TBR News May 7, 2017

May 07 2017

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C. May 7, 2017: ” Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says, ‘I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.’

The second responds, ‘Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.’

The third surgeon says, ‘No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.’

The fourth surgeon chimes in: ‘You know, I like construction workers…those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.’

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: ‘You’re all wrong! Politicians are the easiest to operate on. They have no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, plus, the head and the ass are interchangeable.’»

Table of Contents

  • Four major US networks band together to reject Trump ad that brands them ‘fake news’ media
  • Syria’s Kurds march on to Raqqa and the sea
  • Ever-closer ties between US and Kurds stoke Turkish border tensions
  • Fight Brews Over Push to Shield Americans in Warrantless Surveillance
  • Interesting and Instructive Laws
  • 2nd round of presidential elections underway in France amid state of emergency
  • BREAKING: #MacronLeaks Show @EmmanuelMacron Is On Gay Mailing List, Top Aides Buying Drugs Online, And More
  • Newly discovered 1959 letter: Nixon feared American racism would drive world into the arms of the Russians
  • Europol, FBI arrest nearly 900 in crackdown on global pedophile ring
  • Operation Bernhard: The destruction of the British Pound
  • US pharma Johnson & Johnson loses $110mn talc cancer case

 

Four major US networks band together to reject Trump ad that brands them ‘fake news’ media

May 6, 2017

RT

NBC, ABC and CBS have joined CNN in rejecting an ad praising the achievements of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, who had accused them of unfair coverage.

Dubbed ‘America is Winning,’ the advert, which was due to go out over the past week, trumpets the US President’s tax cuts, job creation, and the pushing through of the Keystone pipeline.

The narrator then says “You wouldn’t know it from watching the news,” and the faces of Andrea Mitchell of NBC, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Scott Pelley of CBS and George Stephanopoulos of ABC appear on the screen with the caption “FAKE NEWS” running across their faces.

The 30-second spot, which was backed by a $1.5 million airtime buying budget, was paid for by the President’s supporters, and is his first official campaign video for re-election in 2020.

CNN was the first to reject the ad on May 2, saying that “the mainstream media is not fake news, and therefore the ad is false.” It said it would be prepared to accept it if the graphic was removed, the same condition as that put forward by NBC on Friday.

ABC said that the ad was a “personal attack” that “did not meet guidelines” and said that it had “previously accepted Trump ads and are open to doing so in the future.”

CBS has not released a public comment. Fox News and Fox Business Network, which have broadly supported Trump, have aired the advert.

“Apparently, the mainstream media are champions of the First Amendment only when it serves their own political views. Faced with an ad that doesn’t fit their biased narrative, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC have now all chosen to block our ad. This is an unprecedented act of censorship in America that should concern every freedom-loving citizen,”said Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law and councilor wrote in a statement.

Trump himself has not commented on the ad, but his recent tweets have included “Mainstream (FAKE) media refuses to state our long list of achievements, including 28 legislative signings, strong borders & great optimism!” on April 29, and “The Fake News media is officially out of control. They will do or say anything in order to get attention – never been a time like this!” on May 4.

 

Syria’s Kurds march on to Raqqa and the sea

Kurdish expansion plans putting the group on a collision course with neighbouring Turkey

May 6, 2017

by Mark Townsend

Reuters

Syria’s Kurds have revealed plans to redraw the northern part of the country by linking the Kurdish region of Rojava with the Mediterranean Sea, in a move that will infuriate neighbouring Turkey.

In a further sign of growing Kurdish confidence in Syria’s north, officials say that they plan to ask the US for political support in creating a trade corridor to the Mediterranean as part of a deal for their role in liberating Raqqa and other cities from Islamic State (Isis).

Senior figures have also indicated that the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a 50,000-strong collection of fighters dominated by the YPJ Kurdish militia and a crucial US partner in its offensive against Isis, is preparing to occupy Raqqa after eradicating Isis before pushing deeper into Arab territory, along the Euphrates valley, and seizing the city of Deir ez–Zor from the extremist group.

In another startling development, an official even revealed it was possible that SDF forces might eventually push west to liberate the city of Idlib, 170km west of Raqqa, and currently controlled by a coalition of Islamists and jihadis including the former al-Qaida affiliate Nusra Front. Hediya Yousef, in charge of the federalism project for the self-declared autonomous “democratic federation of north Syria”, which has expanded from the Kurdish region of Rojava to include considerable Arab territory, told the Observer: “Arriving at the Mediterranean Sea is in our project for northern Syria, it’s a legal right for us to reach the Mediterranean.”

When asked if that meant asking the US for its political backing to achieve a trading route to the sea once they had helped eradicate Isis from north Syria, Yousef said: “Of course.”

Speaking in the Syrian city of Malikiyah near to where recent Turkish airstrikes struck Kurdish targets, killing 20 fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPJ), Yousef added: “If we arrive at the Mediterranean it will solve many of the problems of the population in northern Syria, everyone will benefit.”

Opening the region to international trading routes would significantly empower northern Syria, circumventing the existing blockade on Rojava caused by the closed border with Turkey and tensions with Iraq.

But the plans will outrage Turkey, which has already invaded Syria to prevent the Kurds extending their territory along the entire Turkish border.

Yet following the recent Turkish airstrikes, hundreds of US forces moved through Rojava to the Turkish border, a dramatic show of solidarity with the Kurds that has stoked tensions between Washington and Ankara. On Wednesday a senior aide to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, suggested American troops could be targeted alongside their Kurdish allies – a warning that has done nothing to dilute Washington’s view that the Kurds are an indispensable ally in the imminent battle to liberate the Isis stronghold of Raqqa.

The Mediterranean lies about 100km from the westernmost edge of Kurdish-held land and the plan would require an agreement with the Syrian regime, although the YPJ and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, have come to deals on issues such as the airport at Qamishli, which remains under Syrian army control despite being deep inside Kurdish territory. Any deal would require the agreement of Russia, Assad’s staunch ally, which recently deployed ground forces to Kurdish-held terriory to work with the YPJ. Russia’s influence in Syria was again highlighted on Friday when President Vladimir Putin unveiled no-fly zones for Russian, Turkish, Iranian and US militaries in order to protect safe zones for civilians on the ground.

