China Accuses Pompeo of Violating International Law

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On the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed China in a statement honoring the “heroic protest movement of the Chinese people.”

“The hundreds of thousands of protesters who gathered in Beijing and in other cities around China suffered grievously in pursuit of a better future for their country,” Pompeo wrote. “The number of dead is still unknown. We express our deep sorrow to the families still grieving their lost loved ones, including the courageous Tiananmen Mothers, who have never stopped seeking accountability, despite great personal risk. The events of thirty years ago still stir our conscience, and the conscience of freedom-loving people around the world.” . . .

The secretary’s statement also called upon the Chinese government “to make a full, public accounting of those killed or missing” during the Tiananmen Square protests “to give comfort to the many victims of this dark chapter of history.” . . .

In response, the Chinese embassy in Washington claimed the statement violated international law and was made out of “prejudice and arrogance.”

“Under the pretext of human rights, the statement grossly intervenes in China’s internal affairs, attacks its system, and smears its domestic and foreign policies,” the Chinese embassy said in its own statement. “This is an affront to the Chinese people and a serious violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations. The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to it.”​ (Read more from “China Accuses Pompeo of Violating International Law” HERE)

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Mexican Government Makes Terrifying Admission About Key Border Areas

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As of last year, the Taliban controlled or contested 46 percent of the districts in Afghanistan’s civil war. That was enough justification for us to keep our military perpetually engaged there in combat. What if you were told that 80 percent of Mexico’s territory is controlled by dangerous cartels, including all of the key smuggling routes at our border, and that the cartels are orchestrating all of the illegal immigration into our territory and bringing their members back and forth across our own border?

Several weeks ago, the Mexican investigative journal Contralínea posted a map of Mexico prepared by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), showing that 80 percent of the country’s 266 districts recently targeted for enforcement by the Mexican National Guard in a new counter-cartel operation are either controlled (57.5 percent) or disputed (23.3 percent) by the cartels. “Only 53 (19.92 percent) enjoy a low level of violence, which means that control is exercised by the authorities,” reported Contralínea on May 4, citing the data on the color-coded map.

. . .Mexico looks awfully similar to Afghanistan in terms of how much is controlled by insurgent groups. The map of Mexico shows the districts in red fully controlled by the cartels, the ones in yellow in dispute, and the ones in green in control of the Mexican government. They all represent priority enforcement areas for a new Mexican National Guard operation against the cartels proposed by the AMLO regime.

It’s important to note that according to Jaeson Jones, retired captain of Texas’ Department of Public Safety Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, the priority areas color-coded on the map are mainly the areas where people live, and the ones left out are simply not a priority, not because the cartels don’t control most of those areas, but because there is little infrastructure or population in those areas.

For example, the areas color-coded at the border are all the cities where people live, such as Tijuana, Mexicali, San Luis, Nogales, Juarez, Piedras Negras, Loredo, Miguel Alimen, and Reynosa (going west to east). And notice how every one of them is controlled by the cartels. All of the major smuggling areas leaning into California, Nogales, Arizona, El Paso, Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas are fully controlled by the cartels. The other areas are deserts with few people and no infrastructure, so they weren’t a priority for the Mexican government’s campaign, but they still affect our security because the cartels are sending large flows of migrants in areas like Antelope Wells, New Mexico, which are absolutely controlled by Sinaloa.

Thus, we now see from an internal document of the Mexican government an admission that Mexico has essentially lost control over every important populated area in Mexico outside Mexico City and a few others, and particularly the most sensitive areas of the U.S.-Mexican border.

So why do we not have Special Operations Command engaged in protecting our border from the cartels? Unlike the Taliban, cartel operatives come over our border all the time. Why do the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the State Department refuse to recognize the border issue as a military problem and agree to target the cartels as terrorists?

If the Taliban were orchestrating a flow of mass migration across parts of Afghani-controlled territory, strategically shutting down our security, and profiting from it, we would instantly take military action. When Mexican cartels are placing our own country in mortal danger, why is that not reason enough to treat this is a military threat instead of an immigration issue?

