Showing posts with label Illegal Trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illegal Trade. Show all posts
Friday, October 26, 2012
Truck Driver Stands Up To Unconstitutional Checkpoint
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
October 22, 2012
A truck driver who passed through an unconstitutional checkpoint 30 miles from the Mexican border stood up for his 4th Amendment rights by refusing to answer questions in another example of how Americans are re-asserting their liberties.
A You Tube video shows the truck driver approaching a checkpoint manned by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The checkpoint is situated in Texas at least 30 miles from the border with Mexico.
After a Border Patrol agent asks the man if he is has any passengers and is a U.S. citizen, the truck driver refuses to answer any questions, only asking, “Am I free to go?”
The truck driver asks if he crossed the border, who which the Border Patrol agent responds, “No, sir.”
The agent repeats his questions and subsequently calls over his superior who starts to become visibly annoyed with the truck driver after he refuses to answer any more questions and pleads the 5th amendment.
“Do you have anything to hide, are you breaking the law right now?,” asks the Border Patrol agent, adding, “Are you hiding anything in there – tell me.”
The Border Patrol agent is forced to back down, telling the man to be “more co-operative” next time he passes through the checkpoint.
“Is being co-operative giving up my rights?,” asks the truck driver as he drives away.
This is just the latest in a series of confrontations caught on video showing Americans standing up to 4th Amendment-violating checkpoints that are creeping further and further inside America, in some cases as much as 100 miles from the border.
Back in July, we reported on the case of Steven Anderson, who refused to show his papers at another Border Patrol checkpoint while traveling through California.
Since the checkpoints are situated far away from the Mexican border, they are clearly a violation of the 4th Amendment, which protects, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Although the U.S. Supreme Court, which once ruled that black people were slaves, has upheld these “interior checkpoints” as constitutional, the ACLU has dubbed the 100-mile area the “Constitution-free Zone,” noting that 2 out of 3 Americans live within this buffer zone – around 190 million people in total.
Not all Americans who refuse to have their rights violated have been as successful as the truck driver in the video clip. In 2008, retired San Diego social worker Vince Peppard and his wife had their car ransacked after refusing to consent to being searched.
Alex Jones has also encountered similar “interior checkpoints” on numerous occasions, including the incident documented in the video below.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Confiscated Bush Meat Poses Health Threat In US
Scientists have documented potentially dangerous viruses entering the US through illegally imported wildlife products.
Testing of meats confiscated at American airports has revealed the presence of several pathogens that could pose a risk to human health.
Retroviruses and herpesviruses were identified, some of them isolated from remains of endangered monkey species.
The research study is reported in the journal PLoS One.
Its authors say better surveillance measures are needed to ensure this trade does not result in the emergence of new disease outbreaks in humans.
"Although the findings to date are from a small pilot study, they remind us of the potential public health risk posed by illegal importation of wildlife products - a risk we hope to better characterize through expanded surveillance at ports of entry around the country," said Dr Kristine Smith, from EcoHealth Alliance, who led the investigation team.
Scientists estimate that some 75% of emerging infectious diseases affecting people have come from contact with wildlife.
Some of this is the result of animals biting humans, but the handling and consumption of infected meats is also considered a significant route of transmission.
Classic examples of infections that have jumped across the species include HIV/Aids, which is thought to have originated in primates, and Sars, an infection that caused global concern in 2003.
Follow-up work traced its beginnings to Chinese restaurant workers butchering the cat-like Asian palm civet.
The PLoS One study is a first attempt to screen for potentially hazardous pathogens in confiscated meat products entering the US.
The scientists examined animal remains passing through five international airports, including John F Kennedy in New York - one of the busiest hubs in the world.
The smuggled meats - some found in postal packages, some discovered inside suitcases - were tested first to make a species identification.
This showed up several non-human primates, included baboon and chimpanzee, but also rodents.