The SDF’s liberation of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor along the Euphrates would extend territory controlled by the autonomous federation of north Syria to almost a third of the country, compared with the 16% that was governed by the federation of Rojava.

Yousef said that the population of Raqqa would be given a referendum asking if it wanted the SDF, which contains Arab and Assyrian Christian militia, to form a government following the defeat of Isis.

“The people in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa want the SDF to come; in truth the SDF consists of people from these areas,” she said. Already it seems that the SDF is being prepared to stay in control of Raqqa. The Observer witnessed Kurdish and Arab police officers being trained in the town of Mabrouka, Syria, specifically to patrol Raqqa after its liberation. Sources also said that SDF fighters were already as close as 10km from Deir ez-Zor, the biggest Isis stronghold in Syria once Raqqa is liberated. Regarding Idlib, which lies 55km from the Mediterranean, Yousef said any offensive would “depend on events”. “If we clear all this area [north-east Syria] from terrorists, then maybe we will go to the other side to also clear that area. Idlib is occupied by Jabhat al-Nusra [Nusra Front], who are on the list of terrorists. ”

A spokesman for the US State Department said that Syria’s future should be made by the Syrians themselves, reiterating Washington’s position as not recognising “any unilaterally declared self-rule semi-autonomous zone”.

Ever-closer ties between US and Kurds stoke Turkish border tensions

Following Turkish airstrikes last week, US armoured vehicles have been deployed as a buffer between Kurdish and Turkish forces

May 1, 2017

by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent, and Fazel Hawramy

Reuters

In the aftermath of Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish positions in north-east Syria last week, US troops escorted an ageing militant through an angry crowd to inspect the damage.

As a senior leader of the Kurdish militant organisation the PKK, Abdi Ferhad Şahin, known as Şahin Cilo, has a $1.1m Turkish government bounty on his head. Cameras were present to record the moment, which amounted to Cilo’s remarkable transformation from hunted to courted.

Despite being proscribed as a terror group by Washington and Ankara, Cilo’s forces have become ever more central to Washington’s war against Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. So much so that Cilo’s appearance alongside troops who not long ago might have seized rather than protected him seemed to be worth the price of angering an ally.

Here, the most complicated corner of the war in Syria looks certain to get messier.

US armoured vehicles were deployed over the weekend along a section of the tense Turkish border, creating a buffer zone between the Turks to the north and Kurdish forces to the south, who are known in Syria as the YPG and are closely linked to the PKK.

Despite increasing Turkish rancour, Washington continues to see the Kurds as an indispensable ally in the next phase of the Isis campaign – the push towards Raqqa.

In Turkey’s eyes, the Trump administration was supposed to change all that. Anger at Barack Obama’s policy of using the Kurds as US proxies had given way to hope that the new president would either send US forces to do the job, or switch loyalties to localised Arab units, which Turkey is trying to raise.

With the US-Kurdish pact consolidating, not weakening, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has reverted to claiming that the burgeoning alliance could end up empowering a Kurdish push for autonomy, and stoke the fires of insurgency inside Turkey’s own borders. When Turkey launched the pre-dawn airstrikes on Tuesday, the US was given just 52 minutes’ warning.

Asked about the images of Cilo under US escort, state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said: “I haven’t seen those pictures, but I would strongly call into question… that senior military leaders of the US were somehow glad-handing or shaking hands with PKK leaders. As I said, the PKK is a recognised foreign terrorist organisation by the United States.”

The denial underscores the dilemma for the US, which has been criticised by both allies and proxies for not having a coherent strategy in Syria or Iraq and, almost three years into the war with Isis, for not being able to finalise the fighting force that will end up storming Raqqa, or define a path for what may follow.

Washington has sent more than 500 American special forces and advisers to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group led by the YPG, which includes some Arab units. Many YPG leaders are former PKK commanders who honed their skills fighting the Turkish army for decades.

In Iraq, at least 5,000 US troops are advising the Iraqi army in the fight against Isis. The centrepiece of that war – the push to retake Mosul – has ground into a seventh month, with airstrikes failing to dislodge determined militants in the west of the city.

After Mosul will likely come a push towards Mount Sinjar, the spiritual home of Iraq’s Yazidi sect. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis were driven from the town of Sinjar and the surrounding area by Isis in August 2014, and many of the sect’s female members were enslaved.

Turkish jets also attacked Sinjar mountain last week, killing five peshmerga fighters loyal to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) – an ally of Ankara who retook the city of Sinjar in November 2015. The attack targeted PKK positions on the mountain that have been consolidated over the past year.

As it works to complete the first phase of a 911-kilometre, three-metre high wall along its border with Syria, Turkey is putting pressure on the KRG to restrict the movement of the YPG and the PKK in Sinjar. In another sign of cascading fallout, this has sparked clashes between the peshmerga and PKK affiliates.

But a regional military source has said Turkey is determined to step up its disruption of US plans, having given up on hopes of a wholesale policy shift in Washington away from collaboration with the PKK.

“They were happy when [CIA director Mike] Pompeo came to Ankara and told [Erdoğan] that the Kurds would only isolate, not capture, Raqqa. That bought time, but that time has now elapsed and what you will see is a more aggressive posture by the Kurds. I don’t rule out a ground incursion towards Sinjar. And if that happens, the Americans have said they will not stand in their way.

“There are so many different ways that this could get ugly.”

Fight Brews Over Push to Shield Americans in Warrantless Surveillance

May 6, 2017

by Charlie Savage

New York Times

WASHINGTON — Obscured by the furor over surveillance set off by the investigations into possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia during the election, a major debate over electronic spying that defies the usual partisan factions is quietly taking shape in Congress.