What is amazing is that Border Patrol and the National Guard are ordered not to engage the cartels and armed smugglers at all and cannot nab any of them even a few feet over our border for concern of violating Mexico’s sovereignty. We won’t even fight back when they detain and disarm our regular military units on our own side of the river. Yet, we now see that the Mexican government itself admits it has no sovereignty over that area. Why should we allow our sovereignty to be trampled by cartel figures going back and forth with impunity when fighting them won’t even violate Mexican sovereignty and will actually help it?

Our government is fully aware of this dynamic. This map of control was sent out by a federal agency to Border Patrol in a daily intelligence briefing on May 9. CR has obtained a copy of this briefing from a Border Patrol agent who must remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Why the relevant government agencies refuse to recognize the border as an insurgency conflict rather than simply an immigration issue remains a mystery.

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Mark Green, R-Tenn., asked the president to designate the cartels as terrorists earlier this year. This move would open up new resources to target the cartels and to treat all of our border policies in a much different light than simply a domestic immigration problem. Yet the State Department continues to balk.

The cartels have long passed the stage of simply profiting from drugs. They are international organizations that are engaged in endless criminality, most prominently human smuggling, but they seek to control territory and terrorize populations as well. Mexican drug cartels seek to replace local governments by imposing their own law. The Mexican cartel culture is similar to the ideology of ISIS and al Qaeda in the sense that they seek “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) or to effect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping,” which is the definition of international terrorism defined under 18 U.S.C. § 2331.

The day we solve our sovereignty issue will be the day our government finally prioritizes the security of America the way it prioritizes the security of the Afghani government. That will not happen until we take our sovereignty as serious as we do the sovereignty of the Mexican government’s ever-diminishing control over a handful of cities. (For more from the author of “Mexican Government Makes Terrifying Admission About Key Border Areas” please click HERE)

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Large Numbers Coming to the Border from Ebola-Ridden Countries

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There are 88 nations where the per capita GDP is lower than that of Guatemala, which stands at $4,471 as of 2017. That is likely well over one billion people living in similar or worse conditions than those coming to our border today, primarily from Central America. As such, it’s no surprise that once our government telegraphed the message to the world that our sovereignty no longer matters when someone invades with a child, people are now coming in large numbers from all over the world, including from the most disease-prone countries in Africa.

While Africans have been trickling over our border in recent months, on Friday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that “the first large group of people from Africa” were apprehended in the Del Rio sector of Texas. In total, 116 individuals were apprehended in this African caravan on Thursday morning, including 35 from Angola, one from Cameroon, and 80 from Congo.

This demonstrates that the global migration, at this pace, will be a bottomless pit, because even if we eventually empty out the northern triangle of Central America, there are unlimited regions in the world where poverty is pervasive and from which people will travel to seek the de facto amnesty being offered.

The per capita GDPs for Angola, Cameroon, and Congo are $4,247, $1,452, and $2,147 respectively – all below that of Guatemala. Would-be African migrants have so far largely lacked the family and friend ties the Central American and Mexican immigrants have after years of illegal immigration from those countries. Once the seeds from these newer countries are planted, there is nothing stopping the illegal immigrant chain migration phenomenon from spreading to other parts of the globe in the coming years.

But when it comes to countries like Congo, there is an entirely new dimension of concern – dangerous contagious diseases. While the problems of mumps, tuberculosis, scabies, and chicken pox from Central America are bad enough, the influx of African migrants takes the concern of contagious diseases to an entirely new level.

Congo is experiencing the worst Ebola outbreak in recent memory, with over 1,300 fatalities since last August. The Ebola virus is extremely deadly, and there are no vaccinations or reliable treatments for it. While CBP noted that the group of Africans was given a medical screening, the challenge with Ebola is that the initial symptoms are often unremarkable, such as such as fever, headache, and weakness, and are therefore difficult to diagnose shortly after the infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In fact, according to the CDC, “When someone gets infected with Ebola, they will not show signs or symptoms of illness right away.”

