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Why would Vladimir Putin risk seriously damaging the already struggling Russian economy?
It may be because the people who will pay the immediate and largest price for his aggression, the oligarchs, are his real target. Putin, the fox, has been watching the oligarch hens getting fat. If the West weakens them just enough, he can do the rest.
My Conclusion: Treasury and State departments can name a U.S. entity including an individual, as having provided support for Putin or his co-conspirator kleptocrats and oligarchs and then seize all the U.S. resident’s assets without warning. There is no exception for organized crime.
Game, set, match.
EXECUTIVE ORDER
– – – – – – –
BLOCKING PROPERTY OF ADDITIONAL PERSONS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SITUATION IN UKRAINE
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660 of March 6, 2014, and expanded by Executive Order 13661 of March 16, 2014, finding that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation, including its purported annexation of Crimea and its use of force in Ukraine, continue to undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, and thereby constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Accordingly, I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person (including any foreign branch) of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:
(i) to operate in such sectors of the Russian Federation economy as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, such as financial services, energy, metals and mining, engineering, and defense and related materiel;
(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the effective date of this order.
Sec. 2. I hereby find that the unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1(a) of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and I hereby suspend entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of such persons. Such persons shall be treated as persons covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions).
Sec. 3. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to section 1 of this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660, and expanded in Executive Order 13661 and this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.
Sec. 4. The prohibitions in section 1 of this order include but are not limited to:
(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and
(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
Sec. 6. For the purposes of this order:
(a) the term “person” means an individual or entity;
(b) the term “entity” means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization;
(c) the term “United States person” means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States; and
(d) the term the “Government of the Russian Federation” means the Government of the Russian Federation, any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and any person owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, the Government of the Russian Federation.
Sec. 7. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render those measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660, and expanded in Executive Order 13661 and this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1 of this order.
Sec. 8. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order.
Sec. 9. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
The time line of recent events in the Ukraine has been full and fast changing. Just a few weeks ago before the Sochi Olympics there were news reports was about two American war ships entering the Black Sea. The Montrose Convention rules limits non-Black Sea countries like the U.S. to one war ship at a time so when Turnkey allowed two it must have outraged the Russians. Having two U.S. war ships 20 miles off the coast while Putin lorded over the Russian celebration of success and a new place in the world must have also enraged Putin. Then, while the light of the Olympic torch was fading out, the largest of the former members of the Soviet Union and a Russian speaking country was lost to Russia as a client state. The Maidan protests were able to change the security of Russia’s western border. It now has a real possibility of a hostile Ukraine on Russia’s border. That would not be an acceptable outcome for Putin.
Putin is quoted saying that the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th Century. While he was still glowing in the light of Sochi the largest remaining Russian satellite state changed overnight into a hostile western democracy. Such a thing happening must have been incomprehensible, especially in light of Russia’s proclamation of national superiority in Sochi where Putin stood center stage. Putin failed to foresee that the Russian Kleptocracy would result in so fast and complete rejection of Russia and its culture of theft by the people of the Ukraine. In light of Putin’s well stated view that world was better with the U.S.S.R., being the Soviet soldier on watch at the time of this loss of friendly territory would taint his developing mythology as the tough guy fighting bears without a shirt. The mob in the Maidan had beaten him. A mob of Russians might be next.
Russians, like most folks, enjoy a day at the beach. The Black Sea is their only moderate coast. Putin’s theft of Crimea was necessary to preserve Putin’s myth of toughness. So, he stole some ocean front property that would make the Russian people happy. Put a few masked special forces in and they slowly overcame the outnumbered unprepared Ukrainian forces. Hardly an epic story of military courage. But for a heist, it was a good week’s work. Russians, who exist in a nation run by thieves, applaud Putin’s boldness.
Will Putin advance on the rest of Ukraine? Yes. First, he’s been shown to be a liar regarding annexation so any statement to the contrary should be ignored now and forever. Second, he is drunk with his own power and he will take the industrial cities of the Ukraine because it’s easier to steal a factory than build one. After all, stealing is what a good kleptocrat does.