The debate centers on the National Security Agency’s incidental eavesdropping on Americans via its warrantless surveillance program, which spies on foreigners abroad whose communications pass through American phone and internet services. Its legal basis, the FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire at the end of 2017.

A bipartisan coalition of privacy-minded lawmakers has started to circulate draft legislation that would impose new limits on the government’s ability to use incidentally gathered information about Americans who are in contact with foreign targets.

Many of those lawmakers are veterans of a fight two years ago over the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a law that ended an N.S.A. program that gathered Americans’ calling logs in bulk. They won that fight against security hawks because the statute on which the program was based, part of the Patriot Act, was expiring and they were unwilling to extend it without ending the bulk collection.

The privacy advocates in Congress are using that same lesson this time around, hoping to leverage their colleagues’ concerns that the program will lapse if they fail to extend the law.

But the intelligence and law enforcement communities and their allies in Congress appear determined to extend the warrantless surveillance program law, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, without changes. They are framing the debate as being about a program that is too important to be held hostage to any push for changes, lest gridlock kill it.

“This is a tool that is essential to the safety of this country,” the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told Congress at a hearing on Wednesday. “I did not say the same thing about the collection of telephone dialing information by the N.S.A. I think that’s a useful tool; 702 is an essential tool, and if it goes away, we’ll be less safe as a country. And I mean that.”

Mr. Comey also warned that one of the proposed changes — a new requirement that a warrant be obtained to search for Americans’ information in the surveillance repository — risked a failure to “connect dots” about potential threats.

But Representative Ted Poe, Republican of Texas, sought to warn other lawmakers that Congress needed to impose a warrant requirement.

“Privacy is being betrayed in the name of national security,” Mr. Poe told congressional aides at an event to discuss Fourth Amendment issues and legislation late last month.

There has already been some jostling over that idea. In 2014 and 2015, the House approved amendments to require warrants, but they died in negotiations with the Senate. When the idea came up again last year after the terrorist attack on a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., however, the House voted it down.

More broadly, two key members of the coalition that won privacy gains two years ago — Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin — are discussing a draft bill, which is circulating among panel members.

A congressional staff member who described the draft on the condition of anonymity because it is not yet finalized or public said it incorporated a warrant requirement for American searches — with certain exceptions — and would:

■ Restrict law enforcement from using information obtained or derived from warrantless surveillance except when investigating the most serious crimes, like murder.

■ Reduce to three years from five years the time the government may retain raw, or unprocessed, messages collected without a warrant.

■ Codify a change that the N.S.A. and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court recently made to the program, ending so-called about collection of emails, from internet network switches, that talk about a foreigner being spied on but are not to or from that target.

■ Require disclosures from the government that are more complete, including forcing the F.B.I. to say how often its agents query for Americans’ information in national security cases, which it has declined to track.

The draft was part of a discussion at a Monday closed-door meeting convened by the Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, according to the congressional staff member. On Tuesday, Mr. Goodlatte said publicly that changes would be necessary because “there’s broad bipartisan support for reform.”

“I know there are some people who want a clean reauthorization of Section 702,” he said. “I don’t believe that is possible.”

According to a government report issued this month, the F.B.I. only once in 2016 used information about Americans in the warrantless surveillance repository while investigating ordinary criminal cases. But its agents are believed to use it much more frequently for national security cases; other agencies, like the N.S.A. and the C.I.A., used 5,288 search terms associated with Americans for such queries last year.

The Trump administration has generally declined to discuss proposals for limiting the program. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently said requiring a warrant to search for Americans’ information “would severely hamper the speed and efficiency of operations” to protect the country.

The program can be traced back to the Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11 warrantless wiretapping of international phone calls and emails, which bypassed a 1978 law requiring warrants.

Congress legalized a version of that activity in 2008 with the FISA Amendments Act. It permits the N.S.A., on domestic soil without a warrant, to collect messages of foreigners abroad from American phone and internet companies — including when they communicate with Americans. It also expanded the program from a counterterrorism tool to one that can be used for any foreign intelligence purpose.

But the statute did not say how information about Americans that was incidentally gathered should be handled. A newly declassified document, obtained by The New York Times via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, has shed further light on how the government expanded its power to use such data.

In 2008, the Bush administration submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court a set of proposed rules for what the F.B.I. could do with raw information gathered by the program. It would permit agents to search intercepts “to find, extract, review, translate and assess” whether they might contain foreign intelligence — or “evidence of a crime.”

The court secretly approved those rules in 2009, on the Obama administration’s watch. That fall, previous disclosures have shown, the N.S.A. began sharing with the F.B.I. raw emails gathered via the program’s so-called Prism or “downstream” system, which gathers surveillance targets’ emails through internet services like Google Gmail.

The N.S.A., the C.I.A. and the National Counterterrorism Center also later gained the power to share and search raw Prism intercepts using Americans’ information for intelligence purposes.

The N.S.A. was not permitted to share with other agencies the raw intercepts it gathered via the program’s “upstream” system, which collects emails from telecommunications companies like AT&T, nor to search for Americans’ information within them. But after a recent change, the N.S.A. is allowed to perform such searches in that repository, too. (A senior intelligence official said it still may not share raw upstream intercepts with other agencies.)

The critics who want Congress to impose a warrant for any type of American queries call the practice the “backdoor search loophole” in Fourth Amendment privacy rights. But in November 2015, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected a challenge to this practice, upholding the F.B.I.’s rules as constitutional.

It was not yet clear that such searches were happening in 2012, when the FISA Amendments Act was last set to expire and Congress extended it without changes. But Edward J. Snowden’s 2013 leaks and related declassifications  brought to light more information, and the furor over surveillance in conservative circles resulting from the Trump-Russia imbroglio has added a wild card.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and an outspoken critic of surveillance, said that affair “is helpful for the reformers’ cause because it is generating awareness about the topic generally.”

At a hearing in February, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, told Mr. Comey that leaks about surveillance of Trump associates’ contacts with Russians, though conducted under a different law, were “a threat to the reauthorization” of the FISA Amendments Act.

