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FBI finally arrests leader of NXIVM cult group, Keith Raniere, for sex trafficking and child labor

Keith Raniere
© Patrick Dodson
Keith Raniere, founder of NXIVM
The leader of a secretive Capital Region organization that allegedly brands women and has been called an "extreme cult" has been arrested by the FBI, the Albany Times Union reported on Monday.

Keith Raniere, co-founder of the NXIVM corporation in Colonie, has been charged with sex trafficking and forced labor. A victim claimed she was branded with Raniere's initials and blackmailed by the group in a New York Times expose earlier in March.

According to a federal complaint, Raniere, known by his followers as "The Vanguard," coerced women into joining a slave-master club by threatening to reveal ruinous information about the slave or someone close to her. Such information included sexually explicit photographs and damning videos and letters.

Raniere describes the group as a private sorority on the NXIVM website, and followers insist that it is a self-help organization and not a cult.

Comment: A separate article provides more details surrounding his arrest. Apparently the cult leader fled to Mexico with a number of women in November once he became aware of the federal investigation. Once there, he stopped using a cellphone and only communicated through encrypted email. He was taken into custody by Mexican federal police who tracked him down staying at a posh $10k/week villa. The article describes the federal complaint:
The federal criminal complaint accuses Raniere of forming a group within NXIVM in which women said they were coerced into joining a slave-master club. The women, some of whom said they were pressured to have sex with Raniere, told federal authorities that a female doctor associated with NXIVM used a cauterizing iron to brand them with a design on their lower abdomen that contained the initials of Raniere and Allison Mack, an actress and NXIVM associate who is listed in the complaint as an unnamed co-conspirator.
The feds also raided the house of NXIVM's co-founder and president, Nancy Salzman, in upstate New York. That makes it likely the FBI investigation is looking at the organization as a whole and isn't stopping with the arrest of Raniere. NXIVM is alleged to be involved in shady brain research activities, which the NY Attorney General is investigating and has led to a NY Supreme Court justice to demand all documents related to its human studies and research to be turned over. For more on Raniere and NXIVM, see:


Airplane

Paralyzed TV host left stranded on an easyJet plane

easyJet
© AFP 2018/ DENIS CHARLET
Sophie Warner, who was the lead presenter covering the 2016 Paralympics and has appeared in several documentaries, was left stranded for 40 minutes in an empty vessel after everyone else had disembarked.

The 33-year-old TV personality tweeted an image of herself stuck on an easyJet plane after the airline staff removed the wheelchair upon landing at London Gatwick airport.

Morgan suffered a spinal cord injury in a traffic accident in 2003, paralyzing her from the waist down.

A Gatwick spokesperson said the airport staff apologized "unreservedly" for the incident, according to the Daily Express.

Folder

New details reveal that Orlando nightclub shooter's father was an FBI informant

Seddique Mateen
Headlines across the internet today are focusing on the March for Our Lives movement that took place over the weekend in which hundreds of thousands of kids and adults begged the government to disarm them to ostensibly prevent mass shootings. As the government moves in to boost the police state, a quiet headline out of Florida revealed that the father of the Pulse gunman was actually part of that police state and may have known of his son's plans to attack the nightclub.

Attorneys for Noor Salman are calling for a mistrial after they say new details from prosecutors reveal that Pulse gunman Omar Mateen's father was an FBI source and is currently under a criminal investigation, according to a scathing report from ClickOrlando.com.

Seddique Mateen, Omar Mateen's father, was an FBI informant for 11 years, according to a motion filed by the defense.

From 2005 until June of 2016-when his son murdered 53 people in an Orlando nightclub-Seddique had an intimate relationship with the FBI. His position within the FBI appears to be the apparent impetus behind the controversial cover-ups and even the reason for Omar Mateen to have legally purchased the firearm he used in the massacre-in spite of setting off multiple red flags.

Comment: See also:


Handcuffs

Oxford, UK: Another Asian 'grooming gang' uncovered; 7 men arrested on multiple counts of rape

sex offenders
© Thames Valley Police
Seven men have been found guilty of grooming and raping underage girls aged 13 to 17, plying them with drink and drugs and abusing them at sex "parties" and in a van known as the "shag wagon".

The seven-man grooming gang was described as "predatory and cynical" by a judge as the jury announced their decision on Friday following a five-month trial at Oxford Crown Court.

The men, aged between 37 and 48, denied what prosecutors described as "sexual exploitation on a massive scale" - but were found guilty of charges including multiple counts of rape, indecent assault, false imprisonment, and supplying drugs.

Reporting on the gang of what the BBC described as "Oxford men" was previously restricted, and two men involved in the trial still cannot be named for legal reasons.

Comment:


Family

Score for common sense: Utah legalizes 'free-range parenting'

free range children, homeschool
Utah has become the first state to legalize "free-range parenting," codifying that kids can participate in unsupervised activities without their parents facing neglect charges.

Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed the law earlier this month that redefines child "neglect," ABC News reported Tuesday.

"Absence evidence of clear danger, abuse or neglect, we believe that parents have the best sense of how to teach responsibility to their children" Herbert said in a statement.

The new law prevents parents from being considered negligent by state authorities for letting their child walk outside alone, play without supervision or wait alone in a car.

State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (R), a sponsor on the bill, said society has become "too hyper" about protecting children and ends up sheltering them from opportunities.

"Kids need to wonder about the world, explore and play in it, and by doing so learn the skills of self-reliance and problem-solving they'll need as adults," Fillmore said.

Comment: It's unbelievable that there even needs to be a law for this. What was once considered a normal part of childhood now needs legislation. This just shows how far government has invaded private life.


2 + 2 = 4

University of Maryland study: Only 10% of D.C. 'March for Our Lives' protesters were teenagers

“March for Our Lives” anti-gun protest in Washington, DC
© Shannon Finney / Getty
Research by University of Maryland sociologist Dana R. Fisher has revealed that about than 10% of the participants in the main "March for Our Lives" anti-gun protest in Washington, DC, on Saturday were under 18 years old.

The average age of participants, Fisher said, was "just under 49 years old."

Fisher, who is studying the demographic makeup of the so-called "Resistance" to President Donald Trump, published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday morning summarizing her findings:

Comment: 'March For Our Lives' crowd count reportedly well below expected and initial reports


Stock Down

China's response to Trump's tariffs will 'hurt US exports, employment and economy'

homeless Washington D.C.
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Beijing is ready to answer Washington's $60 billion tariff by imposing barriers against American goods, according to the Chinese state daily the Global Times.

China will target a large number of American imports, the newspaper reports. Last week, US President Donald Trump imposed $60 billion worth of tariffs against Chinese goods in an attempt to cut the massive trade deficit with the world's second-largest economy.

Padlock

Court orders black-cab rapist to remain behind bars as Parole Board head forced to resign

John Worboys
© Murray Sanders / Global Look Press
The black-cab rapist will remain behind bars after two victims fought the Parole Board's decision to release him, and won the landmark case. As a result, Chairman of the Parole Board Nick Hardwick has been forced to resign.

Three judges gave their ruling against the Parole Board on Wednesday morning. The decision follows a two-day hearing, in which legal representatives for black-cab rapist John Worboys' two victims argued that the release of the violent sex offender was "irrational."

The victims who brought the case against the Parole Board said that something went "badly wrong" with their decision to free the sex attacker. They believe the board should have considered the "critical evidence" of "wider allegations" against Worboys.

Wolf

Muslim teacher who trained teen 'mini-militia' to be ISIS terrorists jailed for 25 years

Umar Ahmed Haque
© Reuters
Umar Ahmed Haque
A man who trained an "army of children" to carry out terrorist attacks in London has been jailed for 25 years. Umar Ahmed Haque planned to use car bombs and guns to attack 30 locations - including Big Ben and the UK parliament.

Haque, 25, showed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) propaganda to 16 children at the Ripple Road Mosque in an attempt to brainwash the youths. "Umar has been teaching us how to fight, do push-ups, given strength and within six years he was planning to do a big attack on London," one of the children told police, the Old Bailey heard.

"He wants a group of 300 men. He's training us now so, by the time I'm in Year 10, we will be physically strong enough to fight," the child added.

Arrow Down

Austria's 'burqa ban' proves a spectacular failure

burqa ban
© Leonhard Foeger / Reuters
Six months into Austria's 'Anti-Face-Veiling Act,' aimed at removing burqas and facial veils from public spaces, has proved to be what some might call an epic fail.

The law, which came into effect last October, was only expected to impact the 150 Austrian Muslim women that wear burqas, or around 0.002 percent of the entire population. Under the new law, Muslim women found wearing a burqa and face veil could be subject to a €150 ($177 USD) on-the-spot fine.

During the first two weeks of the ban, 30 people were cited in Vienna alone for disobeying the new law. However, most of them were protesters dressed as clowns, in animal costumes or wearing scarves, according to the Austrian Profil magazine.

Comment: As the Metro reports only .002% of Austrian women wear burqas. So who's getting punished? Those 'criminal' cyclists wearing scarves and the 'vile villains' who wear shark costumes:
In the days after the ban, Vienna police arrested a man wearing a shark costume for a PR stunt, and arrested cyclists for wearing scarves as face masks. Only 150 Austrian Muslim women actually wear veils, according to local publication Profil - making 0.002% of the population, according to Quartz. [...]

An investigation by Profil found that less than 30 people had been arrested - and mostly not for wearing burqas. In Zell am See, a resort popular with tourists from the MIddle East, there has only been one arrest, 'not for a woman with a facial veil, but a man with a sports hood,' a police spokesman said.