Third, the Crimea is attached to Ukraine not to Russia. Geography mandates Russians steal access.
The U.S. and western allies have been firm and have and will impose increasing sanctions that mean that the already weak Russian economy will get much weaker. The question should be whether Putin end with the Ukraine? Moving on NATO members will by treaty turn into a fight between Russia and the U.S. Putin leaving the nuclear war implications aside, Putin may like his new harbor in Crimea but he doesn’t have much of a navy. He still has a few missile submarines and ships that can reach Cuba without breaking down. But, within a week of the moment that Putin makes the mistake to move on NATO, Russian will have no more Navy. The Russian enclave at Kaliningrad will be unsustainable and the Black Sea likely closed to Russian ships. The result of Putin’s foolish gamble will be a smaller and weaker Russia that no longer has a functional navy.
A new economic wall will go up built by the west and Russia and its shirtless buffoon declared anathema. The Russian mob with their bellies growling under sanctions will turn on Putin who will go down in Russian history as the man who destroyed what was left of Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed. In the future, totally mucking something up will be known as doing a “Putin.”
If you look at a map of Russia, you can see that its only warm water port is in the Black Sea. Russian military was in the Crimea lawfully until a few weeks ago. Had Putin done nothing, Sevastopol would remain a Russian base. One way to explain what Putin is doing is to conclude he’s just exploiting an opportunity presented by the Maidan and will stop with Crimea. But that ignores geography. Russia can’t rationally expect to hold the Crimea in the context of a militarily hostile Ukraine. Crimea only has roads to the Ukraine: none to Russia. Unless Ukraine capitulates, Putin can’t keep Crimea without forcefully seizing parts of the Eastern Ukraine.
I’ve been wondering where the Russian main battle tanks are because I haven’t seen any in the shots near the Ukraine. Today I saw a post of what was claimed to be a train of Russian main battle tanks in the Crimea. Exactly why the Russians would want their main battle tanks on land that is essentially an island escapes me.
The evidence strongly suggests that the Koch brothers’ grandfather was a foreign intelligence asset. It also appears that the Koch Brothers father, Fred C. Koch, was one too. This paper will discuss the evidence to support the claim that the two sons who control the Koch family’s massive wealth are completing the family goal of destruction of the US civil society.
I started on this investigation looking into reports of a connection between the Koch family and infamous members of the German Nazi Party. So far, I have not found evidence to support that specific claim. Fred Chace Koch’s excessive offshore activities starting in the 1920’s and continuing to the 1940’s are reported to have included building part of a German oil refinery in 1934 but I have seen nothing that supports the claim he was a Nazi but loyalty to Germany may be what drove his father’s work in the US.
The first Koch Family member in America was Hozte Koch who changed his first name to Harry.
Harry Koch arrived in American on December 4, 1888 as a passenger on the S.S. Amsterdam, that had sailed from Rotterdam to New York. There is evidence that he immigrated from the Netherlands by way of Bremen Germany where he was supposedly working as printer’s apprentice. The big question is: How did a printer’s apprentice in 1888, the date of his arrival in America, buy two newspapers shortly after he arrived? The logical conclusion would be that he had an external source of capital.
There are unverified reports that Harry Koch lived in New Orleans, Michigan and later in Chicago Ill. In any event, sometime in the 1890’s he moved to Quanah Texas in Hardeman County and soon purchased the two local newspapers.
Harry soon married Margaret “Mattie” Mixson, a Texas native, and is alleged to have had two sons, Fred Chase Koch and John Anton Koch. The 1900 U.S. Census taken on June 22, 1900 for Hardeman county Texas list Harry Koch as born in the Netherlands and immigrated in 1888. Twelve years a resident. It also shows he was not a naturalized U.S. citizen and I have found no evidence he ever was naturalized. Harry’s birthday is reported as October 1867. His age in June 1900 was reported to be 32 and he had been married two years. Occupation was “editor.”