“Trust me, you and I both want to see it reauthorized,” Mr. Gowdy said. “It is in jeopardy if we don’t get this resolved.”

Interesting and Instructive Laws

VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER (USCG-1998-4399)

Priority: Substantive, Nonsignificant

Legal Authority: 33 USC 1223(a)

CFR Citation: 33 CFR 26; 33 CFR 161; 33 CFR 165

Legal Deadline: None

Abstract: This project proposes to establish a new Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) area in the Lower Mississippi River region. This Vessel Traffic Service Area (VTSA) will span from 20 miles north of Baton Rouge (mile 255 Above Head of Passes (AHP)) out to sea, including the South and Southwest Pass. As part of the VTSA, a VTS Special Area will be designated between mile 93.5 and 95 AHP. Unlike traditional VTSs, which are based on radar and video surveillance and rely on voice communications by VHF-FM radio, when fully operational VTS Lower Mississippi River will use Automatic Identification System transponder technology to perform the majority of both surveillance and information exchange. This rulemaking supports the Coast Guard’s strategic goals of maritime safety and protection of natural resources.

 

  1. SAFETY ZONE FOR OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF FACILITY IN THE GULF OF MEXICO IN VIASCA KNOLL 915 (CGD08-02-045)

Priority: Substantive, Nonsignificant

Legal Authority: 14 USC 85; 43 USC 1333

CFR Citation: 33 CFR 147

Legal Deadline: None

Abstract: The Coast Guard proposes to establish a safety zone around a high-production, manned oil and natural gas facility in the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico in Viasca Knoll 915. The facility needs to be protected from vessels operating outside the normal shipping channels and fairways. Placing a safety zone around the facility will significantly reduce the threat of allisions, oil spills, and releases of natural gas. The proposed regulation would prevent all vessels from entering or remaining in specified areas around the facility except for the following: an attending vessel; a vessel under 100 feet in length overall not engaged in towing; or a vessel authorized by the Eighth Coast Guard District Commander. The proposed safety zone is necessary to protect life, property and the environment and supports the Coast Guard’s strategic goals of marine safety and protection of natural resources.

 

  1. EXTENSION OF 25-MILE LIMIT AT SELECT ARIZONA PORTS-OF-ENTRY

Priority: Other Significant

Legal Authority: 8 USC 1101; 8 USC 1103; 8 USC 1182; 8 USC 1183; 8 USC 1201; . . .

CFR Citation: 8 CFR 235

Legal Deadline: None

Abstract: This rule amends Department regulations to extend the distance Mexican nationals with border crossing cards to travel into the United States without obtaining additional Immigration documentation at selected ports-of-entry (POEs) along the United States and Mexico border. The selected POEs are located in the State of Arizona at Sasabe, Nogales, Mariposa, Douglas, and Naco. Once visitors to Arizona meet the inspection requirements of legal entry to the United States, they will be able to travel within the 75-mile border region of Arizona. This rule is intended to promote commerce in the southern Arizona border area while still ensuring that sufficient safeguards are in place to prevent illegal entry to the United States.

 

  1. INSPECTION AND EXPEDITED REMOVAL OF ALIENS; DETENTION AND REMOVAL OF ALIENS; CONDUCT OF REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS

Priority: Other Significant

Legal Authority: 5 USC 301; 8 USC 1182 to 1185; 8 USC 1186a; 8 USC 1187; 5 USC 552; 5 USC 552a; 8 USC 1101 to 1103; 8 USC 1154; 8 USC 1181; . . .

CFR Citation: 8 CFR 1; 8 CFR 213; 8 CFR 214; 8 CFR 216; 8 CFR 217; 8 CFR 221; 8 CFR 223; 8 CFR 3; 8 CFR 103; 8 CFR 204; 8 CFR 207; 8 CFR 209; 8 CFR 211; 8 CFR 212; . . .

Legal Deadline: Other, Statutory, March 1, 1997, Other.

Abstract: Many of the provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) became effective April 1, 1997. Some provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) that were not superseded by IIRIRA became effective November 1, 1996. On March 6, 1997, DHS and Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) published an interim final rule revising the asylum process; providing a mechanism for the determination and review of certain applicants who demonstrate a credible fear of persecution if returned to their own country; defining the inspection and admission process including new expedited removal procedures for aliens attempting to enter the United States through fraud or misrepresentation by apprehension, detention, and removal of aliens; addressing conduct of removal proceedings; and revising many other sections of the regulations to conform with the new laws. On December 6, 2000, DHS published the rule “Asylum Procedures” (INS No. 1865-97; RIN 1115-AE93), which finalized the asylum portions of this interim rule. The Deparment still intends to publish a final rule to finalize the portions of this rulemaking relating to inspection and expedited removal of aliens, detention and deportation and removal of aliens, and the conduct of removal proceedings.

 

  1. NONIMMIGRANT CLASSES; S CLASSIFICATION; LAW ENFORCEMENT INITIATIVES; ALIEN WITNESSES

Priority: Other Significant

Legal Authority: 8 USC 1101; 8 USC 1324a; 8 CFR 2; 8 USC 1102; 8 USC 1103; 8 USC 1182; 8 USC 1184; 8 USC 1225; 8 USC 1226; 8 USC 1228; 8 USC 1252

CFR Citation: 8 CFR 212; 8 CFR 214; 8 CFR 274a; 8 CFR 299; 8 CFR 103

Legal Deadline: None

Abstract: Two regulatory initiatives dealing with the processing of alien witnesses have been prepared by the Department. INS No. 1683-94 provides the application and approval process for the admission of aliens in S nonimmigrant classification. It provides guidance to the various law enforcement agencies needing alien witnesses and informants to complete critical law enforcement initiatives in the United States. INS No. 1728-95 establishes a fee for the processing of Form I-854, Inter-Agency Alien Witness and Informant Record, for Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) requests for S nonimmigrant classification for eligible alien witnesses and informants. The fee recovers the costs of the processing of requests for immigration benefits and is needed to comply with specific Federal immigration laws and Federal user fee statute and regulations.