With family units being released within days, often within hours, how can our government be certain that Americans, not to mention Border Patrol and local health officials, are not being put in danger? This is why the law (8 U.S.C. § 1222(a)) requires the government to detain all migrants “for a sufficient time to enable the immigration officers and medical officers to subject such aliens to observation and an examination sufficient to determine whether or not they belong to inadmissible classes.” This was for all migrants. It was always presumed that we would never take in people from specific countries that were experiencing deadly epidemics.

I asked CBP’s press office whether CBP has a different protocol for dealing with migrants from Congo or other African countries with risk of diseases, such as not releasing the migrants as immediately as Central Americans. A CBP spokesperson replied that “the process is the same, officers and agents review all individuals they come in contact with for signs of illness and notify CDC as needed.”

Again, Ebola and many other illnesses are not apparent through immediate symptoms, and most of these aliens are not held long enough to fulfill the dictates of § 1222(a) given the incubation period required. It’s quite shocking that country of origin would not play a role in either making these aliens inadmissible or prohibiting their release from detention.

(Read my four-part series on the threat of diseases at the border here, here, here, and here.)

CBP did confirm that contrary to some internet rumors, as of today, there have been no confirmed cases of Ebola at the border.

The country of Cameroon is on Congo’s western border, and its migrants should also be a concern to us. According to the CDC, Cameroon is experiencing a measles outbreak, along with the long-standing problems of many other diseases, such as yellow fever, hepatitis, malaria, and typhoid. The same measles outbreak is also in Angola, which borders Congo to the south.

However, even Angola has shut its border to Congo in light of the Ebola outbreak. Yet, the United States has evidently not shut its border to Congo. It is quite shocking the Trump administration has not included Congo on the travel ban list in light of the concern of Ebola and other diseases.

The president has unilateral authority to shut off any or all immigration, even legal immigration, and refuse to process any asylum claims (even legitimate ones) when he determines that the migration is “detrimental” to U.S. interests. If the crime, drugs, poverty, and empowerment of the cartels are not reason enough to do so, one would think the public health concern would be more than sufficient. (For more from the author of “Large Numbers Coming to the Border from Ebola-Ridden Countries” please click HERE)

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Trump Win? Mexican President Ready to Help U.S. Immigration Surge

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White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “deadly serious” about levying a 5% tariff on Mexican goods if the Mexican government doesn’t step up enforcement of illegal immigration on the southern side of the border, and now it appears the Mexican government is serious about complying to avoid a trade war. . .

The Associated Press reports that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador “hinted his country could tighten migration controls to defuse U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods,” and that he plans on engaging the White House in talks this week, which he hopes will be fruitful.

Lopez Obrador insisted, in the same news conference, that the Mexican government has ramped up immigration enforcement along Mexico’s southern border and that officials have been working diligently to turn back migrant caravans, limit the number of migrant visas issued, and capture and deport recognized criminals, including MS-13 gang members.

“The main thing is to inform about what we’re already doing on the migration issue, and if it’s necessary to reinforce these measures without violating human rights, we could be prepared to reach that deal,” Lopez Obrador said Sunday.

“We’re doing all we can to reach a deal through dialogue,” he added. “We’re not going to get into a trade war, a war of tariffs and of taxes.” (Read more from “Trump Win? Mexican President Ready to Help Immigration Surge” HERE)

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Hamas ADMITS It Receives Money from Iran’s Terrorist Regime

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In an unusually stark and blunt admission this week, Yahya Sinwar, chieftain of the Sunni sharia supremacist death cult Hamas, which was democratically elected to govern the Gaza Strip following Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the area, openly admitted that the jihadist group takes funding from the terrorist Shiite sharia supremacist regime in Iran. . .

Iran is mainly known for funding Hamas rival Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is a fellow terrorist group also operating in the Gaza Strip. Sunni nations Qatar and Turkey, by contrast, have emerged over the past decade as the chief benefactors of Hamas.