In the same census, his wife is listed as Margaret M. Koch, 25 years old, born in February 1875. The first born son, John A. Koch is listed as one year old, born in December 1898.
Harry got busy in the newspaper business and was even chosen as the President of the Texas Press Association in 1918.
There is yet unverified reports that the railroad that was being built through Quanah was financed by Dutch capital. Having a person who could ask questions as a matter of journalistic endeavor would have been good cover for an intelligence officer put in place to monitor a Royal Dutch investment and is a common practice. Moreover, I am exploring the facts surrounding Royal Dutch Oil (nka Shell Oil) that was engaged in activities related to the oil patch in Texas in the early 1900’s.
Harry’s eldest son, John Anton Koch’s date of birth is fairly well documented as November 10, 1898. Here is a copy of John Anton Koch’s draft registration that confirms it. John Anton Koch Draft Reg Card Assuming that Fred C. Koch was born on September 23, 1900 as the census data suggests, under the law existing at that time he had until September 28, 1918 to register for the draft. However, the final call for draft registration was September 12, 1918 and it appears Fred C. Koch missed the obligatory date by eleven days. See Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. 112, 117, 90 S. Ct. 858, 861, 25 L. Ed. 2d 156, 162, 1970 U.S. LEXIS 96, 9 (U.S. 1970).
The John Anton Koch draft card dated 19 days before Fred C. Koch was required to register, contains some surprising data. First, it evidences that John Anton was a laborer working in Laramie Wyoming. I have found nothing to support this fact beyond the John Anton Koch Draft Card. This would appear to conflict with the evidence that in 1918 both Koch brothers were students at Rice Institute (later named Rice University). Here are two pages from the 1918 Rice Campanile yearbook. Fred and John at Rice Pages from Campanile 1918 This evidences that despite the approximate two year age difference, the Koch Brothers were in the same freshman class.
The 1920 Federal Census evidences John and Fred both living with their parents. John is shown as a reporter, and Fred a salesman in a drug store. Consistent with the theory that the Koch’s were engaged in espionage is the fact that during the period that John Anton Koch was in Wyoming, the region was in an oil boom that also included the building of a highway system that could explain his job in a cement related business.
Though with today’s DNA technology it would be fairly simple to verify Fred C. Koch’s relationship to Harry and Margaret Koch, a simple comparison of the contemporaneous photos of Harry, John and Fred show the apparent similarity between John Anton and Harry. Fred did not share the similarity in my opinion.
It appears that John Anton did not advance beyond 1918 at Rice and the evidence shows he worked in his Father’s newspaper in Quanah Texas.
Fred entered MIT as a sophomore, was captain of the boxing team and was in the graduating class of 1922. Here is a shot of Fred as a boxer in MIT’s 1921 Technique yearbook. 1922 MIT Yearbook with the1921 MIT Boxing Team with Fred. Again, the lack of similarity to his father is apparent to me.
One of the strangest artifacts of Fred Koch’s life history is his 1924 U.S. Passport application. Fred Passport Application Complete with index. This application made in New York discloses that Fred had been a seaman in the British Isles in the summer of 1919. Rather than include a copy of a birth certificate to prove his birth, the application contains an affidavit from someone claiming to know the relevant facts obtained when he taught the Koch brothers in high school in Texas. Based on this somewhat flimsy support, Fed obtained a passport and then set off on repeated transoceanic voyages and flights. The dissimilarity between Fred’s 1922 MIT yearbook photo and the one attached to his 1924 passport application is also noteworthy.
When Fred’s life is addressed it is generally claimed that he developed technology and then applied that technology to advance the oil industry of the Soviet Union. One document that is available online shows that in February 1945, Fred traveled from Halifax Nova Scotia and was listed on the ship’s papers as a U.S. Govt. Official, care of the U.S. Embassy London. Fred Passenger List Govt Official. This is the pattern of Fred’s travel as evidenced by the records obtained on line. 1924, 1925, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937 and 1945. There may be other trips that I have not yet uncovered.
