Tag: police state

VICTORY: FBI Whistleblower Who Exposed Agency’s Lies About January 6th Has Security Clearence Reinstated, Will Receive Over Two Years of Back Pay

A patriotic former FBI agent who helped expose the agency’s lies about the January 6th protests has scored a major victory against his former employer.

FBI agent Marcus Allen had his security clearance suspended in 2022 after he raised questions about Director Christopher Wray’s statements regarding law enforcement involvement during the January 6th protests.

Empower Oversight, a legal advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the bureau and asserted that the FBI’s actions were retaliatory and falsely labeled Allen as disloyal to the United States.

It has now been confirmed that the FBI reinstated Allen’s security clearance on May 31st and agreed to pay him over two months of back pay as part of a settlement between the two parties. He has now resigned from the bureau.

“This letter is to inform you that I am reinstating your Top Secret (TS) security clearance effective upon receipt of this letter,” the FBI said in a letter to Allen. “My decision to reinstate your security clearance is based upon a determination that the original security concerns have been investigated and have been sufficiently mitigated.”

Allen’s lawyer, Tristan Leavitt, described the settlement as a “total vindication” for his client.

“The F.B.I. has completely backed down and provided everything that we had asked for on behalf of Marcus,” Leavitt said. “It’s clear from the evidence and the FBI’s capitulation there was absolutely no truth to their accusations.”

Allen upset his superiors at the bureau when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee last year and revealed how he was the victim of political retaliation for his views about January 6th.

“I was not in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, played no part in the events of Jan. 6, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred,” he testified. “Instead, it appears that I was retaliated against because I forwarded information to my superiors and others that questioned the official narrative of the events of Jan. 6.”

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Amish Farmer Threatened for Not Giving Up Traditional Farming

Armed federal agents were used to threaten a traditional Amish farmer just 150 miles outside Washington, D.C., who does not use pesticides, fertilizer, or gas to run his farm.

In the last 100 years, there have been significant changes in the way farming is carried out. Most significant was the development of genetically modified organisms and chemical pesticides. In 1982, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)[3] approved the first GMO product, which was developed to treat diabetes: human insulin. The first GMO foods available in the United States were alfalfa and sugar beets in 2005.

By 2015, the FDA had approved an application for genetically engineered salmon. Further bioengineered foods and plants include apples, pink pineapples, and, in 2020, the GalSafe pig, which is a genetically modified pig that eliminates detectable amounts of alpha-gal,[4] which is a sugar on the surface of pig cells that triggers a rare allergy.

As some applauded these scientific advancements, others began asking hard questions about how modifying genetic information and the application of large amounts of pesticides and herbicides will impact animal and human health. Miller[5] chose to use farming practices that have successfully provided healthy food for thousands of years.[6]

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DoJ accuses far-right Epoch Times of being money-laundering operation

The far-right Epoch Times media company was at the center of a fraudulent money-laundering and cryptocurrency scam involving tens of millions of dollars, the justice department said on Monday as it announced the indictment of its chief financial officer Bill Guan.

The 61-year-old executive “conspired with others to participate in a sprawling, transnational scheme to launder at least approximately $67m of illegally obtained funds”, according to a statement from the US attorney’s office of the southern district of New York.

Proceeds went to the company, it said, and for the personal enrichment of individuals including Guan, who faces up to 70 years in prison on one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud.

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Adding CBD Or THC To Food Or Drinks Is Illegal, Massachusetts Officials Say In New Memo

Massachusetts agencies have declared that intoxicating hemp-based products can not be sold outside of licensed dispensaries and have tasked local boards of health to enforce what they say is federal law.

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Department of Agricultural Resources released a joint notice in order to address the recent influx of hemp-based products like gummies and drinks that contain the same active ingredient as cannabis products. The notice made explicit that the “addition of CBD and/or THC to food manufactured or sold in Massachusetts is illegal.”

This action by the two state agencies reflects what they have been saying about the legality of these products. Now, with the advisory, they have made the guidance explicit and have charged local boards of health to enforce it.

Following the notice, the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission warned its licensees that their licenses could be suspended or revoked if they are caught selling hemp-derived products.

“This is a big win for both the cannabis and the hemp industry, specifically those who are licensed by the CCC and MDAR,” said Ryan Dominguez, the head of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition. “This is a step in the right direction for us to be able to now enforce what was already on the books so there’s no kind of gray area.”

