Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday, 1 February 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 30 Jan 2016 02:40 PM PST

A years-long saga involving fugitive spies, FBI wiretaps, and seeds smuggled in popcorn packets is coming to a close after Mo Hailong admitted to being the ringleader of a group that stole biological materials from US firms, causing millions in damages.
On Wednesday, Mo, a China-born US citizen who has lived in the country since 1998, accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors that will see him sentenced to up to five years in prison for a conspiracy to steal trade secrets from agro-giants DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto on behalf of the Beijing-headquartered DBN Group. The crime would normally be punishable by up to ten years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
His legal team said Mo, who was arrested in December of 2013, entered the plea bargain following a battle with an “aggressive form of cancer.”
“His health is his paramount concern. Robert [Mo Hailong’s adopted American moniker] and his family are relieved that they can avoid the strain of a long and complex trial,” said his lawyer Mark Weinhardt in a statement. “This is a complicated case with many grey areas, legally and factually, but today Robert Mo takes complete responsibility for his unlawful conduct in this case. Robert looks forward to getting this matter behind him and moving forward in life with his wife and children.”
The government will confiscate farms in Iowa and Illinois that he used to reverse-engineer stolen seeds, and Mo has accepted he may be deported after serving his term, despite his children being American citizens.
Both Monsanto and DuPont released a statement thanking US officials, with the latter saying it “will continue to take aggressive steps to protect our intellectual property.”
Crouching seed thief, hidden damage
Mo first attracted attention when a guard at a DuPont farm in Iowa caught him and a Chinese man crawling around an experimental research field in May 2011. Mo left hastily, but his rental car number was used to identify him.
Someone called 911 four months later, when Mo was examining an unmarked Monsanto GM-cornfield in another part of the state.
Now the FBI was on the case. Mo turned out to be the director of international business at Dabeinong Technology (DBN) Group, an agricultural company owned by billionaire Shao Genhuo, who just happened to be married to Mo’s sister.

Using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, a piece of legislation intended to combat Cold War rivals operating on American soil, the feds installed bugs, tapped Mo’s calls, installed video surveillance equipment over his storage unit, and gradually collected data over two years.
What they found was that Mo led a team that either bought genetically-modified varieties of corn from shops and then illegally picked out the parent seeds that could be used for experiments, or simply raided research fields across the US Corn Belt.
In 2012, US customs intercepted 100 manila envelopes containing at least some of those seeds, which were hidden among large boxes of microwaveable popcorn, as some of his colleagues were trying to leave the country.
Prosecutors determined that the value of intellectual property stolen by Mo and others – seeds producing yields up to twice that of those DBN possessed – amounted to a “minimum of $30 to $40 million.”
Mo’s sister, Yun, was arrested along with him, but charges against her were dropped last year due to a lack of evidence. Five of his other accomplices managed to escape to China before facing charges, and will not be tried, as Beijing almost never extradites its citizens to the US.
China is attempting to take the lead in the growing biotech industry, with state-backed leviathan ChemChina targeting Europe’s leading GM company Syngenta, which has also been the target of a Monsanto merger.
Incidentally, the cultivation of genetically-modified plant species is illegal inside China, largely due to public fears. However, a study published by Greenpeace earlier this month showed that 93 percent of samples from cornfields in Liaoning, China’s food-growing heartland, were contaminated with GMOs, suggesting that farmers are covertly contravening the ban.
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Posted: 30 Jan 2016 02:18 PM PST

The European Commission has declared the Cologne sex attacks on New Year’s Eve have nothing to do with Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis, describing such links as “false associations”.
Internal minutes of a European Commission meeting held on January 13th illustrate the complacent attitude of senior European Union (EU) leaders to the Cologne sex attacks. They appear more concerned with limiting damage to the wider European project than facing problems caused by their own migration policies.
The New Year’s Eve attacks were perpetrated “almost exclusively” by migrant men of Arabic and North African descent. As Breitbart London previously reported they followed the model of similar ‘taharrush’ incidents in the Arab world where large groups of men attack and even rape women at major events.
Nevertheless, according to the First Vice-President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, the Cologne sex attacks were nothing more than “a matter of public order” and were not in fact “related to the refugee crisis.” As such the role of the Commission is that of “sounding the voice of reason to defuse tensions and counter populist rhetoric” because of the “xenophobic reactions” prompted by the events. Specifically he calls for:
“…the unconditional rejection of false associations between certain criminal acts, such as the attacks on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, and the mass influx of refugees.”
The minutes also show Commissioner Timmermans observing “that the flow of migrants at EU borders was not slowing down and estimates suggested that only about 40% of them, mostly Syrians, were fleeing war and therefore in need of international protection; meanwhile more and more third country nationals were slipping in who were driven by mainly economic reasons and did not qualify for such protection.”
Showing where his priorities lies, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured left), spoke of preserving the “credibility of the Commission” at a time when it is “struggling to provide political inspiration for Europe” in the face of “unworthy” accusations from Member State leaders who impugned the reputation of the body.
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Posted: 30 Jan 2016 01:59 PM PST