The Koch family story says that, despite having played a key role in the development of the Soviet Union’s oil industry, Fred became disillusioned about the communist system he had helped build and returned to the U.S. as a staunch anti-communist. He then set about to establish one of the most radical right wing fringe groups, the John Birch Society, named for the person claimed to have been the first casualty of the Cold War.
The John Birch Society is the parent organization for the so called Tea Party and is the group parodied in the film Dr. Strangelove through the character General Jack D. Ripper, the Air Force general who sought to cause a nuclear war to protect his “precious bodily fluids.” That was a joke. But this family running the U.S. is not a joke but an imminent frightening reality.
Another fact that I uncovered is that Hotze aka Harry Koch committed suicide with a pistol in 1942. Here is his death certificate. Harry Koch Death Certificate. My grandfather was police detective who was tasked with assisting in background checks for the FBI during the war. I’m pretty sure Hotze would have drawn some attention. Did he kill himself to keep the family sleeper cell safe?
I have found evidence that Hotze aka Harry Koch traveled under false papers in 1921. Hotze used his father’s name also his older son’s name when returning to the US from Europe. The age of the traveler is 54, Harry’s actual age based on the earliest records. John Anton was in contrast just 21 at the time. This is how a mole travels. Underground.
My opinion is that Harry Koch entered the United States under false pretenses as an intelligence agent working for the Dutch, German and/or Russian intelligence services. At the time these countries were monarchies with interlocking family ownership. It is possible that he worked for a combination of foreign principals.
Fred C. Koch, Fred’s youngest son and his older brother John Anton Koch both may have worked for their Father’s foreign principal. I have not been able to determine which side Harry Koch was on during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Earlier, the work appears to have related to issues important to the Dutch. During my research, I was able to piece together from source documents, fragments of the Koch Family history including Fred C. Koch’s activities.
The actions of the two sons may soon be exposed in the Mueller probe related to the use of the Koch funding machine that my investigation shows was used to move Russia money to GOP candidates. I believe they may be charged with money laundering, conspiracy to violate US campaign laws and treason for levying war against the US during the 2016 election.
But the evidence now strongly suggests that Mueller has concealed Trump criminal activity and did not even look a the evidence. Moreover, Geoffrey Berman had stated he would recuse from Trump Russia cases but is active in the Natalie Sour Edwards case in the SDNY that involved both Mueller and the Russian funding.
If we survive Trump, the DOJ must dig into the Koch family and their role in the 2016 attack. If they assisted, I believe all their wealth is forfeited.
A few days ago my wife and I were watching the PBS show Frontline that was reporting on the Syrian conflict and the immense suffering that it has caused, especially to children. My wife asked me, “Why don’t we do something about it?” I thought for a bit and had to say, “It’s complicated.”
In 1947, the U.N. voted to create Israel and Palestine and determined Jerusalem was capital of both states. Israel agreed to the concept termed, in Latin, “corpus separatum” or “separated body.” The Arab states rejected the plan, choosing, instead, to settle the issue with war. Later, when war failed, there was an effort to return to the concept of treating Jerusalem as a special international entity but nothing ever came of it. Time passed with no solution.
In October 1973, Israel’s neighbors attacked in the Yom Kipur War. I remember the calls for volunteers to help stem what, in the early days, appeared to be a rout and end of the Jewish state. Then a few Israeli tanks crossed the Suez Canal and cut off the Egyptian supply lines to the Egyptian troops in the Sinai Dessert. A clock began to tick that forced the world to seek a prompt cessation of fighting to prevent the tragedy of thousands of Egyptian soldiers dying of thirst in the Sinai a looming specter that was justifying the U.S.S.R. becoming involved in the conflict and the ultimate fear of a nuclear war.
Now, over 40 years after the Yom Kippur War and 67 years after the U.N. voted to create Israel, most Americans accept, without question, the idea that Jerusalem is solely a part of Israel. The problem is the Islamic world has never accepted the concept. Also, if military gains are necessarily permanent, then why don’t the U.S. and Britain control all of Western Europe and the Russians the rest? The reason is that military gains are not, in a modern civilized world, permanent. When one nation seeks permanent gain from war all that generally results is another war.