Intoxicating hemp products have been showing up in liquor stores, gas stations and smoke shops across the state because of a 2018 federal law that removed hemp from the definition of marijuana. There are many companies that have popped up to sell hemp products.

The hemp products, which are often marketed very similarly to cannabis products, are not regulated in the same way. Whereas cannabis products face strict regulations around testing, packaging, labeling, taxation and age restrictions, the hemp products have none of these requirements in Massachusetts.

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Video Of NYC Cops’ Marijuana Raid Raises Questions About Mayor’s Enforcement Offensive

As a new mayoral task force conducts sweeps of hundreds of shops suspected of selling illegal weed, a video of a raid on a Staten Island store obtained by THE CITY captures how enlisting police to conduct regulatory inspections can lead to criminal charges, igniting concerns about potential due process violations.

The 90-second clip taken from a store surveillance camera on May 18 shows seven uniformed law enforcement officers, most of them in NYPD gear, cursing, jumping over the store counter and charging at a shopkeeper after he asked them for a court order before opening the door to the back of the store.

Instead, the man was cuffed—before any unlicensed cannabis products were found—and taken to a local precinct where he was charged with obstruction of justice, records show.

“When a cop tells you to do something, you fucking do it,” one officer told the shopkeeper.

The surveillance video was shared with THE CITY on the condition that the identity of the shopkeeper be protected. The arrest and criminal charge was confirmed by police records.

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GUANTÁNAMO PROSECUTORS ACCUSED OF “OUTRAGEOUS” MISCONDUCT FOR TRYING TO USE TORTURE TESTIMONY

IN A PRETRIAL HEARING Tuesday at the Guantánamo Bay military tribunal, Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for a potential witness in the war crimes case, accused government prosecutors of “outrageous” misconduct.

During the hearing for the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is charged with masterminding the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, Stafford Smith said the government attorneys had failed to release exculpatory information about Nashiri and made false statements in the course of their failure.

Stafford Smith, the lead counsel for Ahmed Rabbani, a former Guantánamo detainee who was tortured by the CIA, made the allegations after being called to the witness stand by Nashiri’s defense team.

Stafford Smith testified that the prosecutors had filed a brief that falsely said Rabbani had not recanted his initial testimony because, Rabbani said, it was made under torture. After raising the omission, Stafford Smith said, he felt it was not getting due attention and took the unusual step of reporting the prosecutors to their state bar associations.

“I’ve never, ever, in 40 years reported someone to the bar before this case,” Stafford Smith said in court. “I don’t like doing that, but I felt I was required to.”

In the court motion last year that set off Stafford Smith’s ethics complaints, the Guantánamo prosecutors said they had no knowledge of Rabbani’s recantation or claims the testimony in question were extracted by torture. (The chief prosecutor’s office declined to comment for this story.)

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Ohio Officials Will Begin Accepting Recreational Marijuana Sales Applications This Week, But The Market Won’t Launch Immediately

Ohio’s top marijuana regulator says that while the state will open up applications for medical cannabis dispensaries to start selling to adult-use consumers by Friday, the exact timing for when they’ll be able to launch depends on whether they’ve satisfied a list of conditions.

Ohio Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) Superintendent James Canepa has previously suggested that businesses with dual licenses approved could begin selling to patients and recreational consumers as early as this month. That’s still a possibility, but he declined to commit to any specific timeline in a new interview with Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer.

He said it’s likely there will be a “trickle in the beginning,” with a limited number of hybrid shops that are able to meet requirements to open their doors, such as enhanced security and updated point-of-sale systems to differentiate between medical and adult-use purchases.

Most dual dispensaries are expected to launch later, he said, “not that they’re not ready but that they’re a little more thoughtful about the scale for a new customer base.”

“Everybody keeps trying to get me to circle a day, and it’s impossible because like with liquor, you have to process the applicants as they are,” Canepa, who previously served as the state’s top alcohol regulator, said in the new interview. “You have to take them as they come to you. And there’s a whole checklist that they have to meet.”

In addition to the security and sales system updates, the superintendent also noted that businesses will need to ensure that their employees are properly badged. Their medical cannabis licenses must also be up-to-date in order to apply for a dual license.

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DEA Exemption Process For Religious Psychedelics Use Needs Clearer Timelines And Standards, Government Watchdog Agency Says

A federal government watchdog agency says in a new report that the Drug Enforcement Administration should improve the process through which it considers granting religious exemptions for psilocybin and other controlled substances, asserting that the existing route lacks clarity on timing, evaluation and other matters.