Since its unilateral withdrawal in 2005, Israel has been forced into three full-scale wars with Hamas, which routinely bludgeons Israeli civilians and metropolitan areas with indiscriminately fired terrorist rockets. In a March Daily Wire op-ed, I laid out the case for Israel to utterly destroy Hamas once and for all:

Try as the Israel Defense Forces might to keep on “mowing the grass” when the “infidel”-loathing jihadists of Hamas flare up in impulsive paroxysms of “anti-Zionism” Jew-hatred, the status quo in Gaza is completely unsustainable. No other sovereign country on Earth would deal so passively with such a cancerous threat living on its border — with its biggest civilian centers under constant fear of city-wide sirens signaling the incoming threat of crude Iran-manufactured rockets fired haphazardly from a bordering terroristic death cult. Indeed, no sovereign country on Earth should have to deal with such a threat. If the Sinaloa Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion ever decided to shoot terrorist rockets at Texan or Arizonan ranchers, the United States would (rightfully) send in M1 Abrams tanks across the Rio Grande tomorrow. …

(Read more from “Hamas ADMITS It Receives Money from Iran’s Terrorist Regime” HERE)

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Obama Officials Collude with Iran to Thwart U.S. Foreign Policy

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By Jordan Schachtel. The Daily Beast has published a disturbing piece revealing that senior Obama administration officials are actively attempting to undermine the Trump administration’s foreign policy. And worse, they are collaborating with the terrorist regime that rules Iran to do so.

The publication has offered anonymity to the select Obama administration officials, breaking journalistic standards and allowing them to be quoted at length while cloaked in anonymity, about their plans to collude with Iran and thwart the elected president’s agenda.

The leftist writers of the piece do their best to attempt to write off this endeavor as a normal occurrence. But make no mistake, attempting to run a shadow government and colluding with America’s enemies, to the detriment of the American people, is anything but normal. (Read more from “Obama Officials Collude with Iran to Thwart U.S. Foreign Policy” HERE)

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U.S. Cuts Funds for ‘Anti-Propaganda’ Iran Group That Trolled Activists

By The Guardian. The US state department has cut off funding to a group that purported to combat Iranian propaganda, after it was found to be trolling US journalists, human rights activists and academics it deemed to be insufficiently hostile to the government in Tehran.

The Iran Disinformation Project was funded by the state department’s global engagement centre which was created to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. In recent weeks however, the group’s Twitter account @IranDisinfo targeted BBC journalists, thinktank experts and civil society advocates, denouncing them as being “mouthpieces” and supporters of the Iranian government.

In one case they singled out a researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tara Sepehri Far, because she had looked into the human rights impact of sanctions on ordinary Iranians. (Read more from “U.S. Cuts Funds for ‘Anti-Propaganda’ Iran Group That Trolled Activists” HERE)

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Trump Slams Mexico With 5% Tariff to Stop Illegal Alien Crisis

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By Mike Murphy. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs against products imported from Mexico late Thursday, saying in a tweet that they would stay in effect until the illegal immigration problem was solved. “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump said. “The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.” In a separate statement, Trump blamed Mexico for not doing enough to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S., saying “Mexico has not treated us fairly.” Trump said the tariffs will rise to 10% on July 1 if the crisis persists, and by another 5% for every successive month up to 25% by Oct. 1, unless “Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory.” (Read more for how Trump plans to stop the illegal alien crisis HERE)
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Tariff Goes Into Effect June 10

By Joanna Tan. The U.S. will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports from June 10 — and more duties will be added in the coming months if Mexico does not take action “reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens” crossing into the U.S., the White House said Thursday.

It comes as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday sent a letter to congressional leaders, kick starting the process of approving updates to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump first announced the Mexico tariffs via Twitter. (Read more about Trump stopping the illegal alien crisis HERE)

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Full White House Statement

To address the emergency at the Southern Border, I am invoking the authorities granted to me by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Accordingly, starting on June 10, 2019, the United States will impose a 5 percent Tariff on all goods imported from Mexico. If the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico, to be determined in our sole discretion and judgment, the Tariffs will be removed. If the crisis persists, however, the Tariffs will be raised to 10 percent on July 1, 2019. Similarly, if Mexico still has not taken action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the United States, Tariffs will be increased to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019. Tariffs will permanently remain at the 25 percent level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory. Workers who come to our country through the legal admissions process, including those working on farms, ranches, and in other businesses, will be allowed easy passage.

Chinese State Media: Crackdown on Smuggling Is ‘First Step in China-US Rare-Earth War’

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By Breitbart. The trade war is quickly becoming a rare earth war–at least in the rhetoric of Chinese state media.