  1. AGREEMENT PROMISING NON-DEPORTATION OR OTHER IMMIGRATION BENEFITS

Priority: Other Significant

Legal Authority: 5 USC 301; 28 USC 509; 28 USC 510; 28 USC 515 to 519

CFR Citation: 28 CFR 0.197

Legal Deadline: None

 

76Abstract: This rule will finalize a 1996 interim final rule that requires Federal prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, and other officials to obtain written consent from DHS when entering into a plea agreement, cooperation agreement, or similar agreement promising an alien favorable treatment by DHS. This rule ensures that favorable treatment under the immigration laws is extended only after a full consideration of its effect on overall immigration enforcement, alleviates confusion over the authority to enforce the immigration laws, and prevents the Department from being bound by agreements undertaken without its knowledge and approval.

 

2nd round of presidential elections underway in France amid state of emergency

May 7, 2017

RT

French voters are heading to the polls to choose France’s next president. The presidential runoff between centrist Emmanuel Macron and right-wing Marine Le Pen is the first to take place amid an ongoing state of emergency, introduced in the country after 2015 terrorist attacks.

French authorities have introduced extra security measures for the poll. This time “more than 50,000 policemen, gendarmes will be deployed [across the country] on Sunday”, French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told AFP on Thursday.

Soldiers from Operation Sentinel will also “ensure security around polling stations and [will be able] to intervene immediately in case of any incident,” he added.

Operation Sentinel was launched by the French Army in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack in January of 2015 and the subsequent Paris strikes.

Paris police promised that at least 12,000 soldiers and police were to be drafted to Paris and its surrounding suburbs on Sunday, with 5,000 of securing polling stations and guaranteeing public order, as cited by AFP.

People on social media have been calling for protests on May 7, regardless of the election result. The hashtags #nimacronnilepen (neither Macron, nor Le Pen) and #SansMoiLe7Mai (May 7 without me) was launched after the first round of the elections on April 23.

Macron won the first round by securing 24.01 percent of the votes to le Pen’s 21.3 percent.

Demonstrations have rocked France following the 1st round vote with people rallying against both candidates.

“Neither fatherland, nor the boss, neither le Pen nor Macron,” banners held by protesters read. The rallies have often resulted in violence with protesters throwing stones and smoke grenades and police and officers responding with tear gas.

France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015 when at least 130 people were killed and 368 injured in coordinated attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, a northern Parisian suburb.

On July 14, at least 84 people were killed in Nice when a truck driven by an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) sympathizer plowed through crowds during Bastille Day celebrations.

Also in July, two Islamic radicals murdered Father Jacques Hamel at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church in northern France by cutting the 85-year-old priest’s throat.

The most recent attack took place days before the first round of presidential elections on April 20. An Islamic State sympathizer opened fire on the Champs-Elysees killing a police officer.

 

BREAKING: #MacronLeaks Show @EmmanuelMacron Is On Gay Mailing List, Top Aides Buying Drugs Online, And More

May 6, 2017

Got News

The rumors circulated about French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle are true. The alleged video tape proving Macron’s relationship with a man in the possession of Closer has been successfully kept under wraps by the clique of political insiders who threatened the publisher. #MacronLeaks is unveiling the truth, and also leaving even more questions to be answered.

For example, why is Emmanuel Macron on the mailing list of VestiareGay?Mailing lists like this are opt-in only. This image was found in an e-mail addressed to Emmanuel Macron.

Furthermore, senior campaign member Alain Tourret was caught ordering a designer drug using bitcoin (an online currency that offers more anonymity that credit card purchases). Referred to by its initials in the purchase order, the drug MMC-3 offers a combination of effects similar to ecstacy and crystal meth. He was hiding his purchase because the French government classifies this drug in the same category as heroin and cocaine.

He had his package sent to a government address, which may not be as reckless as it first appears. If this is sent to his public address, as opposed to a home address not known to the public, then, if caught, he can claim to be the victim of a prank.

Unfortunately for Alain Tourret, bitcoin records do leave enough of a trace so that if researchers know that they have a time, a known buyer, and a known seller, they can confirm that the transaction really took place. The image at the right was retrieved by researchers who are experts in illicit online transactions such as this drug purchase.

Also, the tracking number on the shipment was still searchable when investigative journalists first discovered the bill of sale and confirmed the addresses and timeline shown.

But the drug use comes even closer to the man who wants to be the next President of France in an e-mail from Raphael Colhoun, Director of Finances, to the Vial household shortly before an exclusive party that campaign executives were attending. The email consists of a single line: “don’t forget to buy c. for the boss”

I wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions. Mr. Colhoun could have been referring to chocolate or coffee. But since we are talking about elite Parisian, gay/bisexual millionaires, it may also be referring to cocaine. However, there is no doubt that as the Director of Finances, the “Boss” could only refer Emmanuel Macron.

WeSearchr is offering a $5046 crowdfunded reward for conclusive proof of Emmanuel Macron’s homosexuality.

Finally, a mid-level bookkeeper in Emmanuel Macron’s campaign was shocked to discover that cocktail parties on the ultra-chic Champs-Elysee were being paid for by Macron’s former paymasters at the Rothschild Bank. Is that even legal?

These shocking revelations will not make it to the French people because of a government imposed media blackout. Please do all you can to inform French voters before it is too late. This article will be especially important to former supporters of Francois Fillon, to the opponents of gay marriage who use the hashtag #LaManifPourTous, and conservative Catholics.

Newly discovered 1959 letter: Nixon feared American racism would drive world into the arms of the Russians

May 6, 2017

by Bob Brigham

Raw Story

The history of United States’ relationship with the Russians has been marked by a delicate balancing act between internal political ramifications and external international relations goals.

In the last hundred years, the US and the Russians fought two world wars as allies and waged a long Cold War as adversaries. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, there was a Red Scare domestically and a second Red Scare following the end of World War II.