We justify not helping the poor people of Syria, not just because we are war weary, but also because we fear what might come next could be a militant Islamic state that would threaten Israel. This view is misguided because, if we choose not to become involved in Syria, what will come will certainly be a new Syrian state, militantly Islamic or otherwise, that will threaten Israel because it will have a score to settle for its people suffering so much, abandoned by the United States to be murdered by Assad. Ultimately, Israel will be blamed and so will the U.S. Jerusalem will continue to be the rallying cry for more holy war.
Because we, in the United States, as a nation, continue to ignore the status of Jerusalem, the real issue in the Mideast conflict, we cannot form true alliances with the moderate Islamic states like Jordan, Egypt, the Gulf Emirates and Saudi Arabia in order to form alliances that are needed so we can intervene in conflicts like Syria. Simply stated, these moderate Islamic nations need to keep their distance from us when Israel is involved because we ignore the Palestinians and Jerusalem and simply pretend that Syria’s agony isn’t happening.
At the time of the Yom Kippur War Israel was seen as a wedge to be used against Soviet Union’s influence in the region. Now, the thing that stops us from acting to limit our reaction to Russia is our concern for the impact on Israel. The U.S. is unable to take more strident opposition to Russia’s role in Syria and the Ukraine and Russia is knows it is free to continue to assert the rights of a superpower in the region. From a realpolitik perspective, the cost, political and economic, of the United States alliance with Israel can no longer be justified based on a strategic benefit to the United States. The cost is justified based on U.S. domestic politics and a perceived shared ideology. Ironically, domestic politics and shared ideology are the same forces that drive the political and social ideology in adjacent Islamic states towards supporting continued conflict.
President Obama, in his recent visit to Israel, spoke to Israeli college students and implored them to put themselves in the Palestinians’ shoes. We all need to put ourselves in their shoes but also the shoes of the Syrian and Ukrainian people. If we conclude we need to consider Jerusalem capital of Israel then why not the capital of Palestine too? That is what the laws passed by the U.N. in 1947 provided, the same laws that created the Jewish and Palestinian states. It was recognized, back then, that all people should be free to visit Jerusalem and pray there, but only in peace and only in a world that accepted Israel’s right to exist. Any claim that the Palestinians should remain stateless cannot withstand the historical fact that both Israel and Palestine were born of the same act. If Iran, Russia and others continue to threaten Israel despite peace with its neighbors and justice for the Palestinians, the U.S. and Israel will need, more than ever, the support of the moderates in the region to meet that threat.
Tim Hogan 2014
PS @johnkerry. In 1986 I helped form the University Democrats at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. You’re welcome.
With the help of the often criticized SCOTUS’ Citizens United ruling, a political fringe group that has previously operated in the shadows now sees a chance to actually take control of the U.S. government through the use of dark money funded primarily by the Koch Family. But who are the Koch Family and their fringe organization the John Birch Society, formed by the Koch Family head, among others, Fred Koch, in the 1950’s?
Did you ever see the film “Dr. Strangelove?” The character General Jack D. Ripper, who feared fluoridation was a communist plot to destroy his ”precious bodily fluids” was reported to be a satiric look at the Koch Family and their John Birch Society ilk. They are the same folks who control Ted Cruz and the other Tea Party folks and want to rule the rest of us.
The KochFamily funded Tea Party is very good at media ads. There is no indication that the massive amounts of secret money has been successful advancing grassroots, boots on the ground, campaigns. When folks do the old hard work of campaigning like knocking on doors and calling folks to discuss the issues, the Tea Party generally can’t react. Once the Tea Party defeats a more mainstream GOP candidate who might get at least some Democratic votes, spring the trap and work hard to beat them. TJH
I was taught that liberal was an economic view point described as a “reluctant collectivist.” In contrast, conservative means “anti-collectivist.”
TimInHonolulu 