A 17-year-old girl who was sexually attacked in Denmark may face charges herself after she used pepper spray against a rapist.
“It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely be charged for that,” said a local police spokesman in Sonderborg, where the attack took place.
After knocking the teenager to the ground and unbuttoning her pants, the victim was able to prevent being raped by pepper-spraying the Muslim man.
The man fled the scene and has yet to be arrested.
The Local reports “The case has sparked a backlash among some Danes who point to increasing reports of sexual harassment [by male asylum seekers] in Sonderborg and other Danish cities at the same time that police say they are stretched too thin to properly carry out their duties.”
After the case was reported by the Danish news outlet TVS, a number of readers wrote in the comments sections that they would be willing to pay the girl’s fine, which is expected to be 500 kroner ($73).
Sweden announced it will expel close to 80,000 migrants whose applications have been rejected over the course of the next few years.
The migrants will be flown out of the country on specially-charted aircraft, since there are too many of them to put on commercial flights as is normally done.
It was unclear as to where the migrants would be flown.
Last year Sweden took in 160,000 asylum seekers, the highest percentage of migrants per capita accepted in any country in the European Union. Beginning in 2016, Sweden required every asylum seeker to have a photo ID, which has served to greatly reduce the number of refugees seeking asylum there.
In a controversial move, Denmark announced it will seize the valuables of migrants worth more than the equivalent of £1,000 ($1,426) to offset the cost of housing and food. Exceptions will be made with items of sentimental value, such as wedding rings, etc.
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Posted: 30 Jan 2016 01:37 PM PST

The enemedia strikes again.
The media’s latest stunt in their desperate and unhinged campaign to save their Muslim victimhood narrative and blame-America-for-jihad is their headlines blaring that Trump is featured in a newly released Islamic savage video. The not-so-subtle implication is that criticism of jihad and/or sharia causes jihad terror. The not-so-subtle accusation is that jihad-terror is our fault.
But the fact is that Hillary is in this video as well. This is more of the media’s self-enforcing sharia. In Islam, lying is permissible to advance Islam, otherwise known as taqiyya. Lying by omission is kitman. In Islamic jurisprudence kitmān (كتمان “secrecy, concealment”) is a subfield of Ḥiyal (the practice of deception or legal trickery).
Here’s a sampling:

“Media gleefully reporting al-Shabab video with Trump, IGNORES Hillary and ‘Black Lives Matter’ are in it TOO!!,” Right Scoop, January 2, 2016:
El Trumpo is finally being used in a terrorist training video and the media couldn’t be more happy.
Here’s TIME magazine:
An al-Qaeda affiliate released a recruitment video Friday that includes an excerpt of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announcing his call to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.
AND:
The video, apparently the first to include footage of Trump, juxtaposed clips of the presidential candidate and al-Awlaki saying “the West will eventually turn against its Muslims citizens,” according to the Times, while also including footage of al-Awlaki calling for attacks similar to that of the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, in which Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and injured more than 30 in Killeen, Texas.
But, as NRO columnist Stephen Miller points out, they’re completely ignoring some details:
Here’s how TIME is vaguely reporting the Black Lives Matter appearance:
According to the New York Times, al-Shabab—the Islamic militant branch of al-Qaeda in Somalia—included the clip of Trump along with footage of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam and recruiter for al-Qaeda who was killed in 2011, as well as clips of white supremacists and protests over police use of force in the U.S.
Funny how they don’t mention their name, isn’t it?…
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 00:29