A newly surfaced letter from Richard Nixon was written against such a backdrop. The 1959 letter was written on official Office of the Vice President stationary and was addressed to Mrs. M. S. Richardson in La Grange, North Carolina on the subject of school integration.

In the letter, Nixon made the case that domestic American racism could help the Russians win the Cold War.

“I am deeply concerned with the impact of racial division in terms of world power,” Nixon wrote. “Most of the people of the world belong to the colored races. They deeply resent any slurs based on race.”

“If we of the United States are considered racists, then we may lose to the Communist camp hundreds of millions of potential friends and allies,” Nixon explained. “That would leave us disastrously isolated in a hostile world.”

The letter will be auctioned off on Tuesday, May 9 by Alexander Historical Auctions. The auction house estimates a sale of $4,000 between $5,000.

At the time, Nixon also focused on his moral opposition to racism.

“Praise or blame, acceptance or rejection, should be personal matters based on individual achievement and not the accident of color or birth,” he wrote. “I could not accept Hitler’s idea of a master race. I cannot accept the equally false principle of an inferior race.”

Between his unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign and his successful 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon famously embraced the “Southern Strategy” of exploiting racial divisions for reasons of political expediency.

Last year, the New Republic published a piece explaining how decades of Republicans embracing a Southern Strategy led to Donald Trump’s domination of GOP primaries.

“Goldwater’s Southern Strategy, inspired by National Review, set a pattern for the next half-century—and more. The party had changed so much in 1964 that even Nixon, who had been liberal on civil rights before the Goldwater takeover, adopted the Southern Strategy in 1968 and 1972, “the New Republic contextualized. “Dixie would be the new heartland for the Republican Party, which would stoke white resentment over African-American advances.”

Since Nixon’s 1968 campaign, Sourthern racism has been integral to conservative political ideology.

Notorious Republican campaign consultant Lee Atwater famously explained the dog whistle politics that defined the 1968 campaign.

” You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*gger, n*gger, n*gger.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*gger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract,” Atwater told Alexander Lamis, a political scientist at Case Western Reserve University. “Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*gger, n*gger.””

Nixon’s shift on racism, from moral opposition to political expediency, foretold the trend we have witnessed in the last year as Republican moral opposition to the Russians has shifted to a position of political opportunism.

Nixon’s 1959 letter is a powerful data point in the story of how the Republican Party has reacted to both racism and the Russians.

Europol, FBI arrest nearly 900 in crackdown on global pedophile ring

More than 350 people in Europe alone have been arrested as part of an investigation into online child abuse. However, the case has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups.

May 5, 2017

DW

US and European police arrested nearly 900 people thought to be connected to an underground child pornography network in a case that has drawn criticism from some civil libertarians.

The announcement of the arrests from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Europol came days after a court sentenced Florida-based Steven Chase, founder of the so-called Playpen pedophilia network, to 30 years in prison. The arrests were in connection with the Playpen network and followed a more-than-two-year investigation into the group’s members around the globe that began after Chase’s arrest in 2014.

Playpen was accessible in what is known as the “darknet,” where internet users can engage in illegal activities using encryption and anonymity software in an effort to hide their identities. The secret network allowed anonymous users to engage in a forum where they could share photos and videos showing the sexual abuse of children.

As part of its investigation, called “Operation Pacifier,” the FBI managed to use to malware to seize the Playpen website and server, which allowed authorities to track and identify Playpen users.

Of the 870 people arrested, 368 were in Europe. The investigation also identified at least 259 sexually abused children.

Criticism from civil liberties groups

Some privacy advocates criticized the investigation, however, suggesting the FBI may have broken the law by using the malware to identify Playpen’s users.

“The warrant here did not identify any particular person to search or seize. Nor did it identify any specific user of the targeted website,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, according to the AFP news agency.

EFF said the FBI continued operating Playpen servers after seizing them, allowing the exchange of illegal, pornographic images of children and using malware to hack into many users computers and have the computers send identifying information back to authorities. In a 2016 post, the digital rights group said such hacking threatened “to undermine individuals’ constitutional privacy protections in personal computers.”

Authorities countered that as criminals become more technologically savvy, police needed to use additional tools in their investigations.

“Those individuals involved in the sexual abuse of children are becoming increasingly forensically aware and are actively using the most advanced forms of anonymisation and encryption to avoid detection,” said Steven Wilson, head of Europol’s Cybercrime Centre, in a statement.

“The internet has no boundaries and does not recognize borders. We need to balance the rights of victims versus the right to privacy. If we operate 19th century legal principles then we are unable to effectively tackle crime at the highest level,” he added.

Operation Bernhard: The destruction of the British Pound

May 7, 2017

by Harry von Johnston, PhD

The root cause of all warfare is economics. Whether it is the seizure of a weaker tribe’s grazing land or the destruction of a rival power’s production capacity, war, to elaborate on Clausewitz, is a logical extension of political and economic aims. War launched against an unpopular head of state or a political system is war commenced solely for economic gains; the common rationale of a holy crusade is merely window dressing for popular historians to postulate.

The hatred engendered against Hitler by the American and British official propaganda machinery before the outset of World War II was due more to the success of Hitler’s barter system than to his personal dislike of Jews or threats to putative democracies in Central Europe.

Stripped of her colonies and gold reserves after the First World War, Germany had to incur massive, interest-bearing loans with both the United States and England to pay for needed imports. When Hitler came to power, he paid off the existing loans and instituted a barter system in which, for example, Germany would trade locomotives to Argentina for their beef and wheat. Previously, both countries had borrowed money from international banks at high-interest rates to pay for their respective imports.

The barter system, therefore, represented a serious threat to international banking interests thatcomplained loudly and effectively to their respective governments, demanding intervention and relief. Many economists referred to a boycott of German products, which was instituted in the United States and England as economic warfare, as indeed it was. The British were past-masters in creating economic warfare and experts in ruining the currency of their rivals by flooding the marketplace with counterfeit currency. During the American Revolutionary War, the British dumped so many counterfeit Continental notes into the economy that American currency became virtually worthless, and the phrase, “not worth a Continental” became common. Angered by French support of the American Revolution, the British counterfeited adulterated gold French Louis coins.