The raw, smoked and dried meats were then tested for a number of viruses known to be capable of infecting humans.
Among the pathogens identified were a zoonotic retrovirus, simian foamy viruses, and several nonhuman primate herpesviruses.
No-one really knows the scale of the illegal trade in wildlife meat, or bushmeat as it is often called, but a 2010 study estimated that five tonnes of the material per week was being smuggled in personal baggage through Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France.
And in addition to the meat products, there is a big trade in live wild animals. Much of this is perfectly legal and supplies the pet industry. Nonetheless, these animals also require improved pathogen surveillance, say the researchers.
"Exotic wildlife pets and bushmeat are Trojan horses that threaten humankind at sites where they are collected in the developing world as well as the US. Our study underscores the importance of surveillance at ports, but we must also encourage efforts to reduce demand for products that drive the wildlife trade," said Ian Lipkin of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
One key aspect of concern highlighted by the team was the identification in the samples of some endangered species, including the Guinea baboon and the sooty mangabey, an Old World monkey.
Marcus Rowcliffe, from the Institute of Zoology in London, UK, and who was not connected with the research, commented: "The extent to which an intercontinental luxury meat market may be developing is of major concern, because if that is happening it could have very worrying impacts on wild populations.
Testing of meats confiscated at American airports has revealed the presence of several pathogens that could pose a risk to human health.
Retroviruses and herpesviruses were identified, some of them isolated from remains of endangered monkey species.
The research study is reported in the journal PLoS One.
Its authors say better surveillance measures are needed to ensure this trade does not result in the emergence of new disease outbreaks in humans.
"Although the findings to date are from a small pilot study, they remind us of the potential public health risk posed by illegal importation of wildlife products - a risk we hope to better characterize through expanded surveillance at ports of entry around the country," said Dr Kristine Smith, from EcoHealth Alliance, who led the investigation team.
Scientists estimate that some 75% of emerging infectious diseases affecting people have come from contact with wildlife.
Some of this is the result of animals biting humans, but the handling and consumption of infected meats is also considered a significant route of transmission.
Classic examples of infections that have jumped across the species include HIV/Aids, which is thought to have originated in primates, and Sars, an infection that caused global concern in 2003.
Follow-up work traced its beginnings to Chinese restaurant workers butchering the cat-like Asian palm civet.
The PLoS One study is a first attempt to screen for potentially hazardous pathogens in confiscated meat products entering the US.
The scientists examined animal remains passing through five international airports, including John F Kennedy in New York - one of the busiest hubs in the world.
The smuggled meats - some found in postal packages, some discovered inside suitcases - were tested first to make a species identification.
This showed up several non-human primates, included baboon and chimpanzee, but also rodents.
The raw, smoked and dried meats were then tested for a number of viruses known to be capable of infecting humans.
Among the pathogens identified were a zoonotic retrovirus, simian foamy viruses, and several nonhuman primate herpesviruses.
No-one really knows the scale of the illegal trade in wildlife meat, or bushmeat as it is often called, but a 2010 study estimated that five tonnes of the material per week was being smuggled in personal baggage through Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France.
And in addition to the meat products, there is a big trade in live wild animals. Much of this is perfectly legal and supplies the pet industry. Nonetheless, these animals also require improved pathogen surveillance, say the researchers.
"Exotic wildlife pets and bushmeat are Trojan horses that threaten humankind at sites where they are collected in the developing world as well as the US. Our study underscores the importance of surveillance at ports, but we must also encourage efforts to reduce demand for products that drive the wildlife trade," said Ian Lipkin of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
One key aspect of concern highlighted by the team was the identification in the samples of some endangered species, including the Guinea baboon and the sooty mangabey, an Old World monkey.
Marcus Rowcliffe, from the Institute of Zoology in London, UK, and who was not connected with the research, commented: "The extent to which an intercontinental luxury meat market may be developing is of major concern, because if that is happening it could have very worrying impacts on wild populations.
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