was adopted from China in 2016. Like Lian, Ella was born with Down syndrome.
“We just felt really drawn toward China because the orphanages have a lot of children who have special needs, and they have a hard time finding homes for those children,” Mrs. Driver said.
“You love that child already, and you’ve been working a whole year. And they are a whole world away and you can’t get to them,” she said. “It’s been really hard just waiting.”
In 2018, there were 4,059 intercountry adoptions to the U.S., according to the latest annual report from the State Department. Of those, 1,475 adoptions were from China. Many children in Chinese orphanages have some type of special needs.
Toni and Dayton Puckett, who live in Farmville, Virginia, booked a two-week trip to China to pick up their daughter, with plans to leave at the end of January and arrive back in the States in mid-February.
But travel restrictions as a result of the coronavirus outbreak put a wrench in their plans.
The Pucketts discovered the 3-year-old girl via an email sent by America World Adoption at the end of July. The Pucketts decided to name her Riese, a combination of the names of Toni’s mother and grandmother.
“I think we knew deep down that she was our daughter the very first night that my husband, Dayton, and I saw her picture and read a short description about her,” Mrs. Puckett said.
The family began the adoption process in August and received a letter of acceptance from China a few weeks later.
Anna Graham, chief operating officer of America World Adoption, said the coronavirus outbreak directly impacted about 15 families working with the agency in various stages of the adoption process. A handful of families were set to travel in February, plane tickets in hand, but had to cancel their arrangements.
These adoptive families opened their hearts and homes to a child and already are waiting for several months to obtain government approval to finalize adoptions, only for plans to unexpectedly come to a halt, Ms. Graham said.
“It’s a lot to get to that final stage, and then here at the eleventh hour, you have to wait. It’s just so heartbreaking, and much of the adoption process involves painful waiting and a lot of processes that are out of your control as an adoptive parent,” Ms. Graham said.
“But I think this is a whole new level of a situation that was outside of expectation or control,” she added. “Obviously, it’s now more difficult in that we don’t have an answer for families for when we anticipate they will be able to travel.”
Since the outbreak began, America World Adoption and adoptive families have donated masks, medical supplies and thousands of dollars to support health care needs to orphanages in China.
Ryan Hanlon, vice president of research, education and constituent services for the National Council for Adoption, urged adoptive parents to continue to be patient and to follow the guidance of the State Department and adoption authorities.
“My experience has been that as eager as adoptive parents are to travel, they understand this is an issue that’s much larger than adoption,” he said. “They’re not blaming anyone. They just feel distraught for the child and want to complete the adoption.”
He said it is encouraging that families were able to resume adoptions after outbreaks such as the 2002-2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
“Pointing families toward historical reminders can be helpful when we’re in the middle of a situation that’s very disappointing like this,” Mr. Hanlon said. “Every family that’s delayed and every child that’s delayed in joining a family, that is a tragedy. … This is something that will pass, and we have every reason to believe that adoptions will resume again when it’s a safer time to travel.”
Aside from travel restrictions, there is concern about bringing adoptive children to the U.S. as the country reports more cases.
Mrs. Puckett said her family is worried about bringing Riese to the States anytime soon, especially since her immune system is likely underdeveloped from living in an orphanage for almost her entire life.
She said her family has no idea when they will travel to China to meet Riese and bring her home.
“If we have learned anything at all in this very lengthy adoption process, full of so many ups and downs, it is that God is in control and that we will meet our daughter in his perfect timing,” Mrs. Puckett said. “Faith has led us this far, and it will keep us going.”
The children are coming to Michigan because we have the contracts.
How can one use DNA to establish paternity, when the child is adopted?
Just thought I would throw that out there when trying to figure out the citizenship of children under the aegis of a private, foreign Foster Care Agency.
Houston – The U.S. government on Monday launched a pilot program to collect DNA from people in immigration custody and submit it to the FBI, with plans to expand nationwide.
In Detroit, people as young as 14 will be subject to DNA collection.
The information would go into a massive criminal database run by the FBI, where it would be held indefinitely. A memo outlining the program published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security said U.S. citizens and permanent residents holding a “green card” who are detained could be subject to DNA testing, as well as asylum seekers and people entering the country without authorization. Refusing to submit DNA could lead to a misdemeanor criminal charge, the document said.
Immigrant advocates and privacy experts have raised alarms and questioned whether data collected to stop criminal activity could instead be used for surveillance.
The DHS memo acknowledged that the DNA its agents collect may not be immediately useful. Agents plan to take saliva swabs of detained people, then mail them to the FBI. By the time the results are processed, the memo said, the people in question may have already been released, deported or transferred to another federal agency.
Stephen Kang, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, questioned whether the U.S. was creating “a DNA bank of immigrants that have come through custody for no clear reason.”
Starting Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will collect swabs from people apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol at the Canadian border in or near Detroit, as well as people detained at the official port of entry at Eagle Pass, Texas, across from Piedras Negras, Mexico. CBP said its pilot program will last 90 days.
The memo said agents will not take DNA from people entering the country legally or being held for further screening without being placed into detention.
CBP has wrongly accused American citizens in the past of entering the country illegally. An 18-year-old born in Texas was held for more than three weeks last year.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will designate one of its jails for pilot testing.
The fifth public impeachment hearing will feature testimonies from Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser and David Holmes, Political Counselor, U.S Embassy – Kiev, Ukraine.
The fourth day of the public impeachment proceedings will take place in two parts. Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, will testify at the public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee at 9am.
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has widened its investigation into the founder of energy company Burisma to include suspicion of embezzling state funds, Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said on Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka speaks during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, October 4, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo
Allegations of wrongdoing at Burisma go to the heart of a U.S. impeachment inquiry into whether President Donald Trump improperly pressured Ukraine’s leadership to investigate his main rival in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump wants Ukraine to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was a board member at Burisma from 2014-2019.