As a means of economic retaliation against Napoleon for his support of a French-dominated continental system which excluded England, the British counterfeited French assignats and franc notes. Napoleon retaliated by forging British currency. Later in the same century, the US federal government forged Confederate money in huge quantities.

The Soviet forgery of American currency in the 1930s, on the other hand, was not designed to destroy the US economy. Rather, the counterfeit gold certificates were manufactured to pay their agents. Since many of these agents were highly placed and expensive members of the Roosevelt Administration, Stalin’s experts concentrated on the manufacture of $100 gold certificates. As the duplication of official US banknote paper was a problem, smaller denomination bills were bleached and over-printed.

At the outbreak of World War II, economic advisors to the leaders of England and the United States urged their respective governments to forge German marks and flood the international market which would cause a collapse of confidence in that currency and, therefore, create tremendous inflation in Germany. The British did counterfeit German military scrip but used the blank reverse for propaganda messages. These were scattered by aircraft over Germany where their impact on the population was nil, but the impact on German leadership was considerable.

Exactly who in the Third Reich initiated the program for the counterfeiting of British currency is not known. One man, Alfred Naujocks, an SS-Sturmbannführer (or Major) in the SD, has taken credit for the inception of the plan in 1940. Naujocks was a longtime acquaintance of Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SD and it was Heydrich who initially authorized the reproduction of British pound notes. The initial code name for the operation was “Andreas.”

It has been stated that the original purpose of “Andreas” was to falsify pound notes and drop them over England to create economic havoc. However, a more believable scenario, and one supported by period documents, is that the SS leadership envisioned the possibility of raising funds for their organization.

The SS was an official branch of the NSDAP and its funding came from the Party coffers, although the Waffen-SS  drew on government funding for much of its military requirements. One of Himmler’s best assets in this economic struggle was his complete control of the KZ (or concentration camp system). Based on the institutions introduced by Lord Kitchener in South Africa during the Boer War to control the civil population, the KZ system encompassed a wide spectrum of inmates, ranging from professional criminals, communists, and political opponents of the government, including Jews and other ethnic and religious groups.

At the beginning of the war, there were 21,300 concentration camp inmates, housed in six camps. During the course of the war, the total number of inmates rose to over 400,000 lodged in an enormous network of camps scattered throughout Europe and the East. SS General Oswald Pohl and his deputy Richard Glücks organized a huge, free labor pool which would provide a major source of revenue for the SS. It was this system of forced labor that the SD turned to when “Andreas” was superseded by “Bernhard.” The “Andreas” attempts to forge British notes floundered in technical problems and contributed to personality conflicts within the RSHA.

The proper paper was nearly impossible to initially produce since, unlike the original, it did not properly fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Also, a proper numbering system proved extremely difficult to develop. In 18 months, “Andreas” had only produced a half-million pounds worth of counterfeit notes, many of which, however, were authenticated by the Bank of England when submitted by unsuspecting Swiss banks. Personal rivalry between Heydrich and Naujocks created so many problems that “Andreas” was eventually terminated

“Bernhard” was named for the new head of the scheme, SS-Hauptsturmführer Bernhard Krüger of the SD. Krüger, born in Reise, Saxony on November 26, 1904, was a specialist in forging documents and was assigned to Section VI F4 of the RSHA where his section assembled a large library of foreign documents of all kinds which were copied for intelligence operations.

.The second project, “Bernhard,” began only after Heydrich was assassinated by British agents in the summer of 1942. At that time, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Dörner of the RSHA began to assemble a team of specialists from the ranks of concentration camp inmates. This initial cadre was originally constituted at Oranienburg concentration camp north of Berlin, and on August 23, 1942, it was permanently established at Blocks 18 and 19 at nearby Sachsenhausen camp.

Major Krüger promised his inmate workers good housing, better and regularly served meals, no physical abuse, tobacco, newspapers, good clothing, and packages from outside sources. Most importantly, he assured them of survival. In return, he required full cooperation in the counterfeiting projects and the maintenance of strict security.

By the end of 1942, the 200-pound-pressure Stentz Monopel Type 4 press was moved to Sachsenhausen from its former location in the Berlin forgery center. Aside from the manufacture of the highest quality intaglio plates, the most important factor in the production of undetectable counterfeit pound notes was reproduction paper. British notes were printed on a high rag content paper and manufactured by the Portal, England firm of Laverstoke, which had been producing this paper for the Bank of England since the first quarter of the 18th century.

Paper used in the production of American currency was a 17- pound bond manufactured for the U.S. Treasury by the Crane Company. As the SD turned its attention to the counterfeiting of American currency in 1943, the same German firms that duplicated the Portal paper, Spechthausen and Schlichter, and Schall, successfully duplicated the Crane paper.

The counterfeit paper for pounds had to have not only the correct texture and appearance, but had to be properly and exactly watermarked and fluoresce with the exact shade as the original paper. The Germans solved the latter problem by a careful analysis of water used in the preparation of the original British paper.

The actual manufacturing of the pound note plates was preceded by a thorough study of thousands of original examples of the British pound in German hands. The Bank of England had 156 identifying points on their plates and the forgers were able to duplicate every one of them.

Copying the lettering and numbering of the original currency presented few serious problems to Krüger’s experts, but the vignette of Britannia, common to all denomination pound notes, proved to be extremely difficult to copy—a similar problem which had occurred with the portraits on American currency. On the pound notes, the vignette consisted of a crown-surmounted wreath enclosing a seated Britannia holding a spear in her left hand and a floral spray in her right. However, constant reworking eventually produced an exact copy. The correct numbering system for the pound notes was developed by German mathematicians, and the numbering system for the U.S. bills came from American published sources. As the British used German-made ink for their currency, this aspect of the project presented no problems.