The often belligerently nationalist Global Times, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, called on China to cut-back on rare-earth licenses and “tighten management’ of foreign-invested companies as first steps to “weapons the minerals.” . . .

From the Global Times:

The crackdown on rare-earth smuggling makes it possible for China to weaponize the minerals in an escalation of the trade war. Now China needs to tighten management of rare-earth enterprises, especially foreign-invested companies, to make smuggling absolutely impossible.

Rare-earth minerals are important strategic resources but China had never thought of using the minerals as leverage to hit the US. The trade war is prompting China to rethink its rare-earth strategy and make quick adjustments. Once merely an economic sector, rare earths have become a counter weapon for China to hit back at the US. There is a lot of work to be done, and cracking down on smuggling is only the first step in weaponizing the sector.

(Read more from “Chinese State Media: Crackdown on Smuggling Is ‘First Step in China-US Rare-Earth War'” HERE)

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‘Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You’: A Phrase from China Signals the Trade War Could Get Even Worse

By CNBC. The biggest Chinese newspaper explicitly warned the U.S. on Wednesday that China would cut off rare earth minerals as a countermeasure in the escalated trade battle, using a history-laden expression the publication has used ahead of full-on wars.

“We advise the U.S. side not to underestimate the Chinese side’s ability to safeguard its development rights and interests. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!” the People’s Daily said in a commentary titled “United States, don’t underestimate China’s ability to strike back.” The publication is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

The phrase “Don’t say we didn’t warn you” has been used before by the People’s Daily in 1962 before China’s border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War. (Read more from “‘Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You’: A Phrase from China Signals the Trade War Could Get Even Worse” HERE)

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50 Children Have Been Rescued After Officials Busted a Multinational Paedophile Ring

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By TIME. Nine people were arrested in Thailand, Australia and the U.S. and 50 children were rescued following an Interpol investigation into an international paedophile ring. . .

Operation Blackwrist began after Interpol spotted images showing 11 boys under the age of 13 on a website where users utilized encrypted software to hide their identities, according to the BBC.

According to an Interpol statement, weekly images of children being abused were being uploaded to the site, but it was difficult to track down the perpetrators as the children’s faces were generally hidden. (Read more from “50 Children Have Been Rescued After Officials Busted a Multinational Paedophile Ring” HERE)

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Fifty Children Saved as International Paedophile Ring Busted

By BBC News. The arrests were made in Thailand, Australia and the US and more are expected, Interpol said.

The investigation began in 2017 and focused on a hidden “dark web” site with 63,000 users worldwide.

Police believe 100 more children have suffered abuse and are working to identify them.

Operation Blackwrist was launched by Interpol after it detected images showing 11 boys aged under 13 being abused on a site where people can use encrypted software to maintain secrecy. . .

The first arrests came last year, when the site’s main administrator, Montri Salangam, was detained in Thailand, and another administrator, Ruecha Tokputza, was caught in Australia. (Read more from “Fifty Children Saved as International Paedophile Ring Busted” HERE)

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Pompeo: $8B Arms Sales to Middle East Allies ‘Appropriate and Necessary’

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Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Friday in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News that a newly-announced $8 billion in arms sales to Middle East allies would help protect their and America’s interests against increased Iranian threats in the region.

“It is significant that we are not only demonstrating our will to continue to help them support and defend their countries and deter these threats, but the challenge from the Islamic Republic of Iran that we face,” Pompeo said in a phone interview.

“We’ve seen the heightened tensions over the last handful of weeks, so our expectation is that the risks will continue to stay at a heightened level, so it is appropriate and necessary to get these arms sales moving forward,” he said.

The State Department on Friday notified Congress of 22 pending arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia worth $8 billion total. The equipment includes aircraft support maintenance; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); munitions; and other equipment.

Pompeo said that the first sales will begin to be delivered within the next few weeks, but others could take some months. “It’s about prioritization, delivery schedule, availability,” he said. (Read more from “Pompeo: $8B Arms Sales to Middle East Allies ‘Appropriate and Necessary'” HERE)

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