The 80-page report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) notes that although psilocybin remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), people may petition DEA for exemptions to use it—or other controlled substances—for religious purposes.

“DEA has established a process for these petitions, but its guidance doesn’t set clear timeframes for the decision-making,” it continues. “Exemption petitions have taken from 8 months to over 3 years to be resolved.”

GAO focused specifically on psilocybin use under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which is meant to protect religious practices from undue government burdens. The agency found that the DEA exemption procedure itself was burdensome.

“Selected stakeholders reported several barriers to the legal access and use of psilocybin for religious practices under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” GAO says. “For example, DEA established a process for parties to petition for a religious exemption from the Controlled Substances Act to use controlled substances for religious purposes. However, DEA’s guidance does not inform petitioners on its timeframes to make determinations on completed petitions.”

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Minnesota Marijuana Regulators Destroy Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars’ Worth Of Illegally Sold Hemp Flower

Since Minnesota began cracking down on the illegal sale of raw cannabis flower in many registered hemp retailers, its agents have confiscated a lot of product worth a fair amount of money.

According to numbers released by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), inspectors have confiscated and destroyed 12,094 units of flower—such as bags, jars or pre-rolled joints—with an estimated retail value of $278,000. The illegal products were taken from 58 different retail locations and amounted to nearly 73 pounds of raw cannabis flower.

While it has been legal to possess and use cannabis in Minnesota since last August, it is not yet legal to sell it and won’t be until sometime next spring. And while many hemp-derived low-potency products like gummies and beverages have been legal to sell since the summer of 2022, raw cannabis flower falls into a gray area. That is, if it has low THC content, it could be legal. But most of what has been sold exceeds the potency levels that separates hemp from marijuana.

If the confiscated products have likely been illegal under both the 2022 hemp-derived products law and the 2023 recreational cannabis law, why did it take this long for the state to crack down? Blame an inadvertent gap in the 2023 law that attempted to provide temporary state regulation of hemp products while the new Office of Cannabis Management was being set up.

The Office of Medical Cannabis was given temporary say over the two-year-old hemp-derived market but was not given control over raw flower, only products made from the plant like gummies and drinks.

That gap identified by regulators late last year allowed some stores to sell the flower that looks, smells and intoxicates like marijuana. At the same time, other retailers who wanted to follow the new law were left at a competitive disadvantage.

The raw flower was often sold as a hemp plant with high concentrations of THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid). The same products are offered for sale from out-of-state businesses and mailed to customers where cannabis is not legal, or not yet legal as in Minnesota.

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Canadian measure would remove free speech protection for quoting Bible, sacred texts

Legislation introduced in Canada’s Parliament would eliminate the use of “belief in a religious text” as a defense against hate crime charges.

Repealing the exemption in Canada’s criminal code could criminalize sermons and messages using the Bible or other religious texts as the basis for critiquing other religions or addressing issues such as transgender rights, critics warn.

Yves-Francois Blanchet, leader of the minority Bloc Quebecois party, submitted the “private member’s bill” — defined as a measure not sponsored by a Cabinet minister or parliamentary secretary — in November and again last month. The measure received an initial reading in the lower chamber, but no action has followed.

Mr. Blanchet said when he introduced the bill that its purpose is to allow authorities to prosecute antisemitic speech. The measure is needed to “refrain from giving inappropriate and undue privileges to people within a society who use them to disturb the peace and harmony, especially if those privileges enable people to sow hatred or wish death upon others based on a belief in some divine power,” he told Parliament.

Two-thirds of Canadians surveyed Feb. 16-18 by the polling firm Leger said they support the measure.

But Jeff King, president of the Washington-based International Christian Concern, said Thursday the proposal is “designed to silence” people whose opinions differ from prevailing thought.

“We cannot urge direct violence against somebody,” he said, “but free speech means we all have very different opinions in a democracy [and] we’re supposed to have vigorous debates.”

He said the legislation could open the door to prosecuting anybody expressing sincere beliefs based on their religion’s sacred texts.

Under the proposal, he said, “you can’t say the Bible says so-and-so, or you could be arrested to be charged, you can be fined.” Despite labels, Mr. King said, “this [measure] has nothing to do” with combating antisemitism.

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