The first run of counterfeit pound notes inspected by senior officials at the RSHA in Berlin was declared a technical success, but lacked the overall visual appearance of original, circulated currency. This was solved by the addition of Soloman Somolianov, a highly competent forger, to the Sachsenhausen crew. Somolianov, a Russian Jew, specialized in the forgery of British pound notes and was successful in adding the proper patina of age to the new pounds and later, U.S. dollars.

After the notes had been printed and aged, they were sent to the RSHA and SS-Oberführer Walter Schellenberg, head of Section VI of the RSHA and SD foreign intelligence, distributed the British pounds to various outlets—many of which are still officially unknown.

For many years the old rhyme, “A Pound’s a Pound the World Around,” recalled the preeminence of British currency throughout the world. The final product of “Bernhard” had been tested by passing it through the Swiss banking system and through them eventually pronounced genuine by the Bank of England. Armed with these bonafides, Schellenberg’s agents glutted the world’s currency markets with over 300 million British pound notes in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pounds, in varying degrees of perfection.

First-class quality notes that defied any detection were used to purchase gold, jewels and safe currency through neutral banking systems, while lower quality notes were used for less exacting customers such as Tito’s partisans from whom the SS purchased huge amounts of weaponry supplied to the Yugoslavs by British and American clandestine services.

In early 1943, full-scale production of U.S. currency began at Sachensenhausen. First, the $100 gold certificate was printed, followed by the $50 and $20 dollar silver certificates. Although specific information on the amount of U.S. bills counterfeited by “Bernhard” from 1943 has never been released by the U.S. Treasury Department, a conservative estimate based on German documents and other information puts the overall total at $50 million.

As the Soviet Army approached Berlin in 1945, the unit at Sachsenhausen was moved to Mauthausen in the Ostmark on March 12, 1945 and again on March 21, to Redl-Zipf, north of Salzburg.

Finally, on April 24, Krüger ordered the prisoners transferred to Ebensee where they were liberated by the Americans. Krüger had kept his word to the inmates and at one point, in November of 1943, had secured official permission from Berlin to award twelve War Service Medals and six War Service Crosses, 2nd Class without Swords, to more deserving counterfeiters. They were permitted to wear their decorations inside the camp area and since most of them were Jewish, the attitude of the camp commandant can only be imagined.

The liberated “Bernhard” people were free to follow whatever course they chose. There is reason to believe that a number of them continued their artistic endeavors but under different management.

Soviet and American intelligence agencies were extremely eager to locate Bernhard Krüger. Their interest had to do with American dollars.

As retreating SS units threw huge sums of counterfeit pounds into Austrian lakes and streams, the acres of floating and waterlogged notes put an effective end to the usefulness of the once-mighty British pound. It is interesting to note that not a single American bill has ever been identified as a counterfeit of the Sachsenhausen project.

The Soviets and Americans were eager to locate not only the finished U.S. bills but the plates and paper as well. Since the “Bernhard” people and their baggage fell into American hands, the Soviets ran a poor second in the race. They only managed to locate some of the workers but none of their products. Neither the plates, paper, nor German documentation relating to the counterfeiting of American money ever officially surfaced. It is noted that large sums of dollars suddenly appeared in the Mid-East as funding for various U.S. intelligence operations in Lebanon controlled by Haj Amin-El Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. Many of the funds were in $100 dollar gold certificates.

The Germans were not the only country to liberally finance their intelligence agencies and assist their countrymen in building personal fortunes through the use of counterfeit currency. The basic difference is that the Germans did not manufacture their own currency.

This form of economic warfare has certainly not ceased with the downfall of the Third Reich. The Iranian government has, by all serious accounts, been forging nearly perfect U.S. $100 bills which have circulated throughout the world and caused the U.S. Treasury Department to issue newly formatted bills. The U.S. Treasury Department will eventually recall all outstanding older bills and carefully inspect them before making exchanges.

In 1984, over 2,000 extremely rare, nearly mint condition, ancient Greek silver coins, dating from 465 BC, were unearthed near Elmali in Turkey. The hoard of coins, in violation of Turkish law, quickly circulated into the international marketplace, and many coins sold for huge sums of money. Discovering that their national treasures had apparently been looted, the irate Turkish government forced the return of most of the horde through legal and diplomatic means. The British Museum inspected some of the rarer specimens and concluded that the entire collection had been recently manufactured at the Bulgarian State Mint in Sofia by that country’s intelligence agency to raise much-needed Western currency. Following this revelation, the value of rare Greek coins toppled as quickly as the British pound had fallen in 1945.

The irony of the “Bernhard” operation is that their 5 pound counterfeits are now worth more on the collector’s market than they were during the war.

US pharma Johnson & Johnson loses $110mn talc cancer case

May 5, 2017

RT

A court in St. Louis, Missouri has ordered the US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to pay over $110 million to a Virginia woman, who claims she developed ovarian cancer after decades of using its talcum powder.

The verdict is the largest for J&J among nearly 2,400 current lawsuits accusing the company of insufficient warning to consumers about cancer risks connected to products containing talc.

Most of those suits have been filed in St. Louis. The company has already faced four previous trials, three of which resulted in $197 million verdicts against J&J and its talc supplier.

Lois Slemp won her case against J&J and Imerys Talc. She is currently receiving chemotherapy, as ovarian cancer diagnosed in 2012 has returned and affected her liver.

According to Ms. Slemp, cancer developed following four decades of using talc-based products manufactured by the companies, including J&J’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower Powder.

“Once again we’ve shown that these companies ignored the scientific evidence and continued to deny their responsibilities to the women of America,” Ted Meadows, a lawyer for the suitor said in a statement

The jury awarded $5.4 million in compensation with $105 million to be paid as punitive damages, saying J&J was 99 percent at fault while Imerys was just one percent responsible.

J&J sympathizes with women impacted by oncological diseases, but plans to appeal, according to a company statement.

“We are preparing for additional trials this year, and we continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” J&J said.

In May 2016, the corporation lost another case over talcum powder products allegedly leading to cancer when a jury awarded $55 million to the plaintiff. Another jury hit J&J and Imerys with a $70 million verdict in October.

 

 

 

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