Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The United States has filed a complaint to forfeit $2,372,793 associated with four companies, announced the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael R. Sherwin, Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Chicago Field Office, and Steven Cagen, Special Agent in Charge of the HSI Denver Field Office.            The complaint alleges that the four companies laundered United States dollars on behalf of sanctioned North Korean banks.  According to the complaint, the North Korean banks used these laundered funds as part of a scheme to procure goods for...

Essentra FZE Company Limited (Essentra FZE), a global supplier of cigarette products that is incorporated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has agreed to pay a $665,112 fine and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and defrauding the United States in connection with evading sanctions on North Korea.  Today’s public filing against Essentra FZE is the first ever Department of Justice corporate enforcement action for violations of these regulations.  Essentra FZE has also entered into a settlement agreement with the Treasury Department’s Office of...

How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UNIn the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted.Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were...

Kim Yo-jong, sister to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, published a poorly written “press statement” Friday praising Kim’s relationship with President Donald Trump, rejecting further summits between them, and requesting DVD copies of Fourth of July celebration footage. Kim Yo-jong’s statement appeared to be a response to speculation triggered by leftist South Korean President Moon Jae-in that Trump and her brother may soon host another summit to ease tensions between the two countries, which have technically been at war for 70 years. During the course of publicizing his book against Trump, former National Security Advisor John Bolton also hinted at...

Frustrated with COVID-19 restrictions on daily life, a friend said to me, “I just want to know the truth.” Like many people, my exasperated friend, and others I know, are mesmerized and frightened by daily news reports. ... The “clear guidance” politicians claim to dispense and “the truth” my friend wants to learn are not rooted in the principles of human flourishing. My friend is waiting for a government official to blow the all-clear whistle. My friend doesn’t want to believe experts are as fallible as he is, and that the prevailing scientific consensus may be false. ... In North...

Back in the ever changing conditions at Camp Covid-19 the prison for everyone and that reminds me of a television series I watched 50 years ago..... The "crisis" has given plans of our rulers to ban cars in cities a big push forward.... The coronavirus stats are out in full with Worldometers putting out the Saturday number as 43,851 nationwide with 6,079 in Texas a record number for one day in that state..... North Korea's Bluff And Bluster For The 70th Anniversary of the Korean War And The "Health" Of Kim Jong Un..... Newsdump Update: Phoenix Church And Air Filtration...

In his new tell-all book, former National Security Advisor John Bolton claims the threat from North Korea today is “absolutely greater” than it was in 2016. One of Bolton’s chief complaints about Trump’s actions over the past two years was that he “gave away” joint drills that were “critical” to defend South Korea. Bolton, like many in Washington, sees great value in these military exercises—but this is a flawed understanding of how deterrence works. It is not regular drills that ensure U.S. deterrence of North Korea, but the overall capacity of our muscular, comprehensive military power in comparison to the...

North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un suspended a planned military retaliation against South Korea, in an apparent slowing of the pressure campaign it has waged against its rival amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration. Last week, the North had declared relations with the South as fully ruptured, destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory and threatened unspecified military action to censure Seoul for a lack of progress in bilateral cooperation and for activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. Analysts say North Korea, after weeks deliberately raising tensions, may be pulling away just enough to...

South Korea slammed former White House national security adviser John Bolton for distorting the facts regarding nuclear talks between leaders of the U.S. and the Koreas in his forthcoming memoir. South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said Bolton’s description of top-level consultation in his new book “The Room Where It Happened,” is not accurate. “It does not reflect accurate facts and substantially distorts facts,” South Korea’s national security adviser, said in a statement, according to Reuters. He also accused Bolton of "being inaccurate" and "distorting the reality," according to The Washington Post. According to excerpts of Bolton’s book published...

Bill Clinton's triumphant return from North Korea with two rescued US journalists had Hollywood written all over it -- from the Burbank airport to the big-time producer who bankrolled the expedition to the celebrity public-relations firm that orchestrated the homecoming. A key player in Clinton's high-flying diplomatic mission to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee was entertainment mogul Steve Bing, a longtime "Friend of Bill" who lent the ex-president his private Boeing 737. The multimillionaire mogul paid about $200,000 in fuel and other costs that came with the trans-Pacific flight.

A statement from North Korea’s embassy in Moscow observing the 70th anniversary of the still-ongoing Korean War this weekend threatened a “sensational event” leading to the destruction of the United States. North Korea routinely threatened nuclear attacks on America for much of the past decade, peaking in intensity around 2016-2017. Pyongyang’s communist regime issued many of those threats in the form of videos simulating nuclear attacks on Washington, DC, and other major American cities. Following its most recent nuclear attack in September 2017, however, the United Nations approved of strict sanctions on North Korea that have crippled its economy and...

Before the music lets talk about plans for next week in Idaho with legislators seeking to end martial law and the emergency rule of Republican Governor Brad Little. They intend to attempt a meeting on Tuesday morning at 9 am in Boise at the State Capitol...... And Dame Vera Lynn passed away this week at the age of 103. She is remembered for her wartime singing but of course that song "We'll Meet Again" was the closing of "Dr. Strangelove's" working the government officials to dictate our lives.... I guess this is a good lead into John Bolton and his...

As the top human rights body of the United Nations seeks international scrutiny of systemic racism in response to the recent killings of African Americans by police, some countries are wondering if there is a double standard at play for America rather than the ways other countries are targeted for human rights violations because of dehumanizing their people. A draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, singles out the United States and could become the centerpiece of a hastily scheduled debate by the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday. The text calls for a...

Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date.  In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to North Korea that was declared in Executive Order 13466 of June 26,...

On June 26, 2008, by Executive Order 13466, the President declared a national emergency with respect to North Korea pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula.  The President also found that it was necessary to maintain certain restrictions with respect to North Korea that would otherwise have been lifted pursuant to Proclamation 8271 of June 26, 2008, which terminated the exercise of...

North Korea announced Wednesday it would deploy troops to the Kaesong Industrial Zone and Mt. Kumgang tourist area, locations that were once the sites of joint economic ventures with South Korea, as Pyongyang continued to ratchet up tensions a day after it demolished an inter-Korean liaison office. The North will also reinstall guard posts that had been removed from the Demilitarized Zone and conduct military drills in border areas, according to a statement by a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army "Civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the Demilitarized Zone under the north-south agreement...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has confirmed it destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office on Tuesday, as it continued to dial up pressure against rival South Korea amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the North destroyed the office to correspond with the “mindset of the enraged people to surely force human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes,” apparently referring to North Korean defectors who for years have floated anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

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Just announced just live The Border post where N & S Korea held their liaison meetings Kaesong

KIM JONG-UN's sister is taking a leading role in a new, more hard-line pressure campaign against South Korea - highlighting what analysts say is a substantive policy role that goes beyond being her brother's assistant. Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo Jong is the only close relative of the North Korean leader to play a public role in politics. Kim Yo Jung has moved to the forefront since her brother’s mysterious disappearance last month. And now she has unleashed a brutal attack on neighbours South Korea, just after the rogue state severed contact with Seoul. Kim Yo-jong's...