The prosecutor who has investigated Burisma is Kostiantyn Kulyk, who previously met Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to discuss accusations against the Bidens.
After he took office in late August, Ryaboshapka launched a wide-ranging audit of criminal cases to see whether they had been conducted properly. Thirteen of them relate to Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, Ryaboshapka told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.
Burisma did not respond to a request for comment.
Ryaboshapka’s predecessors oversaw a series of investigations into Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources. The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.
Ryaboshapka said Zlochevsky was now suspected of the “theft of government funds on an especially large scale,” but did not provide evidence or details.
Ryaboshapka was speaking after being asked about a document from the general prosecutor’s office that was leaked at a separate press conference by three lawmakers earlier on Wednesday.
The document, only part of which was visible, showed Kulyk suspected Zlochevsky of offences including using his official position to embezzle 800 million hryvnias ($33 million) of money belonging to the central bank.
The investigation is effectively on hold, however, because the Ukrainian authorities cannot determine Zlochevsky’s whereabouts.
The central bank did not respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani has previously told Reuters he met Kulyk in Paris. He said at that meeting Kulyk echoed allegations that in 2016 Joe Biden as Vice President had tried to have Ukraine’s then-chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, fired to stop him investigating Burisma. Biden has accused Giuliani of peddling “false, debunked conspiracy theories” for repeating these allegations.
Kulyk told Reuters in October that he had been investigating Zlochevsky for around two years.
Reuters could not independently verify the extent of Kulyk’s involvement, but a source close to the energy company saw a spike in activity by Kulyk in regards to Burisma after Giuliani’s interest in the company and the Bidens had been conveyed to Kulyk’s then superior, Yuriy Lutsenko.
In late January, Kulyk sent Zlochevsky the first of several summons for questioning, documents seen by Reuters showed.
Zlochevsky has not commented on the summons or an announcement by Ryaboshapka in October that his office was reviewing a series of investigations linked to Zlochevsky.
"You have to talk to my attorney because he has immunity."
ROME (Reuters) - A former U.S. spy, pardoned by Italy in connection with the CIA kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, has fled from Italy to the United States fearing for her safety, Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera on Sunday quoted her as saying.
FILE PHOTO: Former CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa with her lawyer Manuel Magalhaes Silva leaving Judiciary Police headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
Sabrina de Sousa is one of 26 people convicted by Italy in absentia over the 2003 abduction of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, but the only one to spend any time in prison for the operation, in which she denies involvement.
De Sousa was still due to carry out community service in Italy until next year after the Italian president commuted her four-year prison sentence but she decided to flee the country after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel visited Rome in October, Il Corriere said.
“I was terrified of the consequences that I could face,” the dual Portuguese-U.S. citizen was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
“The arrival of Haspel in Italy confirmed to the Italian government that the U.S. administration had washed its hands of my case,” she added, without elaborating.
Pompeo visited Italy at the beginning of October, while Haspel met Italy’s secret service heads in Rome on Oct. 9, according to Italian media. So far, no connection between the meetings and the De Sousa case has been reported.
Andrea Saccucci, an Italian lawyer who has submitted an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of De Sousa, confirmed on Sunday that his client had left Italy but could not explain why De Sousa had returned to the United States despite her fears about the U.S. administration.
“She only told me that she is now in the States,” Saccucci told Reuters.
Il Corriere quoted De Sousa as saying that “thanks to the recent changes to the Whistleblower Act” she could reveal further details on the case.
The kidnapping of Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was part of a CIA “extraordinary rendition” program to snatch terrorism suspects in various countries and transfer them in secret to undergo interrogation in third countries.
The cleric said he was tortured after being transferred to Egypt under the program, an aspect of President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” that drew condemnation from human rights groups and even some U.S. allies.
De Sousa has always claimed her innocence, saying she was not in Milan on the day of the abduction and did not plan the kidnap.
Jim Jordan should get Doug Collins and the members of the Freedom Caucus to ask Mike Pompeo in a hearing.
They could subpoena Pompeo, Adam Sciff and Benny Thompson to testify in House Judiciary on the CIA Star Chamber.
*Awkward*
They could clarify the legal process and set precedent for the Sargent At Arms
to arrest a Member of Congress.
Oh, what joy!
Cyberchatter has it Mittens has secured the Senate Majority impeachment vote, yet, Trump continues to obstruct justice by failing to pull that IG Report from his backpocket.
The Honorable Paul D. Irving was sworn in as the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives on January 17, 2012, during the 2nd session of the 112th Congress. He is the thirty-sixth person to hold this post since the House of Representatives first met in New York City in 1789. Prior to this, Mr. Irving was an Assistant Director of the U.S. Secret Service from 2001 to 2008, serving as a Special Agent with the Secret Service for 25 years.
As an elected officer of the House of Representatives, the Sergeant at Arms is the chief law enforcement and protocol officer of the House of Representatives, and is responsible for maintaining order in the House side of the United States Capitol complex. The Sergeant at Arms reviews and implements all issues relating to the safety and security of Members of Congress and the Capitol complex. The Sergeant at Arms also coordinates extensively with the U.S. Capitol Police and various intelligence agencies to assess threats against Members of Congress and the Capitol complex.
Duties include overseeing the House floor and galleries, the House Appointments Desk, the House garages and parking lots, as well as administering all staff identification badges.
Mr. Irving serves as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police Board, responsible for policy oversight over the Capitol Police Force, and is the chairman of this Board in alternating years. As Sergeant at Arms, Mr. Irving also serves on the Congressional Accessibility Services Board.
The following divisions comprise the Office of the Sergeant at Arms:
